Karnad's Yayati : A Study in the Eternal Conflicts of Mankind.

With Vijay Tendulkar and Badal Sirkar, Girish Karnad is among thethree greatest dramatists of post-independent Indian theatre. His most notableplays are Yayati, Nag-Mandala, Hayavadan and The Fire and the Rain. Yayati,his first play, was written initially in Kannad in 1961. For this play he received theKarnatak State award.Karnad was not a simple entertainer. His plays serve to instruct,entertain and enlighten, but there is also a purpose. Through his plays he tries togive his audience an exalted sense of duty with happiness, peace of mind andupliftment of moral values. In Karnad's view, only then can a human being berelieved of the sorrow and pain that he is subjected to in his endless run forpleasures. To achieve it, Karnad draws from the rich store of Indian mythologicalstories and the collective wealth of inherited culture and recreates the charactersand old stories in a new way. He presents them as they originally are and alsochanges them completely. His genius for fusion of the mythology and modernityis unparalleled. The Yayati of Karnad is the best example of his creative concern,purpose and dramatic art. The human heart is never satiated; its endless cravingfor more and more pleasure leads it to tragedy. One fine example of thispredicament is the story of king Yayati. The present paper would endeavor tostudy some important aspects of Karnad's Yayati in comparison with the originalmythological story as also with the novel of same name by Vishnu SakharamKhandekar