20.
Hayavadana-Unveiling The Masks Of
Beauty And Meaning
Pratima Sharma*
Abstract : This paper is an attempt to study the matrix of Ethics and Aesthetics in
the play Hayavadana by Girish Karnad. The paraphernalia of masks, mime, halfcurtains, dance, song, play-within-the play, and the use of `sutradhar' has the
undercurrent of vital truth of human existence like the persuasive philosophy of the
time – Existentialism. Transposition of heads in the plot is a manifestation of
Padmini's suppressed desire for a complete man that remains unfulfilled. At the
socio-cultural level, the play suggests that Apollonian always asserts itself and
subdues the Dionysian in our society. None of the main characters is complete.
The incompleteness is a human predicament. Modern man must grapple with this
reality by trying to re-interpret life by exploring various possibilities and
complexities that one may encounter in life. Karnad deftly uses the conventions
and motifs of the folk tales and folk theatre to create a bizarre world of incomplete
individuals, indifferent gods that speak and children who cannot. Hayavadana is
an innovative experiment in fusing together the traditional and the modern
theatrical devices to present the contemporary conflict – torn human existence.
Keywords: Existentialism, Masks, Mime, Sutradhar, Folktales, Folk theatre,
Transposition, Identity, Absurd, Aesthetics, Beauty, Sarcasm, Humour
“ rFkk le{ka ngrk euksHkoa] fiukfduk HkXueuksjFkk lrh A
fufuUn #ia g~n;su ikoZrh] fiz;s’kq lkSHkkX;Qyk fg pk#rk AA”
Kumarsambhava - Cant 5, Shlok-1.
The context refers to the severe penance observed by Goddess Parwati to attain the
love of Lord Shiva. He remained unmoved by her prayers. At last, in a paroxysm of
ire he opened his third eye and Cupid, the Lord of Love, who had smitten an arrow
of love at him (Lord Shiva), was burnt to ashes. This tragic event shattered the
dreams of Goddess Parwati. In deep despair, she condemned her beauty as it could
not win the heart of Lord Shiva.
This crucial moment raises the vital question of harmony between
morality and beauty as depicted in literature. The role of ethical efficacy and
aesthetic charm in the realm of literature has been debated through the ages. From
learned disclosures, we gather the impression that there is no watertight
compartment between morality and beauty, rather they supplement and enrich
each other. One without the other is incomplete and renders literature paralysed for
completion. In fact it is a question of the degree of emphasis that creative writers
and critics lay on the one or the other.
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In some ages, the ethical aspect of literary endeavours was considered
paramount while in other ages it was the aesthetic aspect that has been the focus of
attention. John Keats in his poem The Fall of Hyperion observes that the poet is the
one who “pours out a balm upon the world (L 2001). The poet achieves greatness
not because of any special insight, but because of his gift of language, and his
ability to share the world's sorrows, to participate imaginatively in all human
existence and comfort man in his anguish. He referred to the role of a poet:
Sure a poet is a sage:
A humanist, physician to all men.
(The Fall of Hyperion, LL 189 – 90)
For Plato, mimesis must contain a functional dimension. Aesthetic beauty and art
must involve a pedagogical and moral function. This means that for Plato art must
have a value which is more than aesthetic, it must have an educational worth.
Aristotle supported the combination of delight with instruction. G.B. Shaw, a
fervid upholder of the principle of `art for life's sake', went to the extent of
asserting that for the sake of art alone he would not take the trouble of writing a
single sentence. Not with standing the affinity and contrast between morality and
beauty, the great poets like Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and
Wordsworth achieved perfect fusion between ethical and aesthetic element. Girish
Karnad (1938) too like other Indian playwrights in English presents a beautiful
blend of the two. In his play Hayavadana, he made use of the paraphernalia of
masks, mime, half curtains, dance and music but not without the fragrance of
Existentialism, persuading man the calm acceptance of grief and anguish in life.
