ABSTRACT
UR Ananthamurthy’s Kannada novel Samskara is acknowledged as one of the most significant achievements of modernist Kannada literature. It deals with the dilemmas of a respected Madhwa Brahmin scholar Praneshacharya whose life is thrown into crisis by the death of a renegade Brahmin Naranappa, who broke caste taboos since he needs to solve the issue of whether the dead man should be cremated as a Brahmin. He is also tempted into sex with Naranappa’s low-caste mistress Chandri and his own ailing wife dies at about the same time. Praneshacharya embarks upon a journey of attrition paralleling his inner journey because of the doubts he feels. The novel is set ostensibly after independence when modernity was on the horizon and Ananthamurthy sees it as an intellectual churning in the tradition-minded. He does not lampoon tradition since his high-minded protagonist also believes but his intellectual capabilities are not spelled out – or what he abandoned. In praising lower caste sensuality, there is a degree of condescension since they are also bound by caste taboos. If the protagonist’s dilemmas are existentialist, they revolve around taboos rather than philosophical questioning. There is a mismatch between the intensity of the dilemma and the slight questions actually raised.
