Search for Identity in the World of Tangled Relationships:In Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana

Girish Karnad is a well known dramatist of contemporary Kannada stage. Karnad's Hayavadana is a memorable treatment of the theme of search for identity. The main plot of Hayavadana is based on the story of transposed heads in the Sanskrit Vetala-Panchavimsati. The modern source of the play is Thomas Mann's-'The Transposed Heads' which the author called "Metaphysical Gust". The sub-plot of Hayavadana, the horse-headed man is Karnad's own invention. It serves both as prologue and epilogue to the play. The human body, Thomas Mann argues, is a device for the completion of human destiny. Even the transposition of heads did not liberate the protagonists from the psychological limits imposed by nature. Karnad's play poses a different problem that of human identity in a world of tangled relationships causing a confusion of identities which reveals the ambiguous nature of human personality. The sub-plot of Havayadana-the horse-man deepens the significance of the main theme of identity by looking at it from a different perspective. The horse-man's search for identity ends comically with his becoming a complete horse. The animal body triumphs over what is considered the best in man. The uttamaga-the human heads probably to make a point Karnad names the play- 'Hayavadana', human search for identity and completeness of his physical body.