Page 207 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Unit 25: Girish Karnad: Nagmandla—Detailed Study of the Text

boring that the audience often went to sleep. For this “crime” the Author is condemned to death Notes
unless he manages to remain awake for one entire night before the end of that month. The night
of this theatrical performance is precisely his last chance. We hear his repeated laments: “I may be
dead within the next few hours” (Nâga: 22).
The second and third narrative levels contain magical elements. The second is formed by the
gossip-type tales that a group of personified flames tell each other when they gather at night, after
their work has ended. The Flames choose to go to the same ruined temple where the Author is
bewailing his plight. When he sees them arrive, he hides behind a column from where he closely
follows their stories. On the third narrative level, there is the tale told by one of the Flames who
wants to be forgiven for arriving late. Her singularised tale is about a woman who knew a beautiful
story but refused to tell it and share it with other people. One day, that story taking advantage of
the fact that the woman was sleeping with her mouth open, escapes and is transformed into a
young lady. And the song that accompanies it turns into her beautiful sari. The story thus personified
on the fourth narrative level relates the life of Rani, the main character of Nâgmandla . The need
for the story to escape illustrates the paradoxical nature of oral tradition, according to Karnad.
Stories are autonomous and independent of the person who tells them, although they live by
being told and shared (Nâga: 17).
The moment when the main story, Rani’s begins is interestingly complex from the point of view
of structure, because there is interaction between the narrator of this story, the personified story,
and the narrators of the previous stories, the unfortunate Author and the Flames. The Author-
narrator of the first level, who has been listening to the second and third narrative levels, establishes
a dialogue with the Story-narrator of third level and he suggests a name for the main masculine
character in the central story, Appana, which means “any man”. Furthermore, they reach an
agreement by which the Author promises to retell the story, thus keeping it alive, if it is interesting
enough to keep him awake for the whole night, which would amount to saving his life.

The plot of this central story, Rani’s story, can be summarized as follows: young
Rani, recently married to Appana, is locked inside the house by her husband. He
treats her as if she were a mere servant, and meanwhile he keeps and uses a
concubine.

An old blind woman, who is always carried around by her son Kappana, tries to help Rani by
giving up that plan at the last moment, however, and pours the potion on the ant hill which
happens to be the dwelling place of a King Cobra. The Cobra ( a Nâga) then falls in love with
Rani. He enters the house through the drain in the bathroom at night and once inside takes on the
6
appearance of Appana, the husband. Despite the disorientation and wonder that this new situation
causes in Rani, their relationship is fruitful and results in Rani getting pregnant. As soon as
Appana discovers her pregnancy, he informs the elders of the village in order that they may
determine her guilt or innocence, since he and she had never had sexual intercourse. Rani proves
her “innocence” by undertaking the Snake Ordeal, that is, by holding the King Cobra in her hand.
Surprisingly, the Cobra, instead of biting her, “slides up her shoulder and spreads its hood like an
umbrella over her head” (Nâga: 58). The onlookers are awestruck, Rani is considered a goddess,
and Appana can do nothing but accept her as his life.

6 The Nâgas in Indian mythology are considered deities, half human and half snake, and are carriers of fertility,
especially in the south of India.

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