U.

R Ananthamurthy

Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, well known Indian novelist and Jnanpith

award winner was born on 21st December 1932 in Melige village in Karnatakas Shimoga

district. He was born in a conservative Brahmin household. Ananthamurthy completed his

primary schooling in a traditional Sanskrit school in Durvasapura. He completed his higher

studies in Tirthahalli and graduation from Mysore University. After completing his MA from

Mysore University, he won a commonwealth scholarship. Ananthamurthy later moved abroad

and completed his doctorate from the University of Birmingham in 1966. The subject for his

dissertation was The Fiction Writers of the Thirties He grew up in a very traditional milieu where

discrimination between castes and communities was rigorously maintained. Most of his story

lines question the traditional hierarchy in the society and the sacred rituals followed in Brahmin

societies. He married a Christian lady, Esther, and faced many problems for his interreligious

marriage as it was not accepted by his community. Ananthamurthy consciously stay away from

writing in English and started writing in Kannada. He is an important figure in Indian literature.

He experimented with the new facets of language and reality and there by ushered modernism in

to Indian literature. His work includes three novels, six collections of poetry and four collections

of short story, five collections of essays, two volumes of critical articles, and a stage play. His

novels, Samskara, Bharatipura, and Avasthe won critical acclaim, and his play was titled

Anveshan. He has recently translated Seventeen poems of W.B Yeats. He was the medium to

explore the relevance of some of the traditional values in the changed context of today.

Generally, he employs the method of point and counterpoint and creates characters to personify

opposing value systems. He draws heavily from the rich background of his childhood and

adolescence to build his stories. Prakriti, Kartika and Ghata Shradda are among the finest
stories in the language. His role as a critic has been of seminal importance in shaping the

direction of modern Kannada criticism. Ananthamurthy won acclaim from critics. He is among

the most influential writers and critics of the Navya or modernist school in Kannada. He won the

Rajyothsava award in 1984 and the Masti Venkateswara Iyengar award in1995 from the

Karnataka government. He won the Padma Bhushan in 1998.He is one of the fifty best writers in

India. He died on 22 August 2014 in Bangalore. He is one of Indias major modern creative

writers. The merit of his several fictional writings has been recognized internationally.

Samskara

U. R Anandamurthys Samskara, Kannada novel was first published in 1965 and is

translated in to English by A. K Ramanujan. The title of his translation is A Rite for a Dead Man.

The novel was made in to a film in 1970, directed and produced by Pattabhirama Reddy and

screen play by Girish Karnad. The title of the novel Samskara has different meanings. Samskara

is a fine discussion on the caste and class structure of India. The novel Samskara deals with

many issues of religion and untouchability and other social perspectives of Post- independence

India. Samskara is a religious novel about a decaying Brahmin colony in the South Indian village

of Karnataka, and it serves as an allegory rich in realistic detail, a contemporary reworking of

ancient Hindu themes and myths and serious poetic study of a religious man living in a priest

community. It will decode the various forms of domination and hegemony by focusing on the

women characters of the novel. Samskara is a novel about the people in Agrahara, mainly of

Brahmin caste. The whole story of the novel focused on the last rites of a dead man.

Anantamurthy introduces the whole and exotic women characters in his novels. He has

moulded the women from different social and cultural sectors and one can equate them to the
women characters of the Indian epics- Ramayana and Mahabharata. His novels give a chance to

stop and look back at Indian tradition especially Indian womanhood. The Sanskrit word for

woman is sthree which means the safeguard of truth. Anantamurthy presents safeguard of

truth, truth in different perspectives in his novels. Ananthamurthy also shown that not only the

low caste women but even the high caste women are also exploited and marginalized. Brahmin

women in his novel have no opportunity to voice their feelings in any decision. They are just

confined to housekeeping and child nurturing within the male Laxmanrekha of purity. The male

have full domination over financial resources and are equipped with all freedom to have illicit

relationships with mistresses who are later abandoned to become whores and prostitutes leading

a deprived and hand to mouth lives worse than animals. Women are only treated as commodities.

