PROJECT REPORT ON

THE THEMATIC STUDY OF U. R. ANANTHA MURTHY’S

NOVEL, SAMSKARA
UNDER PROJECT BASED COURSES
MASTER OF ARTS
PART - II
SEMESTER - IV
APRIL/MAY - 2022

DISSERTATION IN FULFILLMENT FOR

AWARDS OF MASTER OF ART'S

BY MISS. RUPALI EKNATH CHAVAN

SEAT NO.

UNDER GUIDANCE OF
PROF. D. D. KAMBLE

SONUBHAU BASWANT COLLEGE OF ARTS AND

COMMERCE, SHAHAPUR, DIST. THANE.

(AFFILIATE TO UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI) MASTER OF

ARTS (ENGLISH)
 INDEX

Sr.No. Particular Page No.

1. The Thematic Study Of U.R. Anantha Murthy's Novel, 4
Samskara.

2. Chapter - 1 5-14

Introduction :
1.1. History of Indian English Novel
1.2. Birth of Novel
1.3. Development of Indian English Novel
1.4. Modern Indian English Novel

3. Chapter - 2 15-20

Life and work of U. R. Anantha Murthy's

2.1 Introduction of U.R. Ananth Murthy's
2.2. Early Life
2.3. Career
2.4. Literary Work
2.5. Person life
2.6. Political Career
2.7. Controversies
2.8. Awards
4. Chapter - 3 21-34

3.1. The Themes of Love and Marriage In U R. Anantha

Murthy's Novel, Samskara
3.2. Religious, Cast and Modernity : A study Of U.R. Anantha's
Murthy's Novel, Samskara
3.3. Rituals In Conflict With Modernization : A Critical
Perspective on U. R. Anantha Murthy's Novel, Samskara

5. Chapter – 4 35-44

4.1. The Themes of Religious Orthodoxy In U.R. Anantha

Murthy's Novel, Samskara
4.2. Samkara : An Outline
4.3. Superiority And Social Injustices In U.R. Anantha Murthy's
Novel, Samkara

6. Chapter - 5 45-58

5.1. Character's
5.2. The Quest After Divinity

7. Conclusion 59-63

8. Analysis 64-72

9. Selected Bibliography 74-75

 CERTIFICATE

This certifies that the project entitled The Thematic Study Of U. R. Anantha Murthy’s
Novel, Samskara has been submitted by Miss. Rupali Eknath Chavan towards partial
fulfillment of the requirement of the Master of Arts under the Project Based Courses under the
guidance of Prof. D.D. Kamble at the Sonubhau Baswant College of Arts and Commerce,
Shahapur, Dist . Thane, affiliated to University of Mumbai .

The matter presented in this dissertation has not been submitted for any other purpose in
this institution.

Place :- Shahapur.

Date :-

Tejashree Chavan
Project Guide (External Examiner)

Dr. D.D. Kamble

Head
Principal Signature Department of English

1
 DECLARATION

I Am Rupali Eknath Chavan, a student of M.A. Part - II (English), semester - IV, of

Sonubhau Baswant College of Arts and Commerce, Shahapur, Dist . Thane , hereby declare that I
have completed this project on The Thematic Study Of U. R. Anantha Murthy’s Novel,
Samskara in the academic year 2021-22 under the Project Based Courses in semester - IV as per
the requirements of University of Mumbai as a part of Master of Arts in English programme .

The information submitted in the project is true, genuine and fair to the best of my
knowledge.

(Rupali Eknath Chavan)

2
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is a matter of great pleasure to acknowledge the assistance and contribution of the number
of individuals who have helped me to complete this project on The Thematic Study Of U. R.
Anantha Murthy‟s Novel, Samskara. I take this opportunity to thank Prof. D.D. Kamble his
valuable guidance in the successful completion of my project. He took valuable time out of his
busy schedule to analyze my material and gave me many important tips that have greatly helped
me to improve my project.

I would also like to thank Prof.D.D. Kamble, Head, Department of English, for his valuable
guidance.I also thank all my friends for helping me in the preparation of this project.

Signature Of Student

3
The Thematic Study Of U.R. Anantha Murthy Novel,
Samskara

4
CHAPTER - 1

5
 Introduction :

1.1.) History Of Indian English Novel :-

A History of the Indian Novel in English traces the development of the Indian novel from
its beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the present day. Starting with an extensive
introduction that charts important theoretical contributions to the field, this History includes
twenty-five chapters that shed light on the legacy of Indian writing in English. Organized
thematically, these chapters examine how English was “made Indian” by writers who used the
language to address specifically Indian concerns. These included the question of what it means to
be modern as well as how the novel could be used for anticolonial activism. By the 1980s, the
Indian novel in English was a global phenomenon, and India is now the third-largest publisher of
English language books. Written by a host of leading scholars, this History invites readers to
question conventional accounts of India‟s literary history.

Ulka Anjaria is Associate Professor of English at Brandeis University. She is the author
of Realism in the Twentieth-Century Indian Novel: Colonial Diff erence and Literary form and
has published in such journals as South Asian Popular Culture, NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction , and
Economic and Political Weekly. She was the recipient of an ACLS/Charles A. Ryskamp
fellowship in 2014 for her current book project on realism in contemporary Indian literature, film,
and television.

It is frequently referred to as Indo - Anglian literature. ( Indo-Anglian is a specific term in

the sole context of writing that should not be confused with Anglo- Indian ). Although some Indo
- Anglian works may be classified under the genre of postcolonial literature, the repertoire of
Indian English literature encompasses a wide variety of themes and ideologies , from the late
eighteenth - century to the present day, and thereby eludes easy categorization.

IEL has a relatively recent history, being nearly two centuries old . The first book written
by an Indian in English was The Travels of Dean Mahomet , a travel narrative by Sake Dean
Mahome, published in England in 1794. In its early stages, IEL was influenced by the Western
novel . Early Indian writers used English unadulterated by Indian words to convey an experience
which was essentially Indian. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-1894) wrote Rajmohan's
Wife and published it in 1864; it is the first Indian novel written in English. Lal Behari Day's
Govinda Samanta or the History of a Bengali Raiyat was published in 1874 and the same author's
Folk Tales of Bengal : Life's Secret was published in 1912. Bianca , or The Young 36. Spanish
Maiden ( 1878 ) by Toru Dutt was the first novel written by an Indian woman . Both Toru Dutt
and Krupabai Satthianadhan, two promising Indian English writers of the nineteenth century died
6
untimely in their respectively. twenties and thirties early Satthianadhan's autobiographical novel
Saguna : A Story of Native Christian Life was published serially in The Madras Christian
CollegeMagazine from 1887 to 1888. The only other novel by Satthianandhan is Kamala : The
Story of a Hindu Life ( 1894 ).

The non - fictional body of prose - works, consisting diaries, political manifesto, articles,
of letters, speeches, philosophical works etc. in Indian English literature of the nineteenth and the
early twentieth century, is rich and varied. The speeches of Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath
Tagore, Chittaranjan Das, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose, to
name only a few, shaped the destiny of modern India and also the destiny of English language in
India (Auddy, 9-10). Gandhi's indian Home Rule or Hind Swaraj (1910) was written in an
indigenised variety of the English language and challenged successfully ' the hegemony of
Standard English ' (Auddy, 169) even before R. K. Narayan, M. R. Anand and Raja Rao.

Raja Rao (1908-2006), Indian philosopher and writer , authored Kanthapura and The
Serpent and the qualities. Kisari Rope, which are Indian in terms of their storytelling Mohan
Ganguli translated the Mahabharata into English, the only time the epic has ever been translated
in its entirety into a European language . Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) wrote in Bengali and
English and was responsible for the translations of his own work into English. Dhan Gopal Mukerji
(1890-1936) was the first Indian author to win a literary award in the United States. Nirad C.
Chaudhuri (1897-1999), a writer of non - fiction, is best known for his The Autobiography of an
Unknown Indian (1951), in which he relates his life experiences and influences P. Lal (1929-
2010), a poet, translator, publisher and essayist, founded a press in the 1950s for Indian English
writing, Writers Workshop. Ram Nath Kak ( 1917-1993), a Kashmiri veterinarian, wrote his
autobiography Autumn Leaves, which is one of the most vivid portraits of life in 20th century
Kashmir and has become a sort of a classic.

R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) contributed over many decades and continued to write till his
death. He was discovered by Graham Greene in the sense that the latter helped him find a publisher
in England. Greene and Narayan remained close friends till the end. Similar to the way Thomas
Hardy used Wessex, Narayan created the fictitious town of Malgudi where he set his novels. Some
criticise Narayan for the parochial , detached and closed world that he created in the face of the
changing conditions in India at the times in which the stories are set. Others, such as Greene,
however, feel that through Malgudi they could vividly understand the Indian experience. Narayan's
evocation of small town life and its experiences through the eyes of the endearing child protagonist
Swaminathan in Swami and Friends is a good sample of his writing style. Simultaneous with
Narayan's pastoral idylls, a very different writer , Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004), was similarly
gaining recognition for his writing set in rural India , but his stories were harsher , and engaged,
sometimes brutal, with divisions of caste, class and religion. According to writer Lakshmi
7
Holmström, " The writers of the 1930s were fortunate because after many years of use, English
had become an Indian language used widely and at different levels of society, and therefore they
could experiment more boldly and from a more secure position. " Kamala Markandeya is an early
writer in IEL who has often grouped with the trinity of R.K. Narayan , Mulk Raj Anand and Raja
Rao. The contributions of Manoj Das and Manohar Malgoankar to growth of IEL largely remains
unacknowledged.

1.2.) Birth Of Novel :-

U.R. Anantha Murthty‟s „Samskara‟ was first published in 1965 and it was made into a film
in 1970. Since then, it had created a lot of controversy in academic and non-academic circles. The
theme of the novel is the story of a decaying Brahmin Agrahara in the old Konkanregion.

The title of the novel „Samskara‟ has different meanings. According to „A Kannada-
English Dictionary‟ by Reverent F. Kittel, the word „Samskara‟ has the Following nine possible
meanings:

1. Forming well or thoroughly, making perfect, perfecting; finishing; refining, refinement,

accomplishment.

2. Forming in the mind, conception, idea, notion; the power of memory, faculty of recollection,
the realizing of past perceptions.

3. Preparation, making ready, preparation of food etc., cooking, dressing…

4. Making sacred, hallowing..

5. Consecration, consecration of a king, dedication etc.

6. Making pure, purification, purity.

7. A sanctifying or purificatory rite or essential ceremony (enjoyned on all the first three classes
or castes).

8. Any rite or ceremony. Funeral obsequies.

Interestingly enough, the novel incorporates most of the meanings of the word „Samskara‟ in its
scope and content. According to A.K. Ramanujan, who translated the novel into English, the title
8
refers to a concept central to Hinduism. The sub-title of his translation, „A Rite for a Dead Man‟,
is the most concrete of these many concentric senses that spread through the work.

The central theme of the novel is the death of Naranappa and the complications connected
with the issue of his cremation. Naranappa was an anti Brahminical Brahmin who spent all his life
in defying Brahmin beliefs and lifestyles. He brought a lower-caste prostitute to the agarahara and
lived with her in his house. He even invited Muslim friends to the agrahara and openly consumed
alcohol and non-vegetarian food so as to insult the other Brahmins.

When Naranappa died, his cremation became a complicated issue. The Brahmins did not
want to do the last rites of Naranappa because they were afraid that the guru at Sringeri might
excommunicate them for cremating a heretic. At the same time, they wanted the cremation to be
over as soon as possible because they were not even permitted to eat or drink anything while a
Brahmin corpse awaited cremation in the agrahara. Finally they left the issue to Praneshacharya
who was the head of the village.

Praneshacharya searched all the holy books to find a solution to this problem. Chandri, the
concubine of Naranappa, submitted all her jewels at his feet to meet the expenses of the burial
rites. This act of Chandri further complicated the issue because all the Brahmins suddenly turned
greedy on seeing such a large quantities of gold. Now they all wanted to do the rites so as to get
the gold. Praneshacharya became afraid that the love of gold might corrupt the whole agrahara.

Praneshacharya couldn‟t find a solution to the dilemma of the burial issue even after
consulting Manu and other holy texts. So he went to the Hanuman temple and prayed for some
divine direction. But the God Hanuman refused to enlighten him in anyway. While he was
returning from the Hanuman temple, Chandri tempted him in the darkness. He fell to the
temptation and made love to her then and there.

The sexual relationship with Chandri totally transformed Praneshacharya. He felt that he
no longer had any moral right to continue as the spiritual leader of the agrahara. So he refused to
direct the Brahmins in the issue of the burial.

Chandri became desperate and she approached the lower caste people to do the burial. But
they refused “to meddle with a Brahmin corpse even if she gave them all eight kinds of riches”.
Finally she went to the Muslim section and pleaded to Ahmed Bari, the fish merchant. Ahmed Bari
accepted the challenge and secretly cremated the dead body at midnight.

Chandri wept for her dead lover and returned to Kundapura, her native village.

9
 Samskara - A Rite for a Dead Man, a novel by U R Ananthamurthy was first published
inKannada language in the year of 1965. This work presents the Indian society with a place
reserved for the high-class Brahmin society- their values and attitudes in life based on the
hypocritical notions which they have practised for long years. When it got published, the book
created a trigger in the Indian society. Ananda Murthy, being a brahmin himself exposed the beliefs
of the community. It questioned the traditional cultural set up of the highest strata of the society.
Samskara is considered to be one of the major works belonging to the modernist movement in the
Kannada literature, commonly called the Navya.

The setting of the story in the backdrop of a street in Durvasapura and the Brahmin
community called the Madhavas are talked of in particular. Madhavas are those with an extreme
traditional mindset who follows the rules and regulations established by the religion. The
dominating characters of the play are Naranappa, Praneshacharya and Chandri. The story revolves
around the incident of the death of a brahmin named Naranappa. This is the beginning of the novel.
There is a dilemma faced in conducting the last rites of Naranappa. Then he introduces the
protagonist of the novel called Praneshacharya. He is asked to solve the situation dealing with
Naranappa‟‟s cremation. The story then revolves around the life events associated with
Praneshaacharya as he gets involved in the cremation.

The novel opens with the author introducing Praneshacharya, a crest jewel of Vedanta‟.
He returned to Durvasapura after completing his Vedic education from Varanasi. Being the most
learnt among the Madhava community of Durvasapura he became their leader. The only aim that
he had was attaining „moksha‟ or liberation. To attain the same, he marries an „invalid woman‟
named Bhagirathi. Serving her was his way of Practicing self-sacrifice and hence he remains
celibate.

Through this particular work, Anantha Murthy speaks of his own perception regarding
man‟s existential plight. Samskara has been adapted into a movie by Girish Karnad, who played
the character of Praneshacharya. The film won the President's Gold Medal as the Best Film at
National Film Festival in the year 1970. The novel was translated into English by A K Ramanujan
in the year 1976. The novel got translated into several other Indian languages and foreign
languages thus extending and breaking the global barriers. This book became a landmark of Indian
Literature. It is considered as a classic of modern fiction.”

10
1.3.) Development Of Indian English Novel :-

In the nineteenth century with the publication of Bunkim Chandra Chatterjee ‟Rajmohan‟s
Wife (1864) and Lal Behari Day‟s Govind Samanta(1874), Indian novel in English has grown by
leaps and bounds in respect of thematic variety and linguistic maturity. Both of them have used an
acquired language to comment on the Indian social context. But compared to the recent output,
most early novels in English were almost imitative and faulty. It is assumed that Indian novel in
English has its roots in the nineteenth century realistic tradition of English novel. The impact of
English education, national awakening and the influence of European models are the chief factors
responsible for the rise and development of Indian novel in English. But with the passage of time
the Indian novel in English has become thoroughly Indian in terms of the themes, techniques and
the human values. In this regard, Meenakshi Mukherjee (1985: viii) observes that: “The novel in
India can be seen as the product of configurations in philosophical, aesthetic, economic and
political forces in the larger life of the country”. “Despite obvious, regional variations, a basic
pattern seems to emerge from shared factors like the Puranic heritage, hierarchical social structure,
colonial education, disjunction of agrarian life and many others that affect the form of the novel
as well as its content.” In order to understand rise and development of Indian English Novels, it is
necessary to take into consideration its emergence, developing stages and continuing traditions.

