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Literary Review
TRANSLATION
Society in transition
DEEPA GANESH
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U.R. Ananthamurthy’s writings examine the nature of a traditional society that is trying to modernise itself.
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U.R. Ananthamurthy Omnibus; Edited by N. Manu Chakravarthy, Arvind Kumar, Rs. 495.
Kannada writer U.R. Ananthamurthy’s works are widely discussed not just in Karnataka, but in the country and outside too. His novels, short stories and essays have been extensively read and talked about, though little is known and said about An
anthamurthy as a poet.
It therefore seems apt to cast his entire writing into perspective through his poetry, particularly a poem that more or less captures Ananthamurthy’s position as a writer.
Unfettered existence
The poem gains extra significance in being the preamble to U.R. Ananthamurthy Omnibus. “Kaliya bekinnu, gaaliya haage niraavalambi alevudey, betavaaguvudannu, aatavaaguvudannu” (There’s more to learn, to wander like the breeze in abandon, to be playful, to be free…) The poem stacks up images of unfettered existences around us to finally say “to calmly wait for the impulse to enter, and to blossom when it does…”, in a way carrying in it resonances of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ line of submission, “…send my roots rain”.
Ananthamurthy by his own admission is a writer who has “lent himself to every kind of experience” and in his writings you see his engagement with Gandhi, Marx, Tolstoy, Edward Said, Lohia to our own Allama and Yagjnavalkya.
The writers of the modernist movement in Kannada (navya) literature articulated multi-dimensional experiences and ideas. Ananthamurthy, among the important voices of the Navya movement, examines the nature of a modernising community, a nation that has its roots deep in tradition. His writings thereby speak not just of a society in transition, but also of individuals and their many realities/selves subject to such flux. These dualities and paradoxes make for the nature of Ananthamurthy’s writings. Hence, one finds that in most of his works (be it novels such as Samskara, Bharatipura or short stories such as “Clip Joint”, “Sooryana Kudure”) the protagonists are only central to the plot and not central to consciousness.
Reflection of society
Though Ananthamurthy’s fiction and non-fiction seem to take diverse trajectories, they in fact, feed each other and are realised in each other. His engagement with language, tradition, modernity, the “little” and the “big” traditions, politics and its impact on civil society… which are dealt in the abstract in his essays translate into tangible, experiential entities in his creative writing. People are always a product of their time and are never seen in isolation to society. Reflecting the mood of his poem is also the ambivalent last line of his acclaimed novel Samskara. “… Praneshacharya sat in a state of anxious anticipation…” As M.G. Krishnamurthy rightly observes in his “Kriti Samskruti”, “Praneshacharya’s rebirth was impossible without the rebirth of his society.” And this gets reinforced in the insightful introduction by culture critic N. Manu Chakravarthy: “No ethical action is possible for an individual independent of the community, and outside of the historical context which no single individual can alter wholly on his own. The two are deeply embedded and implicated in each other.” And to recall what the late scholar D.R. Nagaraj said: “A good work of art meets moments of history in the imaginative realm. It shuns making imagination an end in itself. And all good novels grow beyond history to remain relevant for all times.”
Starting point
For a writer with a large literary output, even an omnibus can understandably appear incomplete. At best, it could only serve as a starting point to Ananthamurthy. One sorely misses short stories like “Navilugalu”, “Bete Bale Otiketa”, “Akaasha mattu Bekku” for its extraordinary portrayal of women of great dignity. The essays have a thematic continuity but those that dwell on his other preoccupations, particularly the ones on other Kannada writers and his reaction to turbulences of recent times are missing. They probably would have been important inclusions to reinforce his “rootedness” and “immediacy”. Publishers must allow editors to exercise a greater choice, particularly when writers of such stature are involved. A.K. Ramanujan’s translation of Samskara, and B.C. Ramachandra Sharma’s translation of “Question” stand out. The translation of “Clip Joint” could certainly have been better. What strikes in Ananthamurthy’s writings, however, is the manner in which he transcends the self to become the other.
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