Mythical Reworking in Girish

Karnad’s Yayati
Anuradha
Abstract
Yayati is one of the remarkable plays of eminent playwright
Girish Karnad. This exceptional play is an ancient mythological
portrayal of desires one has in one’s life. Myths are identified as
idealistic moral standpoint from a different angel. The significance
of myth is enormous not only in history but also in literature,
philosophy and numerous facets of human life. Myths have played
an important role in oral, written, as well as visual story telling for
thousands of years. That is why they have been a part of mankind’s
entire history. Every Indian child has grown up by listening
mythological stories of gods and goddesses. Mythological stories
are integral part of cultural studies too. Yayati is also a mythological
story present in our Indian culture. Yayati is a retelling of
mythological story depicted in Mahabarta from the perspective of
ancient king Yayati and his desires. The present paper attempts to
re-evaluate the presentation of myth of Yayati. The study aims at
mythical reworking of social, religious and philosophical aspects
present in modern society.
Keywords: Yayati, Girish Karnad, myth, Indian culture, desire,
Identity crisis]

Introduction
The Indian English drama depicts deep rooted beliefs and
values of the Indian soil and Indian Sensibility in modern context.
Indian English literature portrays diffidence of literary stalwarts
like - Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and Harindranath
Chatopadhyay, Girish Karnad, Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Mahesh

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Dattani, Uma Parmeswaran and Vijay Tendulkar. Girish Karnad
was not only a great playwright but also an actor and a film director.
He has received Jnanpith award, the highest literary honour
bestowed in India, in 1998 for his contribution in literature. His
plays have marked the coming of age of modern Indian plays.
Girish Karnad has brought a major change of direction by
projecting myth and modern predicament of man and contributed a
lot in Indian English literature. In modern world absurdity and
meaninglessness of life has engulfed human psyche. Thus even
writers like Girish Karnad represents, altruism, humanity, day-
dreaming and longingness and many other things. Girish Karnad
has taken liberty with the myth to knit multifaceted dimension to
create a story in modern context and thus sketched a new plot. He
has used a novice approach to draft historical and mythological
characters to undertake modern subject matter such as absurdity,
existentialism and crisis of modern man through characters locked
in psychological and philosophical conflicts. Through his writings
playwright has depicted the past mythical, historical and oral tales.
Yayati was published in the year 1961, when Girish Karnad
was just 23 years old. The source of the play is Mahabharta. The
play is based on the story of King Yayati, one of the ancestors of
the Pandavas, who was cursed into premature old age by his
preceptor, Shukracharya, who was infuriated at Yayati’s infidelity.
The present paper aims at reworking of myth in Yayati in context
with Conventional and modern sensibility that deals with the
problems of identity, social, religious and philosophical conflicts,
patriarchy, self-interest and invasive sense of isolation.
Reworking of myth is not new in literature as relatively
ancient English writers have represented themselves through
mythical stories. Through their writings they have painted a colorful
world where gods and goddesses possessed human qualities. M.K.
Naik expresses: If Indian English drama wishes to go ahead, it
must go back first, that is, only a purposeful return to its own roots
in the rich tradition of ancient Indian drama, both in Sanskrit and
folk drama in Prakrits, can help it shed its lean and pale look, and
increase its artistic haemoglobin count, and make it cease to be the
‘sick man’ of Indian English Literature (43-44).

Indian Writing in English: Contemporary Trends and Concerns : 209

 Girish Karnad through the play Yayati has attempted to
relate the old myth of Mahabharta in modern framework. Girish
Karnad has added new characters to rework on the already existed
myth and deal with the modern themes as desire, alienation, social
and religious conflicts, existentialism etc. Yadava adds, “…new
characters to deepen the connotative richness of the play as he
gives it a contemporary appeal.”(14). The new characters
introduced in the play are: Swarnalata, the servent of Devyani, and
Chitralekha the wife of Pooru. Swarnalata is a strong character as
she gives insights in between the [Link] tells Chitralekha that
your husband, “…agreed to take on his father’s old age.”(57) On
the other hand Chitralekha, wife of Pooru, in the end kills herself
which brings change in Yayati’s sensual desires. She is true
embodiment of self-sacrifice due to philosophical conflicts present
in society. In Mahabharata Devyani had two sons Yadu and Tarvasu
while sharmistha had three sons Druhyu, Anu and Pura on the
other hand in the play of Yayati, the playwright mentions Pooru the
only son of Yayati and Devyani.
Yayati is a mythical play which was written in Kannada
language and then translated in English by the writer himself. S.
Ramaswami adds: …by using imagination and creativity, he
transformed myths and legends into a folk narrative style (278).
Yayati is the story of King Yayati who was cursed by his
own ancestors to old age. Yayati, in turn, asks his sons to sacrifice
their youth for him, and one of them agrees too. The play depicts
the ironies of life through myriad layers unfolded in due course of
the story.
The major characters in the play are: Sharmishtha,
Devayani, Yayati, Pooru and Chitralekha. Yayati is a play with
complex relationship between Devayani, Sharmishtha and king
Yayati. Devayani and Sharmishtha, were friends, One day they
both went to river to take bath. All of a sudden a strong wind
started blowing and they quickly came out of the river and put on
their cloths. However, hurriedly Sharmishtha wore Devayani’s
cloth. Devayani didn’t like it and they started fighting. Sharmishtha
pushed Devayani into the river and went away. At the same time
king Yayati was passing by, helped her to come out of the river by

