Raja Rao - Kanthapura

Then Seenu would sometimes go to Karwar with a Friday cart and come back with a Tuesday-morning cart, and he would tell us about Sankar and Advocate Ranganna and Seetharamu; and Vasudev, too, would sometimes go in a Skeffington Estate lorry, and he would sometimes slip through the evening and tell us about Moorthy and the case, and everybody said, ‘The Goddess will free him. She will appear before the judges and free him.’ And Rangamma vowed she would offer a Kanchi sari to Kenchamma if he were released, and Ratna said she would have a thousand-and-eight-flames ceremony performed, and Nanjamma said she would give the Goddess a silver belt, and Pariah Rachanna said he would walk the holy fire, and all said, ‘The Goddess will never fail us — she will free him from the clutches of the Red-man.’ But Vasudev, who was a city boy, said, ‘No sister, they will give him a good six months,’ and we all said, ‘No, no, never!’ and Vasudev said, ‘Well, think what you will, I know these people,’ and Rangamma then suddenly said, ‘Let me go to the city and see cousin Seetharamu; he is an advocate and he can tell me something about it,’ and Nanjamma said, ‘I too will come with you, sister, for I have to go to my daughter’s confinement, and now or in three weeks is all the same to me,’ and that is why one Pushya night Kitta put the bulls to the cart, and Rangamma and Nanjamma went down to Karwar to see Moorthy.

And when they had bathed and said their prayers, Rangamma said to Seetharamu, ‘Seetharamu, who is looking after Moorthy’s affair?’ and Seetharamu said, ‘Why, Sankar!’ and she said, ‘Why not go and see him?’ and he said, ‘Of course!’ and he put on the turban and the coat and they went straight to Sankar, and when Sankar saw Rangamma he said, ‘Aunt, it is a long time since I saw you — how are things with you?’ and Rangamma answered, ‘Everything is safe — but I have come to speak about Moorthy,’ and Sankar said, ‘I love him like a brother, and I have found no better Gandhist,’ and Rangamma said, ‘Why, he is the saint of our village,’ and Sankar said, ‘Some day he will do holy deeds,’ and Rangamma said, ‘Is there nothing to be done to free him from prison?’ and Sankar said, ‘We have done all we can but the police say it is he who arranged the assault, the assault of the Pariahs on the police,’ and Rangamma said, ‘Siva! Siva! Never such a thing would our Moorthy do,’ and Sankar said, ‘Of course of course, Aunt,’ and Rangamma said, ‘Is there nothing I can do here?’ and Sankar said, ‘Nothing for the moment. But stay and wait for the results,’ and Rangamma said, ‘So be it,’ and that is why she did not come back even for the harvest reapings.

And when she came back for the corn distribution Barber Venkata said, ‘And, Mother, what about Moorthappa?’ and Pariah Rachanna took his two measures and said, ‘And, Mother, what have the Red-man’s Government said about Moorthappa?’ and Boatman Sidda said, ‘If this Government’s people were really sons of their father, they would have asked us to stand and bear witness before them!’ and Goldsmith Nanjundia said, ‘Oh, let them do what they like. Our Moorthy is like gold— the more you heat it the purer it comes from the crucible,’ and the women said, ‘Oh, when you strike a cow you will fall into the hell of hells and suffer a million and eight tortures and be born an ass. And if this Government cannot tell the difference between a deer and a panther, well, it will fall into the mouth of the precipice,’ and Rice-pounding Rajamma, who had an evil tongue, said, ‘May this Government be destroyed!’ and she spat three times. And so, from day to day, people said this against the Government and that against the police, and when our Rangè Gowda got dismissed from his patelship, they all cried out, ‘Oh, this is against the ancient laws — a patel is a patel from father to son, from son to grandson, and this Government wants to eat up the food of our ancestors,’ and everybody, as they passed by the Kenchamma grove, cried out, ‘Goddess, when the demon came to eat our babes and rape our daughters, you came down to destroy him and protect us. Oh, Goddess, destroy this Government,’ and when the women went to cut grass for the calves, they made a song, and mowing the grass they sang:

Goddess, Goddess, Goddess Kenchamma,

The mother-in-law has wicked eyes,

And the sister-in-law has a hungry stomach,

Betel-nuts never become stone,

And a virgin will never become pregnant,

Red is the earth around the Goddess,

For thou hast slain the Red-demon.

Goddess, Goddess,

The mother-in-law has wicked eyes,

And betel-nuts will never become stone.

And Kanchi Narasamma, who had a long tongue, added:

Lean is the Brahmin-priest, mother,

And fat is he when he becomes Bhatta, mother,

Fat is he when he becomes Bhatta, mother

And he will take the road to Kashi,

For gold has stuck in his stomach,

And he will take the road to Kashi.

And the sister-in-law has a hungry stomach,

Betel-nuts will never become stone.

To tell you the truth, Bhatta left us after harvest on a pilgrimage to Kashi. But, don’t they say, sister, the sinner may go to the ocean but the water will only touch his knees?

And when Rangamma went back after the corn distributions, she went straight to Sankar instead of staying with cousin Seetharamu, for she had seen much of Sankar and she had liked him and he had liked her, and he had said to her, ‘When you come to Karwar next, come and stay with me, Aunt, and you will help me in my work,’ and Rangamma had said, ‘I am poor of mind and of little learning, what can I do for you, Sankaru?’ and he had answered, ‘That does not matter, Aunt— what we need is force and fervour, and I am living with my little daughter and my aged mother, and you may perhaps arrange my papers and look after the Congress correspondence,’ and though Rangamma was the humblest of women, she liked this, and she said, ‘If the gods choose me, I will not say “Nay,”’ and that’s why she went to stay with Sankaru. And when Waterfall Venkamma heard of this she said, ‘Oh! this widow has now begun to live openly with her men,’ and she spat on the house and said this man had her and that man had her, and she began to say she would go to the courts and have back Rangamma’s property, for land and lust and wifely loyalty go badly together, like oil and soap and hot water. But she said, ‘Let Bhatta come and he will do it for me.’ But our Rangamma was as tame as a cow and she only said, ‘One cannot stitch up the mouths of others. So let them say what they like.’ And as everybody knew, Sankar was an ascetic of a man and had refused marriage after marriage after he had lost his wife, and everybody had said, ‘This is not right, Sankaru. You are only twenty-six and you have just put up the Advocate’s signboard, and you will soon begin to earn, and when you have a nine-pillared house you will need a Lakshmi-like goddess to adorn it,’ but Sankar simply forced a smile and said, ‘I have had a Lakshmi and I, a sinner, could not even keep her, and she has left me a child and that is enough.’ But his old father came and said, ‘But, no, Sankaru, you cannot do that. You are our eldest son, and you have to give us at least a grandson so that when we are dead our manes will be satisfied,’ but Sankar smiled back again and said, ‘If you want the marriage thread to be tied in an ocean of tears, I shall. But otherwise I will not. I have a daughter and I will bring her up. And you will come and stay with me and we shall have a household running,’ and the old mother wept and the old father knit his eyebrows, but Sankar smiled back and said, ‘I shall obey you,’ but they did not press him further, and they said, ‘His wife Usha was such a godlike woman. She would never utter a word loud, and never say “nay” to anything. And when she walked the streets, they always say what a holy wife she was and beaming with her wifehood, and never a mother-in-law had a daughter-in-law like her,’ and they both said, ‘Well, we can understand Sankaru. When one has lost Usha nothing can replace her.’ And they never again gave Sankar’s horoscope to anyone, and they came to stay with him and look after his sanctum and his child.