HAYAVADANA

Playwright: Girish Karnad
Director: Subrata Das

Hayavadana draws on a tale from the Kathasaritsagara, an eleventh century collection of Indian folk tales by Somadeva, and its adaptation in Thomas Mann's The Transposed Heads. Hayavadana, meaning “a man with a horse’s head”, explores the destructive effects on the close friendship between the “intellectual” Devadatta and the “man of the body” Kapila after the arrival of Devadatta’s wife Padmini, who adored Devadatta’s intellect but loved Kapila’s physique. The drama unfolds curiously when the friends kill themselves over their failed love, but resurrected with their heads dramatically transposed.