The Indian novel in English has-been divided into three successive periods such as:

a) novel from 1875 to 1920,

b) novel from 1920 to 1947, and

c) novel from 1947 onwards, by the Indian scholars like K.R.S. Iyengar (1962), M.K.Naik (1982)
and Meenakshi Mukherjee (1985), considering the socio-political changes in India before and after
the Independence. On the other hand, The classification of the novel by P. K. Rajan (1995: 9)
refers to

a) Early Realism: From 1864 to 1935,

b) Critical Realism: From 1935 to the 1960‟‟s,

c) Modernism: From the 1960s to the1980s, and

d) The New Novel: From 1981 onwards. However, such classification has its own limitations as
placing an individual writer in a specific period creates several problems. Besides, an individual

11
writer practices several literary modes and values of representation at the time of writing. Hence,
the whole corpus of Indian novel in English may be divided into three broad groups:

a) The traditional novel of social realism before Independence.

b) The modern novel of experimentation after Independence.

c)A new contemporary novel since 1981.The intellectuals in India before Independence
Concentrated on the national awakening and the society in a realistic manner. Bengal seems to be
the source of the Indian novel in English for the prominent pioneers of the nineteenth century were
upper-class Bengali writers, for instance, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Toru
Dutt, and Rabindranath Tagore, who dealt with the social problems within their reach. These
writers were not merely the Imitators of the West but they had in the words of Meenakshi
Mukherjee (1971: 19), “direct involvement in values and experiences which are valid in the Indian
context. “The pioneer novelists were trying to establish a new sense of social morality in place of
the age-old social values. They were social reformers and with them, the novel became an exercise
in social realism.

“The Indian novelists in English have their roots in two traditions – the Indian and the
Western. It was a challenge for them to expresses distinctly an Indian sensibility in an acquired
language. “Thus the novel, with the publication of Salman Rushdie‟s Booker prize-winner
Midnights Children (1981) received an international acclaim and became a major force in the
world literature. It has created the Indian tradition of fiction to which belong “Rushdie‟s Children”
(The New York Times, 16 December, 1991), viz. Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Allan Sealy,
Upamanyu Chatterjee, ShashiTharoor, FarrukhDhondy, Rohinton Mistry and Firdaus Kanga. Each
one of them produced prize-winning novel. In their hands, the Indian novel in English made
tremendous progress.

Besides these makers of new novel‟ some other novelists were concerned with the life and the
experiences of the minorities in India, for example, Pratap Sharma, RangaRao, Boman Desai,
Mukunda Rao, Gopal Gandhi and so many others enriched the realm of Indian novel in English
beyond the expectations. According to K.R.S.Iyengar (1985:322) novel is “a living and evolving
literary genre, and is trying, in the hands of its practitioners, a fusion of form, substance and
expression that is recognizably Indian yet also bearing the marks of universality.

12
I.4.) Modern Indian English Novel :-

The rise of modern Indian literature in the nineteenth century reveals the complexity of India's
encounter with colonialism, and of the country's entry into modernity. As early as 1835, the British
colonial government had introduced English education for upper-class Indians, so that they could
serve in the administration of the colony. With the establishment, in 1857, of universities in the
three Presidencies of Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), and Calcutta (Kolkata), a significant
number of Indians gained access to European thought. The colonists had hoped that an English
education would teach their Indian subjects Western values, and would wean them from what they
considered pernicious ideas propagated by Indian religious and literary texts. British condemnation
extended to the aesthetic of Indian literature as well.

However, the creation of an English-educated upper middle class affected Indian literary
production in ways that the colonial government could hardly have anticipated. The new education
had brought with it the nineteenth-century European ideals of individualism, progress, and
nationalism. Stung by British criticism of Indian society and literature, yet exhilarated by European
Orientalist scholars' celebration of ancient Indian culture, Indians began writing in modern literary
forms to represent new realities, but also to reimagine India's history, and to advocate for social
and political change. And they wrote in the Indian languages, rather than in English. Prose fiction,
marked by realism, linear narrative, and a focus on the individual, displaced the earlier Indian
literary modes of myth and poetry, with their emphasis on ideal images and social types. Not
surprisingly, the novel, a form whose development in Europe was linked with the rise of the middle
class and the concept of the nation, became the principal genre of Indian literature in the last quarter
of the nineteenth century. However, from the very beginning, Indian writers shaped the Western
literary form to suit Indian linguistic, literary, and cultural sensibilities, drawing eclectically from
the diverse literary traditions they had inherited, both classical and popular, in Sanskrit, Persian,
and the regional languages.

The "Bengal Renaissance" in Calcutta, the British capital, was at the vanguard of the new
literary and cultural movements. The pioneering writer Bankim Chandra Chatterji wrote Bengali
novels on social reform and resistance to colonial rule. In Bisha briksha (1873; translated as The
Poison Tree, 1884), Chatterji treated the plight of upper caste Hindu widows, who were forbidden
to remarry. His Rājsingha (1881) was a fictional account of the glory of the Rajput chiefs,
suggestive of the grandeur of Indian civilization; in Ānanda Math (1882; translated as The Abbey
of Bliss, 1906), in the guise of a historical novel about an earlier period, he allegorized the violent
overthrow of British rule in India. By 1885, the date of the founding of the Indian National
Congress, an organization dedicated to economic and political reform, the ideals of nationalism
and social justice had become the inspiration, not only for political activists, but also for Indian
writers.
13
 Many early Indian novelists dealt with social issues, and especially with controversies
relating to the treatment of women in Indian society, the object of the most trenchant European
criticism, and a sore point with Indians, both reformers and traditionalists. The early novels
focused on the ways in which Indian women of the middle and upper classes were oppressed by
the denial of personal freedom, education, and economic autonomy. The writers were also deeply
engaged with the question of women's entry into the modern nation and public life, and the
tremendous social upheavals these developments entailed. Chatterji's Poison Tree, Baba
Padmanji's Yamuna paryatan (Yamuna's journey, 1857, in Marathi), and Chokher bali (1901, in
Bengali; translated as Binodini, 1968) by Rabindranath Tagore, a great humanist and a towering
figure in the history of modern Indian writing, were only three among a large number of novels
focusing on the condition of widows. In Indulekhā (1889), the first novel written in Malayalam,
Chandu Menon presented his eponymous heroine as the ideal "modern" woman. In Ghare bāire
(1915, in Bengali; translated as Home and the World, 1919) Tagore criticized fanatic nationalism,
while sympathetically portraying the dilemmas of women caught in the debate between tradition
and modernity. In the 1880s and 1890s, publishing short stories that sensitively depicted the lives
of ordinary villagers in East Bengal, the multifaceted Tagore introduced the short story genre to
Bengali (e.g., Chuti, 1892; translated as The Homecoming, 1916) and to Indian literature.

14
CHAPTER - 2

15
 Life And Works Of U. R. Anantha Murthy's

2.1.) Introduction Of U. R. Anantha Murthy's :-

Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy (21 December 1932 – 22 August 2014) was an

Indian contemporary writer and critic in the Kannada language. He was born in Thirthahalli Taluk
and is considered one of the pioneers of the Navya movement. In 1994, he became the sixth
Kannada writer to be honored with the Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in
India. In 1998, he received the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India. He was the
vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala during the late 1980s. He was one of the
finalists of Man Booker International Prize for the year 2013. He remained a fervent critic of
nationalistic political parties until his death from kidney failure and cardiac arrest on 22 August
2014.

2.2.) Early Life :-

Ananthamurthy was born into a Kannada-speaking brahmin family in Melige, in

Thirthahalli taluk in the Shimoga District. His education started in a traditional Sanskrit school in
Doorvasapura and continued in Tirthahalli and Mysore. After receiving a Master of Arts degree
from the University of Mysore, U. R. Ananthamurthy taught in the English department at
University of Mysore (pictured) for a while before embarking to England for further studies on a
Commonwealth Scholarship. He earned his doctorate from the University of Birmingham in 1966
for his dissertation thesis entitled "Politics and Fiction in the 1930s''.

2.3.) Career :-

Ananthamurthy started his career as a professor and instructor in 1970 in English

department of University of Mysore. He was the Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University
in Kottayam, Kerala from 1987 to 1991. He served as the Chairman of National Book Trust India
for the year 1992. In 1993 he was elected as the president of Sahitya Academy. He served as a
visiting professor in many Indian and foreign universities including Jawaharlal Nehru University,
University of Tübingen, University of Iowa, Tufts University and Shivaji University.
Ananthamurthy served twice as the Chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India. In 2012
he was appointed the first Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka. He was also a reason for
the establishment of Humanities department of Manipal University. Later in 2012 he served as a
16
visiting faculty at Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University for four
months.

Ananthamurthy has participated and delivered lectures in numerous seminars as writer and
orator both in and outside the country. He was the member of the committee of Indian writers and
visited countries like the Soviet Union, Hungary, France and West Germany in 1990. He visited
Moscow in 1989 as board member for a Soviet newspaper. Ananthamurthy was the leader for the
committee of writers who visited China in 1993.

2.4.) Literary works :-

Ananthamurthy's works have been translated into several Indian and European languages
and have been awarded with important literary prizes. His main works include "Prashne",
"Aakasha Mattu Bekku", Samskara, Bhava, Bharathipura, and Avasthe. He has written numerous
short stories as well. Several of his novels and short fiction have been made into movies.

Most of Ananthamurthy's literary works deal with psychological aspects of people in

different situations, times and circumstances. His writings supposedly analyse aspects ranging
from challenges and changes faced by Brahmin families of Karnataka to bureaucrats dealing with
politics influencing their work. Most of his novels are on the reaction of individuals to situations
that are unusual and artificial. Results of influences of socio-political and economic changes on
traditional Hindu societies of India and clashes due to such influences – between a father and a
son, husband and wife, father and daughter and finally, the fine love that flows beneath all such
clashes are portrayed by Ananthamurthy in his works. This is evident in his stories like Sooryana
Kudure (The Grasshopper)", Mouni (Silent Man)", "Karthika, "Ghatashraddha'' etc. It does not
mean that Ananthamurthy is just clinging to portraying only such somewhat standard subjects of
Indian literature of his period. His novelette Bara (Drought) portrays the dynamics of a drought-
stricken district of Karnataka and the challenges and dilemmas a bureaucrat may face in such
situations.

The central figure of the novel Sooryana Kudure –Venkata is shunned by his son and wife
for his easy-going attitude that does not take him anywhere. Venkata is a non-achiever when could
not achieve any material or monetary success in his life.

However, he is a simpleton who does not take life's suffering to his heart too much. He
likes to see life as living in the love of Amma (or mother-goddess). In all sufferings of life, he has
the child-like curiosity about the smallest things in life like a grasshopper (Suryana Kudure). The
evening after his son revolts and leaves the house, he would be engrossed in a sight in his yard, a
17
grasshopper shining in the sun's light.His several novels were made into films like Samskara, Bara,
Avast, Mouni, Sookha, Ghatashraddha and Diksha.

2.5.) Personal Life :-

U. R. Ananthamurthy met his wife Esther in 1954 and they were married in 1956. They
had two children, Sharath and Anuradha. He resided in Bangalore for most of his later life. His
son in law Vivek Shanbhag also is a famous writer in Kannada.

2.6.) Political Career :-

U. R. Ananthamurthy made an unsuccessful run for the Lok Sabha in 2004 in which he
stated that his prime ideological objective in opting to contest the elections was to fight the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Prime Minister of India H. D. Deve Gowda had
made an offer for Murthy to contest for his party. However, after the Janata Dal (Secular) worked
a power sharing agreement with the BJP, Murthy said:

I will never forgive my friends in the Janata Dal (Secular) for joining hands with the BJP.
Ananthamurthy also contested for the Rajya Sabha elections from state assembly in 2006.

The idea proposed by Ananthamurthy to rename ten cities in Karnataka including

Bengaluru from their colonial forms to actual native forms was accepted by the Government of
Karnataka and the cities were renamed on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of the
formation of Karnataka.

2.7.) Controversies :-

In June 2007, Ananthamurthy declared that he would not take part in literary functions in
future in the wake of strong criticism for his reaction on S.L. Bhyrappa's controversial novel
Avarana that appeared in a section of the media.

In 2013, Murthy's statement that there is a reference in the Mahabharata to Brahmin's

consuming beef drew flak from Hindu religious leaders. Vishwesha Teertha Swami of Pejawar
Math commented that there was no reference to Brahmins consuming beef in the conversation
18
between Bhishma and Yudhishtira or anywhere else in the Mahabharata and Murthy's statement
came as a surprise to him.

A vocal critic of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)/Jan
Sangh for over 50 years, Murthy said in 2013 that he would not live in the country ruled by BJP
leader Narendra Modi. He later clarified that those remarks were made when he was "overcome
by emotion" and said that he had no such plan, though he continued to oppose BJP.Murthy was
given special police protection after he began receiving threatening phone calls. Later when Modi
became the Prime Minister he was given a free ticket to Pakistan by a group of Modi supporters
called "Namo Brigade”. The co-founder of "NaMo Brigade", Chakravarti Sulibele, publicly
criticised Murthy quoting:

"The mandate after the results were out was quite clear. Mr. Ananthamurthy must respect
the majority sentiment and accept it. If he does not accept the mandate and thinks Pakistan is a
more secular country, then that is where he should be living.

"He also added -

“We decided to send him to Pakistan because he always talks about how our relationship
with Muslims should be. So we thought maybe he likes Pakistan‟s secularism model better and
better be sent there."

After Murthy's death was announced on 22 August 2014, several BJP and Hindu Jagarana
Vedike were booked for celebrating his death by bursting crackers at four places in Mangalore and
one spot in.

2.8.) Awards :-

1984 : Rajyotsava Award

1994 : Jnanpith Award

1998 : Padma Bhushan

2004 : Sahitya Academy Fellowship

2008 : Nadoja Award by Kannada University

19
2011 : Shortlisted for The Hindu Literary Prize (Bharathipura)

2012 : D. Litt. Honoris Causa of the University of Calcutta

2012: Basheer Puraskaram

2013 : Nominated, Man Booker International Prize

Karnataka State Film Awards

1970-71 - Best Story Writer – Samskara (1970)

1977-78 : Best Story Writer – Ghatashraddha (1977)

20
CHAPTER - 3

21
3.1.) The Themes Of Love And Marriage In U. R. Anantha Murthy's Novel,
Samskara :-

The central theme of the novel is the death of Naranappa and the complications connected
with the issue of his cremation. Naranappa was an anti-Brahminical Brahmin who spent all his life
defying Brahmin beliefs and lifestyles. He brought a lower-caste prostitute to the agarahara and
lived with her in his house. The title Samskara itself has many stratum of meaning. It means
culture, ritual and refinement, power of memory, sacred consecration, purificatory rite and funeral
obsequies. The translator had to give the meaning as „a rite for a dead man‟.

The central theme of the novel is the death of Naranappa and the complications connected
with the issue of his cremation. Naranappa was an anti Brahminical Brahmin who spent all his life
in defying Brahmin beliefs and lifestyles. He brought a lower caste prostitute to the agarahara and
lived with her in his house.

The title Samskara itself has many stratum of meaning. It means culture, ritual and
refinement, power of memory, sacred consecration, purificatory rite and funeral obsequies. The
translator had to give the meaning as „a rite for a dead man‟. Samskara, beautifully translated by
the great poet and scholar A. K. Ramanujan, is a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death
encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and the
erotic.

The central theme of the novel is the death of Naranappa and the complications connected
with the issue of his cremation. Naranappa was an anti Brahminical Brahmin who spent all his life
in defying Brahmin beliefs and lifestyles. He brought a lower caste prostitute to the agarahara and
lived with her in his house. Ananthamurthy‟s novel Samskara has been closely debated and
discussed ever since its publication in 1965. It was translated into English by A.K. Ramanujan in
1976. The novel is seen as a criticism of Hinduism which strikes at the heart of brahmin dogma.
The title Samskara itself has many stratum of meaning. It means culture, ritual and refinement,
power of memory, sacred consecration, purificatory rite and funeral obsequies. The translator had
to give the meaning as „a rite for a dead man‟. Anantha Murthy‟s Samskara is a religious novel.
It attacks the traditional and orthodox principles of the Hindu religion. The novel exposes the
conservative life style of the Kannada Brahmins. scholar A. K. RamanujanSamskara, beautifully
translated by the great poet and scholar A. K. Ramanujan, is a tale of existential suspense, a life-
and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and
the erotic.

22
 Ananthamurthy portrays the narrow minded and conservatism of the Brahmin community,
through the rise and fall of the protagonist Praneshacharya. The narrative has Miltonic undertones,
where a man is “tempted” to get the “forbidden fruit”, which in this case is Chandri – a lower caste
woman, and how the actual acts leads to the man‟s downfall. Just like in John Milton‟s Paradise
Lost, Samskara also has a narrative wherein women bear the weight of the blame.

Here, Chandri, who is a victim of the predatory heterosexual male gaze, is blamed for
corrupting the chaste Acharya.

