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

Notes

The characters of this main story, which, as mentioned above, develops on a fourth
narrative level, appear in two groups of three interrelated individuals that can be
visualized geometrically as two intertwined triangles: one formed by the three
protagonists, Rani-Appana-Nâga, and the other by Rani, Kurudavva (the old blind
woman), and her son Kappana.

The sacred level (the temple) and the artistic level ( the theatre) are one more identified following
the Hindu tradition. The Indian theatre has a divine origin according to the Natya Shastra, one of
the earliest treatises on theatre in the world. There is said that it was Brahma who wrote the fifth
7
Veda, Natyaveda, or sacred book of dramatic art. The Natya Shastra also makes explicit that the
8
drama contains the three worlds (the celestial, the terrestrial, and the infernal) and thus integrates
the supernatural, the human, and the subhuman. The mandala evokes the complexity of the
cosmos and interweaves the three worlds, just as the theatre does.
Nâgmandla is unconventional in that it offers three endings. The question may persist as to whether
this decision responds to differences in points of view, or whether it reflects a more serious aim or
purpose planned by Karnad from the beginning. In this connection, Shubhangi
S. Raykar has called attention of Karnad‘s conscientiousness. He says, “Usually the idea of a play
incubates in his mind for a long time and it is only when the total action of the play is clearly
before his mind’s eye, that he starts writing a play” (1990:46).
The first of the three endings goes along with what one would expect in a fairy tale or folktale.
Rani, after having succeeded spectacularly in demonstrating her innocence, is considered a goddess. 9
Appana automatically considers her his wife and forgets about his concubine, who voluntarily
becomes Rani’s servant. This ending is found to be loose, however, as the Author-narrator points
out. Obviously, Appana knows that the child his wife is expect is not his, since he has never had
any sexual relationship with Rani. Though Appana has his doubts, he can do nothing and, in fact,
as Dhanavel says, “Appana begins to suspect his own sanity”, when the elders convince him that
Rani is the “Mother goddess” (2000:24). The spectator or reader has access to his thoughts expressed
in these lines: “ What am I to do? Is the whole world against me? Have I sinned so much that even
Nature should laugh at me? ....Let any miracle declare her a goddess. But I know!” (Nâga:60). And
furthermore, the Cobra cannot be ignored. On the Story-narrator’s part, she wonders about Rani’s
thoughts. Now, after being intimate with her husband, Rani has to know that the man with whom
she used to have intercourse was not her husband.
The second ending takes into account both Appana’s suspicion and the state of mind of the Cobra
who, after recognizing his love for Rani in another soliloquy, is ready to sacrifice himself. He

7 The Natya Shastra, written by Bharata Muni around the 2nd century B.C., is the earliest and most elaborate
treatise on Indian theatre. In it, various traditions in dance, mime, and drama were consolidated and codified.
8 According to legend, God Indra, with the rest of the gods, approached Brahma, the Creator of the Universe,
and begged for a mode of recreation accessible to all classes of society. Brahma acceded to this request and
decided to compose of speech, song, mime and sentiment and thus created Natyaveda, the holy book of
dramaturgy. He asked Indra to pass the book on to those of the gods who are skilful, leaned, free from stage
fright, and given to hard work. As Indra pleaded the gods’ inability to enact a play, Brahama looked to
Bharata and revealed to him the fifth Veda.
9 This situation reminds us of the stories of Sita and Savitri, but it offers a very different point of view. Sita,
wife of king Rama in the epic Ramayana, is a powerful symbol of female purity, fidelity, and endurance in
Hindu culture. Savitri, whose story appears in the Mahabharata, symbolizes conjugal love that defies death
and the gods.

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