Subverting Gender Norms in Folktales: A Feminist Reading of Nagamandala

International Refereed, Blind Peer-Reviewed & Open Access Research Journal Issue: 03 | Vol.: 14 | Jul.-Aug.-Sep. - 2025 | Pages: 10–13| REPR | ISSN: 2278 – 5949 | Periodicity : Quarterly, Language : English & Hindi https://recentjournals.in [ 10 ] Subverting Gender Norms in Folktales: A Feminist Reading of Nagamandala Syed Farhan Ali RECENT EDUCATIONAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHES DOI: …… , Plagiarism/Similarity: 00% Subverting Gender Norms in Folktales: A Feminist Reading of Nagamandala Syed Farhan Ali Research Scholar of English Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, U.P. Mob.: 9956573107, Email: [email protected] Received : 05/08/2025 1st BPR : 16/08/2025 2nd BPR : 27/08/2025 Accepted : 10/09/2025 Abstract Girish Karnad’s Nagamandala serves as a bold reimagining of traditional Indian folktales through a distinctly feminist lens. This research paper offers a critical reading of the play, focusing on how it subverts normative gender roles embedded in folk traditions by foregrounding female subjectivity, agency, and resistance. Drawing on Kannada oral tales collected by A.K. Ramanujan, Karnad constructs a layered narrative that places a silenced woman—Rani—at the center of the dramatic experience. Trapped in a patriarchal marriage with an emotionally distant husband, Rani's inner world is transformed through fantasy, myth, and magic. The play uses the folktale medium not to uphold social norms, but to question and dismantle them. Through devices such as shape-shifting, magical realism, and metafictional storytelling, Karnad explores themes of desire, identity, and empowerment. Rani’s relationship with the mystical serpent challenges traditional notions of fidelity and virtue, suggesting that female desire and self-expression can exist beyond societal confines. By reconfiguring the roles of women in folklore from passive recipients to active narrators of their fate, Karnad reclaims oral tradition as a space of subversion and possibility. This paper argues that Nagamandala is not merely a retelling of a folk myth but a political intervention that uses indigenous narrative forms to challenge patriarchal discourse and reclaim the feminine voice. Keywords: Girish Karnad, Nagamandala, Feminism, Folktale, Patriarchy, Gender Roles, Subversion, Storytelling. Introduction: Folktales as Feminist Theatre Indian folktales have long functioned as tools for transmitting cultural values, reinforcing moral codes, and maintaining traditional gender hierarchies. Often passed down orally across generations, these tales reflect the patriarchal fabric of society, where women are typically depicted as obedient daughters, virtuous wives, or cautionary figures punished for defying norms. However, when reinterpreted through a feminist lens, folktales reveal their potential not just to sustain ideology, but also to question and subvert it. In this regard, Girish Karnad’s Nagamandala marks a significant departure from conventional narratives. By engaging with folk traditions while deliberately recasting their ideological underpinnings, Karnad crafts a drama that exposes and challenges the normative structures governing gender roles in Indian society. Written in 1987, Nagamandala is based on Kannada oral tales collected and translated by A.K. Ramanujan. The play is structured as a tale within a tale—framed by the story of a male playwright and narrated by a personified Story. This layered narrative not only serves to highlight the intertextuality of oral traditions but also reclaims storytelling as a space historically inhabited by women, albeit informally. The central plot revolves around Rani, a young bride subjected to isolation, neglect, and emotional confinement by her husband. Through magical elements such as a shape-shifting cobra and a talking root, Rani’s internal journey of awakening— emotional, sexual, and intellectual—is brought to the forefront. This research paper explores how Nagamandala reworks folktale structures to present a deeply feminist narrative that centers female agency, critiques patriarchal control, and affirms the validity of women’s lived experiences. Far from being passive or merely fantastical, the play’s folkloric and mythical elements serve as International Refereed, Blind Peer-Reviewed & Open Access Research Journal Issue: 03 | Vol.: 14 | Jul.-Aug.