HISTORY
Period of transition
S. BAGESHREE
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The unconventional interpretation of Vedic texts is the most striking feature of this novel.
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Awadheshwari; Shankar Mokashi Puekar, Translated by P.P. Giridhar, Sahitya Akademi, Rs. 200
SHANKAR MOKASHI PUNEKAR occupies a very special place in the Kannada literary tradition as a novelist, poet, literary critic and translator. Punekar, who wrote when the Navya (modernist) tradition was at its peak in Kannada, was a voice of dissent against the prevailing literary norms, sharply critical of what he called the Western and individualistic orientation of Navya writings.
Critic Rajendra Chenni describes him as a "passionate post-colonial thinker decades before the word became fashionable in the academic world."
But interestingly, Punekar's best-known novel Gangavva Gangamayi, a brilliant portrayal of the clash between orthodoxy and modernity during the years of freedom struggle, is owned by the Navya tradition and credited with being the first existentialist novel in Kannada.
Awadheshwari, which won the Central Sahitya Akademi award in 1998, speaks of yet another period of transition in history. Set in the Vedic times, it tells the story of Purukutsani and her brother-husband Purukutsa.
Several layers
Through a series of plots and subplots, it unravels several layers of social, political personal transformations, all intrinsically linked to one another. For instance, the practice of Niyoga (a form of legally-sanctioned adultery), which plays a pivotal role in the novel, is at once a strategic political act and a deeply personal one. For Purukutsani, it is necessary to continue the royal bloodline. But it is the root of an existentialist dilemma for her son Trasadasyu, which has a bearing on many of his larger political decisions.
What is evident in the novel is Punekar's close reading of early Indian history and literature. He, in fact, studied Harappa-Mohenjodaro seals and published a scholarly work in English interpreting 100 of them (Caxton Publication, Delhi).
Even though some of his conclusions on history in the foreword to Awadheshwari — for instance the correlation he draws between the avataras of Vishnu and the theory of continental drift — sound a bit too fantastic, there is no disputing his amazing grasp of early Indian history.
What is striking in Awadeshwari is his unconventional interpretation of Vedic texts, giving this much-debated period of history a "human" rather than a "divine" dimension. He writes in the foreword: "Not all who lived during Vedic times were ascetics. Some of them have sung their personal jealousies and animosities in the hymns." Quoting a hymn attributed to Purukutsa, he writes further: "To give it a sacrificial-spiritual interpretation because it is a Rig Vedic hymn is to do disservice to his poetic prowess."
Punekar's search for the human face of sweeping historical epoch can also be seen in his delineation of "less significant" characters. He writes about the wise old man Tarkshya, Purukutsani's trusted lieutenant, who often saves the royal family. "His name is, however, nowhere to be found in Ayodhye's history. In fact there are many valiant men of substance who don't get into the limelight, who get lost in the crowded pages of history." The novel, in fact, closes on this note.
Not without blemishes
Sadly, the translation of this important novel is not without blemishes. One comes across awkward sentences like "Devaraja took off his artificial beard and moustache before falling prostrate in front of the dancing wench and begging for the alms of pleasure of amorous play." Indian words and concepts sometimes come with strange qualifications. Angavastra, for instance, is called "towelly cloth" and panche "the male wrap-around". One wonders how these escaped the notice of the editor.
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