It is very natural that the writer should use the metaphor of rebirth or remaking while
talking of Pranesacharya's new identity . Witness his musings on page 107 quoted above. Near the
end when he has taken the final decision of confession, he imagines that he will turn into a new
man at midnight ( 131 ). The rebirth motif reminds us that the title Samskara not only means a rite
for a dead man but, as Ramanujan suggests, also transformation “The rite for a dead man becomes
a rite of passage for the living”.

Another related metaphor that Pranesacharya uses to describe his uncertain spiritual state
is that of a lost soul, a ghost . After the loss of his wife, he says, he entered limbo, a lost soul ( 120-
21 ) . But he also dreads entering the real world, the demonic world of cock fights, a world of
cruelty and violence and passion. I dread it . It's the dread of being transformed from ghost to
demon . The encounter with Padmavati also offers him another chance to leave the ghostly stage
behind and move to the next stage of soul but he still dreads the moment of transition and goes
away for the temple . It is only in the temple that he decides to take the final plunge and be a fully
autonomous person .

We can see Pranesacharya moving out of himself and undergoing experiences that he had
not dreamt of but significantly he finally decides to come back home . Clearly the movement is
from the identity given by a moribund, closed, god - driven community to the identity as a fully
responsible individual. When the novel ends, the confession is still several hours away and so is
the new identity that he will make for himself . But though he is autonomous, he feels himself to
be accountable to his community. Hence his decision to go back to his agrahara. Pranesacharya
could be called an insider - rebel but he is not an iconoclast of the kind Naranappa is.

23
3.2.) Religion, Caste And Modernity : A Study Of U.R. Anantha's Novel,
Samskara :-

Anantha Murthy‟s Samskara is a religious novel. It attacks the traditional and orthodox
principles of the Hindu religion. The novel exposes the conservative life style of the Kannada
Brahmins. Anantha Murthy‟s Samskara is a religious novel. It attacks the traditional and orthodox
principles of the Hindu religion. The novel exposes the conservative life style of the Kannada
Brahmins. The Brahamins of Durvasapura agrahara lead a dull, sterile and passive life by
suppressing their sexual desire.

U.R. Ananthmurthy's Samskara has already achieved the status of a classic. It is one of the most
important post-independent novels written in India which studies both metaphysical and social
aspects of Hinduism. It is very well known that the main aim of the religion is to liberate the human
beings. So the human beings follow the rituals and prayers and other dictates of the religion in
order to gain an entry into the paradise; and to attain moksha as in the case of Hinduism. Religion
not only controls the spiritual life of the individuals, but also the social lives of the adherents.
Impact of religion starts before the birth of an individual and continues even after death. It plays a
major role in shaping the psyche of an individual and influences his decisions regarding marriage,
and social relations. In the case of Hinduism, the most well-known social practice that has been
studied by the scholars in India and abroad is that of casteism. Samskara studies not only the
spiritual aspect of Hinduism and the caste system, but also orthodoxy in rituals. The sociological
and anthropological studies that have been done in the field of religion and casteism have tried to
study them from the scientific point of view, but the novel treats them in a literary way. Without
commenting directly on anything, the novelist tells his story and leaves the job of interpretation to
the readers. The current paper is an attempt to study the novel as a treatise on the ways of achieving
moksha and the validity of casteism from religious point of view, and its impact on the Indian
social system.

The first theme that is taken up by the novel is about life after death. One of the greatest
metaphysical aspects of the religions is that they offer glorious life after death in paradise to their
selected followers. They have also laid different criteria to judge the eligibility of the pious
candidates who vow for it. This criterion generally includes: following a set of rules, leading an
honest, faithful and pious life. The Hindus yearn for even a step further and want to achieve
moksha , a kind of supra-existence which means freedom from the cycle of birth and death. But
what is the best way of achieving that supra-existence is the question that has been contemplated
by the human beings since the rise of religion. The question becomes even more important because
of the diversity in Hindu beliefs and culture. Murthy probes this question through the character of
a Brahmin named Praneshacharya who is renowned in South India for his knowledge of scriptures
and is known as “crest jewel of Vedic learning.”
24
 Another important issue that has been taken up in the novel is that of caste. It not only
probes if the caste has its origin in the religion, but also its impact on the people of different castes.
The first difference that is evident between the Brahmins and the lower caste is that of
complications in social life. The life of Brahmins is full of complications while the life of the
untouchables is remarkably simple. This is evident from the title of the novel which also means
the last rites of a person, for the Brahmins this is a very complex affair as they are forbidden to eat
anything while the uncreated body is lying there in the agrahara. In addition to that there are a lot
many rituals connected with the last cremation rites and there are lot many things at stake also.
The Brahmins are afraid that they might lose their Brahmin hood by cremating Naranappa who
did not lead a life of an orthodox Brahmin. This complicated ritualistic affair is compared with the
cremation rites of the untouchables who just leave the bodies and “fired the huts (Samskara,
40).”When the novel was published it was a centre of lot of controversy for its portrayal of the
Brahmins. U.R. Ananthamurthy has himself written:

I remember once a mild-mannered, hospitable woman who had served me lunch, beckoned
to me as I was preparing to leave. 'Nobody likes us anymore. Why do you poke fun at us? If you
had ridiculed members of other castes could you survive? Because we endure it even when people
sneer at us, everybody chooses to ridicule us. Is that the right thing to do?'

There is no doubt that the Brahmins in the novel are described in a very negative light. In
the agrahara of Durvasa Pura we do not find even a single Brahmin who is described in positive
words with the only exception of Praneshacharya. Their bodies are shown to be deformed and they
are shown to know all kinds of sins: “sins of gluttony, sins of avarice and love of gold”(Samskara,
24). Portrayal of Brahmin males is somewhat positive as there are no untouchable male characters
in the novel to compare with, but the portrayal of Brahmin females is most damaging as they are
described as “short, plump and round” Samskara, 31) and their cheeks “sunken,” breasts
“withered” and mouths “stinking of lentil soup” (Samskara,37). The Brahmin females in the novel
are all asexual objects devoid of any feminine charms. Moreover, they are all greedy and scheming
ladies who have strong lust for gold and wealth. On the other hand, the untouchable females are
described as the epitomes of feminine beauty. In the novel Chandri is described as “utterly
beautiful, beyond compare,” and while telling his friends about Chandri, Sripati challenges his
friends: “In a hundred-mile radius, show me such a doll, and I 'll say, you're a man” (Samskara,
38). The Brahmin females are compared with untouchable girls like Chandri and Belli who are not
only sexually attractive, but also faithful and good hearted. Chandri readily parts away with the
gold ornaments for the cremation rites of her beloved Naranappa, while Brahmin females start
competing with one another in coveting for that gold. The portrayal of Brahmin women as asexual
objects seems unjust when we have a look at the Brahmin ladies like Hema Malini, Sonali Bendre,
Vidya Balan and Moushmi Chatterji and others who are considered among the most beautiful
25
females. But here the novelist lets his own thoughts, own biases seep in the text. In the novel he is
not depicting the Brahmins in negative light, but the practitioners of untouchability.

In his personal life U.R. Ananthmurthy has been very vocal against the caste system. In his
Author's note to Bharathipura he has written:

“If you ask me what is the worst of Indian civilization, I would say it is untouchability. I
can understand slavery-a slave can fight back-but untouchability gets internalized. The victim
gradually begins to feel he is untouchable”

There is no doubt that Brahmin males and females are portrayed in the most negative light
in the novel, but by showing them like this the novelist seems to portray the idea that the people
who do physical work gain physical beauty so the untouchable females are beautiful while the
Brahmin females are “plump.”

There are some people who have argued that caste system is a part and parcel of Hinduism,
the writer himself was acutely aware of that. In his essay “Five Decades of my Writing” he tells:

“The world I grew up assumed that the caste system and the hierarchies associated with it
were rock-like and permanent and God-made”(2007:17).

These myths are broken by the writer through the character of Praneshacharya. The novelist
shows that when a savant like Praneshacharya can misinterpret the Dharma then the others surely
can. Then there is an incident in the novel where Praneshacharya recalls the story of a brahmin
who was “debarred from the places of sacrifice” (Samskara, 48) because he was addicted to
gambling, but even then the gods came to answer the gambler's call. This incident clearly shows
that when the Gods can go to answer the gambler's call then surely they cannot be so prejudiced
against some human beings to label them untouchables, and thus the practice of untouchability is
not of divine origins as some people have called it to be. Praneshacharya himself believes in the
concept of pollution as in the beginning of the novel he does not want to talk to Chandri because
“he would be polluted”(Samskara, 2). Towards the end of the novel.

Praneshacharya does not want to sit and eat in the temple because he is in pollution period.
There is a popular belief that if any person in pollution will eat in the temple then the temple chariot
will not move. Praneshacharya eats in the temple but the temple chariot does not stop. So the
pollution caused by his wife's death proves to be a myth. Similarly the pollution caused by the
touch of human beings and the entire system of untouchability based on the notion of inferiority
of human beings is a myth which needs to be demolished. It is important that these thoughts have
been aired by the author in many of his essays: “Hinduism means many things to many people. It
26
is the worship of Nirakar Brahman, as well as fulfilling the most selfish desires through vratas. It
says that this creation is the manifestation of God, and, it also holds the most rigid kind of caste
system”(2007:305). This statement by Murthy brings out the essential dichotomy of the people
who practise untouchability. The question that is posed by the writer is if every human being is a
manifestation of God then how some of us can be untouchables. The people who believe that
casteism has religious sanction often quote Manu Smriti as the source. There is the reference to
the text in the novel also. But it should be noted that Hinduism does not start or end with Manu
Smriti. Hinduism is a dynamic tradition that keeps on changing with time so it cannot be identified
with the religious texts like Vedas or Upanishadas or Manu Smriti. There are number of texts in
Hinduism which are interrelated and independent at the same time. For example somebody facing
the question of Sri Krishna's killing in Mahabharata will find the reason behind it in Ramayana,
but at the same time both the texts are different in their organisation and are separated by
considerable time. So some shlokas occurring in the Manu's text cannot be considered as the sole
basis for caste system, before doing that the other texts are to be consulted also. For example a
hymn in Rigveda tells about the occupation based caste system rather than the birth based:

A bard a m I, my dad's a leech, mammy lays corn upon the stones.Striving for wealth, with
varied plans, we follow our desires like kine.(Indiya Web) (Rig Veda hymn CXII Soma Pavamana)

The hymn tells about the three persons of the same family doing the job of three different
castes. Similarly in Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna says: “The four divisions of society (the wise, the
soldier, the merchant and the labourer) were created by me according to the natural distribution of
qualities and instincts” (Web). These two shlokas from the two important books definitely show
that the caste system was not based on birth it was rather based on occupation and the system was
fluid where everybody was able to change his or her caste according to his or her abilities. This
point is also emphasised in Mahabharata: “That Shudra who is ever engaged in self-control, truth
and righteousness, I regard him a Brahmin. One is twice born by conduct alone It is also important
to note that caste system is only supported in Dharma Sutras and Smritis, but they never had the
same status as the other religious canon known as Shruti (Vedas and Upanishdas) and “it is laid
down that whenever there is a conflict between the shruti and smriti literature, it is the former that
prevails. It is Manusmriti, which is particularly supportive of caste system but where it conflicts
with Vedas and Upanishads, the latter would prevail”.

The kind of critique Ananthmurthy has attempted could have been done by a Brahmin only.
The novel becomes even more important as it is an account of an insider, an experience of a person
who was a member of a community that practised untouchability. The novel is indeed a strong
critique of the caste system and effectively proves that it has no place in the modern society and at
the same time also proves that it has no religious sanction as argued by many. Moreover, the novel
becomes even more authentic social document when we come to know that it is not entirely
27
fictional and is based on the childhood experiences of the writer. The writer himself tells: “In my
village everyone thought that Samskara was a totally realistic novel, and they identified every
character with a living person in the agrahara. And when I went back to my village the woman
next door said, “Oh Anathu, you have created Chandri perfectly.” Each and every character was
real”(2007:370). Taking the raw material from his life, the writer remarkably proves that caste
system has no sanction in the religion and at the same time proves that orthodoxy too is an alien
concept for Hinduism which is dynamic and mobile and always ready to accept changes.

3.3.) Rituals In Conflict With Modernization : A Critical Perspective On U. R.

Anantha Murthy's Novel, Samskara :-

U. R. Ananthamurthy is one of the most important representative writers in the literature

of Kannada language. The short novel Samskara by U. R. Anantha Murthy, Professor in English
at the Mysore University, created a big rumpus in Karnataka when it was First published in 1965
in the Kannada language. The novel seems an accurate estimate of Brahmin society in the sixties
or more correctly the Brahmin societies of all times which suffer the serious problems of
backwardness despite having intellectuals among them as their energy has been directed by their
age-old convictions, beliefs, customs, traditions and superstition. Ananthamurthy raises sensitive
issues like rituals, samskara, untouchability, sex, communal feeling and human weakness such as
avarice, envy, selfishness, and lack of human concern in the brahmin community.

Ananthamurthy‟s characters ultimately favor freedom from the shackles of ritualistic

performances. Naranappa the rebel character in anti-brahmanical in deeds but Praneshacharya, the
righteous brahmin rejects the double standard thinking. After the death of his wife Bhagirathi he
wants to settle his life with Chandri a prostitute. The sudden death of Naranappa brings the real
examination of Acharya‟s ideals, learning, and wisdom. This event brings a real man out of
Acharya‟s being, burdened with suffocating scriptural knowledge. He wants to live like an
ordinary man neither a righteous brahmin nor the crest jewel of Vedic learning.

The present research paper raises serious critical questions on the various facets of reality
in socio-cultural milieu. The novel helps the reader to understand the cultural crisis, set goals with
right approach to progress positively in socially amicable atmosphere. “Samskara means religious
purificatory rites and ceremonies for sanctifying the body, mind and intellect of an individual so
that he may become a full-fledged number of the community” So the question is, are the Brahmins
of agrahara really cultured? Have they been purged to understand the nature of Brahmin? The chief
protagonist Praneshacharya undergoes the process of purification. His shift from hard core
ritualism to realism is thought provoking. The author‟s iconoclasm flows undercurrent. The
problem of the death rite of Naranappa is before the brahmin community of Durvasapura.
28
Ananthamurthy asks the readers for the solutions for all the problems originating from casteism,
untouchability, conflicting thoughts and actions in ritualistic life.

Praneshacharya stands for ritualism. He went to Kashi (Benaras), studied there, and
returned with the title “Crest-Jewel of Vedic Learning”. He is the local guru of all the brahmins,
not only of Durvasapura but also of those living in the surrounding villages. He believes
completely and practices the law of Karma in special. Praneshacharya wants to attain salvation,
and is ready to undergo any sort of tests on the path to salvation. He has deliberately married an
invalid sick woman. He leads a celibate life and is proud of his self-sacrifice. His life is pure,
totally devoted to religion, utterly devoid of selfish motives. The another tarnished person who
lives in this agrahara is Naranappa. The novel opens with the death of Naranappa, a rebel character.
A controversy arises regarding Naranappa‟s death rite because being a brahmin he was
antibrahminical in practice “Alive, Naranappa was an enemy; dead a preventer of meals; as a
corpse, a problem, a nuisance.”(03) Naranappa a catalytic agent who affects change, favors
modernism, rejects brahminhood and brings home Chandri, a prostitute, from Kundapura, a nearby
town. He drinks alcohol and invites muslims to eat meat. He throws Saligrama, the holy stone
which is believed to represent God Vishnu, into the river, and spits after it. If the flowers in the
backyards of the other brahmins are meant mainly for the altar, and if their women wear only
withered flowers gathered from the altar in their hair which hangs at their back like a rat‟s tail,
Naranappa grows the night-queen plant in his front garden. Its intense smelling flowers are meant
solely to decorate Chandri‟s hair which lies coiled like a thick black cobra on her back.

Naranappa, with his muslim friends catches sacred fish from the temple tank, cooks and
eats them. Other brahmins are aghast at this sacrilegious act. They have believed, till then, that
these fish should not even be touched, that whosoever touches them will vomit blood and will die!
Naranappa has even corrupted the youth of the agrahara. Because of him one young man left
Durvasapura and joined the army, where he was forced to eat beef. Another young man left his
wife and home, and joined a traveling group of singers and actors. Naranappa‟s only ambition in
life seems to do everything that destroys the Brahmin hood of the agrahara. His only sorrow is that
hardly anything of it is left to destroy, except for the Brahmanism of Praneshacharya.

Orthodox society does its best to suppress the revolutionary Naranappa and by
excommunicating they want to get rid of himBut Praneshacharya is against this radical step. He
still hopes to win over Naranappa, and lead him back to Dharma, the proper path. Who knows how
long the battle between Dharma (adhering to the right path) and Adharma (rejecting the right path)
would otherwise last? Some days ago Naranappa goes to Shivamogge, a town far away, and returns
with high fever. Soon he develops a big lump, and dies within a couple of days.