Summary of the novel

The novel is set in an Agrahara in Durvasapura. The protagonist of the novel is Naranappa

and the novel begins with the death of Naranappa. The people in agrahara, especially the

relatives of Naranappa are not ready to perform the vital rites for him. Because Naranappa is an

anti- brahmanical Brahmin, a disreputed figure, who leads a vulgar life, always drinking wine,

eating meat, and leads an immoral life with a dalit, Chandri. After Naranappas death, she

approaches many people for the last rites of Naranappa. But no one helps her. She throws her

jewellery in to the body of Naranappa and she offered it to the man, who is willing to perform

the last rites for Naranappa. But there is no one ready to do the cremation of Naranappa. Chandri,

with great expectation, approaches Praneshacharya, most learned and devoted Brahmin for the

Cremation of Naranappa. But he refused the request. In between there is a physical relationship

between Praneshacharya and Chandri. So he totally disagreed to do the last rites because he
believes that he is not At last the body was cremated by a Muslim, named Ahmed Bari, a fish

merchant and Chandri went to Kundapura.

Female characters in Samskara

Chandri

She is an important character in the novel. Chandri is a symbol rather than a realistic

character. She is a low- caste woman and she is the concubine of Naranappa, whom he had

brought over from near Kundapura. . She symbolizes all women of her caste and class. She is the

most discussed character in the novel after Naranappa. She is a prostitute. She is a dalit and an

untouchable to Brahmins. Brahmins believed that they will get polluted by her single look.

Everyone in the Agrahara hates her but secretly they want to possess her. She is a marginalized

character throughout the novel. She represents a woman who is very much conscious of her

identity and for that she has the capacity to exert it in a way that is not possible for Brahmin

wives. She is in many ways more free than the Brahmin women because, she is not toed down to

duty of just an onlooker. In the novel there is equal grade for Chandri and other Brahmin

women. There are many instances for the oppression faced by Chandri in the Brahmin

community. When she goes to Praneshacharya to inform him about the death of Naranappa she

stands in the yard. She wants to meet Praneshacharya again, after their physical relation, she is in

a state of utter confusion and she is afraid to go to the agrahara. But at last she gains courage and

she says Lets go there and see. If I feel strong enough I can sleep on the outer verandah. If not I

can go again to the Acharyas verandah. What else can be done in an emergency? So arguing

with herself she went straight home. She stood under the thatch and listened. Dogs barked

tonight like on any other night. She started climbing the steps. Her groping hand felt the open
door: Ayyo, o God, hope no fox or dog has entered the house and done things to the body she

felt distressed, forgot her fears. Once she also requests Naranappa to not eat the food cooked by

her. While the Brahmins gather to discuss the matter of Naranappas rites, she remains on the

periphery, sitting against a pillar. But at last she decided to offer her gold for the expenses of the

rites and this incident shocks everyone. She is the other by class and caste among the upper

caste Brahmins. Chandri emerges as a strong and independent woman in comparison to the

Brahmin women, who could not even cross the boundary of Agrahara. She is kind, lovable,

responsible, and hard working when compared to other women characters in the novel. Her

helplessness is portrayed in the novel.

Puttas wife

Another woman character in this novel is wife of putta. Putta represents inter- caste

theory in the novel. He is a mixture of both Hindu caste and untouchable. Putta is the product of

an inter- caste marriage, naturally an untouchable. He has problems with his wife. So he always

beats her. His wife just wants to visit her parents because she loves them and she only follows

the advices of her parents even if she is the wife of putta, and his problem is that he does not

want to bear the expenses of her journey. It shows that, a woman cannot visit or love her parents

after marriage. Putta always want his wife for his own needs, he does not allow her to even love

her parents. She is constantly beaten by her husband and she is suppressed by her husband. She

even doesnt have a name of her own. She is known as the wife of Putta among the people in the

agrahara. She is in a state of identity crisis. Even though she belongs to the Brahmin caste she

lived as a low caste.

