Bolara Baburao's Vagdevi

Bolara Baburao‘s Vagdevi, published in 1905, deals entirely with the goings on in a religious ‘matha’ or monastery. The novel is set in the Kumudapura monastery, whose head Chanchalanetra Swami (the name itself is ironic and symbolic of the nature of the man; ‘Chanchalanetra‘ means ‘restless eyes‘ or ‘roving eyes‘), supposed to remain celibate, is enamoured by Vagdevi‘s beauty and contrives to bring her into the monastery. The poverty stricken parents of Vagdevi, aware of the implications, override her reluctance and convince her of the benefits of moving into the monastery.

Chanchalanetra‘s lust and her parents‘ greed force Vagdevi to accede to the repeated entreaties of Chanchalanetra and the entire family shifts to the monastery.  Since the monastery is the moral guardian of the society and its religious affairs, it wields a lot of power and wealth.  Vagdevi‘s parents are more enticed by the power they could wield if their daughter becomes the beloved of Chanchalanetra, than their daughter‘s honour and welfare.  Vagdevi‘s husband, a slothful creature, is most satisfied as long he has enough to eat and he does not have any say in the entire show.  In fact, he is genuinely happy that he can now eat to his heart‘s content at the expense of his wife.

A number of sub-plots intersperse the main narrative involving a number of people from all walks of life.  As these people are in some way connected with the monastery, a number of shady dealings involving them and the monastery are also portrayed.  The focus in this novel is more on maintaining the sanctity of places of religion and worship. 

Ideas of reform do not seem to influence this world, but, in terms of satire, the tone in Vagdevi is much more incisive than in Gulvadi Venkatarao‘s novels. The story which begins in a small social unit called Kumudapura slowly spreads across all social units and layers.  Vedavyasa, tired of Chanchalanetra‘s misdeeds, meets the four religious heads around Kumudapura and seeks their help.  When no help comes forth, he meets Thimmayya, the ‘peshkar‘ of that state.  After this he meets a series of officials and goes right up to the king, where he ultimately gets justice.  Bolara Baburao, in his sharp social critique, stands at every level of society, describes the scene there, and seems to reflect how contemporary Hindu society at every level is filled and rotting with irreligiosity, debauchery and greed.  Baburao seems to ask how such a society can be healthy.

Vagdevi was published in 1905 by Kannada Prapancha Prakashana, Mangalore.  If I am not mistaken, a second edition appeared in the 1950s or 60s.  The Directorate of Kannada and Culture, Government of Karnataka, brought out the third edition in 1985, as part of a package of books published to commemorate the World Kannada Conference. 

Vasantha Prakashana, Bangalore, recently published the 4^th edition of Vagdevi.  This edition is what researchers might call a ‘scholarly edition,’ with a solid introduction by T. P. Ashoka, a brief biography of Bolara Baburao, and overall good production values.  It was in this edition that I was able to glean some information about the author. 

 

Bolara Baburao was born in 1848 in Bolara, Mangalore.  He attended the Basel Mission School in Mangalore, and thereafter, completed his FA (First Arts) from Presidency College, Madras.  His first job was as a clerk in the District Collector’s office in Dakshina Kannada.  He went on to serve as English Head Clerk, Deputy Tahsildar at Karkala and Hosadurga, and then as Tahsildar in Kundapura, Udipi, Puttur, and Kasargod.  Before he retired as Tahsildar of Mangalore, Bolara Baburao was the Town Magistrate in Mangalore.  After retirement, he served as President of the Second Division Bench Magistrate’s Court.  He was also one of the prime movers behind the establishment of Canara Public Conveyance in 1914.

Bolara Baburao wrote two more books, Shivaleelamrita and Bhakta Mahime.  He also wrote a number of articles in prominent periodicals of the time.  He passed away in 1919 at the age of 71.

Gulvadi Venkatarao’s second novel, “Bhagirathi”

Gulvadi Venkatarao‘s second novel, Bhagirathi, was published in 1900.  This novel is not easily available, but an informative essay by B. A. Viveka Rai* on Bhagirathi reveals how drastically different this novel is from Indirabai, Venkatarao‘s first novel.  Venkatarao has created this character, Bhagirathi, a poor widow, who is also the narrator, to lampoon the various superstitions prevalent in Brahmin communities.  The novel is technically in the form of conversations between Bhagirathi and her neighbour, Leelavati, a young educated girl, though it is Bhagirathi who does most of the talking. Rai observes that in this novel Bhagirathi is the story-teller and Leelavati is the listener and whenever Leelavati tries to voice her opinions, she is swept away by the power of Bhagirathi‘s non-stop harangue.  

Bhagirathi is well-known in her town as ‘Kattale Bhagirathi‘.  ‘Kattale’ in Kannada means ‘rules‘/‘customs.‘  As Bhagirathi blindly follows all kinds of rules set up by the society, and has strange explanations and remedies for equally strange problems, the adjective ‘kattale‘ is stuck to her.  Rai considers Bhagirathi an unreliable narrator, because what she gives as explanations and remedies are born out of blind belief and there is no certainty about these beliefs.

Through Bhagirathi‘s various lists of dos and don‘ts, Venkatarao uses sarcasm to bring out the society‘s scorn for female children, women‘s education, English education and the stubborn insistence on maintaining the existing order with all its evils. As Leelavati, her permanent listener, is an English-educated girl, Bhagirathi repeatedly harps on the evils of English education and specifically of women being educated. Through Bhagirathi‘s life, Venkatarao portrays the debilitating effects of child-marriage and frustrations of child-widows and thereby implicitly presents the case for widow remarriage.

