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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
ISSN 2278-9529
Conflict of Myth and Reality in Tagore’s and Karnad’s Sacrifice
Bhavna Sharma
Research Scholar
Rani Durgavati University Jabalpur
M.P. India
Abstract:
Indian English Drama having a very rich tradition naturally involves myth as its vital
element. Drama in India has a very wide concept as it has been the part of Indian culture and
thinking right from Vedic times. In ancient time’s drama used to be very simple, it mainly
dealt with simple portrayal of the life of man. The plays mainly focussed on morality,
instructions and teaching of lessons. With the arrival of Britishers in India drama touched new
dimensions. Myth is fictitious belief of the people in a popular conduct. People are reluctant
to defy them because it is deeply rooted in religion and culture. Indian mentality still gives
space to age old customs and beliefs.
This research paper proposes to compare the theme of myth and its implications in two
plays with the same title by two different dramatists. One play is written by Rabindranath
Tagore and the other by Girish Karnad. It is very interesting to note that both the dramatists
have dealt with the same subject in different time span but in an amazingly similar way.
Tagore is one of the great dramatists of Indian origin. He is marked by his characteristic
lyrical quality, which is also found in his plays giving him a distinct stature. With the
increasing significance of western civilization on Indian culture at a large, he takes a firm step
towards restoring Indian values in his own way. His plays like Chitra, Karana and Kunti and
Gandhari’s have are all based on myths. In his play Sacrifice, Tagore has explored the concept
of reality enveloped in myth. Girish Karnad is one of the most profound dramatists of modern
Indian English literature. He is popularly known for using mythical elements in his plays.
From Yayati to Fire and the Rain he has used myths to convey the moral lesson. Sacrifice, the
play by Karnad very sensibly presents the conflict of myth and reality. Both the plays entitled
Sacrifice (Visarjan) by Tagore and (Bali) by Karnad have striking similarities.
Raghupati, the priest symbolizes the myth in Tagore’s Sacrifice. He is in strong support
of merciless killing of innocent creatures. He is unwilling to alter his faith in the age old
customs and traditions. He even stakes the life of the King, for the sake of continuance of the
myth of sacrifice. The character of Queen Mother in the play Sacrifice, (Bali) by Karnad
represents the irrationality and myth of sacrifice. She is adamant and she doesn’t want anyone
to come in between her beliefs. Queen Mother dislikes her daughter-in-law as she is a Jain by
her religion and opposes sacrifice. In the play Sacrifice by Tagore King Govinda and Jaising
are the preservers of goodness in the human heart. In the same way Amaravati, in the play,
Bali by Karnad symbolises virtue and goodness. She is against sacrifice and wants to abolish
this brutal practise at any cost. In the end both Jaising and Amravati have to sacrifice their
lives to break the myth enveloped in reality.
Key Words: Indian English Drama, myth, sacrifice, Sacrifice, reality, tragedy, humanity
Vol. II Issue V
1
September 2013
www.galaxyimrj.com
Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
ISSN 2278-9529
Indian English Drama having a very rich tradition naturally involves myth as its
vital element. Drama in India has a very wide concept as it has been the part of Indian culture
and thinking right from Vedic times. In ancient times drama used to be very simple, it mainly
dealt with simple portrayal of the life of man. The plays mainly focussed on morality,
instructions and teaching of lessons. With the arrival of Britishers in India drama touched new
dimensions. Myth is fictitious belief of the people in a popular conduct. People are reluctant
to defy them because it is deeply rooted in religion and culture. Indian mentality still gives
space to age old customs and beliefs.
This research paper proposes to compare the theme of myth and its implications in two
plays with the same title by two different dramatists. One play is written by Rabindranath
Tagore and the other by Girish Karnad. It is very interesting to note that both the dramatists
have dealt with the same subject in different time span but in an amazingly similar way.
Myth is fictitious belief of the people in a popular conduct. People are reluctant to defy
them because it is deeply rooted in religion and culture. Indian mentality still gives space to
age old customs and beliefs. Myth has always played a vital role Indian Drama. Indian
English dramatists have very skilfully used myths in exhibiting their thoughts. Mythical
elements very sensibly portray the symbolic significance of ideas. They are the carriers of
exotic History and Culture. Indian society has deep roots in its culture and tradition. The
mythical stories have men and social conduct as their main focus. Even the advent of
modernity, has not been successful in distorting people of their religious path. Existence is
still symbolised by religious actions and thoughts. The problems which are highlighted in the
plays are of social nature. According to Lillian Feder:
“Myth is a story involving human limitations and super human strivings and
accomplishments which to express and thus control his own anxiety about
those features of his physiological and psychological makeup and his
external environment which he cannot comprehend, accept or master. The
character of myth may be God’s men or monsterous creatures with both
qualities, but even in his myths dealing exclusively with immortals, the
narrative material, the portrayal of conflict and sorrow and the resolution or
revelation are all reflections of human concerns”.
