Tughlaq By Girish Karnad Text

Girish Karnad’s historical play Tughlaq, first published in 1964, stands as a landmark in Indian English drama. While ostensibly a historical study of the 14th-century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughlaq, the text functions as a powerful allegory for the post-independence Indian political landscape. Through its thirteen scenes, the play explores the disintegration of idealism, the nature of power, and the tragic gap between a ruler’s visionary intellect and his practical failure.

1. Cyclical Time: The play begins and ends in a prayer yard, suggesting that no lesson has been learned. The final image of Tughlaq walking alone, disillusioned, echoes his initial isolation.
2. Flashbacks and Foreshadowing: The use of the character Aziz (a cunning beggar) allows Karnad to juxtapose Tughlaq’s lofty ideals with ground-level reality.
3. Choric Characters: The two Brahmins (Ratan Singh and Bhattendu) act as a Greek chorus, commenting on the Sultan’s madness and the collapse of justice.

• "Tughlaq" by Girish Karnad (translated by Arun Chaudhuri)
• "The History of India" by Mountstuart Elphinstone
• "The Delhi Sultanate" by M. Athar Ali

Karnad’s text is celebrated for its lean, muscular prose and its use of symbolism: tughlaq by girish karnad text