The central plot in Hayavadana is based on a tale found in
Kathasaritsagar, a collection of stories in Sanskrit and on its further development
in Thomas Mann's German novel The Transposed Heads. The play has three major
frames: The main plot, the sub-plot and the folk form. Devdatta and Kapila are
close friends like two bodies with one soul. Devdatta, the intellectual and Kapila,
the man of attractive physique represent two extreme opposites – one Apollonian
and another Dionysian tendency. Kapila falls in love with Padmini and she too is
equally attracted to him. Padmini is travelling with her insecure and jealous
husband, Devdatta and his rather attractive friend Kapila. Devdatta, suspecting
Padmini's loyalties goes to a temple of Goddess Kali, the goddess of creation and
destruction, and in a jealous fit he heads himself. Kapila finds the body and,
terrified that he will be accused of having murdered Devdatta for the sake of
Padmini and in turn beheads himself. When the pregnant Padmini, afraid of the
scandal that is found to follow, prepares to kill herself too. The goddess Kali takes
pity and comes to her aid by asking Padmini to put the heads back on their bodies.
But Padmini desiring to possess the man of her dreams – the one with Devdatta's
mind and Kapila's body, `accidentally' switches the heads. Karnad uses the
technique of mask swapping to signify the switching of Kapila and Devdatta's
heads. Now the question that is raised is – which man is her husband the one with
Devdatta's head or the one with his body? What defines the personality of such a
hybrid man – the head or the body? Confusion of identities, of course. The three
friends go to a great Rishi who gives them the solution by telling that the man with
Devdatta's head is indeed her husband. Listening to the Rishi Padmini and
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Devdatta scream with joy while Kapila is left broken-hearted. Padmini is very
happy because ultimately the incident of the transposition of heads went in her
favour. Kapila disappears into the forest and never did he see Dharmapura again.
Devdatta and Padmini come back to their city and “get plunged into the joys of
life”.
Now Devdatta with Kapila's body behaves differently from what he was
before and vice-versa but the hybridity turns out to be short-lived and they
gradually change to their former selves. The new combination fails to fascinate
Padmini for a long time and her yearning to meet Kapila does not subside. After
Devdatta leaves for the Ujjain fair to bring new dolls, Padmini talks to her son and
romantically refers to the “dark forest” that is reminiscenet of the place where
Kapila has disappeared. With her son in arms Padmini succeeds in locating Kapila
in the forest. As before, he has a strong body. He urges Padmini to go back as he
had “succeeded in uprooting these memories”. Narrating her plight of suffering
Padmini says that she is a loser in this game whereas Kapila and Devadatta remain
the gainers. But this meeting does not last long as Devadatta also joins them.
Caught in a strange situation, Devadatta and Kapila try to find some solution but
fail to do so. Then they have a duel thinking that whosoever will win will have the
claim over Padmini. But none survives and Padmini is left no choice except
performing Sati.
Girish Karnad combines the transposed heads plot with the Hayavadana
story which is entirely his own invention. Hayavadana, the man with the horse's
head wants to regain his identity as a complete man. In the end contrary to his
longing he is changed to a full-fledged horse. His liberation is complete only when
the five-year old son of the woman in the transposed heads story asks him to laugh
and the laughter soon turns into a proper neigh.
In this paper I attempt to study Girish Karnad's skillful communication
of the truths of human existence with respect to the present day issues and his
implicit reflections thereupon. By taking up the theme of social calamity of
cracked identities the playwright gives us an impetus to make us stretch our mind.
Thinking about the incomplete individuals, a world indifferent to the
desires and frustrations of human beings steers us to a question ringing in the head
like a fire alarm – can we create a better future for all of us? The reader has to make
that determination Girish Karnad does not provide a structure of morals because
offering a coherent account of ethics in a fragmented social and intellectual world
is very difficult. He lets the reader free to rethink about the conventions that hinder
the growth of the society. Peter Lamarque in his “Tragedy and Moral Value”
comments on the liberty values and ethics:
It is not the central task of ethics to formulate and apply general
principles but rather to stress the particularly of moral situations and
the idea that profound moral disagreements reside not in a difference
of beliefs but in different ways of looking at the world. The idea is that
the moral agent and the reader both in effect confront complex moral
situations with both called upon to adopt an imaginative perspective
on those situations which should yield in the one case a moral
judgement or appropriate action and in the other a moral insight or
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revised way of seeing. A competent reader might hope to learn from
the literary work not by formulating a derived moral principle but by
acquiring a new vision or perspective on the world (2004 : 278).
