7 - Girish Karnad and an Indian theatre of roots

Summary

It is most significant that Suresh Awasthi, former chair of the National School of Drama, former general secretary of Sangeet Natak Akademi, locates the crucial starting point of the development of an Indian ‘theatre of roots’ in B. V. Karanth's direction of a new play by Girish Karnadin 1972:

Girish Karnad's famous Hayavadana, inspired by the yakshagana of Karnataka, begins with the prayer ‘Jai Gajavadane’ – ‘Victory to Ganesha’, the elephant-headed god and its innovative and improvisatory production … with music, mime, and movements heralded the return of Lord Ganesha, the presiding deity of traditional theatre. With this event, we might say, contemporary theatre began its encounter with tradition.

Born in 1938 in Matheran near Bombay, Karnad has described himself as belonging to the first generation of playwrights to come of age after India became independent. Although he was to move to Bombay for his postgraduate studies, his childhood was spent growing up in a small village in Karnataka. At this time he remembers watching two kinds of theatre: touring productions put on by troupes of professional actors in natak companies, and folk theatre performances of yakshagana. These will be outlined in due course, since an understanding of their characteristic features will usefully inform an examination of how indigenous traditions of performance have been incorporated into contemporary post-colonial playwriting in India. Girish Karnad was later to turn to both forms in his playwriting, though, like several of the writers included in this volume, his early influences and experimentation were based on an exposure to Western plays and modes of theatre practice.