Though Dr Girish Karnad did his higher studies in Oxford University and had command over many languages, he lived most of his life in Kannada and Karnataka. Protesting all gender bias in his plays, Karnad, an atheist, sketched the characters of women, showing them as the representatives of modern women folk.
Initially, Karnad had intended to write his first play 'Yayathi', based on existentialism, in English but later he changed his mind, saying that it would be more powerful if written in Kannada. He wrote plays in both Kannada and English, a rarity in the literary world.
Karnad, born to Krishna Bai and Rao Saheb on May 19, 1938 at Matheran in Maharashtra, had inherited both progressiveness and modernism from his family.
Karnad had written nine plays by the time he was chosen for Jnanapit award in 1999. Following that, the Karnataka government staged all his plays like a festival, and all of them ran full houses. Various issues like history, folk and social issues were the subject matter of 14 plays, starting from Yayathi to Rakshasa Thangadi.
Not only writing them, he also acted in plays like Madras Players, Dore Edipus and Jokumaraswamy. He was honoured with the Swarna Kamala for a documentary called The Lamp in the Niche. He also left his impression in feature films like Samskara, besides directing, story and script writing for Kannada movies too.
Not only for Kannada and Karnataka, Karnad was the conscience of India. He brought to life the nature of human beings through his many different characters and led his life as reflected in his writings.
Known for his scholarly writings, plays and simplicity, globally acclaimed Girish Karnad is only a memory now.
(As told to Yathiraju)
(The author is a writer and Associate Professor at BNM Degree College in city, has done his M Phil on the topic 'Karnad's Play - A Study' and his PhD on "Cultural Exploration on Modern Kannada Plays")