Author: Alanahalli Sri Krishna
Translator(s)/ Editors(s): C. P. Ravichandra
Publisher: Sahitya Akademi
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 369
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788126027859
Description
Bhujangayya, the character around whom the novel revolves, is a man of steely will and astounding self-confidence; and the novel, in a leisurely manner, records the many twists and turns of his life. A small farmer in the beginning, Bhujangayya, in course of time, turns into a smalltime hotelier, a shopkeeper, a contractor, and finally a blind mendicant. What the novel emphasizes is that each new turn, new twist in his life, makes Bhajangayya more and more introspective regarding the meaning of life and living. Also, importantly, every new attempt on his part to rise from ashes like phoenix also involves Bhujangayya's crossing the traditional caste-community barriers on the one hand, and, on the other, losing interest in earthy possessions like land, money, and physical pleasures. Unarguably, Krishna’s Bhujangaiahna Dashavataragalu is the apotheosis of his narrative technique. It is a story that forever teases the reader through the characterization of Bhujangauah, who while remaining ordinary yet step by step ascends to the spiritual world, through the narrative technique that paints the anxiety, the joy and the trauma of a rural society that is at the crossroads and through the skill of compelling the reader to meditate upon the illusions of life even as he enthusiastically tells a story with élan.