Introduction:
After reading the story of the play ‘Hayavadana’ written by Girish Karnad we find Hayavadana as an important character. He was the product of an unequal marriage between a celestial being and a princess living on the earth. As a princess as well as the mother of Hayavadana she belonged to Karnataka. She had fallen in love with a white stallion at the time of her marriage. She had given up her ego to get completeness. She could marry any handsome prince because many of them had come there from different places to marry her but she made her choice in a strange manner because she had chosen an animal as her life - partner. Both of them spent their whole life on the earth. The mother of Hayavadana had her choice for a horse because she needed it. In this way, Hayavadana was a mythological figure out of his unequal parents. Hayavadana had the traits both of his earthly mother and gandharva father. He had the human body from his mother and the head of a horse, being very fond of it.
Hayavadana with the Body of Man and with the Head of a Horse:
Hayavadana developed into a mythical figure with the body of a man and with the head of a horse. With this reason, he became an abandoned child. He had some problems because he had a strange form and nobody had any care for him. Lastly, he did not belong to any particular group existing on the earth. The readers of this play, first of all meet Hayavadana in Act One forming the sub - plot of the play. The writer dealt several events related to the sub plot. Hayavadana, like other characters of the play was ever in search of completeness. He was tired of his strange shape, so he wanted to get rid of his head of the horse so that he should become a complete human being. Hayavadana was unknown of himself and his values because he did not have the knowledge of the self.
He visited the goddess Kali who turned him into a complete horse:
Though Hayavadana had visited a number of places to achieve his completeness, yet he did not become successful in his efforts. In the end, he visited the goddess Kali. Then he faced many problems and troubles. He did not know that he was perhaps the most intelligent character on the stage. He did not get it even from the goddess, Kali what he wanted but he was turned into a complete horse in place of a human being. The goddess Kali did not take away his human voice in order to give him the neigh of the horse. In this way, his search for completeness did not make him complete as he had wished. It is true that the creatures of the earth are used by the gods for their wanton play. This idea is also supported by the characters of Devadatta, Kapila and Padmini because none of them could achieve hearty wish and all the three had died the most tragic deaths on a common pyre where Padmini had burnt herself as a sati.
Conclusion:
Though Hayavadana had wished to get rid of his human voice, yet he could not become successful in his efforts because he could not get a complete neigh of the horse. He felt that it was the wish of the almighty to use all human beings for His play. The head of the horse proved important in the end because it controlled the body. The body and head of a horse showed the complete life of the horse. The idea is very clear from these words of the text: “Though the play grants his wish and he does not get rid of his human voice and acquires a complete neigh of the horse - this is a comic overture. Hayavadana also undermines the beliefs that it is the head that rules. His horse bead ultimately has its say on the body, though he had been willing otherwise.” In that way. Hayavadana could live a complete life of an animal, or horse.
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