“To be here, far away, is torture”- Decoding the
Narrative of Self-sacrifice in Girish Karnad’s Naga-Mandala
Arif Ansari,
Assistant Professor,
Bengal College of Engineering and Technology, Durgapur,
West Bengal, India.
Abstract: In this paper, the researcher attempts to decode the
narrative of the self-sacrifice and how it affects a married woman’s life in a
typical Indian family as represented in Girish Karnad’s Naga-Mandala (1988). Karnad uses the narrative of
self-sacrifice to reflect on the experiences of a newly married wife. The
play-text primarily deals with the tumultuous experiences a woman who has to go
through humiliation an abuse even after sacrificing everything for her husband
and his family. And, this torment and suffering triggers the feelings of
nostalgia, the feeling of homesickness, the loving memories of parents and
loved ones. Rani, the protagonist of Naga-Mandala, is Appanna's newlywed wife.
She is young and is very fond of her parents. But, all she faces in the house
of Appanna is rejection. The more rejection she gets, the more humiliated she
feels, the more the feeling of homesickness becomes prominent in her and this
places her in a vulnerable situation. This is the reason that she accepts Naga
as her husband at night in spite of being doubtful about his identity.
Gradually, Naga becomes the lover of Rani and gains her trust because he is
able to become the person who acknowledges the sacrifices she makes for her
husband. The pain of being far away from her father’s house and not getting the
attention of her husband can only be understood if we take into account the
sacrifices she has to make for her husband. The play implicitly comments on the
marriages in an Indian joint family where the wife even after sacrificing
everything for her in-laws cannot talk to her husband openly, but the same
person communicates physically at night. To quote Karnad’s words, “The position
of Rani in the story of Naga-Mandala, for instance, can be seen as a metaphor
for the situation of a young girl in the bosom of a joint family where she sees
her husband only in two unconnected roles- as a stranger during the day and as
a lover at night” (Karnad 314).
Keywords: Narrative,
Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Nostalgia, Marriage
Introduction
First performed in 1988, Karnad's Naga-Mandala is one of his widely acclaimed plays that explores the
themes of desire, sexuality, marriage, infidelity and draws on Indian folklore
and mythology. Karnad uses the narrative of self-sacrifice to reflect the
experiences of a newly married wife. The play-text primarily deals with the
tumultuous experiences a woman has to go through even after sacrificing
everything for her husband and his family. And, this often results in
nostalgia, the feeling of homesickness. Rani, the protagonist of Naga-Mandala, is Appanna's newlywed
wife. She is young and is very fond of her parents. But, all she faces here in
the house of Appanna is rejection. The more rejection she gets, the more
humiliated she feels, the more the feeling of homesickness becomes prominent in
her and this places her in a vulnerable situation. This is the reason that she
accepts Naga as her husband at night in spite of being doubtful about his
identity. Commenting on the powerlessness and sacrificing nature of Rani Aparna
Dharwadker wrote, “By making Rani almost a pure embodiment of feminine
simplicity, innocence, and powerlessness, Karnad pares his drama of gender
relations down to an elemental level” (xxx).
As the paper will focus on the narratives of self-sacrifice,
so it is really important to ask the questions: What is self-sacrifice and how
is it different from sacrifice in general? Self-sacrifice refers to the act of
giving up or risking one's own interests, well-being, or even life for the
benefit of others. So, self-sacrifice is the “sacrifice of oneself or one's
interest for others or for a cause or ideal” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). This
can take many forms, such as a soldier sacrificing their life for their
country, a parent sacrificing their own needs for the well-being of their
children, or a person sacrificing their own comfort to
help someone in need. It is a voluntary choice made by an individual to
prioritize the well-being or needs of others over their own. Sacrifice, on the
other hand, refers more broadly
to giving up something valuable or important for the sake of something else. It
involves the “destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something
else” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). This could be
material possessions, time, effort, or even personal ambitions or goals.
