The Politics of Lust, Duality, and Imperfection in Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana

 Hello Learners.. This blog is part of  BA syllabus of the play Hayavadana by Girish Karnad. Let discuss it.

Introduction

Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana (1971) is one of the most intellectually stimulating works in modern Indian drama. Drawing on multiple cultural sources—particularly Thomas Mann’s The Transposed Heads and the Kathasaritsagara—Karnad reconstructs an ancient myth into a modern philosophical allegory. Through this reworking, he examines the politics of desire, the duality of human nature, and the existential condition of incompleteness.

The play becomes a site of tension between tradition and modernity, reason and emotion, completeness and fragmentation. Each character’s crisis—Devadatta’s spiritual yearning, Kapila’s physical vitality, Padmini’s divided desire, and Hayavadana’s quest for identity—serves as a metaphor for the postcolonial Indian subject’s fractured selfhood.

1. Duality as the Structure of Human Identity

The central paradox of Hayavadana lies in the symbolic split between the head and the body. Devadatta represents intellect and spirituality, while Kapila embodies strength and sensuality. The transposition of their heads dramatizes the ancient philosophical dilemma: is identity located in the mind or the body?

Karnad refuses to offer a clear resolution. Instead, he exposes the instability of both categories. The mind without the body is impotent; the body without the mind is directionless. Their tragic deaths signify the impossibility of reconciling this duality.

From an analytical perspective, the play operates within a phenomenological framework—the human being as an incomplete synthesis of thought and matter. Karnad universalizes this duality, suggesting that the pursuit of wholeness inevitably results in disintegration.

2. The Politics of Lust and the Female Gaze

Padmini’s desire challenges patriarchal morality and the ideal of feminine purity. Her attraction to both men is not mere lust but a critique of the limited emotional and physical freedom granted to women within patriarchal structures.

Karnad’s portrayal of Padmini anticipates feminist readings of female agency in Indian theatre. Her “dual desire” for intellect and vigor destabilizes the binary between the spiritual and the carnal. Yet, the play also acknowledges her tragedy: society offers her no space to reconcile passion with social propriety.

Thus, Padmini becomes the embodiment of repressed female subjectivity, caught between self-assertion and moral condemnation. Through her, Karnad foregrounds how social codes politicize desire and how moral discourse is used to control the female body.

3. Hayavadana and the Question of Completeness

The titular character, Hayavadana—the man with a horse’s head—serves as the play’s structural and philosophical counterpoint to the human triangle. His comic quest for completeness mirrors the existential anxiety of the main characters.

Ironically, when Hayavadana becomes fully horse, he achieves “perfection” but loses speech and humanity. This reversal functions as a metaphysical critique: the desire for totality annihilates the self. In Karnad’s dramaturgy, imperfection is not a flaw but an essential condition of existence.

Hayavadana’s transformation thus becomes a postmodern allegory of identity formation. It dismantles the notion of a fixed, unified self and celebrates hybridity—a theme that resonates with postcolonial theories of identity.

4. Folk Tradition and Modern Existentialism

Formally, Hayavadana fuses Yakshagana folk elements—such as the Bhagavata, masks, and musical narration—with existentialist modern drama. The presence of the Bhagavata (narrator) breaks the fourth wall, turning the audience into active participants in the moral and philosophical discourse.

This fusion of classical and folk idioms parallels the thematic duality of the play. The Bhagavata’s control of the narrative suggests divine order, yet the human characters act out chaotic passions. The result is a dialectical interplay between structure and spontaneity—between cosmic design and human failure.

Karnad’s dramaturgy exemplifies what Homi Bhabha calls the “hybrid cultural space”—a synthesis of indigenous performance traditions and modern existential thought. The play thereby reclaims Indian myth not as nostalgia but as a living medium for modern inquiry.

5. The Dialectic of Perfection and Incompleteness

Across its structure, Hayavadana advances a single philosophical proposition: to be human is to be incomplete. Every attempt to transcend fragmentation leads to collapse. Devadatta and Kapila die in their confusion; Padmini is left spiritually restless; and Hayavadana becomes an absurd symbol of wholeness devoid of meaning.

Karnad’s conclusion rejects the Platonic ideal of perfect unity. Instead, it embraces imperfection as authenticity—a theme resonant with both existentialism and Indian philosophical traditions like Advaita, which acknowledge the paradox of being.

Through irony and myth, Karnad transforms incompleteness from a weakness into a defining feature of human identity.

Conclusion

Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana stands as a masterpiece of postcolonial dramaturgy that merges Indian mythic imagination with modern philosophical inquiry. Its analytical strength lies in its structural symmetry: every character embodies a facet of the human quest for wholeness, and every resolution collapses into irony.

The play interrogates lust, love, and identity not as moral dilemmas but as epistemological questions—what does it mean to be human, to desire, to seek completion? In the end, Karnad’s answer is profoundly humanistic: our imperfection is the essence of our humanity.

Analytical Closing Line:

“Karnad’s theatre does not seek to resolve contradictions—it teaches us to live intelligently within them.”

References :

   Ghosh, Sukanta, and Mousumi Guha Banerjee. “Reading Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana: A Post-Dualistic Study.” FORTELL, no. No. 51, July 2025, pp. 109–11, www.fortell.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Fortell-July-2025-109-121.pdf.

    “Hayavadana – the Politics of Lust, Duality and Imperfection - Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards.” Hayavadana – the Politics of Lust, Duality and Imperfection - Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, share.google/381Fm0gTXGtaramZO.

Renuga, R. “Cultural Studies in Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana.” Shanlax International Journal of English, vol. 6, no. 2, Mar. 2018, pp. 276–280. Shanlax Journals, https://www.shanlaxjournals.in/wp-content/uploads/Cultural_Studies_in_Girish_Karnad_Hayavadana.pdf.

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