Therefore the use, or mis-use, or circumventing of language becomes a metaphorical component of the novel, which is also about communicating: difficulties in communication echoed as difficulties in language.
∗
Bhava is a departure for Anantha Murthy; he hasn't written any novel quite like it before. This may be a matter of disappointment to some readers who have come to expect from him work that is iconoclastic, rigorously challenging beliefs and practices, revealing forms that have lost their meaning—all of which characterize Samskara, for instance, and are absent from Bhava. The concern with crises of identity and spirit, although present and compelling in much of his earlier work, always has a dual purpose. The Acharya's spiritual crisis serves also as a microcosm of the crisis of Identity in a whole community of brahmins. His rebirth takes place in a political/sociological context, necessitated by the surrounding religious and social decay. There is no such context in Bhava, which has a much smaller canvas; its crises of identity are not placed alongside the monoliths of community, society, tradition. The crises are simply there, products of individual defects in bhava; which is to say, products of being human. Bhava spotlights the individual caught in the web of being, of samsara. Everywhere there is evidence of samsara's illusoriness, the bane of ‘not knowing‘: I don't know what is real. I don't know what ‘real’ means. I don't know who I am. I don't know whose father I am. I don't know whose son I am. I don't know what the ‘I’ in ‘I am’ means. So while the details of this novella are rooted in the Indian reality, the ultimate resonance is more immediately universal.
∗
As in many traditional tales a question is raised; kept alive, despite possible solutions; maintained, till profounder questions are raised. Answers are delayed until the question is no longer relevant.
—A.K. Ramanujan on Samskara
Few of the mysteries in Bhava are ever resolved. The author's reluctance to solve them for us—his adopting a perspective that is diffused, not omniscient—is connected with the theme of ‘not knowing,’ and with the changing relevance of having questions answered. The characters move beyond the kind of resolution they required earlier, because critical changes take place in those most in need of a shift in their terms of being, most in need of a rebirth.
Shastri and Dinakar—who, especially if we think of the bhavavali, could be aspects of the same character enacting the same fate in different parts of the cycle—echo one another when abandoning their questions about paternity:
‘“What does it matter if he is my son? Or if he is not?” Dinakar thought. “Whether I am his father, whether I am not, I should touch his feet.”’
And Shastri thinks, of Dinakar,
‘“Whether he is my son or not, he seems to be one who can give me a new life.”’
By the end of Bhava, Shastri is, for the first time, benignly preoccupied with the future—his unborn grandchild and the reconciliation with his daughter. He begins to feel, wonderingly, tentatively, that even in old age he may yet, for a while, live without suffering and fury. The ordinary blessings might be his.
Prasad decides that he can live in the world while not being of it. Having adopted the saintly simpleton, Chandrappa, as his spiritual father, he becomes unconcerned with the identity of his natural father, and loses his resentment of Narayan Tantri. In consequence, the pressure on Narayan Tantri to marry Gangu evaporates. Although Narayan Tantri is prepared to marry a woman born into the prostitute caste, Gangu herself comes to feel that the loving acceptance by Sitamma renders a public ritual unnecessary.
Dinakar, even without full awareness, has never before been so much among family: his ‘other mother.’ Sitamma; Shastri, who seems like ‘a relation from some past life’; Prasad, in response to whom he experiences, for the first time in his life, the ‘welling up of love for a child.’
When, at the end of his pilgrimage, Dinakar comes down from the hill and thinks, ‘“That” is not to be won if you seek it wilfully,’ he expresses an earned—if not completely experienced—response to Prasad's ‘Who am I?’
‘Thou art “That”.’ Tattvamasi.
Then he thinks of the evening when he ‘became captive to Prasad's unshakeable calm, and for a moment at least … was fully open, free of any desire or expectation.’ He thinks of blessing Prasad—how it had seemed that Prasad ought to have been blessing him—and is in a state of exaltation.
The dazzle of illusion, even when we see through it; the ways in which we entangle ourselves, the ways in which we work free—
How dp we get to change?
When all is said and done, it seems a matter of grace.
Notes
[The definition of ‘bhava’ given in the ‘Translator's Note’ is from A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, by Sir M. Monier-Williams.
In the Afterword, use is made of material from: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche. New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 1997; The Tibetan Book of the Dead, tr. Robert A.F. Thurman. London: Thorsons, 1995; A Handbook of Tibetan Culture, ed. Graham Coleman. New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 1995; and U.R. Anantha Murthy's Samskara, tr. A.K. Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.]
