A study of girish karnads yayati

A study of girish karnads yayatiAs a reader of Karnads spiels, genius has to pay attention to their initiations. Almost every text has a point of reference in that the plot is derived from somewhere. The common sources of his walkaways include invention, folk level, Puranas, historical chronicles, epics and so forth He seems to piddle divine from Shakespeargon who follows the same tendency of adapting recognized plots. The young dramatists tend to use certain plots, or any well cognize historical or political event, or adapt a fashionable Greek myth. at that place is nonhing wrong with the practice of adapting any cognize or unknown text since it may provide you with the parvenu discernment into the source text. Some critics even say that every lit seasonture is base on another literature as it carries the echoes of its procreator. For Peter Allen, literary texts ar built from systems, codes, and traditions established by previous change states of literature (20 00 1). The consumption of finding how the original texts are altered and the bare-ass meaning generated in the process is worth attempting it offers us with a new-sprung(prenominal) perspective on the subject, event, plot etceteraThe adaptation is normally a process of borderting a source text into another genre, a kind of break over. Many fictions have been transformed into successful plays or films and vice versa Jhumph Lahiris Namesake, for instance, is do into a film. In the West, it is a popular practice to dramatize a prose narrative or fiction. Some whiles, the adapted text provides a kind of description on a source text (Sanders 18). It offers a new perspective, a viewpoint which is not discoverd or focused in the source text. It tries to simplify a difficult or unintelligible text to the new readership. Modern Shakespeare is a very good example of such practice. It is a kind of reinterpretation of the canonical texts either by moulding them into a diverse genre o r relocating their cultural context. Besides, the more(prenominal) the adaptation deviates from the source text, the more creative and original it becomes. The question of fidelity towards the source text is distant as it undermines the creativity and innovativeness of the adapted text. The recent success of adaptations is a crystallise rejection of all those who term these acts as imitations, copying or plagiarism, or repetition. This is because they hold in or prolong our pleasure of the source text. As John Ellis puts it, translation into another medium becomes a means of prolonging the pleasure of the original cedeation, and tell the production of a memory (1982 4-5). Adaptation is a never death process as long as the source text sustains its relevance, a need to adapt it would be felt.Adaptation of a popular paper is a profitable enterprise for many reasons. It has already attracted the attention of readers. It has reached a large section of people, and its propertie s- title, author, records-may be a franchise in or of themselves already (wikipedia). All these reasons prompt writers to attempt adaptations regularly in that locationby to be assured of the success of their works. Though adaptation into a st date play is a common activity, it has its own limitations due to the spacio-temporal restrictions of the stage. A playwright has to work within these restrictions by adopting various techniques such as ellipsis, interpolation, narrative etc.Karnad engages him self in what Genette calls trans generic wine practice i.e. adapting mythic narratives, folk narratives and historical chronicles into drama. He takes plots from these sources and delivers them in new dramatic forms. In that sense all his plays are transpositions in which the original narratives are adapted with the aesthetic conventions of an entirely different generic process (Sanders 20). Moulded into a new form these texts offer a new perspective of life which is relevant in the pr esent context. Karnad derives plots from these sources because he feels that they are relevant and enable him to reflect on the contemporary tender and political life in a more subtle and systematic way. There are many taboos and forbidden things in the world which can not be discussed overtly. Otherwise you would invite the irk of society unnecessarily. Sources such as myth, folk or historical events/lives of historical figures offer him with a prophylactic valve which enables the expression of the unacceptable or forbidden ideas in an acceptable manner. To put it simply, one can camouflage ones comment on the present social and political conditions with these adaptations. Take the example of Tughlaq which is considered to be a critique of Post-Nehru era in Indian politics. Tughlaq helps Karnad in expressing the disillusionment after the death of Pandit Nehru effectively.The play that started Girish Karnads successful career as a playwright was Yayati. It was penned over a few wee ks in 1960 when Karnad was planning to leave India for Oxford as a Rhodes educatee for three years against the wishes of his parents. Hence, the play had its relevance that older generation pauperism sacrifices on the part of younger generation.Unlike his other play, it was Priya Adarkar who initiative translated the play. It served the nominate until Girish Karnad himself felt the need to translate it in 2008. Actually he was loath to touch the play, a work of his juvenilia (written when he was only twenty two.) The present translation of the play by Karnad is, therefore, modified and enriched with the suggestions from Satyadev Dubey, Dr. Shreeram Lagoo, and C. R. Simha.On the suggestion of Kurtkoti, Karnad, in Yayati, tried to reinterpret the myth psychoanalytically like Eugene ONeill. Karnad was very much influenced by ONeills Mourning Becomes Electra and wanted to achieve the same kind of intensity. Karnad found the myth of Yayati-Devayani-Sharmishtha rich in possibilities for the expression of psychological and physiological needs of pitying beings and social obligations. It was moulded on John Anouilhs plays as he was influenced by Alkazi (who had amazing influence of Anouilh). He experienced Anouilh through Alkazi and wrote his first play Yayati which was inspired from Anitigone.The myth of Yayati-Devayani-Sharmishtha has been continuously adapted in Indian literature. It has been turned into many plays and novels. There are films based on the myth. In Marathi literature, the two Jnanapith Awardees Khandekar and Shiravadkar (Kusumagraj) adapted the myth into a novel and a stage play respectively. Indian writers fascination with