occasion and he stated that the
Bengaluru International Airport
should be named after Tipu Sultan.
There was logic to thisas the airport
was located close to Devanahalli
where Tipu Sultanwas born. At the
event he stated, “It is truethatKem-
pegowdabuilt Bengaluru, but he was
not a freedomfighter. I know that my
viewswill be cause fordebate and
controversy, but am sayingit nonethe-
less. The airport must be named after
Tipu.”On an earlier occasion, he had
said, “Tipu hasalwaysbeen a part of
my life. Tipu wasnot just a political
person,but also a part of Kannada
literature and theatre. No Kannadiga
equal to Tipu has been born in the last
300 years.” His statementscaused so
much protest that Karnad was forced
to recant this statement.
ROOTED INKANNADA MILIEU
Evenas Karnadbecamefamousna-
tionally and internationally and
soaredthroughtheliteraryfirma-
ment,he remained rooted in the
Kannadamilieu,whichwasimpress-
ive.All his playswerefirst writtenin
Kannadaandwerepublished by the
samepublisher,ManoharaGrantha
Mala,in his hometownof Dharwad.
Karnad translatedall his playsinto
English himselfand,in thatsense,
wasa truebilingualthinker,a breed
of writers that is hard to find
nowadays.AnotherKannadawriter,
U.R.Ananthamurthy,whopassed
awayin 2014,alsoinhabitedthisbi-
lingual spacecomfortably.Karnad
hadevenactedin thecontroversial
filmSamskara(1970)thatwasbased
on thenovelof thesamenameby
Ananthamurthy andwasa strong in-
dictment of caste hierarchy.
ThelastplaythatKarnadwrote
wasRakshasaTangadi(2018)on the
Battleof Talikotathattookplacein
1565 betweenthe combinedforcesof
theDeccanSultanateson oneside
andtheVijayanagaraempireon the
other.Karnadattemptedto bringin
nuancesin his readingof thisevent
rather thanseeing it as an epic
Hindu-Muslimclashas colonialand
nationalisthistorians haddone.With
the play,he returnedto his pet theme
of pickingup historical characters
andusingthemas metaphorsfor in-
terpretingcurrent political condition.
Theplaywastranslatedby Karnad
intoEnglishasCrossingto Hampi,
althoughthe Englishversion is yet to
be published.Twothings become
evident,or ratherarereiterated,in
Karnad’schoiceof the themeof this
playthatis hisfinal literarywork.
First,his deepengagementwith
the historyandcultureof Karnataka
thatwashislife’spursuit attained
somekindof closurewiththe writing
of thisplay.In an interviewtoFront-
line, Karnadhadsaid:“Whenone
looksat thehistoryof Karnataka
duringthelastmillennium,three
eventsstandout,notonlyfor their
importancefor the region,but for the
impacttheyhavehadon the political
andculturalmapof the wholeof In-
dia:therevolution createdby theLingayat poet-philosophers under
Basavanna andtheVacanakarasin
thetwelfthcentury,thespectacular
achievements of theVijayanagara
empireandthe reign of TipuSultan
whichwasthelastassertionof na-
tional pride against colonial on-
slaught. All three ended
catastrophicallybut left legaciesthat
continue to shapenationallifeand
thoughteventoday.
“I havealready dealt withBasava’s
movementinTale Danda(1990) and
Tipu SultaninTheDreamsof Tipu
Sultan(1997). Here is my attempt to
understand the third one, Vijay-
anagara, which, despite being oneof
the most powerful military edifices of
its age, collapsed overnight aftera
single battle. These three events
changed the cultural ethos of
Karnataka. Allthree were political
andcultural confrontationsbutthey
hada very deep impact. They changed
the thinking in Karnataka.”
Second,he continued to think
thatHindus andMuslimssharedthe
samelegacy in Indiaandthatit was
wrongto viewIndianhistory,and
especially its medievalperiod,as a
clashbetweenadherentsof thetwo
religions.He wasseverelycriticalof
the Hindutva“whitewashing”of his-
tory,as he calledit.
Karnad never appearedmentally
fatigued by this interview even
though it was a severe physical
strain.Tubes,attached to his nose,
hadto be pluggedintoan oxygen
breathing machine. Theslightestex-
ertion,liketakinga fewstepsto the
doorof his apartment, would leave
himbreathless,butwhenhe spoke,
his deepbaritonewasintact.“I wrote
myfirst playwhenI was22 andnow
I’m80.Thisis thesameagethat
AliyaRamaraya(thecentralcharac-
ter inRakshasaTangadi) was when
he died.Imaginehimleadingan
armyon the battlefield at his age,the
kindof problemsthathe musthave
had,”Karnad hadsaidpointingto
thetubesin hisnose.Karnad was
alsoafighter of a differentkindand
he led manyarmiesagainstthe forces
of Hindutva.Andnow,whenthe
right-wing ideologyhas suchtre-
mendous socialhegemony,the coun-
try willmisshim. $GIRISHKARNADwith (fromright) K. Marulasiddappa, GauriLankeshand
BaraguruRamachandrappaat a condolence meeting, organised for
M.M.Kalburgion the day he was shot dead,in Dharwad on August30, 2015.
K.MURALIKUMAR