29
 Naranappa dies but his actions struggle to correct the society. The immediate complicated
question is, “Who should cremate Naranappa?” Every Brahmin is afraid to volunteer, because he
fears that his Brahmin hood would thus be polluted because Naranappa was theoretically a brahmin
when he died. The holy books and Lord Maruti offer no relief to Praneshacharya to find the answer.
But Chandri, a prostitute has an answer not for the right person for cremating but for the enigmatic
acharya and stinking orthodox society. In a moment Chandri projects acharya to the world of
ordinary mortals.

A long list of rituals seems futile. Initially Praneshacharya decides on the second course of
action. He even runs away from home after his wife dies of plague. But wherever he goes he is
haunted by the fear of discovery and haunted by Chandri‟s touch. The novel ends as
Praneshacharya decides to return to Durvasapura, and to own up to his fall. But Anathamurthy, the
author of “Samskara”, does not answer the other important question. It is the question of what the
brahmins should do when they are confronted with the confessions of Praneshacharya. What does
one do when faced with such truth? As the translator A.K. Ramanujan puts it, the novel ends, but
does not conclude.

Indians has a value system that governs its intellect and sensibility. The writer depicts a socio-
religious change in the novel. We can set examples of the enlightened great men of all times like
Ram Krishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, who had
command over their senses and mind and worked for social, national and human causes and
sacrificed all the pleasures of life within their approach. But Preneshachrya is a victim of his own
fickle mind, practicing egotism, full of fear of losing honor. As a normal human being he wants to
enjoy all the material pleasures centered on women and children. But he cannot do this because
his wife is a sickly woman whom he nurses following the Law of Nishkam Karma. The lack of
sensual pleasure is creating psychological lacuna in him. He perceives some truth in Naranappa‟s
ways of life and sex. When Naranappa attacks on Acharya‟s reading of lush sexy Purnas and his
life devoid of sexual pleasure, Acharya stops telling the luscious Puranic stories in the evening and
starts on moral tales of penance and he finds that : his own enthusiasm for reciting the Puranas
faded and died… the young listeners… stopped coming… Only women bent on earning merit,
uttering the names of god over yawns in the middle of the stories, and old old men, were his
audience now.

The society of Durvasapura requires immediate reform. The novel presents a sexually
suppressed society, where sex is considered wrong and avoidable concept, yet everyone wants to
enjoy it. The orthodox brahmins have forgotten the concept of free sex in natural society. Its
necessity can‟t be overlooked in a healthy society, even Lord Krishna establishing the supremacy
of sexual pleasure says: “Arjun I am the might of the mighty, free from passion and desire: in being
I am the sexual desire not in conflict with virtue or scriptural injunction.” (Bhagwadgita,VII:11)
30
Sex is a true source of religiosity and all round social development. It is the lowest point of oneness,
and meditation the highest peak of oneness and “a sexually suppressed society cannot be really
religious because the function of mediation is being substituted by sex … a sexually free society
is a step toward seeking, searching, and the search will become keener as days pass.”

Ananthamurthy has invested Naranappa with reformative vigor and violence. Naranappa
is an active player in the novel. His death puts a big question mark on the ritualistic society.
Naranappa is an autocrat, he lives freely breaking all traditions and practices of brahminism. He
does what he likes without pretensions and hypocrisy. So he seems anti-social. But an anti-social
is eventually a reformer also. He re-orients the society – so also a spiritual man does not conform
to society either and is a leader of society. But the way Nararnappa displays a destructive phase of
social change in the society. In the sixties it might have drifted many as we have been a country,
with the understanding of Law of karma, samskaras, morals and ethics. It seems objectionable as
it does not portray the sublime Indian culture and, yes, it is acceptable that it may entertain few
exceptions with very weak morals. Still we should strive to achieve the best of Indian wisdom and
emerge out of the dirty drains of the west.

Ananthamurthy depicts a social change ensuing sexual intercourse either it is between

Praneshacharya, a brahmin and Chandri a low caste prostitute, Naranappa and Chandri, or
Shripathi a brahim and Belly, Putta and Bhagirathi a prostitute. The question is- can such sexual
relations transform the society or eradicate untouchability as there is union of high caste males and
low caste females? If yes, what a chaotic society that would be. Although the novel slightly touches
the problem of prostitution in traditional Indian societies, still there is no serious concern to
understand the real nature of our culture. Casteism as we find it today is now nothing more than a
misrepresentation and misinterpretation of a legitimate and progressive Vedic system known as
varnashrama. The original Vedic system called varnashrama was legitimate and virtuous. It was
meant for the progressive organization of society. Varnashrama is the Vedic system that divides
society into four natural groups depending on individual characteristics and dispositions. Varna
literally means colour, relating to the colour or disposition of one‟s consciousness, and, thus, one‟s
likelihood of preferring or showing various tendencies for a particular set of occupations. This
would be determined not by one‟s birth, but by one‟s proclivities as observed by the teachers in
the school that the student was attending. For example, there are those who prefer to offer service
to society through physical labour or working for others, or through various forms of expressions
like dance and music (called Shudras); those who serve through agriculture, trade, commerce,
business, and banking or administrative work (Vaishyas); those who have the talents of leaders,
government administration, police or military, and the protection of society (Kshatriyas); and those
who are by nature intellectuals, contemplative, and inspired by acquiring spiritual and
philosophical knowledge, and motivated to work in this way for the rest of society (the
Brahmanas). It was never a factor of whether a person had a certain ancestry or birth that
31
determined which class was most appropriate for him or her, although being born in a particular
family or tribe would give a natural likelihood to continue in the same line of activity. In actual
sense none of the characters in the novels except Praneshacharya stands in favour of brahminism
strictly. All the brahmins Durgabhatta and Sripathi, Dasacharya, Lakshmana and Garuda, are
depraved and damned souls having insatiable lust for body, food, gold and property. The brahmin
of agrahara are utterly decadent, narrow-minded, selfish, greedy, jealous. Their brahmin hood
consists solely of fulfilling rules, following traditions which are thousands of years without
understanding reasons and logic behind them. They are afraid that if the rules are not followed
disasters will fall upon them. In this way the agrahara of Durvasapura is nothing special as forty
or fifty years ago many villages and towns in South India had such agraharas. Therefore the present
novel is a fiction far away from the real Indian culture and it does not work as a lamp post to guide
the souls wandering in dark. The small society of agrahara is in the changing phase of life style
and reflects socio-religious and socio-psychological reality. Agrahara system is disintegrating.
Samskara depicts loosing reins of actual religious understanding, which on the part of the writer
seems a mere presentation of mundane reality rather the holding mirror to move the mass in the
right direction. Ananthmurthy‟s most potent character Praneshacharya is the most ficle one, a mere
book worm with sound retention capacity and reasoning and the least rationale to turn his
knowledge into action. Society has been in great need for change in the right direction whether in
late sixties, nineties or in the present time. And the novel presents merely the change of ethics but
not the destination the change will lead to. Ananthamurthy portrays the selfish and narrow attitude
of corrupt brahmin community where objective approach to life is a mere principle of their
teaching. These brahmin indulge in Varjit Karma. They are full of revolving dimensions of lust
and worldly desires. Their lives are full of immoral actions as they do not meet the standards of
morality. The true morality is grounded in spirituality and moral is that which reflects a spiritual
awakening. Conduct is imperfect unless it proceeds from a spiritual vision of all being as one. All
good spontaneously follows from spiritual realization.

Therefore; Swami Rama says: Highest morality is just such an adjustment of inner relations
with outer relations that the good outside becomes greatest joy within. (Maheshwari 1969: 111)
But all the brahmins of Agrahara except Praneshacharya are corrupt and selfish of highest order.
Dasacharya lives entirely on the meals that rahmin get at death-rites and anniversary (108). To the
connoisseur eyes of Durgabhatta, Chandri is, A real „sharp‟ type exactly as described in
Vatsyayana manual of love, look at her, toes longer than the big toe, just as the love manual says.
Look at those breasts. In sex she‟s the type who sucks the male dry like Matsyagandhi, the
Fisherwoman shyly trying to hide her breasts bursting through the poor rag of a sari. (08) Garuda
seizes all the property of child widow „Laxmidevamma the „I‟ll-Omen‟ or „Half-wit
Lakshmidevamma‟ and leaves her to starve. The possession of gold torments Garuda and
Lakshmana (niggard of niggards, emperor of penny-pinchers, mother deceiver etc). It is observed
that the greed, envy and lust are behind the conflict and disintegration among these depraved
32
brahmin of agrahara. It is also evident that the cause of disintegration is desire for more in every
field and “so the more we acquire the greater is our disintegration… from this desire to be or to
acquire more, springs the universal disease jealousy, envy etc.” (Krishnamurthy 1970: 169).
Shripati Lakshmana‟s son-in-law is a staunch follower of Naranappa. Anusuya deprives Sripathi
of sexual pleasure he establishes relation with Belli, an outcaste shaven widow. He finds Belli
better than any other brahmin girl he says, “which brahmin girl was equal to Belli? Her thighs are
full when she‟s with him. She twists like a snake coupling with another''. Thus he enjoys his life
in his own way. He drinks toddy and maintains friendship with a balladeer of Kelur troupe. Evil
emanates from Man‟s nature. God is not a source of evil Satan‟s existence is not denied but that is
a power created by God to test a man. Man‟s will is the only source of evil. Man encounters in his
mind seven social sins of sensuality, dishonesty, intemperance, anger, talkativeness, malice and
illness and he is required by Judaic Law to avoid these sins.

Samskara depicts the similarities between brahmin and low-caste people. These low castes
live outside the (village) agrahara. They are poverty stricken, have no systematic life, they serve
in the villages and farm and are untouchables. They believe in ghosts and demons. If some member
of a family is sick, it is generally understood that he is under the influence of some evil spirit. For
example; when Billy's parents are sick and crying out aloud of tormenting body pain and fever.
But Chinne says: “Look how the fellow cries in fever. Don‟t know if the Demon is trading on him
too.” When Chowda and his wife die, the low caste community people gather weep on the death
and set the hut on fire along with the dead bodies. Same method of cremation is repeated when
Belli‟s parents die.

These low-castes eat tobacco, drink liquor, work in farms and also satisfy sexual lust of
strayed Brahminto get money. These outcastes have belief in the existence of demons and evil
spirits, therefore, in order to protect themselves from the anger of such evil spirits they offer them
sacrifices. Belli‟s people sacrifice a cock to the demon and vow that they will sacrifice a sheep at
the next new moon. Yet both Belli‟s parents “died the same night Praneshacharya‟s wife passed.”
(106) Thus Ananthamurthy describes how the low caste people lead life full of superstitions .And
therefore, their pain and misery never end.

Thus to conclude Ananthamurthy‟s Samskara portrays the rural life and activities of
different segments of society in an agrahara but major focus is on the Brahmin community. It is a
story of human existence with its psychological weaknesses and strengths. The novel shows the
shift of ethics due to modernization. Ananthamurthy portrays a realistic picture of the hidden as
well revealed facts of brahmin community. It is a nice description of follies and foibles of orthodox
Hindu societies. So many critical questions are left to the readers, but the readers are not supposed
to be the role players in such societies but the elites or the serious and silent observes. Therefore
the novel fails to prove a lamp post or a revolutionary step to the upcoming generation for showing
33
the true path of morality, ethics and brahmin life in the sublime vedic culture. The need of time is
cultural reformation as India has been facing culturalcrisis and the novel with such stuff in the
sixties or today hardly proves to be a valuable product to serve the real Indian culture. Because we
stand for what is sublime we touch the fine veins of nature. Purgation (samskara) in the flame of
Ancient Wisdom is still the need of hour.

34
CHAPTER – 4

35
4.1.) Themes Of Religious Orthodoxy In U. R. Anantha Murthy's Novel,
Samskara :-

Anantha Murthy‟s Samskara is a religious novel. It attacks the traditional and orthodox
principles of the Hindu religion. The novel exposes the conservative lifestyle of the Kannada
Brahmins. The Brahamins of Durvasapura agrahara lead a dull, sterile and passive life by
suppressing their sexual desire.

The novel is all about the traditional Brahmanical society, their beliefs and superstitions.
The story revolves around Naranappa”s death. Naranappa, being a brahmin, violated each and
every belief of Brahminism.

The story revolves around the events associated with his crematory practises. The novelist
has made use of a serious tone and also, he made sure to include humor, irony and satire to expose
the hypocritical thoughts and practises of the high caste. Brahmins belong to the highest ranking
of the four social classes. According to the Purusha Sukta, all the social classes emerged from the
body of Purusha. Brahmins are said to emerge from the mouth of Purusha, also, it was from the
mouth where the scholars believed that the world was formed. Thus, Brahmins were placed at the
highest level. He begins with the news of Naranappa‟s death.

“The news of death spread like a fire to the other ten houses of the Agrahara. Doors and
windows were shut with children inside. By god‟s grace, no Brahmin has yet eaten. Not a human
soul there felt a pang at Naranappa‟s death, not even women and children. Still in everyone‟s heart
an obscure fear, an unclean anxiety. Alive, Naranappa was an enemy; dead, a preventer of meals;
as a corpse, a problem, a nuisance.” (Murthy, 3)The other brahmins who came up to
Praneshacharya asked him to give advice regarding what was to be done with Naranappa‟s body.
It was a Brahminical custom thats none of the brahmins are supposed to cook or eat when someone
belonging to their community meets death. None of them were ready to cremate him stating that
he defied all brahmin laws when was alive. They tear apart Naranappa‟s reputation stating that he
degraded the brahmin community. One of the main reasons which they stated was that he lived
with a low-class concubine named Chandri. Nobody Volunteered to cremate him but they wanted
to somehow cremate him since all they were concerned was about when could they have meals.

The attitude of these brahmins change suddenly when Chandri, who was a low caste
prostitute offered them with jewels. This clearly shows the irony in what they preach and what
they practice. They were the same group of people who were totally against Naranappa and
criticised him. But now, they are ready to compromise the same brahmin rules they talked about
for the sake of money. Again, they were extremely superstitious. The entire village of Durvasapura

36
is struck by a plague. The villagers consider the plague as an after effect of not cremating the body
of Naranappa. Next, considering the protagonist, Praneshacharya, a duality is seen in his
Brahminical character. He is described as the „crest jewel of Vedanta‟. He married Bhagirathi at
the age of sixteen. She was an, invalid woman‟. Acharya has been serving her for the past twenty
years. He considered it as an action of self-sacrifice.

He believed that serving Bhagirathi over his entire lifetime would help him achieve his
goal of attaining moksha or liberation but, there is an instance mentioned in the novel where he
refuses to touch her when she has her menstrual cycle. This is a Hindu belief that women are
impure during this phase and touching them would make a person to be labelled as polluted. As
the story proceeds, we see the protagonist go astray from following his Brahminical ideals and he
is seen with the concubine Chandri. He even gave up his long- preserved celibacy. This act of his
serving Bhagirathi is considered as practicing the concept of Dharma as preached in the Hindu
tradition. This concept is all about the duty, religious merit and ethics to be followed. But we see
a conflict between traditions and their breach. Another factor which throws light on the Brahmin
orthodoxy in the novel is their superstitious beliefs. One of the best quoted examples is of the
character of Lakshmidevamma, an old woman. She got married at the age of eight, widowed at
ten, her in-laws died when she was just fifteen.

The fellow brahmins believed that she was responsible for all the deaths happening around
her. They believed that she was cursed. As a result of which she was always an„ outcast‟ in her
own community. Also, her being a woman added up more to her being moved towards the
periphery in her own caste. The author also throws light on the patriarchal domination in the
brahmanical society.

When it comes to the portrayal of women the duality in the brahmin perception is evident.
All of them were against Naranappa for living with Chandri who, being a concubine, was also a
woman of low-caste.

Everybody feels shame on her and said that a look towards her would pollute them. Again,
we see in the novel where the Brahmin men are seen comparing the bodies of their wives with
bodies of low-caste women.

They say that their wives, women of the upper caste in general, have sunken eyes, hollow
cheeks and their breasts gag and fall. By all these they meant to simply convey the fact that they
find their wives unattractive. Also, those who first refused to cremate Naranappa in the beginning
became ever ready to do the same when Chandri offered her jewels in return. With money in front,
there is no class consciousness bothering them. Another orthodox viewpoint was that the women
are responsible to their husbands once they are married off. To substantiate the same, we can
37
consider the case of Putta”s wife. She is a victim of domestic violence and an unhappy marriage.
Putta does not allow her to go visit her parents and the reason that he states is that he cannot bear
the expenses of her journey. Once women are married off, they are meant to leave their parents
and serve their husbands and this was the duty assigned to them as per the tradition.

