Possibilities to Fruition: Search For the Ideal in Karnad’s Hayavadana

Girish Karnad is well known for his intricate exploration of Indian mythology in handling his plot. The different characters from mythology, religious texts, folklores, come in their age-old form but daubed in a colour all new. In Hayavadanathe characters Devdatta and Kapila are the two facets of the same identity and while one stands as the intellectual spearhead, the other Kapila is the owner of physical prowess. Both in their own way, own life and control the force of life which is Padmini. Padmini the life spirit is as if the water nymph who wants to conquer life through energies, whether of the body or of the intellect. Nature instead reigns supreme as Padmini never stoops before any God (male) but surrenders before Kali and names her mother Nature. Nature, of which Padmini seems to be an inevitable part, proves more powerful than life or death. As the males get their identities shuffled, the female principle gets merged in life. What is it that excels, the Godhead or the humans, the Providence or Will Power, remains unravelled.