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@article{194023,
        author = {Dipti Balchandra Pethe},
        title = {Feminine Desire, Symbolism, and Patriarchal Negotiation in Naga-Mandala},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {10},
        pages = {2584-2587},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=194023},
        abstract = {The regulation of feminine desire has remained central to patriarchal cultural production across literary traditions. Modern Indian drama re-examines this regulation by reworking myth, folklore, and performative ritual into sites of gendered interrogation. This paper offers a sustained feminist and psycho-symbolic reading of Naga-Mandala, written by Girish Karnad, to explore how feminine desire emerges from silence, negotiates patriarchal scrutiny, and attains conditional legitimacy through symbolic transformation.
Drawing upon feminist existentialism, subaltern discourse, psychoanalytic symbolism, and performance theory, the study argues that Rani’s experiential trajectory reframes desire from moral deviation into epistemic self-recognition. The serpent motif, dream-reality ambiguity, and ritual ordeal collectively construct a dramaturgical language through which suppressed female subjectivity becomes culturally intelligible. However, the play’s resolution reveals ambivalent empowerment, as validation depends upon miracle rather than structural gender justice.
The paper concludes that Naga-Mandala does not simply liberate feminine desire but stages its continuous negotiation within patriarchal modernity, thereby positioning folklore-based theatre as a crucial medium of feminist cultural critique in post-independence Indian literature.},
        keywords = {Feminine desire; Indian drama; patriarchy; symbolism; feminist theatre; folklore; subjectivity.},
        month = {March},
        }