-Sep. - 2025 | Pages: 10–13| REPR | ISSN: 2278 – 5949 | Periodicity : Quarterly, Language : English & Hindi https://recentjournals.in [ 11 ] Subverting Gender Norms in Folktales: A Feminist Reading of Nagamandala Syed Farhan Ali RECENT EDUCATIONAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHES instruments of resistance, enabling a young woman to narrate, shape, and eventually transcend her imposed identity. In doing so, Karnad not only interrogates traditional notions of fidelity, obedience, and honour but also presents storytelling itself as an act of feminist intervention and reclamation. Folktale Framework and Karnad’s Adaptation: Girish Karnad’s Nagamandala derives its narrative power from Indian oral traditions, especially folktales passed down through generations of women. The play is based on stories recorded by A.K. Ramanujan, whose work on Kannada oral literature revealed the richness of regional storytelling and its deep cultural moorings. However, Karnad does not simply dramatize a folktale—he adapts it into a meta-theatrical experience that both honours and critiques the tradition from which it emerges. The play opens with a male playwright, condemned to death if he stays awake past dawn. He is visited by a female Story—personified and animated—who begins to narrate Rani’s tale. This frame structure is highly significant: it centers the feminine voice as both savior and storyteller, subverting the male-centric literary tradition that often excludes or objectifies women. The narrative-within-the-narrative—the story of Rani, Appanna, and the cobra—unfolds in a folkloric register, filled with magical elements such as shape-shifting, enchanted roots, talking flames, and animals. These motifs are not merely decorative but deeply symbolic. The nag (cobra), traditionally associated with sexuality, danger, and male virility in Indian mythology, is reimagined as a creature of care, intimacy, and emotional intelligence—everything Rani’s human husband is not. The magical root given to Rani, meant to enchant her husband, instead awakens her own desires and agency. By using these folkloric devices, Karnad exposes the contradictions embedded in traditional narratives. Folktales have historically regulated female behavior—rewarding obedience and punishing curiosity or desire. Yet in Nagamandala, Rani’s transgression leads not to shame or destruction but to elevation and survival. The folk elements, thus, become tools of resistance, enabling the subversion of patriarchal scripts. Moreover, Karnad’s adaptation allows the folktale to interact with modern ideas of feminism and identity. He does not strip the narrative of its indigenous flavor, but instead amplifies its subversive potential. By giving the folk story a new theatrical and political language, Karnad transforms it into a site where women’s voices, desires, and imaginations are no longer hidden, suppressed, or punished—but affirmed and empowered. Rani’s Resistance and Feminist Agency: At the heart of Nagamandala lies the character of Rani, whose evolution from a naïve, submissive girl to a self-aware and spiritually empowered woman forms the emotional and thematic core of the play. Initially introduced as the quintessential obedient bride, Rani is married off to Appanna, a cold and domineering husband who visits her only at night and treats her as a possession to be locked away during the day. Her life, in its early stages, mirrors the experiences of countless women in traditional Indian households—confined to domestic spaces, stripped of agency, and denied emotional and physical intimacy. Yet it is within this very confinement that the seeds of her resistance are sown. Rani’s journey toward agency is subtle but profound. Unlike modern feminist figures who openly rebel against patriarchal structures, Rani’s resistance emerges through internal transformation and quiet assertion. The magical root given by Kurudavva to win Appanna’s affection does not have the intended effect, but it leads to an encounter with a mystical serpent who assumes the form of her husband. Though this relationship initially appears as deception, it symbolically represents Rani’s subconscious desire for love, attention, and recognition. The cobra, unlike her real husband, listens, responds, and cherishes her presence—providing her a space to discover her worth and femininity. Rather than being reduced to a passive object of affection, Rani becomes the architect of her own narrative. Her pregnancy, once a potential source of shame, becomes a catalyst for her social elevation when she miraculously tames the cobra during a public trial. Her transformation from an imprisoned wife to a village goddess is not just a magical twist—it is a metaphor for reclaiming agency through a redefinition of virtue. While patriarchal structures judge women based on chastity, Rani’s dignity is asserted through her emotional truth and moral resilience. Significantly, Rani does not seek revenge or confront her husband aggressively. Her strength lies in her calm, her patience, and her ability to outgrow the roles imposed upon her. Karnad crafts her as a character who redefines power—not as dominance, but as self-knowledge and narrative control. In this way, Rani becomes a feminist figure who negotiates with the tools available to her, using silence, myth, and love as strategies of survival and assertion. International Refereed, Blind Peer-Reviewed & Open Access Research Journal Issue: 03 | Vol.: 14 | Jul.