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holding her right hand, accidentally. Eventually, Devayani and king
Yayati got married and Sharmishtha came out as a dowry in
marriage. Sharmishtha develops secret relationship with Yayati who
on the revelation of the relationship is cursed by Shukracharya
with old age. Yayati doesn’t want to accept this premature old age.
Yayati depicts: I thought there were two options –life and death.
No, it is living and dying we have to choose between. And you
have shown me that dying can go on for all eternity. Suddenly, I
see myself, my animal body frozen in youth, decaying, deliquescing,
and turning rancid. You are laying on your pyre, child, burning for
life, while I sink slowly in this quagmire, my body wrinkleless and
grasping, but unable to grasp anything (68). These lines illustrate
the dilemma of Yayati in modern context. He is not able to see
darkness of material and sensual pleasures. He is not able to find
spiritual delight which can help him to find the true meaning of life.
He is engulfed in worldly sensual pleasures which are leading him
towards disaster. Karnad finds the case of Yayati his own case in
a different context. He says, “I think looking back at that point,
perhaps it seemed to me very significant that this was what was
happening to me, my parents demanding that I should be in a
particular way, even when my future seemed to be opening up in
another. So you see, it was the play, where the myth in some ways
gave exact expression to what I was trying to say but the form is
entirely borrowed from the West.” (5)
When Yayati came to know that curse can be taken by
someone and he can get back his youth, his joy knew no bounds.
He embraces the fact and says: “That is good news. That is good
news indeed. So I don’t loose my youth, thank God.”(45) He even
tells Sharmishtha, So you see Sharmishtha. You were asking me to
accept to curse as though that was the end of everything.(45-46)
He requested to the people of his kingdom to exchange his old age
with youth but unfortunately no one agrees. In the end, Pooru, the
youngest son of Yayati, agrees to come forward to accept the king’s
curse though he was recently married. Then Chitralekha, Pooru’s
wife, who is the new character added in the present play depicts
the valiant characteristic and doesn’t accept the decision of her
husband at first. Girish Karnad has portrayed the theme of

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subsistence during reworking of the story through Chitralekha. In
one of the interviews with Tutun Mukherjee, Girish Karnad says,
“My attempt was to emphasize the calm acceptance of grief and
anguish. Pooru’s old age is a sudden transformation and not the
eventuality of life. It brings no wisdom and no self-realization. It is
a senseless punishment for an act he has not committed. I was
also intrigued by the idea that if Pooru had a wife, how would she
react? So I introduced Chitralekha. Every character in the play
tries to evade the consequences of their actions, except Sharmistha
and Chitralekha.” (Tutun Mukherjee 31)
Chitralekha even offers herself to Yayati. She questions
Yayati about her existence in the palace. She even questions her
father-in –law, “…what about your duty to your son. Do you think
twice before foisting your troubles on a pliant son”? (62) In the end
she takes poison and puts an end to her life. This act makes Yayati
realize how mean he has been to his son. He pleads his son to take
his youth back : “Take back your youth, Pooru. Rule well. Let me
go and face my destiny in the wilds.” (69) He then goes with
Sharmishtha to forest and lives his life as hermit. However, in
Mahabharata after the incident Yayati lived happily with Devyani
for several years. One day, he realized that he had wasted his life
running after insignificant things and had not ever thought of life’s
most valuable aspiration of spiritual enlightenment. He made up his
mind to detach himself from the transit enticing world and take to
the part of Godliness. Here, in the play, Yayati, Girish Karnad has
dealt with social conflict in modern context. Whereas, in
Mahabharta, Yayati the prosperous king gave all his property to
his sons and went to forest to live a life of renunciation with Devyani
and Sharmistha, but in the play Yayati after the death of the daughter-
in-law Yayati and Sharmistha went to forest and lived there as
hermit. He has chosen the path of renunciation after sacrifice of
courageous Chiteralekha who has shown mirror to the grand
emperor.
Yayati is a narrative of an old aged king who has taken his
son’s youth in exchange of old age to remain youthful forever.
However, in this progression Pooru, is transformed from a obedient
and noble son to a person confronted with the meaningless of life.

