As a reader of Karnad’s plays, one has to pay attention to their sources. Almost every text has asource in that the plot is derived from somewhere. The common sources of his plays include myths,folk tales, Puranas, historical chronicles, epics etc. He seems to have inspired from Shakespeare whofollows the same tendency of adapting recognized plots. The modern dramatists tend to use originalplots, or any well known historical or political event, or adapt a popular Greek myth. There is nothingwrong with the practice of adapting any known or unknown text since it may provide you with the newinsights into the source text. Some critics even say that every literature is based on another literature asit carries the echoes of its procreator. For Peter Allen, literary texts ‘are built from systems, codes, andtraditions established by previous works of literature’ (Allen 1). The exercise of finding how theoriginal texts are adapted and the new meaning generated in the process is worth attempting; it offers uswith a new perspective on the subject, event, plot etc.
Sharad Binnor (Wed,) studied this question.