NAGAMANDALA, The Background and the Themes of the Play, MA ENGLISH, BA ENGLISH HONOURS

 

NAGAMANDALA, The Background and the Themes of the Play:

 

Nagamandala  is  a  two-act  play  written  by  the  well-known  Indian  playwright  and actor Girish Karnad in 1987-88 and published in 1988. Nagamandala means ‘a play with cobra‘.  It was basically a Kannada play, then was translated into English. The play blends history with mythical  elements.  The  story  is  taken  from  a  Kannada  folklore  which  Karnad  heard  from  the poet A K Ramanujan. Nagamandala means ‘a play with cobra‘.  The  story  is  taken  from  a  Kannada  folklore  which  Karnad  heard  from  the poet A K Ramanujan.

 

The name “Nagamandala” has been derived from the ceremonial (cobra worship) practised in the southern Karnataka coastal areas. The legendary implications of  folklore traditions has been utilised by Girish Karnad in the play. The drama portrays the societal intricacies, evils, and the protagonist’s desire for emancipation and fulfillment. The play, Naga-Mandala, is based on folktales about Naga, popular in Karnataka and in several other parts of India in its different forms. Karnad had heard these tales from A.K. Ramanujan, who had collected many folktales and their variants prevalent in different parts of India.

 

Popular Folktale:

 

According to the folktale, there is a snake who assumes the form of the prince and enters the palace and woos the beautiful princess. When the prince comes to know about it, he gets the snake killed. The wife then sets him a riddle. If he fails to answer the riddle, he is to die. In some tales, the snake takes revenge on the man.

 

Utilisation of the Folktale In Karnad’s play.:

 

In Karnad’s play, it sacrifices itself for the happy life of Rani and Appanna. The play dramatizes man’s attitude to woman in a patriarchal society, mistrust, infidelity and lack of communication, breaking family life and the institution of marriage, and it reaffirms the significance of motherhood as the cementing factor in the family and the society. The play upholds the significance of family, marriage and society. The play is founded in a pastoral setting.

 

The Story Line:

 

It is the story of Rani, a trivial Asian woman who was married off by her parents, without her active consent, to an affluent man named Appanna. Rani, a naive virgin, goes to Appanna's house, yearning for a joyous and content life, as every woman aspires. But the circumstances she endures are despicable. Her husband, an orthodox character, who surmises in masculine pre-eminence, locks her on the first night of their weddings and leaves to see his paramour. This intimidation and coercion become a daily routine in Rani's vitality, who condones this as her fortune. 

 

The play Nagamandala is based on the two oral stories from Karnataka that the playwright Girish Karnad heard from his mentor, Professor A.K Ramanujan. The play exposes the exploitation and incarceration of women that occurs through the institution of marriage and how myths display the fears of men in society. The patriarchy control and restrict the actions of women. The play also mocks at the idea of chastity. It subtly hints at the emancipation and empowerment of women.

 

How a Bridegroom is chosen:

 

Her husband is a rich man named Appanna (any man). The name is a symbol to highlight that this is the reality of most weddings that occur. Rani is married to a man who does not have any particular name. The parents of Rani had only these considerations in arranging her marriage – “The young man was rich and his parents were both dead”. Indian parents feel satisfied if they succeed in finding rich boys for their daughters perhaps because they find that earning one’s livelihood is terribly difficult and their daughter will live in comfort with her rich husband, forgetting that the emotional comforts which proceed from happy marital relations are far more important.

 

Appanna’s ignorance to his committed offence and Rani’s Hallucination:

 

Appanna is rich but has no interest in Rani. He is interested in a concubine. As his parents are already dead, there is nobody to give him the moral teaching and he does not know the difference between a wife and a concubine. Like many Indian men, he considers his relationship with the concubine a normal thing. He never feels ashamed of it. As Appanna is bewitched by the concubine, he fails to see that Rani is young and beautiful. He claps her lock and key and tells her that he would come every day only for lunch which she should keep ready for him. It is a bolt from the blue. All the dreams of the young bride are shattered in a moment. He becomes so cruel that Rani loses her mental equilibrium. She has only dreams left which haunt her day and night. She gets hallucination.

