The Rivers Of Ananthamurthy Analysis

The river has got sumptuous meanings and interpretations from time immemorial. It stands for abundance, existence, movement, acceptance etc. Ananthamurthy adds a new quality to it, the quality of woman. The paper entitled ‘The Rivers of Ananthamurthy’ discusses the women characters of U R Ananthamurthy from the chosen novels – Samskara, Bhava and Awasthe. The book Asante Manasaputhrimar, by Nithya Chaithanya Yathi on Kumaranasan’s heroines, gives the inspiration for this paper. It is a thematic analyses based on the characters – Chandri (Samskara), Radha (Bhava) and Gouri Deshpande (Awasthe) of U R Ananthamurthy. Apart from the realistic touch they are the symbols of ‘Indian women’ who have been forgotten by the contemporary Indian women due

Samskara is a collision with a new sort of awareness of self, partly conditioned by existential thinking. Meenakshi Mukherji commented on the theme of the novel in her essay titled, Samskara, that, “The difficult and uneasy process of transition between the fixed settled order of life and the still inchoate stirring of self is part of the thematic concern of the novel. Although largely allegorical in texture and mythic in its conscious structure, the novel does not repudiate the demands of realism. Thus both in content and form it can serve as an illustration of the kind of mutation that a western form has undergone in India” (83). Ananthamurthy’s most of the characters and context of the works are from the real life situations. He introduces himself as one who is “. . living in the world of Purana and reality at the same time” (Baral 70). The whole novel is a narration of the three days incidents in a village called Durvasapura. It begins with the death of Narannappa, a Brahmin by birth and an anti-Brahmin by life, and his concubine Chandri approaches Praneshacharya for cremation. Because of Naranappa’s anti-Brahminical behaviour the people of agrahara fall in a dilemma regarding his death rites including Praneshacharya, the guru of the agrahara. Samskara passes through the inner angst and thoughts of

This shows how rotten he is as a human being of flesh and blood. Chandri also accompanies him to the temple unknowingly. She plucks and eats some plantains to kill hunger and keeps the rest with her. God Hanuman also gives up Praneshacharya and the whole day prayer ends up in dread, an unknown fear. Hunger, despair, and anger, along with all other emotions burst out in him at that moment. Chandri stands in front of him to know the decision and to request for Naranappa’s cremation. She bends and grasps his knees. He touches her hair with compassion but at the moment, the real Praneshacharya – a human being, raises. The blessing is struck in his throat which leaves Chandri doubly intense. Praneshacharya fainted. Chandri holds him like a child and he becomes a child, who weeps for his needs in her lap. Chandri holds his hands and places it on her body and while “touching full breasts he had never touched, Praneshacharya felt faint. As in a dream, he pressed them. As the strength in his legs was ebbing, Chandri sat at the acharya down, holding him close. The Acharya’s hunger, so far unconscious, suddenly raged, and he cried out like a child in distress, ‘Amma !’ Chandri leaned him against her breasts, took the plantains out f her lap, peeled them and fed them to him. Then she took off her sari, spread it on the ground, and la on it hugging Praneshacharya close to her, weeping, flowing in helpless tears.”