Padmini's predicament is that of a modern emancipated woman in our society who
is torn between two polarities – Apollonian and Dionysian. Her messing up the
two heads in the temple is a manifestation of her suppressed desire for a perfect
man. Her happiness does not last long and she is disillusioned. The solution: that
Devadatta and Kapila should both live with Padmini like Pandavas and Draupadi
is not accepted. Consequently, the play ends with the tragic end of the three which
is nothing but submission to the Apollonian principle. Padmini's plight is as M.K.
Naik observes, “Woman's vain attempt to unite Man as intellect and as flesh in
order to further her creative purpose …. Integration cannot be achieved by trying
to reconcile the irreconciliable but by accepting cheerfully the fundamental
disharmony in human life.” (1984, 196) The play Hayavadana is about trying to
survive what Kapila calls the `mad dance of incompleteness' (57). It is an old
legend with new meaning having an urgent relevance to present day thinking
about man in his world. It presents five examples of fractured personality suffering
from want of wholeness of being – Hayavadana, Devadatta, Kapila, Padmini and
the child. After the transposition Devadatta and Kapila naturally become
fragmented creatures while Padmini is torn between the two is also a divided self.
Her child after becoming an orphan is hopelessly incomplete as he has lost the
child's natural ability to laugh and wonder at things around him. Padmini desires a
completeness and in the discussion on the subject that follows with Kapila, she
does not hesitate to assert:
Your body bathed in a river, swam and danced in it. Shouldn't your
head know what river it was, what swim? Your head too must
submerge in that river – the flow must rumple your hair, run its tongue
in your ears and press your head to its bosom. Until that's done, you
will continue to be incomplete. (1975: 58)
The play ends with the futility of the search for completeness. It is suggestive of
the fact that completeness is a humanly impossible ideal. It asserts the value and
significance of human imperfections.
The essence of the play is the existentialist theme of incompleteness –
the desire of the mortal man to achieve his immortal desires – the greed that never
is suffice – the realization that life is a full circle – that it is illogical to attach
meaning to it. There is no other side and no other life. We are trapped by what we
want from life and what we cannot have. The quest for completeness is an
incomplete world and an incomplete life defines what we live as and what we are.
There is no reason why an individual should exist rather than not exist. Human life
lacks any meaning; it is absurd because human beings have a desire for
understanding and the limitations of their reason do not allow for the satisfaction
of that desire. Absurd is nothing less than man's relation to the world. The world in
itself is unintelligible and humans attempt in vain to discover a meaning that is
never to begin with.
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Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) a novelist, dramatist and essayist, is
esteemed as one of the finest philosophical writers of modern France. His works
explored the theme that was prevalent in the post-World War II Europe – the
absurdity of human existence, disillusionment and loss of values like loyalty,
dignity and brotherhood. The French existentialist philosopher, Jean – Paul Sartre
explicated what Camus meant by absurdity:
Primary absurdity manifests the cleavage between man's aspirations
to unify the insurmountable dualism of mind and nature, between
man's drive towards the eternal and the finite character of his
existence, between the `concerns' that constitute his very essence and
the vanity of his efforts. Chance, death, the irreducible pluralism of
life and of truth, the unintelligibility of the real – all these are extremes
of the absurd.(1962 : 109 )
The play presents a typical existential anguish but does not stop at existential
despair; going beyond it the play suggests that the fundamental disharmony,
absurdity and irrationality are to be accepted with `Sambhava'. This cannot be
achieved by trying to reconcile the irreconciliable but by accepting cheerfully the
truth that completeness is humanly impossible ideal. One has to accept the
significance of human imperfection. By showing the absurdity of the ideal of
completeness, the play finally achieves its aesthetic goal. Kirtinath Kurtkoti who
wrote A Brief introduction to the English translation of Hayavadana published in
1975, explains the reality of life. “What is real is only the tremendous, irrational
energy of the horse and its rider who moves round the stage symbolizing the
powerful but monotonous rhythm of life.” (vii)
It is tough to define beauty because to me it might be a child running into
his mother's arms after committing an error. To you it might be plain. To me a
particular stage arrangement might strike the right chord – but to you it might seem
too gloomy. However, in that way we would not be able to converge to a consensus
over a definition. Aesthetics in literature should be beauty that is coherent with the
voice of literature.
