Naga-Mandala

The play Naga-Mandala is based on the two oral stories from Karnataka that the playwright Girish Karnad heard from his mentor, Professor A K Ramanujan. Karnad through the play exposes the exploitation...

History Plays

A history play is a dramatic work where the events of the plot are either partially or entirely drawn from people and events of the past. It is also considered a theatrical genre. William Shakespeare ...

Types of Drama

From the earliest times drama has been divided broadly into two kinds, Tragedy and Comedy, the one dealing with the dark side of life, the other with the light side of life. Tragedy aims at inspiring ...

The Cenci

The Cenci -A Tragedy in Five Acts, is a verse drama in five acts by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in the summer of 1819 and inspired by a real Italian family, the House of Cenci and in particular, Beat...

The Origin of Drama

Drama is a form of literature intended to be performed by actors and written as prose or verse dialogue. In Western culture, it is one of the three genres developed by the Greeks: drama, epic and (lyr...

Antigone, the Classic

Classical works of literature usually share a common element: a memorable main character. Classics feature central characters with vivid, distinct personalities and strong points of view about the wor...

Karnad the Playwright

Girish Raghunath Karnad is a noted writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada. But, among the creative geniuses of the modem age who have contributed significantly to Indian...

The Tragedy

The tragedy is a classic and effective literary device that has developed over time. From ritualistic portrayals, in ancient Greece of noble or prominent tragic heroes, to modern works featuring a m...

Being Incomplete

Hayavadana, Girish Karnad’s popular play, fulfils our romantic fantasies. A woman aspires to the perfect man, pursuing her dream of being complete. And a man with a horse’s head yearns to be fully hum...

A Critique of Gender Discrimination

Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session is a critique of gender discrimination in patriarchy and the women’s fight against the injustice done to her. He represents the problems faced by ind...