Book review :Hayavadan

 Hello readers welcome to my blog... 

Here is my  blog  about  the  book which  very famous one and written by  Girish karnad named  Hayavadana. 

  

His other works are: 

Yayati 

Nagmandla

Wedding alumb 

Crossing to  Talikota

Tughlaq

Hayavadana 

The  plot of this  play is comes from Kathasaritsagar. Karnad has borrowed it through Thomas Mann's retelling of the story in The Transposed Heads. This novella. It was written in 1940. Mann's was a German novelist, short story writer, Essayist and the 1929 Nobel Prize literature laureate. 

It was  frist presented in English by the Madras players at the museum theatre. Madras on 7 December, 1972.

Mostly  we can see that if story  is derived  from myth we can find some  elements of rituals and culture of that  time. 

This play  is also  began with  Ganesh pooja. It is tradition that on any Good ocation people do. Ganesh vandna and then start the  function. 

   Now  why  this  Ganesh  is coming  here  because  as we know  that lord  Ganesh has head of an elephant. Now the  story  is also  like  this. The  human with  the  head of hours. So let's see  some  glimpse of the  story of Hayavadan. 

Characters.

Bhagwata - the main narrator of the play

Devdutta - One of the two friends, A man of knowledge

Kapila - Devdutta's Friend, A man with great physical strength

Padmini - A beautiful woman, love interest of the two friends

Hayavadana - A strange creature with the Head of a Horse and body of a man

Actor-1 - An assistant to Bhagwata

Goddess Kali - the Goddess who brings Devdutta and Kapila back to life.

The Boy - Son of Devdutta and Padmini

Vidyasagar (only referenced) - Devdutta's father

Story of the play 

“Hayavadana” features a story within a story. When the curtains open, the narrator (Bhagvata) introduces us to the set of activities to be witnessed shortly, when there is an intrusion on stage by an actor (Nata) bringing news about a “talking horse”.

 Soon enough, Hayavadana emerges on stage – a character with the body of a man and the head of a horse. Hayavadana wishes to be complete, and Bhagvata provides the much needed advice and sends him off, so that the audience isn’t kept waiting anymore for the actual play to begin.

We are then introduced to Devadatta and Kapila – the closest of friends who describe their friendship as “one mind, one heart”. 

Devadatta is a man of intellect – he loves to read, write poetry, study the scriptures, and has various literary pursuits. Kapila is a man of the body – he prefers to spend his time swimming, wrestling, and playing various sports that challenge him physically.

 The story takes us through how both men fall in love with the same woman, Padmini. Not wanting to tarnish their friendship over a woman, they sacrifice their heads to the goddess Kali.

 When Padmini finds out that the men gave priority to their own friendship over their love for her, she implores the goddess for help. Kali asks her to place the severed heads back on the bodies of the men. In her haste and fear of the goddess, Padmini jumbles up the task, with the heads getting interchanged – Devadatta’s head goes on to Kapil’s body, and vice versa. The rest of the narrative takes us through the confusion of who is who.

What makes a person? His body that forms a large part of him, or his head which contains the face that identifies him? 

  The body is responsible for our physical experiences, but memories are stored in the head that houses the mind. Which one is superior, and can the two exist separately? “The memories that cannot be recognized, named or understood are ghosts of the body, if the head wasn’t there when they happened“, laments Kapila. 

  We also delve into the dilemma faced by the two men who despise their bodies – Kapila finds his head too heavy for Devadatta’s lean frame, and Devadatta has no intention of preserving the muscular body his head is on, preferring to focus his energy and attention on his reading and writing.

According to the Shastras, the head is the sign of a man. “What is written on our foreheads cannot be altered“, Bhagvata informs us. The two men’s search for completeness is reminiscent of the similar quest of Hayavadana – the horse-man we met at the start of the play. Does completeness of a horse-man signify a complete man or a complete horse? Why do Devadatta and Kapila feel incomplete without their bodies, if the mind is in control of the being? 

This philosophy of what makes a person whole, forms the crux of “Hayavadana” (the book). Karnad has incorporated many conventions of folk tales and folk theater in his writing – masks, curtains, talking dolls, a world of incomplete and indifferent individuals. 

Thank you... 

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