BOOK ONE
Chapter 1
amulet: the amulet contains the Sri Chakra (also called Sri Yantra) diagram. A yantra is the manifestation of deity through visual form, and the Sri Chakra, a design of nine intersecting triangles, both embodies and makes manifest the goddess, the Divine Mother, ‘Sri.’ A way of referring to Lakshmi, Vishnu's consort, ‘Sri’ means prosperity, good fortune, auspiciousness. The type of Sri Chakra referred to here is inscribed on a scroll, consecrated, and kept inside an amulet; the amulet itself may bear a design as well.
Ayyappa pilgrim: Ayyappan (Shasta), the son of a union between Shiva and the enchantress Mohini (Vishnu in female form), is the presiding deity at the hill-top temple of Shabarimala in Kerala. Some devotees undertake a pilgrimage to the hill having sworn a vow that submerges their ordinary identity: they wear black clothing for the prescribed time, call one another only ‘Swami,’ observe dietary restrictions, forego alcohol and sexual relations, and practice other austerities. Men of any age may visit the temple, but only women who do not menstruate (that is, young girls and women past menopause) are eligible. Dinakar's choice of the Ayyappa pilgrimage (with its barring of women in their fertile years, and given Ayyappa's vexed parentage) may reflect areas of conflict in his own life.
tulsi: basil, which is sacred to Vishnu.
ritually pure things: ‘madi,’ the Kannada word for ritual purity, is also used in the text. (In chapter 3, Sitamma—having just bathed—is ‘in a state of madi.’)
harikatha: recitation and performance of stories from sacred literature, the lives of saints, and so on. Here, especially, ‘stories of Hari’ (one of Vishnu's names).
Kuchela: a poor boyhood friend of Krishna.
kuttavalakki and avalakki: both are based on pounded rice; kuttavalakki is fancier.
kirtanakar: singer of kirtans (devotional, religious songs).
Emden Boat: R.K. Narayan, in his book My Days, mentions the Emden Boat. ‘Madras was bombarded by Emden in the First World War’; the commander of a German battleship ‘had shelled Madras just for amusement.’ Fearing that Madras would become another beachhead, some people in the coastal area fled inland. (New Delhi: Viking, 1996).
Shivalli Smrta, Shivalli Madhva: these represent a divergence in brahmin belief. Madhvas (followers of Madhvacharya) are dualists who worship Vishnu as the supreme god. Smrtas (followers of Shankaracharya, or Adishankara) are monists who do not, for example, consider Vishnu to be higher than Shiva. Shastri wears tulsi (sacred to Vishnu) in his topknot, and also wears rudraksha beads (sacred to Shiva). The compliment means that Shastri, though not subscribing to the hierarchy which regards Vishnu as supreme, is so expert at harikatha that he can evoke Krishna Paramatma (Vishnu) as if in a vision, even to Vishnu's own devotees. Shivalli is located in Udupi.
punya: merit, virtue (or r
eward for good acts).
Chapter 2
‘Shall I call you Chikappa, or Dodappa, or Mama?’: these are all variations on ‘uncle’ (‘Chikappa,’ for example, is ‘father's younger brother’).
matra-raksha: protection (protective amulet) given by the mother.
Chapter 3
‘I have cultivated this addiction’: i.e., reciting harikatha.
‘What, Shastri-gale, why shouldn't I bathe again and then make your food?’: Sitamma, having bathed, is in a state of ‘madi,’ ritual purity; if she touches Shastri, she will be polluted and must bathe again before cooking the meal which will be offered to god. In ‘Shastri-gale,’ ‘gale’ is an honorific.
Chapter 4
‘My Nani’: ‘Nani’ is Sitamma's pet name for her son Narayan.
Venkatesha Stotra: hymn in praise of Lord Ventakesha (Vishnu) of Tirupati.
kadubu: a rice dish steamed in banana or jackfruit leaves.
the main oven opening sideways into another, and then another: the earthen stove has open flames of differing intensity. This variation is achieved by building a main ovenlike enclosure which has several holes through which fire is guided sideways, with diminishing intensity, into other chambers.
‘If you had not taken this vrata, I would have waved drsti over you’: ordinarily, Sitamma might wave something like chillies or incense around Dinakar's head to ward off the evil eye. But Dinakar does not need such protection; he is not in his ordinary state, because he has taken the Ayyappa vow (vrata: ritually—or self-imposed—austerity; religious duty).
Vijayanagar Empire: comprised much of South India from the mid-fourteenth century for the next three hundred years. There is a belief that, when it fell, much of its treasure—especially in the form of gold—was looted.
‘As soon as I saw the amulet, I knew that it contained a Sri Chakra’: see also note for chapter one.
Veda Vyas: by tradition the ‘arranger[s]’ or ‘compiler[s]’ of the Vedas (also of texts such as the Mahabharata and the Puranas).
