Kuvempu's 1936 novel 

Kanooru Heggaditi (Mistress of the Kanooru House),

set in Malnad in the Shimoga district of central Karnataka,i is the story of a
landowner family in pre-Independence India. Set in rural Malenadu, there
are myriad characters, right from the “seragara” gowda to  the unfortunate
orphan of a bonded low-caste labourer, and through them the  feudal
system that exists even today, in which labourers and women are at a fairly
serious disadvantage, comes to life in the verdant rain-soaked village of
Kanooru and its neighbouring villages.ii
This book is often hailed as a great Kannada epic being Kannada’s first Jnanpith award
winner, a landmark of modern fiction that documents a vanishing world. iii It is a well-written
and highly enjoyable story about a part of India which is virtually untouched by the
British and therefore spares us the story of the Indian who is unsure whether they are
Indian or British or neither. It tells the story of a small village dominated by the cruel
Chandrayya Gowda. Gowda is about to marry again – this time to the young
Subbamma. But, as he marries increasingly younger women, he becomes more and
more despotic – towards his own family, including his children from his previous
marriages, towards his servants and, eventually towards Subbamma who is driven
away and back to her family due to the cruelties of the deeply feudal and patriarchal
society she inhabits.

Much of the pleasure of this novel is from the slices of life that Kuvempu gives of life
in this village. Some of the action we see through the eyes of the college educated
Hoovayya and Ramayya but much of it we see through the eyes of the villagers with
their fear of ghosts (or their use of the fear of ghosts to frighten others) and their
preoccupations both with survival but also with having an easy life, where alcohol
plays as strong a role as it does in many Western novels. Kuvempu’s skill is to give us
many memorable scenes, from the tiger hunt, which results in one of the villagers
being killed, to Subbamma’s flight from her abusive husband. Kuvempu is
sympathetic to the plight of the women who, have much less power and authority than
and who get pretty well short-changed in this book, from Subbamma to the sensitive
Seethe, stuck in a loveless marriage with Ramayya.iv

Feudalism is in its decaying stage and youngsters, influenced by English

education and idealists of the freedom movement, are appearing to rebel
against old customs and superstitions in the society. The novel starts when
Hoovayya and Ramayya, young men of the Kanooru house return to their
home after studies. Kuvempu uses an interesting technique to introduce all
the characters. In the second chapter an accident happens to a bullock cart
and Hoovayya gets injured and is taken to the Muthalli house. In the next
twenty chapters, until Hoovayya recovers and returns to Kanooru, the
novelist swings in time introducing various characters and incidents before
the cart accident.v
When Hoovayya and Ramayya return from their studies in the city to their
ancestral home, much has changed. The entry of Subbamma, the young wife of
much-married Chandrayya Gowda into the House of Kanooru, sets in motion
an irrevocable chain of events which signify the coming of age of a resolutely
traditional society. Acutely conscious of the burden of their education amidst the
torpor of manorial life, the brothers are forced to witness the descent into
cruelty of Chandrayya Gowda, who breaks old familial ties, and demands an
impossible fealty. The first stirrings of change in the lives of the Belas, the highland
plantation workers and their labouring women, the proud Shudra landowners, the secretive and
predatory Agrahara of the Brahmins, are dramatized by a humane eye sensitive to the slightest
nuancevi. The epic conflicts of a decaying feudal order are seen through these
characters, and voices that refuse to be silencedvii.

In addition to Kuvempu’s use of his own flowery imagination, the

language of the novel also reflects a local Malenadu flavourviiiThe
translation by Ramachandra Sharma and Padma Ramachandra Sharma, is
brilliant. Kannada words for trees, animals and food items are generously
included as they are, giving the reader a feeling of being very close to the
original Kannada work. This language is essentially rustic and reflects the
pre-occupations of villagers in this part of the world, measuring distance
as, “as far perhaps as the time needed to chew an areca nut" for
example. This language can be anecdotal, rough and violent at times,
often extremely sharp and sarcastic and can even be irreverent towards
things more “refined” people may hold sacred. The author adds humour,
perhaps of a dark kind, by sprinkling in anecdotes about “Nanja, a potter
by caste [who] was reasonably good at many things, but not at
making pots” and “Puttanna [who] wasn’t married. Nevertheless, he
punched Jackie’s nose with his right fist for having spoken to him
offensively about his wife” in order to allow for comedic relief while
maintaining the deep-set mentality of Malnad society which can
often come off as uptight, oppressive and stifling. This reading is
particularly poignant when read from the perspective of the women
in the novel.