For Gulvadi Venkatarao, Bhagirathi is an extension of his concerns about society that he began with his first novel, Indirabai.  In the preface (in Kannada) to Bhagirathi he reminds his readers:

In the ‘Preface‘ to Indirabai, I had said that truthfulness and purity of heart are the two accomplishments that sustain us in this world and the next.  But as long as foolishness and stupidity prevail in us, it is impossible to achieve these goals. This is portrayed through Bhagirathi‘s life. (Venkatarao [1900], quoted in Rai, 1989: 10) (my translation)

*(B. A. Viveka Rai’s article “Gulvadi Venkatarayara Bhagirathi: Moodha Nambikegala Vidambane” (Gulvadi Venkatarao‘s Bhagirathi: A Satire on Blind Beliefs) was published in the book Gulvadi Venkatarao: Baduku-Baraha, edited by Santoshkumar Gulvadi  and published by Karnataka Sangha, Puttur, and Gulvadi Venkatarao Smaraka Kendra, Manipal, in 1989.)

Lakshmana Bhimarao Gadagakara's Suryakantha and Chandraprabha

Though I have a lot of interesting things to write about Indirabai, let me curb my enthusiasm for the time being and move on to other writers and books, lest this blog comes to be seen as solely about Indirabai. 

This post is about two swatantra ‘independent’ novels, Suryakantha and Chandraprabha, written by Lakshmana Bhimarao Gadagakara.  These two novels were written before Indirabai.  They are not set in contemporary times, and therefore do not have the ‘prestige’ attached to ‘independent social’ novels written during that time.  I have not read these novels and if I am not wrong, only a couple of copies are in existence.  The one scholar who seems to have read these two novels is U. Maheshwari and the novels appear in her analysis of early Kannada novels.   I have based this post on my reading of U. Maheshwari’s splendid book on early Kannada novels written from a feminist perspective, Idu Manushya Odu: Kannadada Modala Kadambarigalu – Ondu Streevadi Adhyayana.  

Gadagakara‘s Suryakantha (1892) is chronologically the first ‘independent’ novel written in Kannada.  Coming after a spate of ‘translated’ historical and romantic novels, puran-ic and marvelous narratives, Maheshwari considers Suryakantha as one of the earliest novels that responded to the issue of women‘s education.  The fact that this novel is set in an imaginary city with the king as a ruler makes it appear as an historical novel.  The king has no role to play here and it is the story of Suryakantha, born to poor parents, who leaves home to study, finds employment in the army and helps in the war efforts.  Suryakantha‘s courage and kindness finally help him to improve his family‘s condition.  The issue of women‘s education makes its appearance in this novel in a tentative manner.  Suryakantha‘s father wants his son to become a scholar, but abject poverty prevents this wish and Suryakantha leaves behind his parents and sister Premavati and sets out in search of education and employment.  He had to separate from his sister whom he loved dearly, and before leaving he tells her to study under her father‘s tutelage and become literate.  His awareness that his sister cannot go out and study, but his desire to also see her educated reveals Gadagakara‘s awareness of social reformist concerns.

Gadagakara‘s next novel Chandraprabha (1896) sets right the gender imbalance.  In this novel it is the heroine, Chandraprabha, who displays intelligence, courage and resilience.  Chandraprabha is the daughter of Kripasheela and Bhagyasheele.  She is taught the traditional duties of a housewife and is given in marriage to Manamohanarao.  Her courage comes to the fore when she fights the King‘s soldiers who had come to arrest her husband on a false charge of participating in a rebellion against the King.  When her husband is arrested anyway, she sets out to fight the inevitable war to secure his release.  Along the way the author describes many incidents that reflect Chandraprabha‘s kindness, intelligence and self-control.

The reformist concern of this novel is reflected in a conversation regarding women‘s education between Chandraprabha and Manamohanarao.   Chandraprabha wants to know whether the general idea that women are less intelligent is true.  Manamohanarao replies that not all men and all women are either fools or intelligent people and just because some of them are in either category, it is not right to blame only women, but that ignorance is more in women.   Chandraprabha probes further and asks whether this ignorance is a woman‘s natural state or is it because her parents have not provided her with a proper education, to which her husband says that it is not a natural state.

These two instances in these two novels reveal the author‘s awareness and acknowledgement of the social upheavals around him.  The author‘s proximity to the Marathi society, where debates regarding women‘s education were already taking place, could have influenced his thinking. 

Not much is known about the author, Lakshmana Bhimarao Gadagakara.  But his one claim to fame is that he was the first writer to call his novels ‘kadambari’ in Kannada.  Again, his awareness and knowledge of Marathi society and literature would have familiarized him with the word ‘kadambari’ that was used in Marathi for the novel.  Since then, ‘Kadambari’ has found acceptance in Kannada literature.  

The only earlier reference, before U. Maheshwari’s book, to either of these novels was in Srinivasa Havanur’s book Hosagannadada Arunodaya, where he argues that Suryakantha is not eligible to be categorized as a ‘social’ novel because the novel is not ‘set’ in contemporary times.  The detailed analysis of these two novels made by U. Maheshwari in her book also highlights the shift in focus in novel criticism in Kannada where new modes of analysis have brought forth aspects that did not fit into strict conventional modes of analysis of form and content.  These two novels also belie the notion that only novels set in contemporary times are capable of responding to contemporary concerns.