Myth, Folklore, and Cultural Identity in Girish Karnad's Nagamandala and The Fire and the Rain

Abstract

This paper examines the interrelationship between myth, folklore, and cultural identity in two major plays by Girish Karnad, Nagamandala and The Fire and the Rain. While Nagamandala draws upon Kannada oral folk narratives collected by A. K. Ramanujan, The Fire and the Rain reconstructs an episode from the Aranyakaparva of the Mahabharata. Through a close comparative reading, the paper argues that Karnad does not merely retell inherited narratives but reinterprets them through symbolic imagination, psychological realism, and modern theatrical technique in order to interrogate questions of gender, patriarchy, ritual, sacrifice, and spiritual transformation. The study situates Karnad's dramaturgy within postcolonial and feminist frameworks, showing how folklore and myth become dynamic cultural texts capable of mediating between tradition and modernity. The paper concludes that both plays affirm the continuing vitality of Indian mythological consciousness as a resource for articulating contemporary human and cultural concerns.