Sacrifice can be motivated by a variety of factors, such as religious beliefs,
moral values, or personal priorities. It can be voluntary or involuntary, and
the motivation behind it may vary from personal gain to fulfilling an
obligation or duty. While both self-sacrifice and sacrifice involve giving up
something of value, the key difference is that self-sacrifice specifically
involves sacrificing something that is personal to the individual who is making
the sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is about putting others before oneself, while
sacrifice may or may not involve personal sacrifice. Self-sacrifice often
involves an element of selflessness and altruism, whereas sacrifice can be
motivated by a range of different factors, including self-interest. In an act
of self-sacrifice we are generally in charge of the entire process. Jeffrey B.
Krall points out this key feature of sacrifice. He said, “Self
Sacrifice is when we give up the things we want to give up, the way we want
to give them up, when we want to give them up. We are in control during the
entire process. This is nothing more than the works of the flesh disguised as
religious sacrifice” (Roadkill Seminary). However, in case of a
sacrifice which is usually religious in nature, we put our entire being on the altar of God, becomes a passive actor in the process.
“A Hot Noon in
Malabar” and Naga-Mandala
The poem, ‘A Hot Noon in Malabar’, is taken from
Kamala Das’s collection of poems titled Summer
in Calcutta (1965). The poem accounts Kamala Das’s merry childhood spent in
her grandmother’s house in Malabar. The poem is full of pathos which in a way
reflects Kamala Das’s loss of happy and gleeful days of childhood which she
spent in the loving and caring company of her grandmother. As Dharmender Kumar
notes, “The action of the poem tosses between memory and desire, between
nostalgia and estrangement. The poetess longs for the hot noon in Malabar which
was full of life as compared to her torturing experience of noon in a big city
where she settled after her marriage" (Poemanalysis.com).
Similarly, in Girish Karnad's Naga-Mandala, the feeling of nostalgia is evoked through the
character of Rani, who longs for the freedom and happiness just like she used
to live in her father's house. Rani's married life is unhappy, and she feels
trapped and isolated in her husband’s house. Hence, Rani asks Kurudavva:
RANI: I am so frightened at night, I can't sleep a
wink. At home, I sleep between Father
and Mother. But here, alone— Kurudavva, can you help me, please? Will
you please send word to my parents
that I am, like this, here? Will you ask them to free me and take me home? I
would jump into a well— if only I could— (Karnad 259)
The abusive behaviour of her husband makes Rani even
more homesick. She has to psychologically recondition herself to adapt to the
sad situation in which she is. Aparna Dharwadker thinks that “marriage for Rani
means the loss of the secure world of childhood and parental love, and she has
to re-imagine that world in her fantasies merely to keep herself from psychic
collapse” (xxx).
The play, again, explores the tensions between
tradition and modernity, and the conflicts that arise when individuals try to
break free from the constraints of their society. Rani's relationship with the
serpent represents her desire to break free from the constraints of her society
and find fulfilment in her own way, but it also represents the danger of
straying too far from tradition. In all these complexities and danger Karnad
effectives uses trope of nostalgia, the feeling of likeliness, the feeling of
homesickness. He uses nostalgia to compliment the ideas of marriage and
sacrifice and to highlight the contradictions and conflicts that arise when
Rani and Kurudavva try to navigate their ways forward.
So,
in both “A Hot Noon in Malabar” and Naga-Mandala,
the feeling of nostalgia is used to explore themes of sacrifice and loss. The
characters in both works long for a past that they can never fully return to,
and their nostalgia is tinged with a sense of sadness and regret. Kamala Das
expresses it in this way:
To
Be here, far away, is torture. Wild feet
Stirring up the dust, this hot noon, at my
Home in Malabar, and I so far away… (“A Hot Noon in
Malabar”)
Aspects of the
Self-Sacrifice in Naga-Mandala
Self-Sacrifice in Naga-Mandala has multiple dimensions and
can be examined through the actions of Rani. First of all, it is a sacrifice on
the part of Rani that she has to stay away from her parents after her marriage.
In the play-text we see that Rani is a loveable daughter and her parents adore
her very much. “They kiss her and caress her. At night she sleeps between them”
(Karnad 255). After her marriage Rani has to abandon the great care of her
parents to be with her husband. In exchange, however, all she gets from her
husband is humiliation. Appanna, Rani’s husband, has no value for her actions
and her sacrificial behaviour. Valuing her selfless acts is a far great thing;
he doesn’t even talk to her properly. Hence, Rani sobs when she thinks of her
parents, particularly her mother.
