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.)