Ecocritical study of Girish Karnad's Yayati
A brief introduction of Ecocriticism
Ecocriticism is an umbrella term used to refer to the environmentally oriented study
of literature and the art, and the theories that underline such critical practice. It is a
new critical method available to critics to analyse the literature. It is concerned with
nature writing and ecological themes in all literature. It deals with ecological
problems like pollution, global warming, climate change, deforestation, species
extinction and other ecological exploitations. It is associated with the desire to
investigate and remedy the current environmental problems. It is the study of
literature and environment from an interdisciplinary point of view where all sciences
come together to analyse the environment and brainstorm possible solutions for the
correction of the contemporary environmental problems.
It is a broad genre and is known by many names: Green Cultural Studies, Eco-
poetics and Environmental Literary Criticism. The common ground on which all
strands of Ecocriticism stand is the assumption that the interactions between human
and their natural environment should help to resolve the ecological predicament
Cheryll Glotfelty, the first American professor of Literature and Environment in The
Ecocriticism Reader points out that in our postmodern age, the profession of English
literature must redraw the boundaries to remap the rapidly changing contours of
literary studies. She maintains that the global environmental crisis is apparently
ignored by scholars. She believes that the environmental problems are largely of our
own making. She writes:
“We have reached the age of environmental limits, a time when the
consequences of human actions are damaging the planet’s basic life support
systems. We are there. Either we change our ways or we face global
catastrophe, destroying much beauty and exterminating countless fellow
species in our headlong race to apocalypse. Many of us in colleges and
universities worldwide find ourselves in a dilemma. Our temperaments and
talents have deposited us in literature departments, but, as environmental
problems compound, work as usual seems unconscionably frivolous. If we’re
not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem”
The preservation of nature has always been a prime concern since early times. As
an academic discipline it began in earnest in the 1990s, although its origin goes back
to late 1970s at the meeting of WLA (Western Literature Association).
Definitions
Glotfelty defines Ecocriticism as:
“Simply put, Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature
and the physical environment. Just as feminist criticism examines language
and literature from a gender-conscious perspective, and Marxist criticism
brings an awareness of modes of production and economic class to its
reading of texts, Ecocriticism takes an earth-centered approach to literary
studies”.
Prominent critics
The works of William Bartram, Alexander Wilson, and John James Audubon
illustrated the important contributions made by natural history writers during the early
Romantic period. All the three writers helped to introduce a pattern of ecological
thinking in American culture through emphasis upon a feeling of membership in a
natural community.
According to Barry, the UK version of Ecocriticism generally known as Green Studies
took its inspiration from British Romanticism of the late 1790s rather than American
transcendentalism of the 1840s. The founding figure on the British side is the critic
Jonathan Bate, author of Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth and the Environmental
Tradition (1991). British ecocritics trace their history before the term Ecocriticism
existed to Raymond William‟s book The Country and the City (1973). The definitive
UK collection of essays is Lawrence Coupe‟s The Green Studies Reader: From
Romanticism to Ecocriticism (2000). The preferred American term is “Ecocriticism”
whereas “Green Studies” is frequently used in the UK. The two variants are clearly
linked in their approaches and aims but differ in emphasis and ancestry. Ecocriticism
is officially heralded by the publication of two seminal works both published in the
mid-1990s: The Ecocriticism Reader edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm,
The Environmental Imagination by Lawrence Buell
About Girish Karnad
Life and famous works
Girish Karnad was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a
Rhodes Scholar, who predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood.
His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming of age of modern Indian
playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in
Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith
Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India. For four decades Karnad
composed plays, often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues.
He translated his plays into English and received acclaim. His plays have been
translated into some Indian languages and directed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi,
B. V. Karanth, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya
Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allanaa and Zafer Mohiuddin. He was active in the
world of Indian cinema working as an actor, director and screenwriter, in Hindi and
Kannada cinema, and has earned awards. He was conferred Padma Shri and
Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and won four Filmfare Awards, of which
three are Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada and the fourth a Filmfare Best
Screenplay Award. He was a presenter for a weekly science magazine programme
called "Turning Point" that aired on Doordarshan in 1991.
