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.