RANI: Mother started shedding tears the day I matured
and was still crying when I left with my husband. Poor her! She is probably
crying even now. (Karnad 259)
Karnad, through this play, implicitly
comments on the traditional Indian marriage system where it is a norm for the
bride to sacrifice everything for her husband. In the play, we see that all
Rani seeks in her husband’s home are love and acceptability in exchange of
everything. But, instead, she gets inattention, negligence and abuse. Hence,
she agrees to the proposal of Kurudavva to use magic to make her husband fall
in love with her. Kurudavva gives Rani two pieces of magical root and asks her
to feed her husband so that her husband starts loving her. In the process when
the small piece didn’t work, Rani goes on to use the large pieces. She mixes
the paste of the root into the curry that she is making for her husband, but
after a sudden explosion it turns as red as blood. Rani has the simple intention to make her
husband fall in love with her. She has no intention to hurt him. Looking at the
bloody curry, she runs out of the house and pours out the liquid into the
ant-hill nearby. In the meantime, her husband, not seeing her in the house,
gets angry. So, he “slaps her hard. Rani collapses on the floor. He does not
look at her” (Karnad 267). To put simply, Rani is tortured even though she is
doing everything for her husband, first by staying away from her loved ones and
eventually by doing everything for him. She expresses her pain of staying away
from her parents in her conversation with Naga.
NAGA: Locked up in the house all day… You must be
missing your parents.
RANI (struggles to hold back a sob): No.
NAGA: They doted on you, didn't they?
(She suddenly bursts out into a fit of weeping.)
Again, Rani’s sacrifice of her
individual desires is another dimension in the discussion of self-sacrifice.
There is no doubt that she has to sacrifice her individual desires for her
marriage with Appanna. Rani doesn’t get the minimum respect she should get from
her husband for whom she abandoned her parents. Appanna as a husband is
indifferent to the desire of his wife. He disregards her. Appanna is not only
detached to the interests of Rani, but also he torments her by leaving her
alone door-locked in his house. This is of so immense torment that Rani
speculates on ending her life. The agony is expressed in these lines: “Rani
looks at him [Appanna] nonplussed. He pays no attention to her, goes out, shuts
the door, locks it from the outside and goes away. She runs to the door, pushes
it, finds it locked, peers out of the barred window. He is done” (Karnad 254).
Sacrifice and
Inauthentic Existence
We are Dasein, as Martin Heidegger
believes, because our very being is in question. We are the only being that can
ask and even asks question about our own existence. Authenticity and inauthenticity
are the two modes of life in which human being exist. According
to Heidegger, “authentic life is a life lived in a way one has freely chosen to live.
It is a life beyond what is called everydayness and following the crowd” (Agu
987). On the contrary, his concept of
inauthentic existence can be understood as a state in which individuals do not
live in accordance with their true nature, but instead live in a state of
conformity with societal norms and expectations. In the context of Karnad’s Naga-Mandala, the character of Rani can
be seen as an example of someone living an inauthentic life. In the play, the
character of Rani, who is forced to conform to the societal norms of her
community, can be deeply explored through the idea of inauthentic existence.
She is expected to fulfil her duties as a wife and daughter-in-law, despite
feeling unfulfilled and unhappy in her marriage. Rani’s inability to express
herself leads to a sense of emptiness and a feeling of being trapped in her own
life. However, her relationship with the snake is a metaphor for her desire to
break free from the constraints of her social and cultural norms, which do not
allow her to express her true desires and emotions. The snake represents the
primal and instinctual aspects of Rani’s nature, which she is unable to express
in her married life. However, Rani becomes her own voice when she says:
RANI: I was a stupid, ignorant girl when you brought
me here. But now I am a woman, a wife, and going to be a mother. I am not a
parrot. Not a cat or a sparrow. (Karnad 284)
Character of Rani and
the Narrative of Self-Sacrifice
In the play, we encounter an
interesting transformation of a woman, from a child to a mother. When Rani has
come to the house of Appanna, she has somewhat behaved in a childlike way. She
appears to be submissive and is determined to obey his husband without
questioning. She is so loyal and faithful to her husband that she doesn’t
protest even though she is harmed. However, we witness that Rani gradually
gains her agency. She starts questioning her husband and the system the moment
she realizes the she has become pregnant, the moment she realizes she has to
protect the baby. From a submissive agreeable housewife, she transforms her to
a disagreeable protective mother. So, Rani’s journey from a victim of the
patriarchal tyranny, from a victim of a false marriage to a rebel, to a woman
who can question for her own rights involves certain element of
self-sacrifice.
