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Unit 27: Girish Karnad: Nagmandla—Themes

considered as a second sex, other, but also questions the way women are socialized to internalize Notes
the reigning hegemonic ideology and degrade their own position to perpetuate the on-going
subordination and subjugation. Patriarchal hegemony deprives them of due chances to realize
their innate powers and potentialities as human beings: A Gender equality still remains a myth--
the discussion of the relationship between man and woman have been prescribed by man not by
woman. Man who is ruled by the mastery-motive has imposed her limits on her. She accepts it
because of biosocial reasons).

27.1 Nagmandla—Themes

In Naga-Mandala, the playwright foregrounds the recurring problems of women in the present-
day Indian rural society. The play registers a strong protest against the patriarchal social order for
its myriad forms of deprivation, violence and oppression of women in the contemporary Indian
society. In the play, Rani, a native and submissive girl, falls prey to the unjust social order through
the institution of marriage which impedes all the channels that can provide her with opportunities
to have self-discovery, self-growth and self-actualization as a human being. The patriarchal order
uses marriage as a coercive tool to exploit and oppress women on various planes---physical,
emotional, intellectual, sexual and social. Rani’s father arranges her marriage with a parentless
young boy with plenty of wealth, but the choice of Rani is grossly overlooked taking for granted
that she is incapable of taking decision. Alike many Indian fathers he looks at the marriage from
a materialistic perspective, thereby overlooking all other aspects of healthy and meaningful marital
life: Her fond father found her a suitable husband. The young man was rich and his parents were
both dead (Naga-Mandala). Here the word is used ironically. Appanna is not a human being,
rather he is a wild beast or a reptiles in the guise of man, but under the umbrella cover of
patriarchy he oppresses Rani, thereby ignoring her existence as a human being.
A patriarchal social set up, like ours, firmly asserts men's superiority over women and is based not
on mutuality but on oppression. The image of woman was created by man. It is what "he wants
her to be inferior and he never wants her to be an equal, a co-sharer of all the privileges he is
enjoying. It is generally assumed that the biological factor plays an important role in the ascription
of male or female too, but the societal forces also play an equally important part in the division of
gender. Simon de Beauvoir's assertion that "One is not born a woman, but rather, becomes a
woman" is quite sound and appears equally applicable in case of man. One is not born a man, but
rather becomes one under the impact of the existing socio-cultural and economic forces. In this
play, Appanna is not born a man, but becomes one under the male-hegemonic social system.
Rani in Nagmandla is a creation of patriarchal social order which ignores the existence of women
as human beings. In the tight noose of traditional marriage, Rani finds it very hard to have healthy
marital and social interaction and articulate her grievances and grudges, as Appanna keeps her
locked up like a caged bird. Rani longs to have flight and freedom from the cruel clutches of
Appanna. On the sexual plane, she is neglected; on the physical she is bullied and beaten; on the
emotional she is crushed; on the intellectual she is hushed up, and on the social she is almost ex-
communicated. As a result, she is left with no voice and choice as a dignified member of human
society. Marriage is not only an honourable career and one less tiring than many others: it alone
permits a woman to keep her social dignity intact and at the same time to find sexual fulfillment
as lived one and mother. But here, in a patriarchal society Rani is always subordinated and
treated as a second sex by Appanna.
As a young girl, Rani has preferences and proclivities; desires and dreams, needs and necessities,
but she has to suppress all of them in the face of stiff and strong hegemonic system. The prime
factor behind her silence and submission is that she has been counseled and conditioned to be
cordial and co-operative; shy and submissive, timid and tolerant in her marital life. As a result,

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