the myth of Yayati still exists and works based on the myth pour in every year. However, Karnads adaptation holds an important place in these outnumbering adaptations. He challenges the very representation of parents by inventing the character of Chitralekha who questions the moral position of Yayati in taking over her economizes callowness on the very first night of their conglutination.According to Devdutta Pattaniak (2006 article Myth Theory), in Hindu mythology there is a famous Yayati hard, that is, parents expecting sacrifices on the part of their children to fulfill their selfish motives. He termed it as reverse Oedipus Complex. In Greek mythology, there are numerous tales depicting a son responsible for the death of his nonplus. For example, the famous tale of Oedipus Rex. However, in Hindu mythology we have the reverse situation i.e. a father destroys his son to fulfill his ambitions. Whether it is Bhisma, Rama or Pooru, they have to sacrifice for the sake of their fathers. The Yayati Complex indicates the moral obligations in Indian family which even Karnad had to abide by when he decided to go to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar for three years. Hence, Karnad industrious the myth to show the intricacies of Indian family structure and challenge its moral authority which makes sons like Poo ru to sacrifice their prime and precious things to keep it intact. He writes, piece I was writing the play, I saw it only as an dodging from my stressful situation. But looking back, I am amazed at how precisely the myth reflected my anxieties at that moment, my resentment with all those who seemed to demand that I sacrifice my future. By the time I had finished working on Yayati-during the three weeks it took the ship to reach England and in the lonely cloisters of the university the myth had enabled me to vowelise to myself a set of values that I had been unable to arrive at rationally. Whether to return home finally seemed the most minor of issues the myth had nailed me to the prehistorical (2008 74).Karnad sticks to the original story as far as the past of the characters is concerned. The premarital conflicting relation of Devayani and Sharmishtha, Yayatis encounter with Devayani whom he found in a well after her quarrel with Sharmishtha, and his marriage with Devayani form the part of interpretation which is spread through the play. In the play, Yayatis liaison with Sharmishtha and willingness to marry her angers Devayani. She makes her father Shukracharya whammy Yayati for his transgression to become decrepitude. In the original story, Devayani learns about the marriage surrounded by Sharmishtha and Yayati from their sons.Interpolation is a common feature in adaptations. Karnad too invents the character of Chitralekha as a wife of Pooru. Her function is to questions the moral authority of Yayati in taking her husbands youth for his sensuous pleasure. She suggests Yayati to take over the role of husband.Chitralekha I did not know Prince Pooru when I marry him. I married him for his youth. For his potential drop to plant the seed of the Bharatas in my womb. He has lost that potency now. He doesnt possess any of the qualities for which I married him. But you do.Yayati (flabbergast) ChitralekhaChitralekha You have taken over your sons youth. It fo llows that you should accept everything that comes attached to it.Yayati Whore Are you inviting me to fornification? (200865-66)The suggestion of Chitralekha makes Yayati realize his mistake and her suicide forces him to return Poorus youth. Swarnalatas character like that of Chitralekha is invented and runs parallel to the disenchantment experienced by the latter. She has also lost her husband and thinks that death brings peace, the preservation from uncertainty (2008 60). However, she repents her proposition when she finds Chitralekha, taking cue from her speech, commits suicide. Just as Swarnalatas husband deserted her when he learned about her relationship with her teacher, Devayani too deserts Yayati after he makes love to Sharmishtha. Swarnalatas married life is Karnads addition to the original tale.Tranpositional practices form the core of adaptation activity as genre-switch is mostly what is expect of it. Karnad takes the story from one genre i.e. mythic story as it appea red in Mahabharata and delivers it to new audiences by means of the aesthetic conventions of an entirely different generic process, a stage play. Yayatis story which happened over many years is shown to be happening in a very limited span of time in Karnads Yayati. He has to cut or shorten many execute units to focus on the core part of the myth i.e. transplantation of age. intimately of the events are merely narrated and conveyed or suggested by characters the past of Devayani and Sharmishtha, Shukracharya cursing Yayati, Poorus marriage and many other events.The identity of Poorus mother is not revealed until the third and quaternate Act. In the first Act, there is an impression that Devayani is Poorus mother unlike in the original tale. However, it becomes clear from the third Act that it is Sharmishtha not Devayani who is the mother of Pooru. The revealing of Sharmishtha as Poorus mother makes us understand that Yayati has been in love with her for a long time keeping Devay ani in ignorance. It is only in the piece Act that she becomes witness to their transgression and decides to leave the palace. That means Sharmishtha is not shown married to Yayati as in the original tale. And it is more than mere vengeance on the part of Sharmishtha in the play. She remains firm behind Yayati and tries to prevent him from exchanging his decrepitude with anyone including Pooru. She wants him to accept his fate and lead a life of an ascetic.Overall Karnad has been closemouthed to the source text of Yayati. However, he has made few changes to intensify the fore of social obligations and ripeness is all. As Karnad saysold age brings no knowledge, no self realization, only the senselessness of a punishment meted out for an act in which he (Pooru) had not even participated (2008 73).The play shows that mere old age (i.e.Yayati) should not be revered but the maturity of a youth (i.e. Pooru). The adaptation of the myth of Yayati by Karnad has its relevance not only at t he time it was written but also to the present time when children have to sacrifice their wishes to the whims of their parents who are competing with other parents. However, some children are also forcing their love ones to bend to their wishes. So it is very clear that adaptations provide us with new perspectives and points of view.