-Aug.-Sep. - 2025 | Pages: 10–13| REPR | ISSN: 2278 – 5949 | Periodicity : Quarterly, Language : English & Hindi https://recentjournals.in [ 12 ] Subverting Gender Norms in Folktales: A Feminist Reading of Nagamandala Syed Farhan Ali RECENT EDUCATIONAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHES Gender, Desire, and Power Structures: One of the most radical aspects of Nagamandala is its open engagement with female desire and its critique of the oppressive power structures that govern gender roles. In traditional folktales and social customs, female sexuality is either suppressed or morally policed. Desire, if expressed by a woman, is viewed as a threat to the social order. Karnad confronts this cultural taboo head-on by giving his protagonist, Rani, a narrative that foregrounds her emotional and sexual needs without condemning her for them. Through the magical serpentlover, he gives form to her longing—not as sin or scandal, but as a deeply human experience worthy of recognition and fulfillment. Appanna, Rani’s legal husband, represents patriarchal control in its most austere form. Emotionally distant and physically absent, he assumes authority without any sense of responsibility or affection. His hypocrisy is apparent—while he keeps Rani locked indoors, he maintains an affair with a concubine outside. His dominance is based not on care or intimacy, but on surveillance, silence, and social expectation. In contrast, the cobra— though a supernatural being—offers tenderness, attention, and validation. He enters Rani’s life not through force but through understanding. This ironic reversal deconstructs normative masculinity, suggesting that male power based on aggression and entitlement is hollow, while genuine emotional connection holds greater meaning. Karnad’s play displaces traditional binaries: husband versus lover, chastity versus transgression, duty versus desire. In doing so, he questions the very moral framework that governs a woman’s identity. Rani’s fulfillment through the cobra is not an act of betrayal—it is a reclamation of emotional and physical wholeness denied to her by social convention. Importantly, the play refrains from punishing her for this act; instead, it elevates her to a revered status, subverting the folktale trope where women who step outside boundaries are doomed. The politics of desire in Nagamandala are thus inseparable from its feminist critique. By validating Rani’s emotional and sensual yearnings, Karnad not only disrupts the patriarchal equation of virtue with obedience but also highlights how control over women’s bodies and desires is central to their subjugation. The play reframes desire as a site of resistance—a space where women, even within constrained circumstances, can assert their agency and redefine their identities. The Role of Patriarchy and Storytelling: In Nagamandala, storytelling is not just a narrative technique—it is a deeply political act. The play opens with a male playwright cursed to die unless he stays awake through the night, and his survival depends on listening to a tale narrated by a woman—Story herself personified. This framing device is Karnad’s subtle but sharp commentary on literary and cultural authority: while men have historically written and preserved official histories, the stories that carry women’s experiences—folktales, lullabies, gossip—have remained on the margins, informal and unacknowledged. Karnad inverts this power dynamic by placing a female Story at the center, giving her voice, agency, and the ability to prolong life through narrative. Storytelling becomes a metaphor for survival—both for the cursed playwright and for Rani. Just as the playwright listens to survive, Rani uses the language of folklore and fantasy to endure and eventually transform her oppressive reality. The oral tale passed on by Kurudavva, the blind woman, activates the sequence of events that leads to Rani’s awakening. Kurudavva, a woman with no eyes yet possessing the deepest insight, symbolizes the wisdom embedded in female oral