Structural Features in Girish Karnad's The Dreams of Tipu Sultan

When Girish Karnad was commissioned by BBC to write a radio play to celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of Indian Independence, he immediately thought of Tipu Sultan, who according to him, was one of the most ‘politically perceptive and tragic figures in modern Indian history’ (Karnad 2005:4). To Karnad, Tipu was a ‘politically perceptive’ and ‘tragic figure’ for he had envisioned a strong and united Mysore but could not fulfill his vision. And when Karnad’s mentor A. K. Ramanujan told him about the secret records of Tipu’s dreams in the form of a diary, Karnad decided to use it to tell the story of Tipu through his dreams. Luckily, Karnad got his hands on the copy of this diary at the Regenstein library of the University of Chicago. Karnad wrote the radio play, The Dreams of Tipu Sultan, which was broadcast on 15 August, 1997. The published version, however, has been completely rewritten for the stage performance. The present paper aims to study the structural features of The Dreams of Tipu Sultan. This paper anlyzes the structural features employed by Girish Karnad in The Dreams of Tipu Sultan.