Collected Plays Volume 2

Th e troubled reign of a fourteenth-century sultan of Delhi helps dramatize the crisis of secular nationhood in post-Independence India. A twelft hcentury folktale about 'transposed heads' offers a path-breaking model for a quintessentially 'Indian' theatre in postcolonial times. The folktale about a woman with a snake lover explores gender relations within marriage. Individual human sexuality meets the historical debate on violence in Indian culture. The plays in this volume span roughly the first half of the career of Girish Karnad, one of India's pre-eminent playwrights. The three-volume set of Karnad's Collected Plays brings together English versions of his important works. Each volume contains an extensive introduction by theatre scholar Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker, Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison. The introductions trace the literary and theatrical evolution of Karnad's work over six decades and position it in the larger context of modern Indian drama. In addition, they comment on Karnad's place as author and translator in a multilingual performance culture and the relation of his playwriting to his work in the popular media.

Girish Karnad, a playwright, film-maker, and actor, writes in Kannada and has translated his plays into English. The International Theatre Centre of UNESCO, Paris, has declared him the World Theatre Ambassador of the International Theater Institute, Paris. He has been honoured with the Padma Bhushan and was also conferred the prestigious Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi awards. He provided the voice of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, in the audiobook of Kalam's autobiography by Charkha Audiobooks Wings of Fire.