Chapter 5
‘Prahlad or Dhruva’: Both appear in Puranic tales as sons who, through devotion to Vishnu, overcome the rejection of their fathers.
Ekadashi: the 11th day of the moon, sacred to Vishnu, when orthodox brahmins observe a fast.
a goddess whom he had chosen for special devotion: his ‘ishtadevata,’ a chosen, or personal, deity with whom, from among the gods, one feels the closest (and perhaps least impersonal) connection; a tutelary deity believed to be especially concerned with one's welfare, something like a guardian spirit.
four upayas (‘chaturupaya’; sama, dana, bheda, danda): ‘Four strategies,’ ‘four tactics’ for winning people over. Sama: friendliness, gentle persuasion. Dana: giving gifts or rewards. Bheda: divisiveness, fomenting differences among people. Danda: physical punishment.
Sharada: also Saraswati, goddess of music, learning.
Chapter 7
‘Such spirits make you roar “me me me”’: ‘nanu, nanu, nanu’ in Kannada.
kama, krodha, moha: lust, anger, attachment.
alap: the improvisational prelude which establishes the themes of a raga.
Chapter 8
Trivikram: an epithet for Vishnu who, in his incarnation as a dwarf, asks the demon-king Bali for a small gift: the amount of land that can be measured off in three paces. When Bali agree, the dwarf makes himself enormous and—in just three strides—measures off the universe.
he had not yet completely become a wraith: since Radha persists in guarding Shastri's ‘orthodoxy’ in terms of eating taboos (which come into play because Shastri is a brahmin and Radha is a shudra), it means she doesn't see him as a wraith (pishachi), which has no caste at all.
received an omen from a lizard on the wall: refers to lore based on the interpretation of clicking sounds made by the lizard.
Chapter 10
puranik: reciter of the Puranas.
BOOK TWO
Chapter 11
‘you speak to me in the Sahib's tongue?’: Sitamma means Bombay Hindi, or Urdu; she associates Hindi-speakers with Muslims (because they are Northerners).
Chapter 13
vairagya: indifference to worldly attachments; as if to say that Gangu has something of an ascetic streak in her.
kindari jogi: ‘Pied Piper.’ This tale, translated into Kannada, has been widely known for many years; it has been used, for example, in children's primers.
Chapter 15
ichchamarani: ‘one who can die when one wishes’: for example, a sage possessing such power may inform his followers weeks beforehand of the date on which he will leave his body.
Adishankara: another name for Shankaracharya. For chapter one, book one.
turning over: ‘horalu,’ in Kannada, suggests turning over, as when one is asleep.
the others lay down to sleep: on the pilgrimage, Dinakar has a separate sleeping-place, whereas the family (Sitamma, Narayan, Gopal and Gangu) would sleep in the same room.
samsara: worldly existence; the chain of births and deaths.
Chapter 16
Appayya: Father. Prasad refers to Chandrappa alone as ‘father,’ even though he knows that Chandrappa is not his biological father.
Chapter 17
Purana and pravacchan: ‘purana’ (lit. ‘old’), a legend or story of ancient times, typically involving gods, heroes, sages, and so on. ‘Pravacchan’: sacred writings; discourse on religious teachings.
Chapter 21
her cooking too was devoted to God: the Kannada text says that Sitamma was absorbed in her ‘kayaka.’ In this context, ‘kayaka’ means sanctified work, work offered to God; the concept is from Basava, a leader of the Virashaivite movement.
Chapter 22
‘“Let Narayan Tantri begin coming home” … This was the first time he ever spoke my name to Gangu’: Narayan is happy that his name is no longer taboo for Prasad, that at last Prasad will refer to him as something other than ‘he’ or ‘that man.’ Yet since, traditionally, no one speaks the name of his own father, it also emphasizes that Prasad does not regard Narayan as his father. (Prasad never calls Chandrappa—his self-chosen father—by name; he only calls him Appayya.)
BOOK THREE
Chapter 24
Charvak: in a note to Samskara, A.K. Ramanujan mentions ‘the Charvaka School, materialists and hedonist philosophers, who believed in the slogan … equivalent to “Enjoy yourself, even if it's on borrowed money.”’
Charvak had gone even further than a Communist: Mangala is hinting that Charvak may be a terrorist, like a Naxalite.
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First published in Kannada by Akshara Prakashna, Sagara, Karnataka 1994
Copyright © U.R. Anantha Murthy 1994
First published in English by Penguin Books India 1998
Tanslation copyright © Judith Kroll 1998
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagin
ation or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-01-4027-649-7
This digital edition published in 2011.
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