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The Python symbol in scene eight of Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq indicates Tughlaq’s utter barbarity and inhumanity. The young sentry has seen a strange and frightening secret passage in Daulatabad fort. The old sentry says—”Yes it’s a long passage, a big passage, coiled like an enormous hollow python inside the belly of the fort.” They shall be far happier when that python breaks out and swallows everything in sight every man, woman, child, least. The increased fierceness, brutality, and bloodthirstiness of the Sultan are also indicated by the python symbol. It also signifies the complete degeneration of his personality. From a human being, he has degenerated into a wild beast, a huge snake. Karnad’s use of symbols is the fine framework of his genius. It symbolizes the political situation of India of the sixties. The political mood of disillusionment that follows the Nehru era of idealism in the country is reflected here.
What is the symbolic significance of Python in “Tughlaq” by Girish Karnad