Hayavadana is cast in the form of traditional Indian folk drama.
Modernity of theme is admirably matched by antiquity of its dramatic model. Role
of the Bhagavata and the use of dolls, masks, songs etc. leave the spectator spellbound and closely involved in the theme. The role of the Bhagavata erases the
distance between the actor and the receptor and establishes a connection. He
performs the role of the Sutradhar whose job is to link the scenes, introduce the
characters, supervise the acting and even act himself. He is skilled at jumping in
and out of the different frames that operate in the play. In Act II after the heads have
been exchanged and Padmini has been living with her new husband, she returns to
Kapila. Kapila asks why she has come, but she is unable to speak. The Bhagavata
steps into the scene and speaks for her, “How could I make you understand? If
Devadatta had changed overnight and had gone back to his original form, I would
have forgotten you completely. But that's not how it happened” [ 56]. Midway
through the drama we find him signalling the end of the action by telling the
audience, “There is a break of ten minutes now. Please have some tea, ponder over
the situation and come back with your solutions. We shall then continue with our
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enquiry”(39).
The role of the dolls in the play is a beautiful blend of sarcasm mixed
with humour. They were played on stage by two young children in masks. They are
the interpreters of the inner working of Padmini's mind. They see into and narrate
Padmini's
dream about Kapila as she sleeps revealing the illicit desire she feels but cannot
express as a married woman in Indian society. Devadatta and Padmini are asleep,
and the dolls look into Padmini's dream :
DOLL I.
Look…..
DOLL II.
Where…..
DOLL I.
Behind her eyelids. She is dreaming.
DOLL II.
I don't see anything
DOLL I.
It's still hazy – hasn't started yet … Do you see it
now?
DOLL II.
(eagerly), yes, yes.
(They stare at her)
DOLL I.
A man ….
DOLL II.
But not her husband
DOLL I.
No, someone else.
DOLL II.
Is this the one who came last night?
DOLL I.
Yes – the same. But I couldn't see his face then (48).
The tools that Karnad uses to engrave beauty in his sculpture are varied and some
seem to be inspired by our folk tradition. The dance sequence in the concluding
scene of the story romanticizes death and hums with the coherence that the
characters reach in their previous dialogue. Any other form of fight sequence
would have been a complete misfit.
Songs have always been an important part of the Indian folk tradition.
Lyricism in words leaves a lasting impact on the audience.The situation of
Padmini, in the final act is described beautifully by the lyrical simile of a river and
the scarecrow in the choric song:
Bhagavata.
You cannot engrave on water
Nor wound it with a knife,
which is why the river
has no fear of memories.
Female Chorus.
The river only feels the
pull of the waterfall.
She giggles, and tickles the rushes
On the banks, then turns
a top of dry leaves
in the navel of the whirlpool …(58).
Aestheticism lies in the structure of the play, the stage design and the
acting style. It is in the sublime beauty of the plot, of the dialogues and of the
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emotions. Karnad's complex dramatic craft operates at different levels and with
varying impact. However, the theme of incompleteness is woven throughout the
matrix of the play. The half-man struggle could not have been better represented
without the use of the tools that bring out the existential theme of the fundamental
ambiguity of the human condition. A song is complete only when its music soothes
our ears and fills our souls. It should reflect the mood of the lyrics. The beauty of a
piece of literature is incomplete if it is not in coherence with the essence of the
writing. In these terms Karnad in Hayavadana has composed a melodious
symphony.
REFERENCE
Karnad, Girish. 1975 Hayavadana. New Delhi : Oxford University Press.
Lamarque, Peter, Stein Haugom Olsen. 2004. Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
: The Analytic Tradition : An Anthology, U.K. Wiley Blackwell.
Naik M.K. 1984. Dimensions of Indian English Literature, New Delhi : Sterling.
Sartre Jean Paul. 1962. “An Explication of The Stranger” in Camus : A Collection
of Critical Essays ed. Germaine Bree; Prentice – Hall, pp. 108 - 21. May 22, 2013
*Head, Department of English, Government College, Kota, Rajasthan .
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