It examines the lives of three women who marry into the house of Kanooru. The story of Nagamma,
Hoovayya’s mother, is typical enough of a normal Vokkaliga woman. But by carefully contrasting the
characters and destinies of the other two women, Subbamma who is married to the father,
Chandrayya, and Seethe who is later married to the son, Ramayya, the author underlines the
inhumanity that has become a feature of women’s condition in this society. Subbamma is a rough,
energetic and courageous woman, capable of handling any emergency. Despite the indignities
heaped upon her by her husband, she dutifully returns to look after him and his property during his
last days. She is ultimately destroyed by a perfectly normal urge, but one forbidden to a widow—the
need for sexual fulfilment. Seethe on the other hand is brought up in the bosom of an affectionate
family and is almost Ophelia-like in her innocence. She ends up condemned to a sexless ascetic
existence, because her lover has too many scruples about expressing his love for her. Both women
are attracted to Hoovayya, which is the only element common to them. Indeed, as ‘mistresses’ of
Kanooru, they come into and go out of the house just missing each other, their entrances and exits
alternating with a precision that would remind one of a vaudeville routine were they not so tragic.

G.S. Amur, the renowned critic, points out that the novel seeks to function on three levels. First, it
attempts to come to a historical understanding of the rich ecological and sociological material at the
poet’s disposal. Then there is the exploration of the personality of Hoovayya, the central
consciousness of the novel—his aesthetic aspirations, his spiritual search, his moral dilemmas and
finally his conflicts with his society. Third, there is an analysis of the relationship between nature and
refinement which provides the novel with its philosophical moorings.

I would also like to highlight the use of imagery and prose to maintain an honest telling of Kanoor
and the characters. The author uses similes and metaphors to outline authentically, the realities of
Life in Malenadu and the caste, gender and power relationships it comes with.

She comes from a poor background and has experienced the humiliation that comes with it. She is
displeased with her decision to marry an older man with three children from his previous two
spouses. However, the status she will gain by marrying him is more valuable to her than romantic
fantasies.

Her husband is a harsh, suspicious, egotistical bully who, in his jealous rages, even resorts to physical
violence. Subbamma puts up with it since she finds it impossible to give up this new life and all the
benefits that come with it. Subbamma is often seen bored and exhausted, her duties as Heggadithi
keep her busy around the house but give her no real challenge, she is relegated to the inside, kept as
a tool to alleviate the domestic and sexual needs of the Kanoor household. She poses a fire which
tries to burn bright and be set free but being born into a life of poverty gave her few life chances. In
the eyes of the society she inhabits, her life is kushy and privileged, being married to a landowner.
When she escapes the potentially fatal abuse metted to her by Chandrayya Gowda and returns to
her home she is treated as an, other. She is consistently reminded of her ostracization through petty
actions. “He
had seen her coming down but had wilfully started up
again after stopping for a minute with the sole intention of not letting
her pass. All the workers, both men and women, decided that
Subbamma was being impertinent and shouted at her to give way
to the man who was going up”. Her peers channelised their rage about being
oppressed by Chandrayya into a disapproving view of Subbamma and her changed position due to
her martial title and inheritance.

Seethe is a child-like girl, one who still hoped to find a prince charming and live as part of a loving
marriage while in reality she had no actual say over her own life. The women all exercise different
levels of authority, as they grow older their opinions are also increasingly heeded though they are
still thought off as weak and unintelligent. Such a belief is betrayed in plain sight in the first page of
the first chapter when describing Hoovayya, Kuvempu says “Black locks on a fair forehead bring to
mind the loveliness of women. But there was no sign of weakness in the face.“

Chandrayya Gowda is the average landowner of the time, deeply egotistical, arrogant and proud of
his wealth, which he uses to gain sexual favour with his lovers, usually less wealthy than him. His
deeply patriarchal and misogynistic way of thought is apparent in his treatment of Subbamma and
Seethe while his casteist and feudal, money hungry mindest is seen in his mistreatment of the
labourers.

Hoovayya is seemingly created as the ideal man, handsome, modern

A related aspect of the novel is that its magnificent landscapes are populated only with men. All that
beautiful nature, so sublimely evoked, is denied to the women, who are confined to the interiors of
their houses. In fact; one of the most poignant moments in the novel occurs on the morning after
Hoovayya and Ramayya return to Kanooru from Mysore. The men exuberantly leave for a jaunt on
the plantations while Puttamma watches from the kitchen door and wishes she too had been born a
man.
i
https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/films/story/19991122-film-review-kanooru-heggaditi-starring-
girish-karnad-tara-srinivas-prabhu-mallika-prasad-781511-1999-11-22
ii
https://inthemiddleofnowhere2016.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/the-house-of-kanooru/
iii
https://penguin.co.in/book/page/85/
iv
https://www.themodernnovel.org/asia/other-asia/india/kuvempu/house/
v
https://ratheesh.livejournal.com/117579.html
vi
https://penguin.co.in/book/page/85/
vii
https://unputdownablebooksblog.wordpress.com/2018/07/12/book-review-the-house-of-kanooru/
viii
https://eagleoverthesea.livejournal.com/23697.html