Karnad is known as a playwright. His plays, written in Kannada, have been
translated into English (mostly translated by himself) and some Indian languages.
Kannada is his language of choice. When Karnad started writing plays, Kannada
literature was highly influenced by the renaissance in Western literature. Writers
would choose a subject that looked entirely alien to manifestation of native soil. C.
Rajagopalachari's version of the Mahabharata published in 1951, left a deep impact
on him and soon, sometime in the mid-1950s, one day he experienced a rush of
dialogues by characters from the Mahabharata in Kannada.
"I could actually hear the dialogues being spoken into my ears ... I was just the
scribe," said Karnad in a later interview. Yayati was published in 1961, when he
was 23 years old. It 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 incensed at Yayati's infidelity. Yayati, in turn, asks his sons to sacrifice their
youth for him, and one of them agrees. It ridicules the ironies of life through
characters in Mahabharata. The play in Hindi was adapted by Satyadev Dubey and
Amrish Puri was lead actor for the play. It became an instant success, immediately
translated and staged in several other Indian languages.
Karnad found a new approach of drawing historical and mythological sources to
tackle contemporary themes and existentialist crisis of modern man through
characters locked in psychological and philosophical conflicts. His next was Tughlaq
(1964), about a rashly idealist 14th-century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq,
and allegory on the Nehruvian era which started with ambitious idealism and ended
up in disillusionment. This established Karnad, now 26 years old, as a promising
playwright in the country. It was staged by the National School of Drama Repertory
under the direction of Ebrahim Alkazi, with the actor Manohar Singh, playing the
visionary king who later becomes disillusioned and turns bitter, amidst the historic
Purana Qila in Delhi. It was staged in London by the National School of Drama for
the Festival of India in 1982.
Hayavadana (1971) was based on a theme drawn from The Transposed Heads, a
1940 novella by Thomas Mann, which is originally found in the 11th-century Sanskrit
text Kathasaritsagara. Herein he employed the folk theatre form of Yakshagana. A
German version of the play was directed by Vijaya Mehta as part of the repertoire of
the Deutsches National Theatre, Weimar.
Naga-Mandala (Play with Cobra, 1988) was based on a folk tale related to him by A.
K. Ramanujam, brought him the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award for the Most
Creative Work of 1989. It was directed by J. Garland Wright, as part of the
celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis. The theatre
subsequently commissioned him to write the play, Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the
Rain). Though before it came Taledanda (Death by Beheading, 1990) which used
the backdrop, the rise of Veerashaivism, a radical protest and reform movement in
12th century Karnataka to bring out current issues.
Brief summary of the play
The novel has three narrators: Yayati, Devayani, and Sharmishtha. Each section of
the story is narrated in the first person, from the point of view of its respective
narrator. The novel's characters generally use language that is romantic, ornamental,
and poetic. Yayati centres on the life of its eponymous hero, Yayati, the king of
Hastinapur. Disillusionment characterises Yayati's early life. His faith in motherly love
is shattered when he learns that his mother weaned him for fear of losing her beauty.
Later, he experiences cruelty and passion that challenge his manhood. He then has
a fleeting experience of carnal love. When Yayati has to leave the security of the
palace for Ashvamedha Yajna (a horse sacrifice ritual in Hindu tradition), he meets
his elder brother, Yati, who has become an ascetic and abandoned all material
pleasures. After this he meets Kacha, in whom he sees the model of a happy,
peaceful life. But Yayati is traumatised when his father, Nahusha, dies, and for the
first time he realises the destructive power of death. He is gripped by fear and
helplessness. In this state of mind, he encounters Mukulika, a maidservant in the
palace. Yayati's attempts to bury his grief in carnal pleasure constitute a critical
period in his life. He later meets Alaka and experiences sisterly love. But Alaka
ultimately falls prey to the Queen Mother's cruelty. Precisely at this time, Yayati
learns of a curse that foretold that his father, and his father's children, would never
be happy. The second part of the narrative recounts Yayati's married life. This
section reveals Devayani's love for Kacha, and Kacha's quiet but firm refusal.
