Between certain things comparisons are established through symbolism as a literary device.

Pages:13-15
Ranveer Singh (Department of English, M.D. University, Rohtak, Haryana)

Girish Karnad, one of the most outstanding playwrights, deals with modern themes. In Naga-Mandala, there is an artistic blend of myths, rituals and folktales to depict the condition of woman in patriarchal social set-up. It is well known that sex is the creation of God and it is essential that there must be sexual differences for procreation. But gender is not something pre-established. It is a socio-cultural construct. The disparity between male and female becomes more critical in a traditional patriarchal society. The word patriarchy literally means, “The rule of the father or the ‘patriarch’, and originally it was used to describe a specific type of ‘male-dominated family’- the large household of the patriarch which included women, junior men, children,slaves and domestic servants all under the rule of this dominant male. Now it is used more generally to refer to male domination, to the power relationships by which men dominate women,and to characterize a system whereby women are kept subordinate in a number of ways.” (Kamla 3) This power by male is institutionalized and men’s superiority is asserted as natural which women too have accepted. All the social institutions, including family, are designed to reduce woman to the other of man and deprive her of her freedom to live her own authentic life. This results in the denial of reciprocal relationship and harmony between the two sexes. Karnad’s play is an incisive critique of this unequal relationship bringing out the predicament of a woman in patriarchal social structure.