Girish Karnad Fire and the rain themes PDF

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Summary

Girish Karnad's seminal work where he rewrites and appropriates ancient Hindu myth of Yavakri to underline the modern problems of the society....

Description

Girish Karnad’s “The Fire and the Rain” retells the ancient myths of Yavakri and Indra-Vritra, and appropriates them to weave a tale that highlights the flaws of human nature and the society as a whole. He makes the cultural messages conveyed in ancient myths relevant to the present. The play deals with themes like caste and casteism, oppression of women, vaingloriousness of the priestly class, along with other human flaws like jealousy, malice, possessiveness, mistrust, blind competition, revenge, treachery, power conflict, adultery etc. Karnad on one hand portrays the complex cause and effect relationship between these themes, and on the other reveals how the Brahmin class, that pretends to be “holier than thou” and devoid of any such malice is actually immersed in all sorts of immoral deeds. From the first scene itself, we witness the harshest forms of casteism, where a Brahmin boy Aravasu is disowned by his elder brother and his community due to his love for performing arts, which were considered to be meant for the so-called lower castes. We come to know that Paravasu’s wife Vishakha has been mistreated and exploited by her father-inlaw, and how Paravasu, while venturing to become the most respected and powerful priest in the village, has ignored his wife’s basic needs and desires while she withered away with longing and loneliness. Her lover Yavakri too abandons her in his pursuit of “greatness”, and later comes back and uses her only to spite his father’s rival Raibhya (who is also Vishakha’s father-in-law) and his son Paravasu. Arvasu’s lover Nittilai is first married against her will and is then killed by her husband for escaping with her lover, indicating the lack of agency and autonomy of a woman over her life and how men control and dominate every aspect of her life, even its duration. Karnad reveals the ugly, humane side of the self-proclaimed “godly” Brahmin caste by portraying the jealousy and power conflict between Raibhya and Paravasu and how these vices ultimately lead Paravasu to commit the heinous crime of patricide. Raibhya too is jealous of the opportunity given to his son instead of himself, revealing how sheer jealousy subjugates even the emotional attachment and obligations of blood-relations. The “dharma-conscious” king in the play performs a massive, spectacular fire sacrifice in order to relieve his province from drought and famine and offers huge oblations of grains and food to the holy fire when the general public is literally dying of hunger. Karnad subtly underlines the irony of this situation where the king, blinded by his vainglory, completely fails to recognise the core problem. The Brahmins, especially Paravasu, are also not devoted towards the betterment of the public but instead just aim at enhancing their social standing and reputation as learned men. Yavakri claims to have gained the “divine knowledge” of the Vedas by Indra himself but he still hasn’t gotten rid of his malice and lust and despite abandoning Vishakha for ten long years, uses her to spite his rival and also to satisfy his base desires. Through Nittilai’s character, Karnad attacks this “knowledge” that Yavakri and other Brahmins boast of having “acquired” by their strict penance but it never seems to benefit anyone apart from them. “…but why are Brahmins so secretive about everything?... You know, their fire sacrifices are conducted in covered enclosures. They mortify themselves in the dark of the jungle. Even their Gods appear so secretly. Why? What are they afraid of?”, Nittilai boldly interrogates. She further questions that if Indra did appear in front of Yavakri, why did he not ask for a few showers for his droughtridden land? By posing such questions, Nittilai’s character deconstructs the self-proclaimed “godly” status of the priestly class. Thus, we can say that Karnad’s play is an excellent commentary, or rather a jibe at the way our society functions and its entire construct....