International Journal of English

and Literature (IJEL)

ISSN (P): 2249–6912; ISSN (E): 2249–8028
Vol. 11, Issue 1, Jun 2021, 31-34
© TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

MARGINALISED WOMEN: A VISION OF KARNAD

Dr. CATHERINE MASIH

Associate Professor, Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Yamunanagar, India
ABSTRACT

This research paper analyses the vision of Girish Karnad in portraying the women in his plays as marginalised. The
plays of Karnad championed the cause of marginalised women in the Indian orthodox society with the help of his plays.
His plays explicitly display the women and lower caste people subjected to atrocities since time immemorial by the
patriarchal and upper caste of the society. His plays give a voice to these marginalised sections and provide them a vent
to express their long – time suppressed emotions and feelings through his plays Tughlaq, Naga Mandala, Fire and the
Rain, Tale Danda, Flowers, and Broken Images.

KEYWORDS: Marginalised, Psychological, Sublimation & Mechanism

Received: Jan 02, 2021; Accepted: Jan 22, 2021; Published: Feb 18, 2021; Paper Id.: IJELJUN20215

-Original Article
INTRODUCTION

Girish Karnad was a dramatist concerned with the psychological penetrations into the minds of his characters. His
interest predominantly lies in portraying the minds of his characters in his plays, in the motives behind their
activities and reactions. He was sheer off from the main praxis of characterization followed by T.P Kailasam and
Lakhan Deb for whom it has meant largely the social and economic background, physical features and behaviour of
a person. Though philosophic, Karnad is not a preacher dictating moralities, rather he loves to expose the hidden
current that guides men and women in his plays to choose for themselves for the twists and turns of events that set
them apart from the ordinary course and leave us richer by the time we reach the end both philosophically as well as
psychologically.

Technical terms: Psychological, sublimation.

The plays of Karnad championed the cause of marginalised women in the Indian orthodox society with the help of
his plays. His plays explicitly display the women and lower caste people subjected to atrocities since time
immemorial by the patriarchal society or the upper caste of the society. In fact his plays give a voice to these
marginalised sections and provide them a vent to express their long -time suppressed emotions and feelings. His
plays like Yayati, Tughlaq, Naga Mandala, Fire and the Rain, Tale Danda, Flowers, and Broken Images have tried
to depict this idea.

In the play Naga Mandala, Rani is the main character. Rani is married to Appanna, a rich young man who
does not show any commitment towards her. He disregards her feelings and considers her a ‘subhuman slave’, who
is supposed to serve him with full loyalty. Oblivious to the needs of his wife he keeps her locked in his house and
visits his concubine. He keeps his wife starved of affection and love which are indispensable for the growth and
sustenance of the human mind. According to M. Sarat Babu, the solitary confinement of Rani by Appanna in the
house, “reminds of the chastity belt of the medieval ages,” and reduction of women’s talent to house work along

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32 Dr. Catherine Masih

with exclusion from enlightenment and enjoyment. Appanna indulges in sensual gratification outside marriage and gives a
cold shoulder to his wife. He does not allow his wife even the affection of an old blind friend of his dead mother. His sense
of morality and loyalty is different for himself and different for his wife. He even keeps a dog at first and later a goose to
guard the door in which he locked his wife. Rani represents in the play of Karnad the traditional woman who is subjugated
and suppressed in the name of marriage.

A woman is either considered a lower being or idealised as a goddess is also implied in this play, when Rani is
relegated to the position of a slut by her husband when she becomes pregnant and he questions her chastity in public, more
worried about his honour than hers. When she successfully faces the ordeal of putting her hand in the hole of King Cobra,
he accepts her as the people worship her as a goddess. He even removes the lock from the door. But all this is only due to
the reward he is to receive for being the husband of Rani. In the Indian society the norms and rules of the society are
dictated by men and meant to be followed blindly by women, is beautifully depicted by Karnad. The Indian myths and
legends are testimony to this fact that the women are suppressed in the society.

In the play Hayavadana, Padmini is presented as a beautiful woman ruled by instinct and impulsiveness.
Although she is married to the best man in mind, she also desires the best in body. She is married to Devadutta but she is
infatuated by the virility of Kapila. Padmini is represented as a woman who has desires which are subject to being accepted
by society as moral or not. She is not allowed like men to change her views regarding her partner in marriage. She obeys
the patriarchal society norms and keeps her longings alive for the day when she can turn it to reality. When she transposes
the heads, of her husband and Kapila in the Kali temple, she in fact is giving vent to her emotions and feelings which have
to be kept hidden under the garb of a single body with the best of both her husband and Kapila. Although Padmini has been
shown as audacious and candid in pleading for what she desires and unlike any Indian traditional woman who does not
suppress her desire for Kapila and wants both Devadatta and Kapila alive, she also is fully aware that living with two men
would be socially unacceptable. According to Shubhangi K. Raykar, Padmini’s “predicament is the predicament of a
modern, emaciated woman in our society who is torn between two polarities, a woman who loves her husband as well as
someone else for two different aspects of their personalities.”