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Girish Karnad has depicted in the play that Pooru wants to accept
the old age as he is not as valiant as his father. He is not ready to
take the responsibilities of a huge kingdom and that’s why he finds
it easy to escape from all the duties towards his kingdom. Yayati
himself tells Chitralekha, “Pooru lacks the experience to
tackle…problems…Actually more than the experience he lacks
the will, the desire. Instead of welcoming the responsibilities if a
king-and of a householder-he has welcomes sanility…”(64)
Girish Karnad states: “The story of King Yayati that I used
occurs in the Mahabharata. The king, for a moral transgression he
has committed, is cursed to old age in the prime of life. Distraught
at losing his mouth, he approaches his son, pleading with him to
lend him his youth in exchange for old age. The son agrees to the
exchange and accepts the curse, and thus becomes old, older than
his father. But the old age brings no knowledge, no self-realization,
only the senselessness of a punishment meted out for an act in
which he had not even participated. The father is left to face the
consequences of shirking responsibility for his own actions.”
In fact, Pooru is not a self-obsessed man like his father.
He has sacrificed his youth but he has not expected anything in
return from his father as a reward. He is true epitome of ‘Yayati
Complex.’ According to Devdutta Pattaniak, in Hindu mythology
there is a famous ‘Yayati Complex’, that is, parents expecting
sacrifices on the part of their children to fulfill their selfish motives.
Chitralekha too says, “His gentleness is like waft of cool
breeze.”(64) He even does not imagine the consequences of this
action and how his wife will feel. He has gained no knowledge or
experience along with the old age. He is facing an existential crisis
whereby the happy life with his wife Chitralekha seems to hold no
meaning for him. Sharmishtha too persuades Pooru that he should
not exchange his youth with old age as ‘the pride of sacrifice is
also a kind of poison.’ Pooru is a changed man now Chitralekha
says, I thought he was an ordinary man. What a fool I have been!
How utterly blind! I am the chosen one and I …which other woman
has been so blessed? Why should I shed tears? (56)
In the due course of the play Pooru classifies sons under
three categories and says, three are three types who can be called

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sons. One, who rises to the expectations of the father without being
prompted, occupies the top most position and finds the ultimate
goal of life. Second is the son who obediently helps on request.
The third grudgingly agrees to help. He gladly accepts his father’s
curse and hopes that he will gain knowledge of the meaning of life
He finds himself in a world in which old spiritual values have been
entirely swept away and the new spiritual values are yet to be
discovered. It was Pooru’s sacrifice which has made Yayati realizes
the fallacy of his reasoning and he finally takes back the curse
from Pooru as an attempt at salvation. However in the end Pooru
comes near the dead body of Chitralekha and says: “We brought
you here only to die. But our senses are blighted and we shall
never grasp the meaning of what you taught us.(69) Pooru too has
redeemed the meaning of responsibility. Sutradhar of the play Yayati
too feels happy as this is for the first time that Pooru had asked a
question which is a step forward to become a philosopher king.
Thus, to conclude we can say that Girish Karnad has given
a new meaning and significance to an age old story. He has
transferred the themes of alienation and existentialism through his
characters like Chitralekha and Pooru. Prem Sagar and R. Varshney
observe: The play remains an existentialist predicament, showing
in definite terms how a person’s rendered rootless and alienated
becomes revengeful. This makes it a psychological study of those
who are awarded severest sentence for no fault of theirs. (96)
Yayati too has realized futility of life and understands the
inconsequence of worldly obsessions. His one desire to remain
young and enjoy sensual pleasures has shattered lives of many. As
Chitralekha dies an untimely death and Pooru lost his loving wife.
In the Mahabharat, Yayati distinguishes the nature of desire and
passions himself while in Yayati he understands the same after the
suicide of Chitralekha. He disapproves sensuality and accepts
responsibility. Yayati, deals with the theme of social responsibility
which has been realized in the end by the father and son as well.
Both, of them have realized that one is responsible for all his actions
and deeds and unlimited desires can not be fulfilled.

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