HAYAVADANA

HAYAVADANA, a remarkable work of the early nineteen-seventies by noted playwright Girish Karnad, remains the quintessential play about the human being's search for completeness. The play was inspired by Thomas Mann's 'The Transposed Heads', which in turn borrowed from a Sanskrit tale from the Kathasaritsagara, an ancient compilation of stories in Sanskrit. Karnad's play takes the tale of human identity further by exploring the tangled relationships of Padmini, Devadatta and Kaplia- the principal characters in the story. The sub-plot of Hayavadana, the man with the head of the horse is symbolic of the main theme of incompleteness.