Tagore is one of the great dramatists of Indian origin. He is marked by his characteristic
lyrical quality, which is also found in his plays giving him a distinct stature. With the
increasing significance of western civilization on Indian culture at a large, he takes a firm step
towards restoring Indian values in his own way. His plays like Chitra, Karana and Kunti and
Gandhari have are all based on myths. In his play Sacrifice, Tagore has explored the concept
of reality enveloped in myth. Girish Karnad is one of the most profound dramatists of modern
Indian English literature. He is popularly known for using mythical elements in his plays.
From Yayati to Fire and the Rain he has used myths to convey the moral lesson. Sacrifice, the
play by Karnad very sensibly presents the conflict of myth and reality. Both the plays entitled
Sacrifice (Visarjan) by Tagore and Karnad have striking similarities
Sacrifice, the play by Tagore has explored the concept of reality enveloped in myth. His
play, Sacrifice (Visarjan) introduces a tragic character, Raghupati the Priest who is pitted
against the King in a bitter conflict. The issue between them, which is the theme of the play,
is the ritual sacrifice of animals before the goddess Kali. The king had an epiphany and evicts
sacrifice of innocent creatures. This leads Raghupati to protest as he has faith in age old
customs and practises. Raghupati was very firm and consistent in his belief. But the king is
adamant. Fiendish is his fury, Raghupati urges his disciple Jaising, whom he has brought up
Vol. II Issue V
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September 2013
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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
ISSN 2278-9529
from childhood and whom he loves dearly, to kill the King to appease the Goddess. The
climax is reached when the Jaising immolates himself as an offering to the blood-thirsty
Goddess. Raghupati is utterly disillusioned; he comes to reality, the myth is ultimately
broken, the truth is unveiled and he realizes the insignificance of the brutal sacrifice and
unjust portrayal of idol worship.
Girish Karnad is the front rank dramatist in Indian English literature. Jaydipsingh
says,” His journey from Yayati to the Fire and the Rain holds a mirror to the very evolution of
Indian theatre during nearly four decades.” Girish Karnad has been popularly known for using
mythical elements in his plays. In Yayati, Girish Karnad reinterprets an ancient myth from
Mahabharata. Yayati is cursed for the adultery by Sukracharya to become old on the
complaint of his daughter but he also granted him that he can become young if someone is
ready to give his youth to him. So he asks in regard to exchange his old age to his sons’ youth.
Hence, none turns, only Puru turns to his demand. He enjoyed the life but at the end he
realizes the truth that all the physical pleasures are meaningless. And a person cannot change
his fate whatever he might of his age.
Girish Karnad’s plays portray the existential predicament of characters, who are in
constant search of their identity. At the end, each play of Karnad conveys a moral lesson to
lead man from vice to virtue. His thought differs from Eurocentric thought, in using of
absurdity in the plays because; Karnad understands the gripping hold of religion and culture
on the Indian thinking.
Bali, the sacrifice says, Girish Karnad, “is a tribute to the astuteness and sensitivity of
Mahatma Gandhi that he saw so clearly the importance of non violence to the cultural and
political survival of India.” Violence and loss of humanity has been the main concern of the
literature based on the history of Indian civilisation. The practice of offering animal sacrifices
to gods is repugnant. This myth is presented through the conflict between Brahminical idea,
represented by the Queen mother, and the Jain principle of non violence represented by the
Queen. The play gives the message that practice of the continuance of offering “miniature
figurines, made of dough”, which “were substituted for live animals”, is also obnoxious and
must be relinquished. It shows that the actual violence has been replaced by violence in
action. Its theme has been derived from the thirteenth century Kannada epic Yashodhara
Charite by Janna which in turn refers back to eleventh century.