The idea of self-sacrifice has two
conflicting angles. From one perspective, we can see self-sacrifice in a very
positive light. It can be considered a highly noble act. This narrative is
religious in nature and interprets the relinquishment in an act of sacrifice to
be noble and godly. Its practitioners are given godly status. It is the
dominant narrative of sacrifice, given that its mechanisms are supported by all
the world’s major religions. Its practitioners are given high status and seen
respectfully in the society. However, the second narrative of sacrifice
challenges the first. From this perspective, self-sacrifice is a tool of
control. It is seen as a repressive ideology that dictates the behaviour of
many. Glorifying the nobility of relinquishing something for one, it conditions
a person to voluntarily undergo a loss. From this perspective, it keeps one
powerless as it discourages one to keep his/her interests above all. Steven
Morris commented on self-sacrifice, “I was constantly having to meet the needs of others
before my own, which left me filled with resentment because I never did the
things that I wanted to do” (The Liberation Place). Those who are going to be
too much self-sacrificial are going to be powerless in society. Rani might have
believed in this side of sacrifice, hence she is eager to abandon all her
interests for their relationship. Even though the foundation of our society is
based on the reciprocal love and sacrifice, sometimes not understanding it
properly and internalizing its mechanism blindly, it can produce tyrannical
outcomes.
Rani seems to embody both the
conflicting tropes of sacrifice. This has been manifested through the
transformation of her character, from a submissive sacrificing wife to an agent
of right and dignity. In the beginning of the play, Rani seems to act according
to the dominant narrative of self-sacrifice. She strongly believes in her
responsibility as a wife to sacrifice for her husband. She cooks for him, lives
alone in the house without complaining about anything. She wants to remain
loyal to her husband. When the curry with the magical root turns as red as
blood, she doesn’t serve him thinking that it might harm Appanna. How could she
harm the man for whom she has come to sacrifice all her interests and desires?
She says:
RANI: How could he not see this boiling blood, this
poisonous red? And then— even if he doesn't see it— how do I know it is not
dangerous? Suppose something happens to my husband? What will my fate be? That
little piece made him I'll. Who knows…? (Karnad 266)
Gradually, we see the change in her
actions when things become unbearable. We witness the shift in Rani’s
perspective in her duty and role as a wife. As she becomes mature and starts to
understand things, Rani begins to challenge the dominant narrative of
self-sacrifice in which her self-interest comes later. She comes to the
realization that it is simply a tool of control. Now she opposes to be dictated
by her husband and an ideology that doesn’t allow to live her in her own terms.
She opposes to believe in a thought process that conditions to give up
everything for her husband. At one stage we see Rani even contemplates suicide
rather than being dictated by her husband. She becomes extremely happy after
becoming pregnant, and her husband cannot change that feeling of joy. Rani
could do so because she starts to think for herself and for her unborn child,
giving primacy to her interests and rejecting to be dictated by the interests
of her husband. Thereby she aims to reject the dominant narrative of sacrifice,
where only she has to abandon things. Through this process of opposition and
counter, she in a way tries to set herself free from the shackles of the
ideology of dominant self-sacrifice. She no more wants to be pushed by others. Hence,
she boldly says:
RANI: Why should I let you push me around? Isn't it
better to accept the kiss of the Cobra and the dark silence of the ant-hill?
(Karnad 292).
So, Rani’s transformation in a way
reflects the changes in our society. It again reflects the changes in the
discourse of self-sacrifice. People are dictated by narratives/discourses and
at the same time they have the power to challenge and counter them. This is how
narratives are broken, and this is how new narratives are set. Karnad explicitly
expresses the changes of the narrative of self-sacrifice of a wife through the
character of Rani and at the same time comments on the Indian society,
particularly Indian marriage system which again runs on the same dialectic
system.