Lakshmidevamma

Her best known name is half-wit Lakshmidevamma. She is an old and lonely woman.

She is a Brahmin and she resides on the outskirts of the village. She married at eight and

widowed at ten. Her mother-in-law and father- in law died when she was fifteen. Before she

was twenty her father and mother had died. Agrahara people believed that she is responsible for

the death of her dear ones. She represents the very male form of hierarchy and domination of

caste system where a woman even though belongs to the Brahmin caste cannot have her share in

the village community. She has to live alone and behaves like an untouchable. The economic

angle which is very clear is that after her father, husband and in laws and since she does not have

any son, her property and belongings will fall in to the hands of others.

Bhagirathi

Bhagirathi is Acharyas wife and a symbol of Praneshacharyas tapas. The most fatal of all

the women characters in the novel is Bhagirathi. She is the sick wife of Praneshacharya. She

feels that she is a burden to her husband and often she advices Praneshacharya to marry a healthy

and fruitful woman. She is a kind woman who loves her husband very much. She wishes for the

good future of her husband. She once asked her husband that Being married to me is no joy. A

house needs a child. Why dont you just get married again?

Anasuya

Anasuya is a Brahmin woman. She is the wife of Lakshmanacharya. She feels proud of her

husband when he denied performing the last rites of Naranappa. She once curses Chandri and
said that may tigers trample her at midnight, may snakes bite her, this whore, this seducing

witch!.

Women in this novel are the victims of patriarchal brahmanical society. There is no

importance for their emotions and feelings. They are passive throughout their life. They have no

dreams and hopes of their own. The readers are unaware about the feelings of women characters

in this novel. Women are only considered as commodities. Not only the low caste but also the

upper caste brahmanical women are confined to the four walls. The women, especially upper

caste women do not attack the social system based on hierarchies but try to make the most from

within its confines to their advantage even though they meet with resistance, amusingly from

their husbands and other male relatives. Women are the victims of triple oppression. They are

victimized on the basis of their gender, caste and class. Women are passive and they cant

articulate anything about their situation. Women are only objects for men and men considered

women as objects which have no feelings and emotions.

The two classes of women in this novel is, low caste women and upper caste

women. Bhagirathi, The sick wife of Praneshacharya, Lakshmidevamma, a half- mad child

widow, Anasuya, the wife of Lakshmanacharya and the wife of Shripati come from the Brahmin

campus. The wife of Naranappa, who was abandoned by him and died in insane condition, is

mentioned indirectly in the novel. Chandri, mistress of Naranappa, Belli, an untouchable girl,

Chinni, friend and neighbor of Belli, Padmavati, a prostitute are from the lower caste. Puttas

wife is also belongs to the lower caste. Outcaste women like Chandri and Belli are hallowed and

romanticized by references to classical heroines like, Shakuntala and Menaka. Besides being

classical, women like Chandri are also earthly and amoral, ideals of untroubled sexuality.
 Another important thing about the feminist perspective of the novel is that Brahmin

women are depicted as plump, disfigured, ugly, unattractive, and ignorant for sexual pleasure.

They are quarrelsome and greedy about the material things. The low caste women, on the other

hand, are beautiful with attractive figures even though they are untouchables and are readily

available for sexual intercourse. They are not greedy about material belongings. The erotic

beauty of the low caste women has been articulated through upper caste Brahmin men in the

novel.

There are many other works in Indian literature that deals with the issues of low caste

women and brahminical patriarchy. For instance, Against the Madness of Manuby Sharmila

Rege. In this work she tries to portray Ambedkars role in the womens movement by invoking

his ideological fight against Brahminical patriarchy and how the caste system engenders the

graded violence against women.

Women occupy a prime place in many of Anandamurthys stories and novels. He tries

to portray the problems of women, not only the dalit women but also the high caste women.