The queen mother is the represents traditional and orthodox thinking. She has firm belief
in superstitious rites and rituals. She is irrational and thrusts her unreasonable wishes on other
members of the family, her daughter in law Amritamani, who represents the voice of sanity
and rationality and her son the King. The King married Amaritamani, a Jain by her religion
against the wishes of the Queen Mother who despises her daughter -in –law considering her
rebel and defiant against time honoured family traditions. She often rebukes her son for
marrying a Jain. The, Queen Amaritamani develops a fatal fascination towards a Mahout for
his frankness, pleasing voice and rationality. Her attraction towards Mahout is without love or
lust She is peace loving and shuns violence. She is shocked at the sight of injured bird
knocked down by King as a show of his bravery. She detests her mother –in –law’s
celebration of the news of her pregnancy. She does not reconcile to the idea of offering
sacrifice of birds and animals to god. The Queen Mother, the King even the subjects intend
offering the sacrifice but she boldly resists the idea and damns it as irrational
She does not agree with her husband that her miscarriage was the result of her defiance of
rituals. The climax reaches when the King tries to strip her outside. She defiantly pushes the
King and moves towards the Mahout. Finally she ends her life and becomes the real sacrifice.
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September 2013
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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
ISSN 2278-9529
Bali, the Sacrifice is based on the myth of Yayati It depicts the ideological conflict
between Brahmanism, which observes animal sacrifice to propitiate gods, and Jainism which
opposed it. The characters which represent these two diametrically opposed ideologies,
express this conflict. The Queen Mother, who opposes her son’s marriage with Jain girl and
Amaravati who opposes even the animal figures made of dough. The Mahout is the voice of
reason on the other hand the King is weak-willed.
Both the plays Sacrifice (Visarjan) by Tagore and Bali by Karnad have striking
similarities. They highlight brutality and futility of sacrifice given to God in the name of age
old customs and traditions. These plays in their own ways have conveyed the conflict of myth
and reality. In Sacrifice by Tagore Raghupati, the priest is the preserver of the myth of
sacrifice and he is determined about his standing for the preservation of the ritual of sacrifice
and rebels against the King. The evil has the power to rule the minds of the people and lead
them towards their doom. In Sacrifice, by Karnad the Queen Mother represents the carrier of
the myth of sacrifice. She is stubborn and hard hearted. She is irrational, dominating and she
forces her decisions on others. She has undoubting belief in the brutal killing of innocent
creatures for material benefit. Both Raghupati and Queen mother share the same qualities and
same roles in the plays.
The king Govinda and Jaising , in the play Sacrifice by Tagore are the preservers of truth
and godeness, in the same way Queen Amritamani ,in the play Sacrifice by Karnad
symbolizes truth and goodness of the human heart. King Govinda though reluctant in the
beginning to defy age old customs finally takes a stand to abolish sacrifice and gives order to
stop merciless killings of innocent creatures. Jaising faces a dilemma when he is forced to
choose between the wise King and the stubborn Raghupati. He honestly wants to obey the
King but at the same time he cannot go against Raghupati who has raised him from
childhood.
But in the end he chooses the path of virtue and instead of killing King for the sacrifice
he himself sacrifices his life. Amaravati in Bali is rational and moral in her conduct. She is the
preacher of peace and humanity. She stands strong and dignified in front of all the adversities.
Instead all the forces against her, she never deviates from her path. Ultimately she sacrifices
herself and becomes the true symbol of sacrifice in this material world.
Both Jaising and Amaravati break the myth and bring into light the hidden reality. They
expose the futility of merciless sacrifice of innocent animals to gods. In their struggle to
restore peace and order, they wanted to show the wicked murderers that God is not happy
with the blood of innocent creatures but with the virtuous deeds of mankind. They both have
to end their lives to convey the message of goodness to humanity. So both the plays portray
the conflict of myth and reality, and in the end the myth is broken which is enveloped in
reality. But the hold of myth in the minds of the people is so strong that it needs even a real
human sacrifice to break it.
Works Cited:
Feder Lillian, Ancient Myth in Modern Poetry. Princeton: Princeton university Press, 1977.
Print.
Jaydipsinh, Dodiya, Plays of Girish Karnad . Delhi: Prestige, 1999. Print.
Karnad, Girish. Collected Plays. Delhi: Oxford University Press India, 2005. Print.
Naik, M.K. A History of English Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Academy, 1984. Print.
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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal
ISSN 2278-9529
Radha, Krishnan. The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore. Baroda: Companion Publishers,
1961. Print.
Tagore, Rabindranath .Collected Poems and Plays of Rabindranath Tagore. New Delhi: Rupa
and Co, 2002. Print.
Tagore, Rabindranath. Crisis in Civilisation. Santiniketan: Visva Bharti, 1941. Print.
Thomson, Edward. Rabindranath Tagore Poet and Dramatist. Calcutta: Association Press,
1926. Print.
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