Girish Karnad's Tughlaq: an overview

In the history of Indian drama, Girish Karnad is an significant literary figure in English. His second play, the Tughlaq, first printed in 1964, is a literary masterpiece in Kannada dealing with the disintegration of the dreams and aspirations of an over-ambitious and yet virtuous idealistic king, Muhammed bin Tughlaq, Sultan of Delhi of the 14th century. The two decades of life and the mood of the King is depicted here by Karnad.

The play plot requires an extraordinary manner from the general impression that history has left about the ruler and instead depicts Tughlaq in a compelling positive angle. In this plays Karnad shines upon his personality's unexplored dimension. This demonstrates the transition from a sensitive, smart to a cruel tyrant of the personality of Sultan. The play's historic subject is evident as Karnad explored Tughlaq's paradox. Tughlaq mixed so much in itself that the individuals had nothing but chaos and misery, including patriotism, liberalism, the studious nature and the initial thoughts.Despite his admirable qualities,  he turns out to be a tyrant who causes miseries for the people.

Karnad puts forth the lesser recognized characteristics of Tughlaq with fascinating dialogs and interesting personalities. The author has finely drawn up some of the King's well-known historical choices, including his choice to transfer India's capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. Karnad draws from and provides a twist of historical and mythological events that affect him.

          "Tughlaq is an ironic play and a historical parallel, a fictionalized historical representation that engages the post-colonial Indian audience's memory and experience on several levels. He takes his components from the "Tarikh-i Firaz Shahi(1357), a chronicle history written by Zia-ud-din Barani who spent 17 years at Tughlaq's court. Although he takes the raw data from it, he arranges the play's thirteen scenes as a series of deeds that articulate both political and psychological ironies. "Tughlaq" generates a powerful synchronization between pre-modern and modern India as a historical game. Some critics evaluated the play, paying unique attention to the symbol of chess game, the problem of disguise, and another character's ironic achievement, Aziz, although Karnad continues that the play is no allegory of any political figure or incident.