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Indian Writings in Literature

Notes hides in Rani’s abundant hair and dies. The Flames, this time, do not seem to be pleased with an
ending which involves the death of the Cobra. Therefore, Rani and Appana reappear on the stage
to perform a third ending, which at first seems to be a repetition of the second one. However, this
time when the Cobra falls from Rani’s hair he is alive. Appana immediately thinks about killing
the snake, but Rani devises a way to save the Cobra. She lets him hide in her hair again, though
she tells Appana that he has escaped. It ends with these words spoken by Rani: “This hair is the
symbol of my wedded bliss. Live in there happily, for ever” (Nâga: 64).
Sometimes academics and critics do not wish to accept interpretations which run counter to religious
or social conventions. Indian culture, says Manchi Sarat Babu, consider marriage to be “the supreme
boon of a woman” because it offers her “salvation through her service to her husband”. For that
woman “chastity is superior and preferable to life” (1997:37). Therefore, the third ending of
Nâgmandla may not be acceptable within the orthodox Indian tradition. Accordingly, Karnad can
be seen as an author who presents the character of the married woman from within an
unconventional perspective. His point is that Indian society at large is “dreadfully puritanical”
and that most Indian men are “embarrassed by women who are not closely related to them”. As
a consequence “most Indian palywright just don’t know what to do with their female characters”
(Karnad 1995:359). In fact, Satyadev Dubey believes Karnad to be “the only playwright in the
history of Indian theatre to have treated adultery as normal and treated adulterous women
sympathetically” (Karnad 1995:358). Yet, Karnad repeatedly turns the situations and manipulates
language brilliantly so as to create ambiguity and a space of freedom for himself and the readers
and spectators. We recall here how Federico Garcia Lorca, whom Karnad admires for his capacity
10
to develop extraordinarily powerful feminine characters, claims that the theatre should be “a
rostrum where men are free to expose old equivocal standards of conduct, the explain with living
examples the eternal norms of the heart and feelings of man” (1982 (1960): 59). Furthermore, A.K.
11
Ramanujan reminds us that by using folklore, the author and his public can think more freely. He
says: “Tales speak of what cannot usually be spoken. Ordinary decencies are violated. Incest,
cannibalism, pitiless revenge are explicit motifs i this fantasy world, which helps us face ourselves,
envisage shameless wish fulfillments, and sometimes ‘by indirection find directions out”
(Ramanujan 1989:258).
Still, the second ending, in which the cobra dies, is chosen as the most satisfactory ending by some
critics. Those critics, among them K.M. Chandar, probably do not want to diverge from the canonical
texts which, in the words of Karnad himself, have “glamorized the devoted wives, the Sitas and
the Savitris” (1995:359). If the Cobra disappears, the possible destablizing element for the new
home is eliminated and the value of the akam and the puram, in Chandar’s opinion, would be
restored to their respective places. This critic mentions the need for an equilibrium between the
akam, which according to A.K. Ramanujan, means “interior, heart, self, house, household”, and the
puram, which means “exterior, outer parts of the body, other , the yard outside the house, people
outside the household” (1989:256). Consequently, the moment when Appana gives up searching
for the values of the akam outside the house, Rani should do the same. In this latter case, we could
assume that Rani embodies the ideal wife, patient faithful, and ready to submit and sacrifice
herself. As regards this second ending, if we limit the role of the Cobra to the sexual sphere, and
interpret the fact that he hides in the “long dark serpentine tresses” as a symbol of fertility, the
way Chander and Dhanavel do, then the ending could be convincing (Chander 1999:79; Dhanavel

10 Karnad tells us in the introduction to the play: “The position of Rani in the story of Nâgmandla , for instance,
can be seen as metaphor for the situation of a young girl in the bosom of a joint family where she sees her
husband only in two unconnected roles— as a stranger during the day and as a lover at night”(Nâga:17).
11 Girish Karnad expressed his admiration for Lorca in this sense during a conversation I had with him at the
University of Mysore, India, on 23 July 2005.

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