Perspectives on Thematic Concerns in Girish Karnad’s Yayati

Abstract

Girish Raghunath Karnad is the most influential playwright of present times, who deals history and folktales in his plays to express the Indian tradition for the themes and techniques. Karnad has been awarded with the Padma Bhushan and was honored the prestigious Jnapith Award. His plays were originally written in Kannada and later on were translated into several other languages. Yayati, which was first written in Kannada in 1961, it was also the first dramatic work by Karnad and later was translated the dramatist himself into English. Karnad has extracted history and traditional elements from the Mahabharata to reveal the inanity of human life with all its essential attachment and to highlight contemporary social issues in the Post-Independence literature. The research paper contains view on thematic concerns in Girish Karnad’s Yayati. While doing so, my attempt would also be focused on contemporary social issues in the post-colonial scenario of the Indian society in the modern context.