OBITUARY
Renaissance man
Veteran playwright, actor and director Girish Karnad passed away recently.
Devesh Sharma offers a summary of his many-faceted careerG
irish Karnad
excelled in
academics and
travelled to
England and
studied Philosophy,
Politics and Economics at
Magdalen in Oxford as a
Rhodes Scholar (1960–63),
earning his Master of
Arts (MA) degree in the
three subjects. He was
elected as the President
of the Oxford Union in
1962-63. His genius shone
through when he was at
Oxford itself, writing one
of his most celebrated
plays, Yayati (1961). It
was derived from the
Mahabharata story of King
Yayati, who was cursed
with perpetual old age
and who asked one of his
sons to take on the curse
on his behalf.
Karnad used mythology
and history to ask socially
relevant questions. His
next play, Tughlaq (1964),
was based on the life
of the idealistic 14th
century Sultan of Delhi,
Muhammad bin Tughluq.
It was an analogy to the
Nehruvian era, which
too began with high
idealism but slowly lost
momentum. The play
got translated in several
languages. It gained huge
popularity after it was
staged by the National
School of Drama (NSD)
under the direction of
Ebrahim Alkazi at the(MAY 19, 1938 – JUNE 10, 2019)