4.2.) SAMSKARA: An Outline :-

The story opens with the death of Naranappa. He was a brahmin by birth but, he engaged
in several immoral practices thus violating the rules of Brahmanism. He ate non vegetarian food,
caught fishes from the temple pond, kept company with the Muslims, drank alcohol, threw the
sacred stone- saligrama‟ into the pond and he had been living with Chandri, his concubine. He
openly challenged the brahmin orthodoxy in the agrahara '' of Durvasa Pura. Hereturned from
Shivamogga and died of high fever. Chandri comes to Praneshacharya seeking his advice on how
the last rites should be carried out. The news of his death spread so fast that the other brahmins
gathered at Praneshacharya‟s house to know what was going to happen. The brahmins cannot cook
and eat in their house until the dead body is ritualistically disposed of. As Naranappa defied the
brahmin-hood none of them were willing to carry out the last rites nor were ready to bear the
funerary expenses.

Chandri offers her gold ornaments to meet the expenses. Both Garudacharya and
Lakshmanacharya become ready to perform Naranappa”s last rites but only in exchange of
Chandri”s gold. Praneshacharya looks into the sacred books to find a solution for the issue. But he
could find none. Things would have been easy if Naranappa was excommunicated from the society
when he was alive. This was also once planned. It was then he threatened them saying he would
convert into Islam and would degrade the Agrahara. Other brahmins visited Parijata Pura looking
for Naranappa‟s friends.

Finally, Manjayya, a rich merchant, agreed to take up the expenses. Praneshacharya goes
to the Maruti temple to seek a divine intervention on this matter. Before he took his leave,
Praneshacharya handed Chandri back her ornaments.

He couldn‟t get any answers even from the temple. He left the temple exhausted and that
was when he came across Chandri. She fell at his feet and her firm breasts touched his feet and it
ignited him with extreme passion. He loses his well-preserved celibacy. He wakes up in the middle
of the night in the forest to find himself lying on Chandri”s lap. He is filled with extreme guilt and
says that he defied the customs so that he is no longer apt to lead the Madhavas of Durvasa Pura.
He says, “I am qualified to perform samskaras only for myself.” Chandri decides to arrange the

38
funeral rites by herself because she didn‟t want Praneshacharya to get exposed before the other
brahmins. Chandri could not stand the sight of Naranappa”s rotting corpse either.

Finally, with the help of a Muslim friend, Ahmad Bari, she manages to cremate Naranappa
alone. After this Chandri packs her belongings and she leaves for Kundapura, where she once
lived. Praneshacharya left for Durga Sapura, but the guilt never left him. He was a changed person
now. He experienced a feeling of having fallen into a deep pit while attending his wife Bhagirathi.
After spending a night with Chandri, now looking at his wife who is all skinny and flat he realized
that the feelings which he had suppressed all these years has plunged back into him.

The villagers came again regarding the issue of cremation; he told them that he is not some
kind of a super human and that he is “charged with all attachments and aversions of workday
humanity.” He told the villagers that they are free to do what they want with the corpse. The
brahmins were quite surprised by this behaviour of Praneshacharya. They left for Kaimara to get
an advice for this issue from Subbanacharya. He orders them to cremate the body and deposit the
gold in the mutt as he dies without an heir.

Praneshacharya goes for a swim and then suddenly he remembers the moments he spent
with his mother. Then one by one almost all his lost desires of boyhood came back to him. He then
rushes to the spot in the forest where he shared the moment with Chandri. “Here I am. Take me.
Hold me,” he calls out. He then returns back home to find Bhagirathi whose condition worsened
by the raging plague in the Agrahara. She dies in his arms. He cremates her and leaves for a journey
to rediscover himself.

During this journey he meets a man named Putta who never keeps his mouth shut. He
follows him everywhere like “the sin of his previous birth.” Putta takes him to the temple festival
at Melige. The serpentine curves of a girl acrobat remind Praneshacharya of Chandri. Again, he
meets a woman named Padmavati. Her charms almost work on him. But he decides to go back to
Durvasapura and tell the truth to the fellow brahmins.

Putta was keen on accompanying him and met his friend Naranappa. Praneshacharya could
not tell Putta that Naranappa was dead because he believed that telling him would only create more
complications. A passing bullock cart offers to take one of them to Durvasapura. Putta offers the
cart to Acharya who hops in the cart with an anxious expression.

The author left it for the imagination of the readers to conclude regarding what will happen
in Durvasapura hereafter. The readers could decide whether Acharya owns up his guilt or not. In
the novel there is conflict between reality and appearance, tradition and defiance of tradition. A K
Ramanujan suggests that the novel ends, but does not conclude. What is suggested is a movement
39
and not a closure as Acharya‟s initiation is an anxious return, waiting on threshold, his questions
seem to find no restful answers.``

4.3.) Superiority and Social Injustice in U.R. Anantha Murthy’s Samskara :-

In the Indian History hierarchy of caste has been an important issue related with hegemony,
and power dynamics. Over the years social hierarchy have manoeuvred to gain and retain the
supremacy of social domain by using and appropriating, theories , discourses, sources of
knowledge, and ideologies, which have been the effectively and primarily responsible for the
marginalization of the people especially belonging to category of powerless and low caste. But it
has been well said “every dog has a day” from past few decades on the one hand, there has been
rise in the discourse of marginalised people be it Dalits, women or downtrodden tribes, on the
other hand these groups like Dalits and marginalised women not only contesting the domination
and supremacy of higher class but also giving and offering the counter discourse and canon. We
are claiming to reign the whole world in this 21st century but Caste system is a disease, blight,
hindrance and what not which mars all our claims. By so called establishments: religious or socio-
cultural, this system is exploiting women and low castes in numerous ways from not only decades
but from centuries. Murthy is much successful in portraying the voice of abused and downtrodden
people by using his literary apparatus be it satire, humour or irony.

U.R. Anantha Murthy, one among those brilliant novelist who won the worldwide fame,
his novel Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978), originally
written in Kannada, translated by A.K Ramanujan into English, has led its author to the presidency
of the Sahitya Academy. Ananthamurthy, representative of the „Navya‟ movement, is recognised
as an iconic and important writer in India as well as in abroad. In his works he examines well the
themes like caste system, traditions, religion,

changing values with the changing world and cultural value system. He has finely depicted
the elements of socio-culture crystal clearly. The notable event in his life is that although born in
a Brahman family he never accepted their rites and rituals, he was always against them. Caste
system, religion, rules, culture, tradition, rituals and rites were the basic and fundamental issues to
discuss in his works. The important issue discussed by him is untouchability: a complex, mythical
caste system. With the mystery of present and past he also depicts and portrays the tale of passion,
mystery, spiritual exploration very artistically . Besides there are so many important social issues
he has depicted: zealousness towards the turbulence, contradictions, tensions and contemporary
social disorders.

40
 His Samskara, a modern classic, holds mirror to social evils: casteism, disintegration of
Hinduism and untouchability. The novel presents, in a Brahmin agraharam, a trajectory of crisis,
be it religious or cultural. The modern and proclaimed writer V. S. Naipaul, aptly described
Anantmurty‟s portrayal of Hindu society in his controversial book, India: A wounded Civilization
(1977) as, “Anantamurti has portrayed a barbaric civilization, where the books, the laws, are
buttressed by magic, and where a too elaborate social organization is unquickened by intellect or
creativity (except to the self in its climb to salvation).” (109) If, Samaskara, on the one hand is a
novel depicting best examples of caste system, class conflict, performance of tradition and lust for
physical relations, it on the other hand presents the complexity of human relations. The most
important character in the novel Pranes Acharya represents the caste and class conflict, moreover
presents the performance of rituals in each and every activity of the life, giving the solution on
cremation and its performance. As portrayed in the novel it was the upper class who ruled and
governed Bhartipura, they did not allow the lower class people to do the same and were not
permitted to enter the premises of temple.

The Novel is a big trouble to traditionalists who don‟t like the spectacle of mercenary
Brahmins, despite novels renown, leftists are also troubled as the book fails to politicise and
historicise its issues; feminists are troubled, who are frustrated by the absence of any women except
withered effects and sexy shakuntalas; no doubt, the list, could go on, as the translator quotes in
the afterword that the novel is "a movement, not a closure" in any traditional sense of the term
(147). We don‟t have an easy answer to a straightforward question; we end, instead, with a
protagonist who is on the road, "anxious, expectant" (138). Proceeding further and analysing the
novel‟s main idea, pollution and purity is the only thing which flows in the whole novel. In life‟s
every aspect major role is played by caste system. Brahmins of the novel consider themselves
superior: socially and religiously. They control the low castes and consider them weak,
downtrodden and useless fellows of society. In the novel Chandri, Belli and Padmavati, stamped
as prostitutes, are considered as the property of male Brahmans. Other than Brahmans nobody is
allowed to enter the premises of temple, considering others as dirt and filthy.

Samskara, a narrative of Indian Brahmans, specifically of sixties and precisely of all times.
Sensitive issues: rituals, samskara, untouchability, sexual relations, voracity, lust and inhuman
attitude etc are perfectly raised in the novel. To develop a right attitude, the novel convinces the
readers to comprehend the socio-cultural crisis of Indian society. Title of the novel is very
suggestive and it means as Maheshwari states: “Samskara means religious purificatory rites and
ceremonies for sanctifying the body, mind and intellect of an individual so that he may become a
full-fledged number of the community” (16). The novel raises the question on the Brahmans
whether they are really civilized and enlightened enough to understand the meaning of being a
Brahmins. The shifting of Praneshacharya to pragmatic realis m from orthodox ritualism is
interesting to see the process of samskara or purification. On completing study from Varanasi he
41
returned with the title of “Crest-Jewel of Vedic Learning”. He gets entitled with Guru not only in
Durvasapura but in all the adjacent villages. The Madva brahmans of Durvaspura, except the guru
Praneshacharya, are narrow minded and selfish. The beginning of the novel deconstructs the idea
of self-made Brahmanism of the novel as the Naranappa, a Brahma n violates the law of
Brahmanism, as he has on one hand great faith with the lower castes and on the other hand had
taking a low caste woman Chandri for his concubine. He derides his so called Brahman hood by
breaking all the shackles when he brings his home a prostitute, Chandri. He not only consumes
wine or invite Muslims to home, but also eats meat, corrupts other youth by changing their way of
life from one angle to another, so he is a true rebel against the Brahmanism.

Expressed in the first epigraph, Samskara‟s worldview is confined in socio-cultural

binaries. The world of Samskara is characterized by its hierarchical structure that stretches from
head of Brahman to the limbs of Shudra following the Varna Dharma analogy of Brahmanic
Hinduism. Samskara is a Brahmanic hegemonic text as gaps and silences represent the real
majority of the people. The patriarchal and hierarchical core of the Brahmanic worldview is
reflected in the character of the protagonist, Praneshacharya, high priest of Brahmanism in the
Agrahara. For the sake of maintaining bogus purity, in the novel, Brahmans practice
untouchability, avoiding conversation and touch with the lower class and Dalits. Initially, shown
in the novel, how Praneshacharya was much worried about his purity, when she came to his house
to inform him about the sad demise of Narayanappa, “Chandri was Naranappa Concubine. If the
Acharya talked to her, he would be polluted; he would have to bathe again before his meal.”

In the novel, women and outcastes are obviously the lost folk who are denied the basic
rights: equality, expression, public action and the last rites. They are denied right to speak in front
of men and public. The devotion of Acharya towards his bed-ridden wife too falls prey of this
problematic. As he washes her body he washes himself to remove the pollution from talking to the
Shudra woman, Chandri (1-2). According to Brahmans hollow perceptions they think it is not only
the low castes who make make them dirty but women of "superior birth' too are polluting them.
During periods their own caste women is pollution for them, but Brahmans are deemed to be
eternally pure. If the woman of a Brahman is polluting them, what to say about the outcastes and
their women. Their body and labour are consumable under the cover of darkness and in disguise.
For instance, the experience of Brahmans at night with Belli and Chandri; the story invoked within
the text of Sankara's disguise for safe sex: "Sankara your great founder in his hunger for full
experience exchanged his body for a dead king's and enjoyed himself with the queen, didn't he?"(6-
7). The above quote is the example of double standards of Brahmanism towards women. " Chandri
was Naranappa's concubine. If Acharya talked to her he would be polluted; he would have to bathe
again before his meal" (2).. Subaltern is always blamed: 'This whore, she is seducing g witch! [...I
if she had not given him potions why should he push aside his own kinswoman and throw all the
ancestral gold and jewels on the neck of this evil witch!' (7) So, in the eyes of a Brahman a low
42
caste woman is a whore. She is targeted for being seductive towards male. Their seductiveness is
blamed and cursed while the real villain -patriarchal Brahmanism – goes undetected. A Brahmanic
women considers subaltern women as degraded and useless creatures for polluting "Brahman," by
assuming a cultural and moral policing position, it is interesting to note the Brahman‟s own view
of the low caste-women:

“For the first time his connoisseur eyes had the chance to appraise this precious object
which did not normally stir out of the house, this choice object that Naranappa had brought from
Kundapura. A real "sharp " type exactly as described in Vatsyayana's manual of love- look at her,
toes longer than the big toe, just as the love manual says, look at those breasts. In sex she is the
type who sucks the male dry. Her eyes which should be fickle are now misty with grief and fear,
but she looks good that way. Like Matsyagandhi the fisher woman in the Ravi varma print hung
up in Durga Bhatt's bedroom, shyly trying to hide her breasts bursting through her poor rag of a
sari. The same eyes and nose: no wonder Naranappa threw away the worship stone for her, ate
taboo meat and drank taboo liquor. One wonders at his daring. One remembers Jagannatha the
Brahmin poet who married the Muslim girl, and his verses about the alien's breasts. If
Praneshacharya were not present, if Naranappa wasn't lying dead right there, he would have
happily quoted the stanza and expanded on it even to theses barren Brahmins. 'To the lustful'- that
is Naranappa and his like- 'there is no fear, no shame' as the sayinggoes.

Subaltern women thus became the choice of Brahmins both for sex and for work. Brahman
is at the upper hand having authority at the all he surveys: be it the land or the living bodies that
are created for his service by god! Here the problem receives a crystal clear focus that a Brahman
can have sex with a subaltern woman but cannot talk to her: "Belli was alright for sleeping with;
she was no good for talk. If she opens her mouth, she talks only of ghosts and demons" (41). So
the bodies are useful but not the brains and tongues. The extent of Brahmanic brutality leads
subaltern people to stand self-cursedly at the lords' doorsteps for scraps of rotten food: Chimi
begged standing at a distance: please throw a morsel for my mouth, away. Sitadevi went in, brought
out some betel leaves, and threw them at her. Chinni tucking away the betel in her lap said. (58)
Actions like lifting the excreta and cleaning the toilet of Brahmans made the life of low castes like
wretched of the earth and to be passive towards fate and the Brahmanic hegemony. They silently
adhere the cruel and bogus rules of the elite class and have restricted their life under the evil cloud
of upper castes. People who claim themselves as superior, powerful, intelligent, are nothing but in
reality are poor minded classes, who are sickened by the disease of superiority complex.

Anantha Murthy has ended up with the naked truth that women are exploited and
marginalised be it low caste or upper caste.Women in Samskara have no powers to voice their
feelings. They are mere machines to produce children and do their house chorus. Males dominate
financially, equipped with freedom to keep illicit relations. Society has become an insecure place
43
for women because of man‟s lust. Mr Ishar Singh has rightly said “Evil emanates from Man‟s
nature. God is not a source of evil. Satan‟s existence is not denied but that is a power created by
God to test a man. Man‟s will is the only source of evil. Man encounters in his mind seven social
sins of sensuality, dishonesty, intemperance, anger, talkativeness, malice and illness and he is
required by Judaic Law to a ode these sins.

44
CHAPTER - 5

45
5.1.) Character's :

● The Character Off Praneshacharya :-

Praneshacharya is the leader of the Durvasapura agrahara. He is in his late thirties. He was a
great Sanskrit scholar and got 15 lace shawls and silver platters by winning arguments on religious
topics with other super-pundits. He learned Sanskrit from Kashi and knew the Vedas and the
scriptures thoroughly.

Praneshacharya married an invalid woman called Bhagirathi so as to get greater opportunities

to purify his soul. In spite of 20 years of married life, he could not enjoy the pleasures of sex; nor
could his ailing wife give him a child. But he was not disappointed. He believed that Lord Krishna
wanted to test him on his way to salvation.

Every morning the Acharya started his day by bathing his wife Bhagirathi. He took his
breakfast only after feeding his wife and the cow in his house. These routine works filled the mind
of the Acharya with pleasure and a sense of worth as sweet as the five-fold nectar of holy days.
Thinking about his own lot he proudly swelled and felt “By marrying an invalid, I get ripe and
ready”.

