Hayavadana

Write a summery of this extract from Hayavadhana highlighting the dispute on the head-body divide

Over a short span of time, Padmini gets attracted towards Kapila because of his strong body and Devadatta becomes aware of their relationship. On the way to a fair in Ujjain, the three stop at a Kali temple. Devadatta goes to Mother Kali's shrine and beheads himself as he cannot live without his wife as well as his friend. Kapila finds him lying dead and out of regret he also beheads himself. When Padmini finds the two dead, she decides to kill herself but she is stopped by Goddess Kali. Goddess Kali, makes a very significant intervention and points to the brutal truth of self-interest of both the two friends as the only reason for their suicide. This also signifies nuanced meanings in a post-truth culture of the present where facts and illusions are reinvented in substitutive ways. The Goddess helps Padmini to bring both men back to life. But Padmini mixes up their heads in her hurry. As a result, Devadatta's head is fitted on the strong body of Kapila and Kapila's head is fixed on the frail body of Devadutta. A dispute arises between Kapila and Devadutta regarding who Padmini belongs to. Neither Kapila nor Devadutta has the perfect identity Padmini longed for. Thus, Karnad demonstrates through his play that incompleteness is a fundamental facet of the human condition, and that although it is human nature to strive towards completeness, it is inevitably unattainable. The following episode taken from the Act 1 of Hayavadhana begins at the point when goddess kali appears befor padmini.

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