The Relationship of
Nostalgia and Sacrifice
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines
nostalgia as “a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or
some past period or irrecoverable condition.” According to the Cambridge
dictionary, nostalgia is “a feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past.” So, now the question arises: why
does Rani become nostalgic? And how is nostalgia and sacrifice related in the context of Naga-Mandala?
So, when a newly married wife comes
to her husband after sacrificing her interests and desires, and there if she
gets humiliation and disrespect as a reward of her sacrifice, as a reward of
leaving her parents, then there arises a sentimental longing for her past happy
days. The same thing, we see, happening with Rani. Rani’s parents love and
adore her dearly. When Naga asks Rani about their relationship and affection
for her, she immediately breaks down at the thought of her loving parents. Rani
simply wants a loveable husband and for which she is ready to give up her
interests and the love of her parents. But, the only thing she gets from her
husband is complete rejection which makes her remember the love of her parents,
which again evokes a feeling of nostalgia. Rani’s desire to be with her husband
away from her parents becomes a kind of torture to her. This even makes her
more long for the past happy days and makes her desirous to live in them again.
Conclusion: On
Sacrifice and Torture
While addressing and discussing
about self-sacrifice in context of Naga-Mandala,
the question comes, is self-sacrifice actually an ideology of exploitation that
legitimizes the torture of a wife in an Indian rural village marriage system?
If so, then we are indeed celebrating a tool of exploitation that has become a
part of our culture. In the play we see Rani is terrified at the thought of
harming her husband Appanna. She no way wants to hurt her husband even though
he hits her, tortures her the best way possible. In the play we see Appanna
hits Rani as he doesn’t find her at home.
"Appanna slaps her hard. Rani collapses to the
floor. He does not look at her again. Just pulls the door shut, locks it from
outside and goes away" (Karnad 267).
It
seems as if it is a normal phenomenon in our society that wives will give up
everything for their husbands, however, their husbands can torture them if they
feel like. In such a case, where torture became a part of our culture, the
concept of self-sacrifice (giving up for others) prevents Rani from questioning
the authority of her husband, questioning the authority of the marriage system,
questioning the authority of patriarchy.
Commenting on the play, Karnad
himself pens, “The position of Rani in the story of Naga-Mandala, for instance, can be seen as a metaphor for the
situation of a young girl in the bosom of a joint family where she sees her
husband only in two unconnected roles- as a stranger during the day and as a
lover at night” (Karnad 314). So, at night Appanna becomes Rani's husband, but
during the day a stranger. However, Rani doesn’t ask questions as she is
convinced that it is her duty towards her husband. Ranajit Guha writes in his
essay “On Torture and Culture”, "For there is no class or combination of
classes that can keep itself in power without cultural coercion" (566).
So, these oppression and exploitation are so much mixed with our culture that
we consider them normal and here the ideology of self-sacrifice has a very
important role to play. The ideology of Self-sacrifice prevents the wives to
see their oppression as a kind of torture, rather as a noble duty towards their
husbands. Hence, the ideology of sacrifice in a way legalizes torture,
normalises torture. Eventually, a day comes, when we see torture to be a normal
social phenomenon.
However, there always remains a
scope for resistance. We can always counter a dominant narrative or ideology
with the help of other narratives or ideologies. Again, if we take the concept
of self-sacrifice to be an ideology which conditions married wives that they
should give up their interests and desires for their in-laws, then it in a way
prevents them from raising their voice against their oppression and
exploitation. We are facing the same situation in Naga-Mandala. Rani is beaten and exploited by Appanna, but still
she decides to be loyal to him. But, when she becomes pregnant, she at the same
time becomes a mother with the responsibility of one more life. She asserts her
agency. Aparna Dharwadker comments on Rani’s pregnancy and reclaiming her
agency: “The announcement of Rani's pregnancy begins a third movement in the
inner play and marks the return of patriarchal control by the husband as well
as the community, but by then she has matured from a girl into a woman, wife,
and mother-to-be, and needs a definite resolution to her predicament"
(xxxi).
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