The death of Naranappa created a controversy in the agrahara and the Brahmins were divided
in their views on the burial of this anti-Brahminical Brahmin. They left the issue to the decision of
Praneshacharya. Everyone was ready to accept his verdict.

This situation put heavy responsibility on the shoulders of Praneshacharya. He consulted Manu
and other holy texts and tried to reach at a decision. But he couldn‟t find any right direction from
any of these holy texts.

This incident revealed the weaknesses in the personality of Praneshacharya. He studied the
Vedas from Kashi itself and established himself as one of the most respected Brahmin pundits of
Karnataka. But when a real situation came, his vast knowledge didn‟t prove useful. The proof of
the pudding is in the eating. The body of a dead Brahmin lay awaiting cremation in the agrahara
and he, the head of village, couldn‟t give any guidance to his people even after several hours of
waiting.

The reader of the novel placed him in high esteem in the beginning but this incident was
sufficient to drive away all our fascination for him.

46
 By evening, Praneshacharya became desperate as he couldn‟t arrive at any conclusion. So he
crossed the river and went to the Maruthi temple where the Brahmins of this agrahara worshipped
Hanuman. Inside the temple, he waited desperately for the god‟s favour, His solution. “Without a
proper rite, the dead body is rotting; O Maruti, how long is this ordeal going to last?” - he pleaded.
“If it shouldn‟t be done, give me a sign, at least the flower on the left, please”, he begged. He
entreated me. He sang devotional love-songs to the god. He became a child, a beloved, a mother.
In the lamp light, the flower-decked Maruti didn‟t yield; gave neither the right flower nor the left.

The experience at the Hanuman temple disappointed Praneshacharya very much. “I didn‟t get
the answer in the Books, and I didn‟t get it here”, he cried, “How can I face the people who have
put their trust in me?”.

Finally Praneshacharya returned from the Maruthi temple because it was time for his wife‟s
medicine. He walked out of the temple into the dark forest outside. Chandri stood there in the
darkness to learn the result of his prayer. She overflowed with Compassion for him and fell on his
feet. They came closer, unconsciously embraced and caressed each other in the darkness. As if in
a dream, Praneshacharya made love to Chandri then and there. It was midnight when the Acharya
woke up. His head was in Chandri‟s lap. His cheek was pressed into her low naked belly. Chandri‟s
fingers caressed his back, his ear, his head.

Praneshacharya lost his senses for some time and asked himself :

„Where am I?‟

„How did I get here ?‟

„What is this dark?‟

„Which forest is this?‟

„Who is this woman?‟

After his sexual experience with Chandri, Praneshacharya became a changed man. He lost
interest in guiding the other Brahmins. Very soon his wife Bhagirathi died. After the cremation of
his wife the Acharya did not return to the agrahara. He did not want to take any of his possessions
or money from his house. Intending to walk wherever his legs took him, he walked to the eastern
side. He walked for a long time without thinking about the place or the direction.

47
 It was during this aimless wandering in the forest that he met Putta. A young man joined
him in the walk and introduced himself like this.

“I am Putta, of the Maleras. Going for the car-festival at Melige.”

Praneshacharya didn‟t want to talk and want to be left alone as his mind was in a disturbed
condition. But Putta persisted and continued to give companionship to Acharya in spite of the
latter‟s continuous efforts to shake him off.

The friendship with Putta was the beginning of another complicated experience for
Praneshacharya. It was to reveal before him further secrets of God‟s blessings, which lied unknown
to him in spite of his vast knowledge of the scriptures.

● The Character of Putta :-

Putta is the second most important character of the novel „Samskara‟. But the novelist does not
give any clear idea of Putta‟s native place or other details. We are only told that he belonged to the
Malera community. This community is considered low in others people‟s esteem because they
were the offsprings of brahmins and their lower caste mistresses.

Putta and Praneshacharya met each other for the first time on the forest path between
Durvasapura and Melige. Putta took the initiative and introduced himself to the Acharya. But the
Acharya was not in a mood for conversation. He tried to discourage Putta by talking as little as
posible. But Putta was an extremely talkative person. He went on talking to the Acharya and never
left him alone from that moment. He was oblivious to the fact that Praneshacharya was trying to
get rid of him.

When the Acharya said that he came from down the valley, Putta replied that he knew people
from that place. In fact, his father-in-law lived there!

Praneshacharya wanted to be left alone. So he tried to shake off Putta by sitting under a tree as
if utterly tired. But Putta also immediately sat down under the same tree. To make himself
comfortable, he even took out matches and bidis from the pocket and started smoking one.
Praneshacharya decided to escape while Putta was busy with his bidi. He rose to his feet and started
walking again. Seeing this Putta also got up and started walking and said:

“You know if you have someone to talk to on the road, you forget the road. I, for one,
always need someone to talk to”.

48
 The Acharya tried his best to get rid of Putta but Putta “stuck to him dike a sin of the past.
That way his way: if you stop, he will stop too; sit, he will sit. Walk faster, he will walk faster; if
slower, slower; won‟t leave your side.”

Putta not only followed Acharya closely, but also started giving him many pieces of advice.
Putta had no idea that this gentleman was a great Acharya, the very Crest-jewel of Vedanta. He
noticed that Acharya was walking barefooted and so advised him to buy a pair of sandals. After
that Putta started asking riddles to Acharya so as to pass time. “A river, a boat, a man with him,
the man has a bundle of grass, a tiger, a cow. He is to cross the river one at a time in the boat ”
Thus went the riddles of Putta.

Praneshacharya could easily find out the solutions to the riddles. But he was in a dilemma:
If he gave the answers, he would be holding out a hand of friendship to Putta. If he didn‟t, Putta
will think him dull-witted. As they approached Melige, Putta moved on to more familiar terms. He
offered coconut pieces and jaggery to Acharya. He even narrated the quarrels with his wife.

Through the character of Putta, U.R. Anantha Murthy depicts the simple lifestyle of the lower
caste people. Certainly they do not have the knowledge, class or aristocracy of the brahmins. But
Putta is a very friendly and helpful type of person. He extended his companionship to the Acharya
and insisted on remaining with him throughout the journey.

● Bhagirathi :-
She is the invalid wife of Praneshacharya, the protagonist of the novel. She feels that she is a
burden to her husband and often advises him to marry a healthy and fruitful woman. She is very
proud of her husband and she thinks that anybody will be willing to give his daughter in marriage
to him as he is just forty and an acknowledged scholar of Vedanta. But the Acharya thinks that by
marrying her, he is making a sacrifice for attainting salvation. She dies of plague when the agrahara
of Durvasapura is afflicted by it. In mythology, Bhagirathi is the river goddess Ganga, a symbol
of fertility and wild energy. But Pranesha‟s wife Bhagirathi is sterile and invalid.

● Naranappa :-
He is a thorn in the flesh of Durvasa Pura agrahara Madhva Brahmins. Though he is a Brahmin
himself, he openly defies Brahmin Hood by taking a low-caste woman Chandri for his concubine,
by eating meat in the company of Muslims, by desecrating the pond of Ganapati temple and by
abusing the ways of the agrahara Brahmins and their ridiculous Brahminic ways. As the story
begins, he dies of plague and the problem of cremating him poses a problem to the village
Brahmins as he has openly broken from Brahminic culture and denigrating its sanctified

49
conventions and codes. Naranappa poses a great threat to the agrahara both when he is alive and
is dead. Praneshacharya fails to reform him in spite of his personal appeals to him and his fasting
for his redemption. In the process of deciding the cremation of Naranappa, the Acharya loses his
celibacy and betakes to the concubine of Naranappa. In the challenge between Naranappa and the
Acharya, Naranappa wins hands down. While the Brahmins postpone his cremation on question
of propriety and animosity, Chandri silently arranges for his cremation with the help of Ahmad
Bari, a Muslim fish-merchant who was the beneficiary of Naranappa‟s generosity.

● Chandri :-
She is the concubine of Naranappa, the reprobate Brahmin of Durvasapura agrahara. She is
highly seductive and alluring. Though the orthodox Brahmins of the agrahara take issues with
Naranappa for sleeping with her, a low caste woman, they secretly hunger for her company.
Durgabhatta, the Smarta Brahmin in the agrahara eyes Chandri with lustful eyes and admires the
rich taste of late Naranappa in having picked up such a charming concubine as her. Chandri is very
sincere to Naranappa both alive and dead. When the Brahmins of the agrahara hesitate to perform
the samskara for Naranappa, she offers her gold to the Acharya for the funeral expenses of her late
lover. She has great regard for the Brahmins of the agrahara in general and Praneshacharya in
particular. As her life with Naranappa has become sterile, she longs for a child through such a
great and holy Brahmin as Praneshacharya. When she tries to seek his blessings while his returning
from Maruti temple, her beasts accidentally touch the knees of the Acharya and leads to their
mating together. Their mating changes the course of the Acharya from the life of an ascetic
Brahmin to that of a sensualist. As for Chandri, she is happy that she bears the seed of the Acharya
in her and thus blessed twice. The Acharya asks her to come to the agrahara and tell the Brahmins
there what has transpired between them. But Chandri does not want to expose the Acharya before
the contentious Brahmins. She goes to the house of Naranappa and finds his body rotting: she first
seeks the help of Sheshayya, the village cart man to cremate it. As he is afraid of meddling with
the Brahmin tradition, she manages to cremate the body of Naranappa with the help of Ahmad
Bari, the fish-merchant who has received financial help at a very crucial time from the late
Naranappa. She takes her jewels and her personal effects and proceeds towards Kundapura, her
home. Chandri symbolizes the mythical Menaka, Urvasi and Matsyagandhi.

● Garudachar :-
He is a Madhva Brahmin belonging to Durvasapura agrahara. Between him and the deceased
Naranappa, kinship runs to several generations, no doubt. But no relationship lasts between
Naranappa‟s family and his after he has fought and won a lawsuit with his father over the orchard.
They do not attend any functions nor take even a sip of water between the two families. Further
Naranappa is said to have been instrumental in Garuda‟s son Shyama joining the army deserting
50
his regular Sanskrit classes under the great Praneshacharya. Lakshmana‟s wife Sitadevi believes
that he has cast a black magic on her relative Naranappa making him desert his wife and his
Brahmin Hood by taking Chandri, a low-caste woman for his concubine. Garuda is also considered
to have robbed the property of the widow Lakshmidevamma and caused her mental wreck. Though
he first refuses to perform samskara for Naranappa, he alters his stand under the goading of his
wife tempted by the gold jewels offered by Chandri for the cremation of her lover Naranappa. At
Kaimara Mutt when he meets their Guru with the other Madhva Brahmins, the latter asks them to
cremate Naranappa at once and surrender his gold to the Mutt as he has died without any heir. But
Garuda tells the Guru that the gold belongs to him by the court degree in favour of him. At this,
the Guru becomes angry with him by calling him a scoundrel and dismisses him and others with
the contempt they deserve. Garuda is highly money-minded and unscrupulous.

● Sitadevi :-
She is the wife of Garudacharya. She bears a grudge against Naranappa for making her son
Shyama go astray and join the army without the knowledge of his parents. When the question of
Naranappa‟s cremation first comes, she cautions her husband Garuda not to be rash to accept to
undertake the cremation of the reprobate Naranappa and incur the wrath of the Guru. She admires
her husband‟s arguments for cleverly dodging the responsibility of cremating Naranappa. But later
on when she sees that Chandri offering her gold for the cremation of Naranappa, she wants to grab
the gold and redeem her son Shyama from the army as she is afraid that he will be forced to deviate
from his Brahminic ways as people say that in the army he will be made to eat meat and drink. But
neither Sitadevi nor her husband Garuda knows that the gold has gone back to Chandri‟s hands
from the Acharya.

● Lakshmanacharya:-
He is one of the Madhva Brahmins of Durvasapura agrahara. The deceased Naranappa is
related to him through his wife Anasuya for Naranappa has married her sister whom he has
discarded soon after his marriage. But he does not want to undertake the cremation of Naranappa
for he has been responsible for his sister-in-law to become hysterical and die soon after. Naranappa
has not even attended the funeral of his wife. He has taken to brahminical ways by sleeping with
a low caste-woman, keeping company with Muslims eating meat and fish from the temple
dedicated to Ganapati. Lakshmana is also inimical towards Naranappa for he has been responsible
for ruining his son-in-law Shripati by initiating him into his ways of living, Lakshmana is a penny
pincher and highly suspicious that his wife will be very liberal with her relatives and so he keeps
a careful watch over her dealings with her people whenever they visit their house. He makes dry
banana leaves and cups and sells them to the people of the nearby villages and towns and makes
money out of it. He is disappointed when the Guru at the Kaimara Mutt gives the Brahmins a gift
of one anna after their meals. He takes exception to the miserliness of the Guru who has given up
all attachments.
51
 ● Anasuya :-
She is the wife of Lakshmanacharya. She is related to late Naranappa through her sister whom
he has married and jilted in favour of the seductive low-caste Chandri, his concubine. She is angry
with Naranappa for neglecting her sister and causing her premature death. She is equally angry
with him for ruining his son-in-law Shripati, an orphan whom they have brought up and given their
only daughter Lilavati. Under the tutelage of Naranappa, Shripati discontinues his Sanskrit lessons
with Praneshacharya and begins to loaf around by taking to evil company. She first advises her
husband not to undertake the cremation of Naranappa. But later on seeing Chandri‟s gold, she
alters her stand and goads her husband to accept the cremation of Naranappa, as the deceased is
after all her uncle‟s son first and her sister‟s husband next. She foolishly advises her daughter
Lilavati not to oblige to her husband‟s sexual demands too easily and thinks that this will make
him stick to her and long for her. But her advice misfires as Shripati easily fulfils his sexual
demands from Belli, the low-caste woman of the slum what he does not get from his conjugal
basket.

● Shripati :-
Garuda and his wife pick him up as an orphan and bring him up and later marry their daughter
Lilavati to him. He learns Sanskrit under the great scholar Praneshacharya for some time. He
comes under the influence of Naranappa, the heterodox Brahmin of his village Durvasapura. Fired
by the erotic descriptions of Sakuntala espoused by the Acharya, he rushes to the village pond and
copulates with Belli, the low-caste woman bathing there. His wife‟s non-cooperation in bed also
makes him to rush to Belli to appease his sexual hunger. He joins the dramatic troupe founded by
Naranappa at Parijatapura and spends more time with his young friends there in the house of
Manjayya. He does not know about the death of Naranappa as he is away at Shirnali at that time.
When he returns to see him at his home, he is shocked to see his mentor dead. He rushes to
Parijatapura and participates in a dramatic rehearsal with his friends Nagaraja, Manjunatha and
others all the time feeling sorry for the death of their patron and friend, Naranappa. At the
suggestion of Manjunatha, they want to show their gratitude to Naranappa by cremating his body.
When they go to Naranappa‟s house at night, they find the house empty. They have the shock of
their lives and rush out thinking that Naranappa‟s spirit has walked away in disgust for they do not
know that Chandri has already cremated him with the help of Ahamad Bari, the fish merchant

● Belli :-
She is a young woman with provocative sex appeal. He has a pair of lusty breasts that will
disarm even an ascetic. She is the concubine of Shripati, the son-in-law of Lakshmana and
Anasuya. Shripati falls for her sexual charms and prowess induced by the erotic descriptions from
Kalidasa‟s Sakuntala through the discourses on the epic by his guru, Praneshacharya. The Brahmin
youth of Durvasapura and Parijatapura long for her company though they will not dare to take her
52
because of her low caste origin and fear of being ostracized. But Shripati who is a hedonist like
his mentor Naranappa finds the sexual company of Belli more congenial than his frigid wife
Lilavati. Even the great Pranesacharya, after his affair with Chandri, begins to think about and
long for Belli‟s breasts. Her sexual charms are as seductive as that of Chandri, if not more. Belli,
like the other members of her clan believes that the plague is the result of the anger of demon,
which can be appeased by sacrificing fowls and animals. Belli loses her parents who become victim
to the plague that enters their slum through the agrahara. Like Chandri, Belli is also a symbol of
eroticism and a contrast to the disenchanting Brahmin women.

