Hayavadana

Explain the birth of Hayavadavana.

Hayavadavana

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In Act I, explains that his mother was the Princess of Karnataka and able to choose her own husband. She did not like any of the men she knew, but when the Prince of Araby came on his white stallion, she fell in love with the horse and would only marry it. No one could dissuade her so the marriage happened. One morning she woke up and the horse was gone, replaced by a Celestial Being who had been cursed as a horse for fifteen years for misbehavior. The love of a human rescued him, and he asked the Princess to come with him to the Heavenly Abode. Shockingly, she refused, and he cursed her and she became a horse. She was elated and ran away, and Hayavadana, their only offspring, remained with his human body and horse head. He has tried to accept his fate, he explains, and live a full life, but he desires to become a “complete man” (81).

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