The troubled reign of a fourteenth-century sultan of Delhi helps dramatize the crisis of secular nationhood in post-Independence India. A twelfth century folktale about 'transposed heads' offers a path-breaking model for a quintessentially 'Indian' theatre in postcolonial times. The folktaleabout a woman with a snake lover explores gender relations within marriage. Individual human sexuality meets the historical debate on violence in Indian culture. The plays in this volume span roughly the first half of the career of Girish Karnad, one of India's pre-eminent playwrights. Thethree-volume set of Karnad's Collected Plays brings together Englishversions of his important works. Each volume contains an extensive introduction by theatre scholar Aparna Bhargava Dharwadker, Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison. The introductions trace the literary and theatrical evolution of Karnad's work over six decades and position it in the larger context of modern Indian drama. In addition, they comment on Karnad's place as author and translator in a multilingual performance culture and the relation of hisplaywriting to his work in the popular media. | Collected Plays Volume 2 by Girish Karnad, Paperback | Indigo Chapters