● Durga Bhatta :-
He is the only Smarta Brahmin in Durvasapura agrahara housing the Madhva Brahmins. He
has his own prejudice against the orthodoxy of the Madhvas who consider the orthodoxy of
Smartas lower in rank. He does not like Dasacharya‟s suggestion to ask the Parijatapura Smarta
Brahmins to perform the samskara for the reprobate Brahmin Naranappa. He considers the
suggestion an affront on the Smarta Brahmins to undertake the samskara for Naranappa, which the
Madhvas of his own agrahara do not want to perform. He tells Praneshacharya that they need not
make much fuss over Naranappa taking to a low caste woman, Chandri. He says that a Brahmin is
not lost because he takes a low lowborn prostitute. He points out that their ancestors who all came
from the North cohabited with the Dravidian woman as per historical accounts. While the Madhvas
are deliberating the question of Naranappa‟s Samskara, he secretly ogles at Chandri assesses her
sexual charms and admires the taste of Naranappa for having picked up such a nice concubine.
Durgabhatta has partiality for the Smarta Brahmins of Parijatapura agrahara as he has enjoyed their
hospitality to the hilt. Further hc has an eye for the young unshaven widows of that agrahara with
their lips made red by their betel chewing. He has an eye for feminine charms and has Ravi
Varma‟s painting of Matsyagandhi, the fisherwoman shyly trying to hide her breasts bursting
through her poor rag of a sari, hung up in his bedroom. He has nothing but contempt for the
Madhvas‟ orthodoxy but he plays safe in their presence but considers them „bastards who make
love with shaven widows‟. Durgabhatta is Naranappa‟s anti-self.

● Das Acharya :-
He is one of the poor Madhva Brahmins of Durvasapura agrahara who thrives mainly by ritual
meals served in the houses of the agrahara Brahmins during ritual functions and ceremonies in
their houses. What lust is to Naranappa, hunger to Dasacharya. He loses his patience with Garuda
and Lakshmana for postponing the cremation of Naranappa on grounds of propriety. He is ready
to cremate the body of Naranappa with the help of four Brahmins if Pranesha permits him to do
so. For him it is a question of appeasing his hunger. When vultures hover around the agrahara to
pick up the dying and dead rats there, the other Brahmins try to shoo them away but they do not
budge. Dasacharya suggests that they blow their conches and beat their pones. This trick works
53
and the vultures retreat. The agrahara Brahmins hesitate to undertake the cremation of dead
Naranappa thinking that they will lose their Brahminhood by cremating the body of a reprobate
Brahmin. In order to overcome this trouble, he suggests that they approach the Brahmin friends of
Parla Tanura to perform the samskara for the late friend Naranappa, as they are not so very
orthodox as they the Madhvas of Durvasapura. Taking this suggestion, a gang of Brahmins with
Dasacharya goes to Parijatapura sacking the help of Manjayya but returns disappointed as the
Parijatapura Brahmins do not want themselves to look low in the eyes of the Madhvas. Unable to
bear his hunger any longer, Dasacharya makes a secret visit to Manjayya‟s house and appeases his
hunger by humoring him and his clan. Again, when the Acharya disowns his responsibility in the
matter of performing samskara for the late Naranappa, it is Dasacharya who suggests that they go
and meet Subbanacharya at Kaimara. Unfortunately, he contracts plague and succumbs to it. The
Brahenins who have come with him to Kaimara know about his death only later.

● Lakshmidevamma :-
She is a child-widow of Durvasapura agrahara 50 the agrahara Brahmins consider her an ill-
omen. Whenever they meet her head on, they walk back four paces to undo the ill-luck. They all
call her „Sour Belch‟. Her best-known name is „Half-Wit Lakshmidevamma‟. Her life is a Purana”
by itself. She married at eight, widowed at ten. Her parents-in-law had died when she was fifteen.
She lost her parents before she was twenty. The agrahara steered at her as the ill-starred girl.
Garuda‟s father took charge of her and her little property and jewellery. After the death of his
father Garuda gobbled up her jewellery and property and drove her away. Long suffering and
disappointment make her lose her wits and she becomes the object of contempt and segregation
by the agrahara Brahmins. On account of the injustice meted out to her by Garuda, she often goes
at night to his house and heaps down abuses on him and his house followed by her eerie belch and
laughter. She is a victim of social alienation and economic exploitation by her own community.

● Manjayya :-
He is a rich and affluent Smarta Brahmin belonging to Parijatapura agrahara. He is a good
friend of late Naranappa. The terrace of his palatial house is a hub of activities by the young men
of the nearby agraharas. They rehearse the plays staged from time to time by their dramatic troupe
named after Parijatapura. Manjayya knows that Naranappa has gone to Shivamogge but comes to
know of the death of his good friend Naranappa only through the team of Madhva Brahmins who
come to him to find a solution to cremate Naranappa, the rebel Brahmin. He is very courteous and
hospitable to the guests from the neighbouring agrahara. He consults Parijatapura priest
Shankarayya and offers to bear the funeral expenses of Naranappa but keeps away from taking the
responsibility of performing samskara by the people of his agrahara as it will lower their status in
the eyes of the proud Madhvas. Later when he comes to know from Dasacharya that Durvasapura
is afflicted by plague, he informs the people of his village not to go to Durvasapura until his return
54
and proceeds to Tirthahalli by cart to inform the municipal authorities about the outbreak of plague
in Durvasa Pura and for inoculating the people of the village to prevent the epidemic from
spreading to other villages including his. Manjayya is noted for his personal relationship and high
sense of social consciousness.

● Padmavati :-
She is a beautiful young woman belonging to the half-caste living alone in a tenement looking
after herself and her holdings. She is on a good and familiar relationship with Putta and he too
never misses to meet her whenever he visits the town Melige. As Putta‟s wife often leaves him
and goes to her parents‟ home, Putta, it seems, has developed a physical intimacy with the
charming Padmavati. Padmavati tries to tempt the Acharya by her sex appeal while offering betel
leaves and recant to the visiting guest. Acharya feels that it is a great temptation to resist. When
Putta tells Padmavati that the Acharya will stay with her for the night and proceed to Kundapura
on the following morning, she looks forward to a night of pleasure with the Acharya. But the
Acharya suddenly changes his decision and leaves for Durvasapura. Padmavati is a courtesan
where as Chandri is a prostitute.

● Durvasapura :-
It takes its name after the famous sage Vishvamitra who is also called Durvasa on account of
his proverbial short-temperedness. It is the agrahara, which is the focal point of the novel,
Samskara. It is a colony consisting mainly of Madhva Brahmins except for Durgabhatta who
belongs to the Smarta sect. Praneshacharya, the Crest Jewel of Vedic Learning is the local guru of
the Brahmins. The aprahara is famous in and around because of the great Praneshacharya.
Naranappa, the reprobate Brahmin who has been a problem to his clan both when alive and dead
also belongs to this agrahara. Chandri, a prostitute from Kundapura lives in the agrahara with
Naranappa as his concubine in his house till his death causing much chagrin to the fellow Brahmins
of the agrahara.

● Parijatapura :-
It takes its name after the Parijata flower sacred to Lord Krishna. It is an agrahara of Smarta
Brahmins a little away from Durvasapura. The Durvasapura Madhvas consider the Smarta
Brahmins of Parijata Pura less pure than they are. Manjayya, the good friend of Naranappa is a
rich and affluent person of this agrahara. He is a patron of the dramatic troupe named after the
agrahara. Manjayya of Parijata Pura goes to meet the municipal authorities at Thirthahalli to tackle
the plague-ridden Durvasapura.

55
 ● Thirthahalli :-
It is the municipal town serving the villages like Durvasapura and Parijatapura. It is where
Manjayya proceeds to inform the municipal authorities there to clear the body of Naranappa
afflicted with plague and inoculate the persons in the village of Durvasapura.

● Kaimara :-
It is where the Brahmins of Durvasapura proceed to meet Subbannacharya to find a solution to
the problem of performing the funeral rites for the reprobate Brahmin, Naranappa. It is where the
Madhva Brahmins have their Mutt and they proceed to meet the head there after failing to find any
solution from Subban Acharya.

● Shivamogga :-
Naranappa on his return from here to Durvasapura develops high fever on account of plague,
and passes away after four days.

● Shirnali :-
Shripati, the good friend of Naranappa is away at Shirali the previous day to see Jambavati‟s
Wedding performed by the troupe from Kelur. So he does not know about the death of Naranappa.
So when he goes to meet his mentor alive, he has the shock of his life to see his dead body lying
uncared for

● Kundapura :-
It is the native place of Chandri, the concubine of Naranappa. It is where Praneshacharya tells
Putta that he is heading to.

● Melige :-
It is the temple town where Praneshacharya meets Putta, and through him Padmavati. It is
where Putta exposes the Acharya to a vista of sensuous/sensual experiences. It is where the
Acharya decides to cast off his fear, tear his mask of falsehood and return to Durvasapura to make
a new beginning.

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 5.2.) The Quest after Divinity :-

The two characters Praneshacharya and Putta are very intelligently placed to explore theconcept
of divinity. Praneshacharya‟s quest after divinity began in the mainstream Brahmi scholarly
pattern but he arrived at any acceptable results only after meeting the lower-castecharacter
Putta.

Putta is introduced only towards the end of the novel but even then this character is crucial
to the development of the central theme. The total length of the novel is 138 pages (O.U.P. 1978.
Second Edition) and Putta appears only from page.101 onwards.

Praneshacharya spent all his life studying the Vedas and the Puranas. He was a principled
man and always stood rooted in these beliefs. He willingly married an invalid woman to accept
the challenge of implementing the principle of selfless service in his life. Every morning and
evening he gave a recital of Vedic stories to the people of the agrahara. He spent his days by
worshipping God and looking after his ailing wife.

Even after 20 years of married life he never experienced the pleasures of sex. He believed
in abstaining from carnal pleasures and fulfilling his duty which, he expected, would lead him to
salvation. „His duties in this world grew lighter and more fragrant like sandalwood rubbed daily
on stone.‟

All the knowledge he acquired became futile when the problem of Naranappa‟s burial
popped up. Naranappa led an anti-Brahmanical life and so no one was prepared to perform his last
rites. At the same time something had to be done immediately as Naranappa's dead body lied
rotting in the agrahara. Being the village head, it was Acharya's duty to take a decision.

He was caught in a life- changing dilemma. “Is Naranappa, who drank liquor and ate meat,
who threw the holy stone into the river, is he a brahmin or is he not? Yet it is not at all right to
keep a dead brahmin‟s body waiting, uncremated”. Praneshachrya was supposed to be a man of
great wisdom, insight, strength and willpower. Nobody would've expected him to succumb to
temptations. But when Chandri seduced him in front of the Maruti temple, he took only a few
seconds to acquiesce to the temptation and his belief in the strength of his spiritual personality was
shattered.

After the sexual relationship with Chantri, the Acharya became a changed man. He lost
faith in his position as a great Sanskrit scholar. With the death of his wife, he lost all roots in the
village of Durvasapura. He left the village and started walking through the forest path with no
57
specific destination in his mind.

The novelist introduces Putta at this juncture. Putta is a loquacious man and is
always in need of good listeners. He is not a bore, he speaks interestingly and intelligently about
various things around him. He has a naturally friendly personality and offers coconut pieces and
jagger to the Acharya who had not eaten anything for several hour. Even when the Acharya tries
to avoid him, Putta continues to give him companionship. When the Acharya and Putta reached the
temple- town of Melige, it was three o‟clock in the afternoon. They climbed down into the temple
see. But even this unpleasant sight was an interesting experience to Putta. He behaved as if he was
the judgein a pageant competition and threw a coin to the most attractive of the cripples‟

The temple town was filled with people. The shops were full of village women,
shyly drinking soda-water, farmers, children. To them the whole festival was a matter of
enjoyment, experience and contentment.

Through all this excited activity and movement, Praneshacharya walked as one entranced,
following Putta. He was the only person who could not enjoy the festival since he was incapable
of being involved in anything.

Finally Praneshacharya found a pretext to get rid of Putta. He said that he wanted to sell
some jewellery. But instead of leaving him alone, Putta voluntarily offered his help in negotiating
the price with the goldsmith. In fact Putta personally knew the goldsmith and wanted to ensure
that the Acharya was not cheated.

Thus we find that Putta extends his hand of friendship to the Acharya upto the very end of
the novel. Even when Acharya returned to Durvasapura, Putta didn‟t leave him. “How can I send
you alone?” he asked. But Praneshcharya did not have the capacity to appreciate and honour the
friendship of this helpful human being.

58
 CONCLUSION

Praneshacharya spent all his life in intellectual and spiritual pursuits. He married an invalid
and tortured himself so as to purify his soul. His wife advised him to marry another women so as
to get a child, but he refused to yield. He believed in Lord Krishna‟s advice : „Do what is to be
done with no thought of fruit‟.The novel begins with this admirable aspect of Praneshacharys‟s
personality. But very soon he falls in our esteem because he is not able to take any decision
regarding the burial of Naranappa. As the spiritual leader of the Durvasapara village, it is his duty
to guide the Brahmins in this difficult predicament. But he simply went through the holy books
umpteen times without reaching at a definite conclusilife.

The defects in his personality are further sublimated when he falls to the attractions of the
prostitute Chandri outside the Hanuman Temple. Acharya's great faith in God and his vast
knowledge of the scriptures did not give him enough willpower to overcome the temptation. Just
like any other ordinary man, he made love to her and even ate taboo food from her hands. The
Acharya was not able to recover from the shock of this incident. He wandered aimlessly along the
forest footpath until he met Putta.

Compared to the Acharya, Putta had a stronger and more pragmatic kind of personality. He
was chatty, amiable and eager to help. He belonged to a lower caste community called Maleras.
His knowledge and intelligence was limited. But in spite of all his limitations, he had the capacity
to carry an interesting and intriguing conversation. It would seem to the readers that Putta was
wiser than Acharya in some aspects.

The earth is the only planet that has water resources and an oxygen envelope around it. The
rivers and the mountains , the meadows and the lakes were all beautifully built by God for our
enjoyment. People like Putta lived in this world, enjoyed it and found meaning in God‟s kindness.
For people like Praneshacharya, divinity was something you found by indulging in holy books and
scriptures. Praneshacharya searched for divinity all his life. But when God himself appeared before
him in disguise of Putta, he could not recognize Him. He even could not feel comfortable in the
heartfelt friendship of Putta. His only desire was to get rid of Putta. Putta is like a lottery ticket.
Your scratch the aluminium foil and the prize comes out. Your scratch Putta and God comes out
of him and all you have to do is to fall down at His feet. For Putta, the festival ground is a source
of infinite joy. He makes use of each and every element of festivity. When he sees a soda-pop
shop, he drinks a soda. When he sees a coffee-shop, he enjoys a cup. When he sees the Bombay
Box, he peeps into it. Even the ugly beggars do not dampen his spirit. Instead, he made the most
of the situation and enjoyed himself. Praneshacharya, on the other hand, cannot enjoy anything in
the Melige town. Though he is thirsty, he cannot come in terms with drinking soda at the roadside
59
shops. Ribbons and pipes mean nothing to him because he has noone to send a gift to. Even a cup
of coffee cannot be enjoyed because he fears that it might be impure with lower-caste contact.

When they reached the Melige temple, Putta suggested that, being a Brahmin,
Praneshacharya could eat the temple dinner. Acharya reluctantly went inside the dining hall and
sat before a leaf; he was afraid that someone would recognize him. He was very much irritated
when the Smart brahmin sitting next to him started asking questions:

„Can I ask from where you come?‟

„From where exactly?‟

„What community?‟

„What sub-group?‟

„What is your descent-line?‟

Praneshacharya was very much agitated at his inquisitiveness. He had a feeling that he
would find real happiness only by living with Chandri. But how can he do it? Chandri belonged to
the extreme lower caste and the Acharya was a Brahmin. Not an ordinary Brahmin but a Madhava
Brahmin who is renowned all overKarnataka as „the Crest-jewel of Vedic learning‟. Even if the
Acharya married Chandri, it is not sure that he might be allowed to live with her peacefully. On
any day, someone might stop him on the way and ask:

„Who is this woman?

„Which caste?‟

„Which sub-caste?‟

„Why do you walk with her?‟

U.R. Anantha Murthy does not make things clear even at the end of the novel. We find
Praneshacharya getting into a bullock-cart that is going to Agumbe. He will travel for four or five
hours. What comes after that? He did not know the answer. The very last sentence of the novel is
like this: „Praneshacharya waited, anxious, expectant‟. According to A.K.Ramanujan, the
translator, „the novel ends, but does not conclude‟.

60
 Praneshacharya, in trying to solve the dilemma of who should perform the death rites
(samskara), begins a transformation (samskara) for himself. A rite for a dead man becomes a rite
of passage for the living. The afterword by A.K. Ramanujan in the book is brilliant, explaining the
trajectory and the inner meanings of the events in the book that will benefit non-Indian readers
greatly.

Rich in allegory, Samskara is a powerful tale about a caste system that challenges its
staunch followers and effectively proves that it has no place in modern society. Written almost 6
decades back, it is very much relevant even in the present times. Readers should explore books of
this kind more to bring a social change to the omnipresent caste system of India.

