Samskara

A Rite for a Dead Man

Fiction & Literature, Psychological, Religious
Cover of the book Samskara by U.R. Ananthamurthy, New York Review Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: U.R. Ananthamurthy ISBN: 9781590179130
Publisher: New York Review Books Publication: January 10, 2017
Imprint: NYRB Classics Language: English
Author: U.R. Ananthamurthy
ISBN: 9781590179130
Publisher: New York Review Books
Publication: January 10, 2017
Imprint: NYRB Classics
Language: English

*Samskara *is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of modern world literature, a book to set beside Chinua Achebe’s *Things Fall Apart *and Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North. Taking its name from a Sanskrit word that means “rite of passage” but also “moment of recognition,” it begins when Naranappa, an inhabitant of a small south Indian town and a renegade Brahmin who has scandalously flouted the rules of caste and purity for years, eating meat, drinking alcohol, marrying beneath him, mocking God, unexpectedly falls ill and dies. The question of whether he should be buried as a Brahmin divides the other Brahmins in the village. For an answer they turn to Praneshacharyah, the most devout and respected member of their community, an ascetic who also tends religiously to his invalid wife.
 
Praneshacharyah finds himself unable to provide the answer, though an answer is urgently needed since as he wonders and the villagers wait and the body festers, more and more people are falling sick and dying. But when Praneshacharyah goes to the temple to seek a sign from God, he discovers something else entirely—unless that something else is also God.
* *
*Samskara *is a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and the erotic.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

*Samskara *is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of modern world literature, a book to set beside Chinua Achebe’s *Things Fall Apart *and Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North. Taking its name from a Sanskrit word that means “rite of passage” but also “moment of recognition,” it begins when Naranappa, an inhabitant of a small south Indian town and a renegade Brahmin who has scandalously flouted the rules of caste and purity for years, eating meat, drinking alcohol, marrying beneath him, mocking God, unexpectedly falls ill and dies. The question of whether he should be buried as a Brahmin divides the other Brahmins in the village. For an answer they turn to Praneshacharyah, the most devout and respected member of their community, an ascetic who also tends religiously to his invalid wife.
 
Praneshacharyah finds himself unable to provide the answer, though an answer is urgently needed since as he wonders and the villagers wait and the body festers, more and more people are falling sick and dying. But when Praneshacharyah goes to the temple to seek a sign from God, he discovers something else entirely—unless that something else is also God.
* *
*Samskara *is a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and the erotic.

More books from New York Review Books

Cover of the book English Renaissance Poetry by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book The Wind on the Moon by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book The Mirador by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book The One-Straw Revolution by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book The Tenants of Time by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book The Collected Poems of Li He by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Going to the Dogs by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Envy by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Pedigree by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book The New York Review Abroad by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Eve's Hollywood by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Peplum by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Cover of the book Nothing by U.R. Ananthamurthy
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy