Yayati

Yayati is a play by Girish Karnad that takes a family crisis as its starting point. Devyani learns that her husband, Yayati, has been having an affair with Sharmishtha, and she leaves their home. What follows is a close look at a marriage under strain.

The drama follows the shifting fortunes of Devyani and Yayati's relationship, through its reconciliations and its ruptures. As it does, it shows how the moral values that once held their lives together slowly give way. Karnad draws on a story from Indian mythology, and gives it the weight of a personal and ethical reckoning rather than a legend told from a distance.