In the play The Fire and The Rain, Vishakha is the wife of Parvasu. Before her nuptials she was in love with
Yavakri who had forsaken her for his love to attain universal knowledge in the forest. She narrates the story of her
marriage with Parvasu as bliss for a year but from the very first day of the second year she found him silent, engrossed in
his search in which he used her body and his own as, “instruments in a search.” Finally he left to be the chief priest of the
fire sacrifice and never returned in seven years, although she craved for his return even more as the fire sacrifice was only
a couple of hours away from there. Vishakha shows her unflinching allegiance to her husband like a traditional Indian
wife. She behaves according to her dignity the family of an upper class Brahmin household and bears the domination of the
learned men. She is cleverly seduced by Yavakri to be even with Rabhiya’s family. But once she understands that all
events had been fabricated to seduce her and blacken the name of her husband’s family, she steps into the role of a faithful
daughter-in -law of Rabhiya’s family and saves them from the revenge of Yavakri. Vishakha in fact is inundated by Eros
or life drives as she sublimates her body needs in a socially approved manner which is represented by Ego.

Vishakha uses the defence mechanism of sublimation, to substitute her pleasure instinct when the original object
of choice, Yavakri, become inaccessible as he leaves for the forest. She changes her object of choice and marries Parvasu
and loses herself in him. When Parvasu goes for the fore sacrifice this choice is also blocked and another displacement

Impact Factor (JCC): 7.2152 NAAS Rating: 3.12

Marginalised Women: A Vision of Karnad 33

takes place and she accepts Yavakri, and tries to save him from the Brahma Rakshsa. But when she learns about her
planned seduction to insult her family she empties his charged kamandalu. Vishakha acts out her role as an ideal wife as it
is the only safe option for her. This can be seen as her successful and normal defence against objectionable instinctual
wishes in an orthodox society.

In the play Broken Images, Manjula Nayak is shown as a woman with conflicting emotional, impulses as well as
desires. She is envious of her cripple sister, who is vivacious, intelligent and radiated life. Manjula had always to reconcile
being the second best due to the presence of her Malini. This envy kept growing with the attention of her parents towards
Malini. Malini advanced in real life in spite of her handicap and Manjula progressed in resentment towards her. Manjula
shows care for her sister and thus her anxiety producing impulses are replaced by her with opposite feelings which are
conducive to her reality situation. This helps Manjula to maintain a socially approved behaviour to escape her unacceptable
desires. She takes the credit for the novel written by her sister after her death and thus succeeds in stealing not only her
creativity but also her identity. She even feels victorious over her dead sister as she knows she could never have reached
such “zenith of fame and prestige on her own merit.”

The women characters in Karnad’s plays like Rani, Padmini, Vishakha and Manjula are portrayed to follow their
desires and Karnad even justifies their behaviour. Rani has relations with the Naga even though she has ample of instances
to prove that he is not her real husband. But Karnad here seems to justify extramarital affair of Rani in the play Naga
Mandala. He even acknowledged it in one of his interviews that he once knew a woman who blossomed after an
extramarital affair. He deals with the topic of women’s adultery honestly, treating them as ‘normal human response’ and
not sinful. He was probably of the view that if womanhood finds fulfilment in love that happens to be outside marriage,
why should it be considered wrong? Radha and Krishna’s love, was such. In the same way Padmini hankers for the
physical love of Kapila, her husband’s friend even after marriage. Karnad said in one of his interviews with Raykar that he
once knew a family of one woman and two men, one husband and the other friend. This is probably the way of Karnad to
accept the relation of Padmini with two men possessing two different qualities. His liberal attitude is probably due to his
early background because he admits himself that both his parents were married before they married each other.

His male characters also tend to enjoy liaisons outside social restraints, for example, Tuglaq’s incestuous relation
with his mother, Appanna’s relation with his concubine, Kapila with Padmini, Yavakri with Vishakha. This is so because
Karnad betrays his rebellion against hegemonic culture, our being a patriarchal society and Karnad being a male.

CONCLUSIONS

Girish Karnad deals with the women’s non conformist attitude towards society honestly, treating them as 'normal human
response' and not sinful. He was probably of the view that if womanhood finds fulfilment in love that happens to be outside
marriage, why should it be considered wrong? Radha and Krishna’s love was such.

REFERENCES

1. Karnad Girish. “Prologue.” Three Plays: Naga Mandala, Hayavadana, Tughlaq. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.

2. Dharwadker, Aparna Bhargava. Introduction. “Collected Plays” Volume One. NEW Delhi.

3. Rahkar, S. Shubhangi. “The Development of Karnad as a Dramatist: Hayavadana.” The Plays of Girish Karnad: Critical
Perspective, Ed.Jaydipsinh Dodiya. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1999.

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