Abstract: In his own words, Karnard borrowed, for Hayavadana, heavily from the novel, The Transposed Heads, by Thomas Mann, a German writer who had borrowed the plot from a short story from Kathasaritsagara, a magnum opus written in Sanskrit by Somadeva of 11th century. Both Mann and Karnard have depicted sensuality, metaphysics, entangled identities, the problem of love and individuality, an existential humanistic perspective, a philosophical engagement with human conditions, relevance about human sufferings, desire and liberation, sense of alienation, freedom of choice, sensuousness and sensibility, stark reality, absurdity, scopes and limits of human desires and metaphysical emptiness in their works. Hayavadana follows an age-old Yakshagana, which is a traditional theatre style of Southern Karnataka, India. The stories of Devadatta, Kapila, and Padmini and Sridhman, Nanda and Sita center on the conflict between body and mind or mind and matter. The consequences of the confliction reach its zenith after the transposition at the Goddess Kali temple. The play Hayavadana is named after a character in the subplot which also suffers from the alienation of body and mind. Although initially the heads, personified by Devadatta and Shridaman win, later, the bodies, personified by Kapila and Nanda demonstrate their equal power over human emotions and actions; ultimately it is mind that rules the roost. As Devadatta and Kapila, in Hayavadana, like Shridaman and Nanda in The Transposed Heads, are unable to reconcile this contrast, ultimately the two young men kill each other and the young women Padmini and Sita burn themselves.