Devayani seeks revenge on Kacha by making advances to Yayati, whom she
ultimately succeeds in marrying. Sharmishtha, originally a princess, is now living with
Devayani as her maidservant. At this time, Sharmishtha comes into contact with
Yayati. Where Devayani is unable to establish any rapport with Yayati, Sharmishtha
finds union with him both in body and in mind. A son is born to them, and for a time
Yayati is happy. But, one stormy night, Sharmishtha runs away from Hastinapur.
Yayati now suffers both estrangement from Devayani and the loss of Sharmishtha.
The resulting vacuum in his life hastens him along a path of moral degradation. Over
an 18-year period, Yayati neglects his royal duties and leads a life of pleasure, with
women like Madhavi and Taraka. Even when Hastinapur is attacked by its enemies,
Yayati continues to neglect his duties out of anger with Devayani and pursuit of a
hedonistic lifestyle. His son Yadu is imprisoned. Puru, Yayati's younger son, secures
Yadu's release. Then Devayani's father, Shukracharya, seeing his daughter's
unhappy marriage and Yayati's degradation, lays a curse of old age on Yayati. When
Yayati finds himself suddenly grown old, his unfulfilled desires trouble him. He asks
his sons to lend him their youth. His son Puru comes to his aid and meets his
request. But Puru and Sharmishtha's undemanding love for him help Yayati to
realise his mistakes. Within a few minutes of accepting Puru's youth, he resolves to
return it. Devayani also undergoes a change of heart. At the end of the novel, Yayati
hands over responsibility for government to Puru with his blessing, and seeks to
retire to a life in the forest with Devayani and Sharmishtha. This completes Yayati's
journey from attachment to detachment.
Characteristic features shown in the play
Ecocriticism is the study of literature and the environment from an interdisciplinary
point of view, where literature scholars analyse texts that illustrate environmental
concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature
Ecocriticism is a late awakening. It began, as a literary movement, only after the
1980s first half. Though it couldn’t get a grip stronger enough and almost failed in
raising the interest bars, it did survive, somehow. Now, as academicians are re-
looking at the theory, Ecocriticism is rising once again. In India, many students are
doing their research work in this area. The Ecocritical concerns arise with a belief
that certain authors and poets dealt with nature in their works with more interest that
almost make it a visible force that makes an impact on our lives. Whenever nature or
the surroundings or the ecology takes the foreground in a literary work, it will become
the playground for Ecocritical thinkers. However, as there is no accepted model or
format to apply Ecocriticism to any text, there are many ways it might be done. The
modern Ecocritical thinkers look at the target text minutely to find whether there are
examples of natural resources being misused or used, animals being harmed or not,
people being thankful to nature or not… And also, these are the major questions that
Ecocriticism asks. The representation and acknowledgement of nature’s role and
presence in our literature is the major motivation of Ecocritical thinking.
Sharmishtha says to Yayati, “You own hundreds of slaves. But have you ever
wondered what it does to a person to be made a slave? It turns that person
into an animal. A domesticated animal. One’s will to act is destroyed. One’s
selfhood humbled into grateful submission. ‘Accept that crumb, wait for a pat
on the back’. To be a good slave is to have all your vileness extracted from
you. I snarl because I want to retain a particle of me of my original self. I abuse
and rave to retrieve an iota of it. It’s all useless of course. Scream as I may, I
know there is no escape from the degradation. The louder I scream, the more I
declare myself a slave. That is the point. I have decided to turn myself into a
performing freak.”
Sharmishtha says to him, “You see yourself as awesome and powerful, a figure
towering over your vast possessions, a demi-god if not god himself. You are
so busy visualizing the grand design of life, you have no sense of the traps
and snares waiting in the grass. You have no sense of how illogical suffering
can be and therefore how terrible”.
Conclusion