traditions—traditions often dismissed by patriarchal institutions as irrational or superstitious. Within the play, storytelling is not linear or singular—it is layered, contradictory, and fluid, much like identity itself. Rani’s story is shaped by multiple voices: Kurudavva’s, the magical root’s, the cobra’s, and her own. These competing narratives create a space where rigid truths are destabilized. The very notion of truth becomes secondary to lived experience and emotional authenticity. When Rani undergoes the ordeal of truth by holding the cobra, she is not subjected to the kind of public humiliation often depicted in traditional tales. Instead, the event becomes a spectacle that reaffirms her dignity—not because she conforms to societal expectations, but because she transcends them through her own narrative power. Karnad shows that patriarchy relies on fixed stories—about virtue, fidelity, obedience. By giving Rani a shifting, evolving, and fantastical story, he undermines the patriarchal monopoly on narrative. The play ultimately asserts that the ability to tell one’s story, especially for women, is a radical and liberating act. Through storytelling, Karnad offers women a way to name their experiences, rewrite their roles, and reimagine their futures—turning a tool of oppression into a medium of emancipation. Conclusion: Reclaiming the Feminine Voice: Girish Karnad’s Nagamandala stands as a profound theatrical intervention into the traditions of Indian folklore and drama. It does more than merely retell a folk tale—it dismantles and reconstructs the narrative to International Refereed, Blind Peer-Reviewed & Open Access Research Journal Issue: 03 | Vol.: 14 | Jul.-Aug.-Sep. - 2025 | Pages: 10–13| REPR | ISSN: 2278 – 5949 | Periodicity : Quarterly, Language : English & Hindi https://recentjournals.in [ 13 ] Subverting Gender Norms in Folktales: A Feminist Reading of Nagamandala Syed Farhan Ali RECENT EDUCATIONAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCHES center the feminine voice that has long been silenced or sidelined in patriarchal discourse. In doing so, the play offers not just a critique of oppressive social norms but a vision for how storytelling itself can be reclaimed as a tool of empowerment. Rani’s journey from a confined and voiceless bride to a respected, self-aware figure mirrors the transformation of the folktale form from a vehicle of control into one of resistance. Her voice—emerging through silence, dreams, magic, and maternal intuition—disrupts the expected trajectory of a submissive woman’s story. Instead of being punished for her desires, she is elevated. This act of rewriting a woman’s role within the tale signals a crucial feminist revision of Indian theatrical and cultural norms. The play’s structure, with its frame narrative and metafictional elements, emphasizes that women’s lives are often mediated through stories told by others—by men, by society, by tradition. Yet Karnad gives agency to these alternative voices: the Story, the flames, Kurudavva, and most significantly, Rani herself. These voices destabilize the singularity of patriarchal truth and open up a pluralistic, more inclusive space for women's experiences to be heard, valued, and legitimized. Moreover, Nagamandala challenges the very foundations of gender identity. It suggests that desire, love, and autonomy do not have to conform to socially sanctioned norms. The serpent, a figure often associated with danger and deception, becomes in this play a catalyst for transformation, tenderness, and truth. The play ultimately posits that morality should not be dictated by rigid binaries of chastity and sin but should be re-evaluated through the lens of human need, empathy, and emotional integrity. In reclaiming the feminine voice through folklore, Karnad does not merely insert women into existing stories; he allows them to reshape the story itself. Nagamandala thus becomes not just a feminist narrative, but a feminist methodology—one that reimagines tradition, restructures meaning, and reclaims storytelling as a space of dignity, agency, and transformation. References:  Karnad, Girish. Nagamandala: Play with a Cobra. OUP India, 1990.  Ramanujan, A.K. “Introduction.” Folktales from India: A Selection of Oral Tales from Twenty-two Languages. Pantheon, 1991.  Dharwadker, Aparna. Theatres of Independence: Drama, Theory, and Urban Performance in India Since 1947. University of Iowa Press, 2005.  Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Feminist Review, no. 30, 1988, pp. 61–88.  Sen, Nandini. “The Narrative Voice in Karnad’s Nagamandala.” Indian Literature, vol. 45, no. 3, 2001, pp. 129–140.