Anantha Murthy’s Samskara

Anantha Murthy is one of India’s major contemporary writers, whose works have received international acclaim. He has won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi (Academy of Letters) prize for his novel Samskara as also the foremost literary award, the Jnanpeeth (1995). In his writing, he questions the hegemonical structures imposed on us by societal traditions. In Samskara, a modern classic novel, he has skillfully portrayed Brahmin-Dalit conflict, problems of supersititions amongst uneducated Indian villagers, and marginalisation of women in Indian social system. The novel raises some important issues in this context and explores the psyche of the Indian mind. The present volume makes an innovative attempt at explicating the theme and technical aspects of this extraordinary Indian novel.