 

Appanna is an example of male chauvinism which is a typical Indian word. He goes to the concubine but keeps his wife under lock and key lest she should also get a lover. He fails to realize that love knows no barriers.

 

Inspite of his vigilance, Kurudava meets her. Naga comes to her through drains and crevices. It is due to his failure to love his wife that Naga manages to court Rani, and Rani fails to unravel the mystery of the contradictory behaviours of the two Appannas due to her craving for love. She had some doubts in the initial stages but Naga managed to win her confidence by his ingenuity.

 

Appanna is shocked to notice that Rani is pregnant in spite of all the restraints that he has imposed upon her movements. He is shocked. With the Indian concept of chastity in mind, he starts questioning her. He charges her with the offences of adultery and perjury – “Tell me who it is? Who did you go to with your sari off? You haven’t? And yet you have bloated tummy. Just pumped air into it, did you? And you think I’ll let you get away with that? You shame me in front of the whole village, you darken my face, you slut - !”

 

He takes her to the village elders who ask her to hold a red-hot iron bar to prove her innocence. They very well know that Appanna himself is an adulterer. Indian society is a male dominated society. It does not even take cognizance of the offence done by the husband, but asks the wife to take the acid test. Rani passes the test, but it does not remove the doubts of Appanna. He knows for certain that Rani’s child is not born of him. This idea tortures him. He is exhorted by the village elders to spend his life in Rani’s service. “You need merit in ten past lives to be chosen for such holy duty”, they say. He raves, “What am I to do? Is the whole world against me? Have I sinned so much that even nature should laugh at me? I know I have not slept with my wife. Let the world say what it likes. Let any miracle declare her goddess. But I know what sense am I to make of my life that’s worth nothing!”

 

For any Indian, it is the greatest torment if he knows that his wife is an adulteress. Appanna suffers such a situation.

 

Rani is subjected to further devine test. She agrees. The cobra slides above her shoulders and spreads its hood like an umbrella over her head, much to the surprise of the elders. Rani is declared a goddess by the village elders. Appanna’s emotions are obvious, and he is aware that he has never slept with Rani. He starts to doubt his own sanity.

 

Rani tells him, “When we cremate this snake, the fire should be lit by our son. Every year on this day, our son should perform the rituals to commemorate his death”. By saying this, she confirms that the snake is the real father of her son. Appanna has to say nothing but the statement: “Of course, there is no question of saying no. You are the goddess herself incarnate. Any wish of yours will be carried out. ”

 

Appana, having the knowledge of being the cuckold husband, is forced to treat his wife as a goddess and to carry out her every wish. Indians have strong superstitious beliefs and this is evident in Appanna also. He is not any particular person but a representative of chauvinistic males of the Indian society. He demonstrates Indianness in many of his qualities, views, and attitudes.

 

Symbolism:

 

We find that Karnad’s play is full of symbolism that represents the unequal nature of our society and how the women feel. As Rani’s emotional and sexual needs are not being met, she suppresses her urges and this suppression is meant to display how women are not able to claim their needs. She dreams of an eagle coming taking her far away from Appanna’s world, which is another symbol of the repression of her desires. Her repressed desire to be loved and to be free gets expression in her fantasy where an eagle wants to take her away. Being a victim of extreme isolation and subjugation, her dreams function to fulfill her emotional needs.

 

As the story progresses, Rani comes across Kurudava who offers her a mystical root and assures her that if she feeds Appanna the root, he will forget about his mistress. Upon cooking the root, the potion takes a horrible red color and she disposes of it in a nearby ant hill where a Naga (snake) drinks it. The snake falls in love with Rani due to the potion and takes the form of Appanna at night, praises her long hair and talks a lot about her parents and listens to her attentively. He also fulfills Rani’s sexual needs and soon she falls in love with the Appanna.

 

She however gets confused with the discrepancy in behaviour between the Appanna she sees at noon, who disregards her and leaves for his mistress and the Appanna at night, who treats her with care and is a sensual lover.

 

However, she can’t question her husband.  She must obey whatever she was told by her husband or any other male. Here nobody permits Rani to question anybody – Naga because of his deep passionate love for her and Appanna for his egoistic, male chauvinistic dominance. The women are seen as an object and not as a human being with an agency of her own.

Diaclaimer: Images have been taken from Google sites.