Page 214 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 26: Girish Karnad: Nagmandla—
Plot Construction and Characterisation

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
26.1 Nagmandla by Girish Karnad

26.2 Cultural Code of Naga in Nagmandla
26.3 Summary
26.4 Key-Words
26.5 Review Questions
26.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Analyse characterisation.
• Discuss plot construction.

Introduction

Girish Karnad is known for his versatile genius. It is his greatness that he is one of the greatest
dramatists of Indo-Anglian literature. His greatness is hidden in quality in place of quantity. He
has only five or six plays to his credit. The best of them are 'Yayati', 'Tughlaq' and 'Hayavadana'.
Karnad is a film producer, an actor, and a TV artiste and above all a dramatist. Certainly, his
'Tughlaq' has been popular far and wide. It is true that Girish Karnad wept when he realized that
he would not be a poet, but be only a dramatist. Karnad was deeply influenced by Ibsen, Shaw
and Shakespeare. Girish Karnad was highly influenced by trends in Kannada literature and he
took legend, history and myth for the plots of his plays.
Nagmandla is an elaborate and spectacular ritual of serpent worship at present found in Tulunadu,
especially in Mangalore and Udupi districts. Nagmandla is also called hudiseve, mandlabhoga or
mandlaseve by the Baidyas. But Nagmandla is a term generally used by all to denote this form of
worship.
The term Nagmandla is a compound of two words: naga and mandala. Naga means serpent and
mandala implies decorative pictorial drawings on the floor. The decorative drawing in this context
means the drawing of the figure of serpent god in a prescribed form. Nagmandla depicts the
divine union of male and female snakes.
Noted play writer Girish Karnad wrote a play titled Nagmandla in 1987-88. Like the ritual this
also revolves around the union of a snake. However, here the union was not with another snake.
Instead it was the union of a snake in the form of a human with another human. The play is based
on two folk-tales that Karnad heard from his mentor A.K Ramanujan. The above paper will take
a direction towards the idea of snake in the play and its various connected concepts to the Indian
culture.

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