The narrative of the novel thoroughly and having also discussed the novel as an allegory ,
it should be easy for you to answer the question : What is the novel about ? What is its major
thematic preoccupation ? The most obvious theme seems to be a quest for the right moral choice .
The central character is an ascetic Pranesacharya , who is also the spiritual leader of a small
Brahmin Community . Initially , he is confronted with a situation in which he has to decide what
he should do in regard to the creation of a heretic Brahmin , Naranappa , who is a pleasure seeker
. Should they cremate the heretic ? And if yes, who should do it ? Naranappa had no children of
his own. So someone else would have to undertake the task. Later he accidentally meets and mates
with Naranappa's mistress, Chandri . This experience turns all his ascetic and brahminical beliefs
upside down and he is confronted with the need to find answers to new and bigger moral questions
about himself and his relationship with Chandri and his erstwhile Brahminal followers . He is thus
faced with the challenge of having to forge a new identity for himself . Let us pause for a moment
and consider this question of identity which has become crucially important in modern times .
How is this identity to be defined? Is this identity determined by the caste or the community of the
individual ? Or whether the individual carves out an identity of his own ? So far as this novel is
concerned, the central character's identity as an ascetic and scholar has been given to him by the
Brahmin community of which he is the leader. But later this identity proves unsatisfactory and he
tries to forge a new identity for himself as an individual. How would you like to define yourself ?
Would you like to define yourself in terms of a particular religion ? In other words, would you like
to be described as a good Hindu, a good Muslim, a good Christian, a good Sikh ? Would any of
these descriptions be adequate ? Or would you like to describe yourself in more secular, more
humanistic terms ? When you begin to ask questions like these you will perhaps discover that the
novel deals with concerns that are very real , very Indian , and also , very universal . Is the central
character in the novel a rebel against tradition ? In what sense does he move. towards modernity ?

As for the theme of asceticism and eroticism , it is an ancient theme in Indian myth and
thought . As T.N. Madan , the well - known anthropologist says in his book called Non -
Renunciation : Themes and Interpretations of Hindu Culture (1987 ; 2001 ) , ' this struggle [
61
between asceticism and eroticism ] is one of the abiding themes of Hindu classical literature, as it
is of living folklore . It is also the very stuff of everyday life . Is there a Hindu villager , illiterate
and unsophisticated though he may be , who is not familiar with the debauchee and the ascetic ,
with the life of sensuality and as opposed to spirituality " ? In the third chapter of the book he deals
with three literary representations of the moral dilemma involved in grappling with the contrary
and powerful pulls of asceticism and eroticism ' . The novels chosen are Chitralekha ( Hindi : 1933
) by Bhagwati Charan Verma , Samskara ( Kannada : 1965 ; English trans . 1976 ) by UR
AnanthaMurthy and Yayati ( Marathi : 1959 ; Hindi trans . 1977 ) by Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar
. It will be interesting to find out how these modern novelists have treated this ancient dichotomy
between the two . It would be very good if besides Samskara you can find time to read at least one
novel listed above .

Favorite Quote

“We shape ourselves through our choices, bring form and line to this thing we call our
person.” Ananthamurthy portrays the narrow minded and conservatism of the Brahmin
community, through the rise and fall of the protagonist Praneshacharya. Samskara begins with one
of the central cleansing and purification rituals in the rites of Hindu worship. Praneschacharya
has faithfully carried out this ritual for more than twenty years. He views sexless marriage as a
penance and a sacrifice that will deliver salvation in this life and in the next. The central theme of
the novel is the death of Naranappa and the complications connected with the issue of his
cremation. Naranappa was an anti-Brahminical Brahmin who spent all his life in defying Brahmin
beliefs and lifestyles. He brought a lower-caste prostitute to the agarahara and lived with her in his
house. The title Samskara itself has many stratum of meaning. It means culture, ritual and
refinement, power of memory, sacred consecration, purificatory rite and funeral obsequies. The
translator had to give the meaning as , a rite for a dead man‟.

The entire story is built upon the class demarcation set up in the society. It shows how the
society in India was, since changes are happening right now in the social structures. Speaking of
the title, Samskara A Rite For a Dead Man, is a symbol of the Indian culture. It also stands for both
ritual and refinement. The author wants to convey to the readers that all who are a part of the
system of varnas are involved in refining themselves and the society as a whole by involving in
the roles assigned to them as per this hierarchical structure. Naranappa was rejected by the
Madhava Brahmin community of Durvasapura stating that he was „immoral‟ in his deeds.

Praneshacahrya is portrayed as the „ideal brahmin‟ in the text. But his actions make the
readers question the purity he holds. All the other brahmins in their action of questioning
Naranappa exposes the dirt that they carry within them. The conflict within them regarding the
tradition and ideals they follow and preach are exposed in front of the readers. In the end we see
62
Acharya‟s indulgence with Chandri made him think more regarding the meaning of life and made
him gain a refined passage (samskara) for himself. This class demarcation is not simply portrayed
as a concept but a living soul of the novel which directs the plot to go forward throughout until the
end. The novel does not show whether Praneshacharya is successful in incorporating the two
worlds- of his old ways and the new experiences. But he has definitely undergone a transformation
from an orthodox brahmin towards a new being. His new experiences with worlds hitherto
unknown and unexplored have made Praneshacharya a new man. But the questions in his mind
remain unsettled. Leaving the reader anxious, the novel ends with so many openings.

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 ANALYSIS

The Title of U.R.Ananthamurthy's novel Samskara and the Subtitle "A Dead Man" jointly
invite our attention to the prejudices inherent in the ancient, irrational, and circumspect rituals of
the Hindu society in general and the Brahminical society in particular. The religious and social
context may be pointed out in connection with the title and the subtitle of the novel. In the subtitle,
"A Dead Man" is quite meaningful. The dead man - Naranappa - a living protest against the
orthodoxy, conservatism, the conventions and customs of the Brahmanical society - defied all the
traditional values of the community by his style of living. The Hindus looked upon him as a
religious and socially marginal, namely on the moral ground. He used to live separately with a low
caste woman, mixed freely with people of different communities. His favorite dishes consisted of
the items prohibited by the community. As the novel opens, we are being reported of his death. It
is conveyed to the central protagonist, Praneshacharya, by the mistress of Naranappa, Chandri.

Characterization: In the depiction of the characters, Ananthamurthy employs two

techniques -that of (I) contrast, and (ii) filmic flashback (the narrative technique of retrospection).

The technique of filmic flashback has described Naranappa. Reasons?

(1). Naranappa is a figure (whether he is dead or alive), who helps in the removal of the temporal
and spatial distances. The past of Naranappa is continuously referred to because it constantly
trespasses in the present context of the novel. The Brahmins of the community debate with each
other whether he shall be cremated according to the religious rules as Naranappa was potentially
disinterested about the dull traditions of the Hindu community. That is why the past repeatedly
trespasses in the present context - an amalgamation of the past and present; thus, the temporal and
the spatial distances are overcome.

(2). The "dead man" Naranappa, like the dead Caesar, appears to be much more living than the
living Naranappa.
The dead man Naranappa shakes the very foundation /basis of the belief and the age-old trust and
faith of the so- called Hindu society. Therefore, the phrase "The Dead Man" is meaningful to us.

Again, contrast is instituted between three characters -Naranappa, Praneshacharya, and Putta.
Naranappa and Praneshacharya are contrasted in respect of Praneshacharya's complete devotion to
the rules, regulations, customs, rites, and conventions of the Hindu religious texts. Therefore, his
complete attachment to Hinduism should be contrasted with Naranappa's potential rejection of
anything relating to Hinduism.

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(b) Praneshacharya and Putta. Here the contrast is deep-rooted. It is not only at the physical level
but also at the cerebral, intellectual level. Putta is a commonplace figure - represents the
commonplaceness either hardly dissatisfied or commonly satisfied with the proceedings of life.
Putta is a very pedestrian character. In stark contrast, Praneshacharya is intellectually much
superior because of his sensitiveness and rational responses to life.

To Praneshacharya, self-realization is of prime importance personifying the Upanishad's

teaching- "before you know the world, know thyself." To Putta this is alien. The intellectual search
for self-realization on the part of Praneshacharya should be contrasted to the ordinariness of Putta.
Praneshacharya transcends what is mundane. Similarly, Ananthamurthy, in his depiction of
women characters, once again, is exceptionally poetic-very frequently does he impose mythical
touches on them. Women in this novel, save Bhagirathi, are classical and mythical beauties.

The mythic associations are called up whenever he goes forward to introduce the women
characters of the novel.

Many of the women characters may be interpreted from the traditional Indian concept of
womanhood as we find in the Puranas. There, women stand for elemental Nature (Prakriti). Any
kind of union, therefore, either physical or emotional between man and woman is considered to be
the union between Prakriti and Purush (archetypal masculinity). Hence, a union between a man
and a woman is a union between the archetypal femininity and archetypal masculinity.

Therefore, the union of Praneshacharya and Chandri in the forest can be viewed in that
light.

The setting is noteworthy-they get united against the backdrop of Nature and say goodbye
to the established Canon of the civilized society. Thus, human instincts are glorified there because
everything takes place under the blue
expanse of the sky.

At the same time, this novel is a social document in the sense that it draws our attention to
the ways and means, customs and conventions of the Hindu society. As usual, one notices the
meanness, the professional jealousy, suppressed greed, the protestations among the Brahmins of
the community.

In Samskara, Ananthamurthy has reinterpreted the meaning of 'realism' in his unique and
inimitable style. The setting is realistic. Against this, he discovers the poetic, mythic explanation
of the human relationship. Therefore, there is an interfusion of realism and fantasy (myth).

65
 Praneshacharya's extraordinary adventure in the heart of the jungle transcends the limits of
reality. There is a touch of fantasy, a fairy-tale, mythical atmosphere in that scene. It brings alive
the Forest scene of The Scarlet Letter, bringing alive the notion of freedom of the Garden of Eden,
the prelapsarian society. The interfusion of myths and reality comes close to following the
metaphysical technique of Raja Rao in his The Serpent and the Rope. One may find a semblance
of Chandri and the 'Black Woman' in Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness. These semblance and
similarities make the literary texture of Samskara thicker and more vibrant. Also, more intriguing.

Analysing Ananthamurthy's art of characterization in Samskara further, we find that

Praneshacharya is not static. Following Forster (Aspects of the Novel) we may safely call him a
'round' character. He retains dynamism through and through. Unlike Putta, who maintains a fixed
attitude towards everything and everyone, Praneshacharya has a developing, evolving, and
dynamic psyche. Praneshacharya at the beginning of the novel and Praneshacharya at the end of
the novel are two entirely different sets of people. He is not the same person at the end of the story.
In him, one notices the emotive development of the human psyche, similar to the development of
Mattadeen in Premchand's Godan. His experiences, ordeals, trials and tribulations, conflicts and
tensions over the question of the rites of 'the dead man' always affect his character by transforming
him from a tranquil figure to an emotionally restless soul.

There are distinct stages of development in his character. Initially, he was calm and quiet;
stoically accepted everything that came his way, but as the story progresses, he seems to be affected
by the whirlpool of different feelings. It appears to us that he becomes a restless character on the
theatre of his mind and this restlessness is expressed in two ways:

(i) His departure from his native village, and

(ii) In his momentary moral lapses; in his degeneration.

This restlessness continues till the end. 'He was expectant' for self-knowledge, for his
redemption, as Praneshacharya knows that his self-knowledge will ultimately show him the light
amid the pervading and encircling gloom.

The novel is left open-ended and inconclusive. One justification could be to show
Praneshacharya as the eternal sojourner of the life-a pilgrim of life who continues to wait and
perhaps there will be an end to his expectations, perhaps the journey itself is an end, just like
Vladimir and Estragon waiting in an Indian
context.

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 We may conclude by assuming that Praneshacharya is a unifying thread interweaving the
different threads and clues of the story-giving us the impression of an organic whole just like the
Sutradhar in a Classical Sanskrit play of yore.

● Praneshacharya, the spiritual leader of Durvasapura agrahara :-

Praneshacharya is a very learned and orthodox man belonging to the community of Madhva
Brahmins. He has had his Vedic education in Kashi (Benares) gaining the title, „The Crest Jewel
of Vedic Learning‟ (Vedanta Siromani). He is living in the highly orthodox village of Durvasapura
in Mysore Malnad. He is the judge of the agrahara in all matters of religion, ritual and conduct.
His very life is a model of self-sacrifice and religious conventions. He married an invalid girl,
Bhagirathi in order to render disinterested service and earn salvation. As advised in the Gita, he
practices Nishkama Yoga, performing his duty without desiring the fruit thereof. He believes that
the merciful Lord has put him to this way of ascetic life to test him. His heart overflows with
gratitude for his bed-ridden wife Bhagirathi who, by becoming an invalid, has obliged him with
the opportunity of becoming more perfect and mellower on the road to salvation, and he incessantly
rejoices in his fate.

● Chandri, the concubine of Naranappa, the reprobate Brahmin of the agrahara brings
the news of his death to the Acharya :-

The story opens on a hot and humid mid-summer day. As Praneshacharya is about to sit down
to his mid-day meal, after attending to the daily routine of serving his invalid wife with bathing,
medicine and porridge, Chandri, the concubine of Naranappa the degenerate Brahmin of the
agrahara, brings the news to the Acharya that he is dead of plague as we come to know later on.
Naranappa was no ordinary reprobate. His unorthodox was planned and cultivated in deliberate
opposition to Praneshacharya‟s orthodoxy. He defied Brahmin Hood with a malicious glee. He ate
meals cooked by the low caste Chandri, and he ate even meat and that too in public. He drank
liquor and abused the Brahmins of the agrahara and their orthodox ways. He threw the sacred stone
(saligrama) into the temple pond offending the religious sentiments of his fellow Madhva
Brahmins of the agrahara. He befriended the Muslims of the village and made them catch all the
sacred fish in the pond dedicated to the temple of Ganapati for curry though he very well knew
that it was an act of sacrilege and the offender would bleed to
death.

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 ● The close relatives of the deceased raise their objections to perform the samskara for
him to their leader Pranesha :

On hearing the news through Praneshacharya, all the Brahmins of the agrahara gather before
his house. The question before the Brahmins- the close relatives of Naranappa and others equally
is whether this willful defiant of Brahminical ways is entitled to Brahminic rites of cremation.
They all look up to the authoritative pronouncement of Praneshacharya. It transpires that at least
two of them-Garudacharya and Lakshmanacharya had close family ties with the deceased
Naranappa and are entitled to perform the last rites for him. But they aver to the Acharya that they
have broken their ties with the dead man and are unwilling to perform the samskara for him as he
had deviated from Brahmin Hood and denigrated it openly by packing his
cards with sin and the devil.

● Chandri’s offer of her gold jewels for Naranappa’s cremation expenses

complicates the issue :-

What unfortunately complicates the issue is that Naran Papa's concubine Chandri offers
her gold jewels for the funeral expenses and the two close relatives of Naranappa, Garuda and
Lakshmana by this new factor in the situation. Garuda and Lakshmana who were unwilling to
perform the cremation of Naranappa now make a somersault at the sight of Chandri‟s gold as
goaded by their wives. Garuda wants to use the gold for getting the discharge of his son in the
army and Lakshmana wants to get the gold as it belonged to his late sister-in-law. Praneshacharya
who is a genuinely honest soul is nonplussed at the warring greediness of Garuda and Lakshmana.
He retires to study the books of sastra and find an answer out of this dilemma. It had better be a
quick one. Unpleasant things happen to corpses rather quickly in a hot climate. Moreover, the
Brahmins of the agrahara cannot eat anything until the dead body is cremated. An empty Brahmin
stomach in midsummer is a well of anguish. To the utter disappointment of Praneshacharya, the
books of sastra are totally unhelpful in solving this predicament. He sits down to reason out the
matter in his mind: The problem has arisen because Naranappa was not excommunicated from the
cast while he was alive. They had not dared to do it since Naranappa had threatened to become a
Muslim and defile the Brahmin agrahara. But, Praneshacharya asks himself if this was this all the
real reason; if there was not also compassion or a firm resolve to redeem the sinner Naranappa
with saintly patience and goodness from his side. But the basic question remains: Why did
Naranappa break away Brahmin Hood at all in the first instance? The books say that none can be
born a Brahmin without the merit of many good deeds in former births. Naranappa, having thus
born to a valuable heritage, proceeded to throw it into the gutter.

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 But in the final analysis, we are all at the mercy of our inner nature. Naranappa‟s dying lips
have probably muttered the name of God, and he has reached God. Whereas for himself (that is
for Praneshacharya) who wears out in work and worship, birth after birth is laid down to achieve
salvation. Who knows but Naranappa‟s inner being was taken up with God but his own is wi

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