Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man (Oxford India Paperbacks) - Softcover

Murthy, U. R. Anantha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195623886 ISBN 13: 9780195623888

Publisher: OUP India, 1990

Synopsis

Samskara is both a religious novel - about a decaying Brahmin colony in a south Indian village - and a contemporary poetic reworking of ancient Hindu themes and myths. Its central event is a death, which brings in its wake a plague, moral chaos and a rebirth. Originally published in Kannada in 1965, this novel soon became enormously popular with general readers and critics. The present English translation has been widely acclaimed, and the novel has been translated into several foreign languages as well as filmed.

About this title

Review

"[Samskara] contains a plot of Sophoclean intensity that with the passing of the years seems to have gathered ever more revelatory power...It's a startling story, one as provocative for its time and place as those of Cervantes, Sterne and Diderot must have been in theirs." --Chandrahas Choudhury, The Wall Street Journal

"Samskara is an effective tale of a community choked by unsustainable tradition. Ananthamurthy offers fine portraits of a variety of characters as they struggle between natural urges and societal expectations, and has crafted an impressive story here." --M. A. Orthofer, The Complete Review

"NYRB Classics' reissue of this book comes at an opportune moment, as societies around the world face the dangers of religious extremism and its focus on ritual and regulation rather than humanity. U.R. Ananthamurthy, in A.K. Ramanujan's translation from the Kannada, tries to teach Indian society a lesson in this story about the trouble with prioritizing tradition over compassion." --Melissa Beck, Asymptote Journal

"Ananthamurthy's ability to turn the world on the most unexpected pivot gives [Samskara] an enduring human dimension." --María Helga Guðmundsdóttir, The Quarterly Conversation

"[A] richly allegorical tale...a springboard for even broader questions concerning...religious experience and the inherent tension between works and grace." --William Waldron, Education About Asia

"[Samskara] takes us closer to the Indian idea of the self." --V. S. Naipul

Ananthamurthy's most controversial and celebrated work, Samskara, is a novel about a decaying Brahmin colony. . . . Throughout the novel, Ananthamurthy builds extraordinary tension and atmosphere. It is an India that is instantly recognizable to its Indian readers.
--Pankaj Mishra

About the Author

U.R. Ananthamurthy (1932-2014) was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright, and literary critic. He was one of India's most celebrated modern writers, a recipient of the Jnanpith Award (India's foremost literary prize), and an important representative of the New Movement in Kannada-language literature.

A.K. Ramanujan (1929-1993) was born Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan in Mysore, India. He is a poet in English and Kannada, a translator from Kannada and Tamil, as well as a scholar, folklorist, philologist, playwright, and essayist. NYRB Poets publishes The Interior Landscape, an anthology of classical Tamil poems translated by Ramanujan.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP India
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195623886
• ISBN 13: 9780195623888
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168