Author: Chaduranga
Publisher: Sahitya Akademi
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 499
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8126009896
Description
This Sahitya Akademi Award winning novel, translated from Kannada original, presents a variety of man-woman relationships but it not a novel about sex or love. Its central focus is on the growth in the consciousness of a young dalit called Lakka and his struggle to regain his lost innocence in a corrupt environment.
Two factors contribute to the growth of awareness in Lakka - - his direct experiences and his involved observations of people and events around him. Though injustices are inflicted upon Lakka by his social superiors and he is deprived of the protection of his family and community, he never loses his faith in humanity. He has an inborn love for other human beings and irrepressible zest for life.
Vaishakha is highly experimental in its use of fictional technique and language. The total perspective of the novel is larger than Lakka's consciousness. This perspective includes a carefully constructed outer reality and enables the novelist to overcome the dangers which lyrical novels usually face. As an example, we may consider the way in which morality functions in the novel, in particular in the sexual episodes. Author's use of language in this novel merits careful analysis. The employment of two different levels of language - refined and raw - was not a new device for him since he had used it in his very first novel. But this experiment is far more successful in Vaishakaha.
Vaishaka is a bit incident-heavy in its weave. Yet in its blending of complexity of detail and vitality of theme, in its delightfully graphic depiction of village Karnataka and finally in its suggestion that there is a way out of the claustrophobia of caste, it is a contribution to Kannada and Indian literature.
THE TRANSLATOR:
P P GIRDHAR is a Reader at the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. A post-graduate in Linguistics and English Literature and holding a doctorate in Linguistics, he has published both in India and abroad. His grammars of Angami and Mao Naga have been well-received. Also a promising translator, his English translation of Sri Krishna Alanahally's novel Parasangada Gendethimma, won the American Kannadigas' special book prize for 1998.