Plot Construction Of Tughlaq

 PLOT CONSTRUCTION OF TUGHLAQ  

Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq deals with the last five years of the reign of Muhammad –Bin-Tughlaq. The playwright has crafted and well-handled plot with superb-craftsmanship. This has been done in the interest of dramatic effectiveness, and in the finest tradition of Greek tragedies. But the three unities of time, place and action have been flouted. The action of the play takes place first of all in Delhi in the year 1327, then on the road from Delhi to Daulatabad and lastly in and around the fort at Daulatabad five years later. 

The unity of action implies that all the episodes in the play must be knit together to form a whole. Not a single episode or incident may be removed from the structure without a loss. In Tughlaq there are many superfluous incidents. The episode of Aziz and the Hindu woman with a sick child, and also of Aziz and the man and woman with six illegal children can be removed from the play without any loss of interest Karnad has also added a subplot to the play. It provides dramatic relief in the manner of the tragedies of Shakespeare, but the tragic-effect is no way weakened by it. Indeed, Tughlaq is a tragedy of intrigue. There are a number of murders both reported and actually done on the stage. It would have been too horrible and unbearable without the dramatic relief provided by the subplot. Both incident and situation are correlated with characters. Events and incidents which originate from the paradoxical actions of the protagonist, Tughlaq and his opponents have been organised into an artistic whole. The devices of parallelism and contrast have been vividly employed. The plot is based on opposites and paradoxes, intrigues, coherently brought under the discipline of art, form its main basis. 

R.Anantha Murthy Says: "Both Tughlaq and his enemies initially appear to be idealists; yet, in the pursuit of the ideal, they perpetrate its opposite. The whole play is structured on these opposites the ideal and real, the divine aspiration and the deft intrigue." The dramatist introduces tension and conflict, which are essential for a plot in the very beginning and all events and actions of characters intensify conflict until it reaches the climax.The orthodox Muslims are annoyed by Tughlaq's idealism, humanism and departure from the practice of the religious tenets in administrative matters. The old man who represents the orthodox segment of Muslim society introduces the note of dramatic conflict with his words: "God, what's the country coming to." The Young man supports Tughlaq and says that the country is in perfectly safe hands. It is evident that this is a conflict between the old and new, between orthodox religion and modernity which are embodied in Tughlaq and his orthodox opponents. As the plot advances the conflict develops.The Sultan who is a curious mixture of the ideal and the obnoxious has an intriguing nature. He sends his major opponent Sheikh Imam-Uddin as a royal envoy to rebellious Ain-ul-Mulk. The Sheikh is treacherously killed. This malicious and barbarous misdeed perpetrated by Tughlaq intensifies the conflict with the rebellion of Amirs, Sheikhs and Sayyids who hatch a conspiracy under the leadership of Shihabuddin to murder Tughlaq at prayer time. Ratan Singh who masterminds this conspiracy clandestinely informs the Sultan about it. He takes all precautions, arrests Amirs, etc. and inhumanly kills Shihab-ud-din. 

Rebellions become quite common and consequently, Tughlaq becomes revengeful, disappointed and frustrated. The capital is shifted from Delhi to Daulatabad hurling death and 

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