Girish Karnad was one of modern India's greatest cultural figures: an accomplished actor, a path-breaking director, an innovative administrator, a clear-headed and erudite thinker, a public intellectual with an unwavering moral compass, and above all, the most extraordinarily gifted playwright of his times. This Life at Play, translated from the Kannada in part by Karnad himself and in part by Srinath Perur, covers the first half of his remarkable life - from his childhood in Sirsi and his early engagement with local theatre, his education in Dharwad, Bombay and Oxford, to his career in publishing, his successes and travails in the film industry, and his personal and writerly life. Moving and humorous, insightful and candid, these memoirs provide an unforgettable glimpse into the life-shaping experiences of a towering genius, and a unique window into the India in which he lived and worked.

A thoughgoing critical study of the texts and performances of the plays by Girish Karnad. Exiting and jargon-free, it probes Karnad's handling of characters, situations, language, myths, history, and various other library tropes and stage props as itegral aspects of his manifestly inclusive dramaturgy. The thirty-two contrbutors to this definitive volume belong to the top shelf of drama/theatre critics from India and abroad.

Karnad Is Regarded As One Of The Three Great Writers Of The Contemporary Indian Drama, The Other Two Being Vijay Tendulkar And Badal Sircar. His Significant Plays Include Yayati, Tughlaq, Naga-Mandala, Tale-Danda And Hayavadana. The Book, Comprising More Than Thirty Scholarly Papers, Offers A Critical Appraisal Of Karnad As A Dramatist And Provides Varied Perspectives On His Major Plays.

The book attempts to study the plays of Girish Karnad in the contemporary context.

A Yakshagana folk theatre piece, combining music, dance and drama. Two young heroes, Devadatta, a man of the intellect, and Kapila, a man of the body, are both attracted to Padmini, who marries Devadatta. When the rivalry threatens their friendship each man commits suicide by cutting off his own head. Through the intervention of the goddess Kali the men are brought back to life but Padmini accidently mixes the heads up, attaching them to the wrong bodies. A subplot fleshes out the theme of the search for completeness: Hayavadana wants to lose his horse's head and become fully human.

The three modern Indian plays brought together here are established classics, all written around the mid-1960s. Girish Karnad's Tughlaq was originally written in Kannada and explores the psyche of a medieval monarch. Evam Indrajit by Badal Sircar, originally written in Bengali, uses myth to examine some of the dilemmas of the Indian middle classes. Both of these plays are translated into English by Girish Karnad.