Agnisakshi is Lalithambika Antarjanam's only novel. She was famous for her short stories and poems. She wrote this novel in her old age. It could very well be called her "swan song". One is used to her poetic, lyrical and emotional style of writing from her short stories. But in this novel she creates a new style which was hitherto practically unknown in Malayalam literature. It is the first chapter ;of the novel which reveals this rivetting style. After reading the first chapter one is not able to put the book down till it comes to an end. It was this rivetting quality shown in the first chapter that attracted me to attempt to translate this novel. She has not been able to maintain this arresting style throughout the novel. But, we can get glimpses of it throughout though I tend to think of the first chapter as her "purple patch".
Hers is a remarkably non-narrative style of narration. She does not introduce her characters or their past history in the beginning. In fact the feeling that a reader gets is that of the curtain rising and the audience anxiously waiting for the characters to come on stage and the story to begin. It creates the suspense required for a truly admirable novel. Antarjanam herself confesses that she is not familiar with novel writing. She has no clear idea as to what goes into the composition of a novel. Perhaps that helped. She had to create as she went along and keep the unflagging interest of the reader alive. It helped that this novel was at first serialised in a very popular malayalam magazine, The Mathrubhumi Weekly. I remember waiting eveery week for the next issue anxiously. The plot, the characters, the structure of the novel, everything that goes into a novel were exposed very slowly as in a film, creating the much needed atmosphere and not letting the core story to deteriorae into tameness. Each chapter as it was completed created an excitement about the development of the story. How a woman, who was in her late sixties and never used to the structure of a novel did this is a constant surprise to me.
She begins with the ambience of River Ganga and its surroundings in a pilgrim center. Strangely enough she does not name the place. It could be any one of the places of pilgrimage on the banks of the Ganga. In fact, the Ganga is the most important character in the first chapter. She describes its flow, early morning glow and the eternal crowds of people that arrive to bathe in the Ganga, purify themselves and do the death rituals for their ancestors. The crowds of people who throng such centers is a constant factor. Without them the function of the Ganga would never be complete. In fact, the most constant factor in any Indian pilgrim center is the crowds of people - That is one place where there is no difference between people, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the saintly and the worldly, the truthful followers and the charlatans. Ganga is in that sense a true mother who never makes any disctinction between her children. To her all are children, the needy, the realised, the hypocritical and worldly, the truly spiritual. In the story this has a great significance. Thankam Nair, one of the heroines has come to this place with her son and granddaughter with a specific purpose - to immerse the mortal remains of her beloved brother in the waters of the Ganga, do the last death rituals for a childless man, her beloved brother and to find out her sister in law with whom she had lost contact and wanted to meet. Rumour had informed her that her sister in law lived in this place. So, she chose to come here. But, she also wanted to immerse the mortal remains of her beloved brother in the scared river according to the rituals of Hinduism. She is the searcher of the one person who alone can redeem her from her worldly occupations and give release. Where else except on the banks of the Ganga can one do this? We have to also remember that from childhood we are taught that a dip in the Ganga would remove all our sins and give us the ultimate relase (Mukthi).
But, Lalithambika is not satisfied to start the novel with a tame and usual entry of one of the main protagonists to the banks of the Ganga. She has to describe how the Ganga herself entered the world. The story goes that the Gangamata was very moved by the pleading of King Bhagiratha who wanted to immerse the mortal remains of his sinned and cursed ancestors immured in the netherlands and give them the ultimate release. Their only chance was an immersion in the waters of the Ganga. So, when this agonised king pleadingly called out to the Ganga, she came to the Earth. She is basically a woman and has a great deal of compassion to those who call out to her in agony. Apart from that she is the sacred river, the life giver to all human beings. So, she came and Lalithambika's description of that fall of the Ganges from the coils of her husband, Lord Siva, to the earth is one of the most beautiful prose passages in malayalam literature. I feel only a woman could have written such a passage, a woman, a mother, a compassionate being. In this description of the flow of Ganges, Lalithambika uses one word sentences which are very effective as visual narration. It is not just a description but the visual of the descent of the river from the mountains to the plains. Another device she uses is to have different words which mean almost the same thing, coninuously for effect and emphasis. It takes on a chanting quality, only these words are not strung in praise of the Lord God, but attempts to capture the wondrous flow of the river eternal, symbol of a compassionate woman.
This is also a prologue to the saga of forgiveness which is related in the novel. Everything else is unimportant, except the spiritual journey of a human soul from worldliness to a heavenly understanding. The banks of the Ganges is an ideal place to forget what could have been and immerse oneself in what could be,even at a late hour. In that sense the message of the book is truly hopeful, the release of a yearning soul from all its worldly bondages.
But, in the midst of all this other worldly detachment Lalithambika does not forget to end the whole novel on a note of love which is an all encompassing emotion in this and all other worlds. Without love there can be no real self realisation or release. This again is a truly feminine perspective, that the foremost quality or Guna in this world is love. With love one can achieve almost anything. Even in the midst of detachment and spiritual yearnings love has to flourish in order to gain real release or self fulfilment. As a messiah of love she reveals all her true femaleness and redeems her concept of life, fulfilment and release. The first chapter is like a curtain raiser. It has the quality of "coming events cast a shadow before" and even a saintly woman like Sumitrananda realises that she won't have a real release from the worldly bondages without giving expression to it. Love challenges even detachment and release and wins. There is a hint of that in the first chapter itself.
By moving from the past to the present and backwards effortlessly, all along she gives again a filmic touch to the novel. Only in a film can you so frequently shift from the present to the past and back again in a seamless way. Time loses its artificial fragmentation into the past, the present and the future and flows like the eternal river Ganga, effortless, spontaneous and suggesting eternity. In that sense also River Ganga makes its presence througout the novel not through words, but its implicit presence..
Hers is a remarkably non-narrative style of narration. She does not introduce her characters or their past history in the beginning. In fact the feeling that a reader gets is that of the curtain rising and the audience anxiously waiting for the characters to come on stage and the story to begin. It creates the suspense required for a truly admirable novel. Antarjanam herself confesses that she is not familiar with novel writing. She has no clear idea as to what goes into the composition of a novel. Perhaps that helped. She had to create as she went along and keep the unflagging interest of the reader alive. It helped that this novel was at first serialised in a very popular malayalam magazine, The Mathrubhumi Weekly. I remember waiting eveery week for the next issue anxiously. The plot, the characters, the structure of the novel, everything that goes into a novel were exposed very slowly as in a film, creating the much needed atmosphere and not letting the core story to deteriorae into tameness. Each chapter as it was completed created an excitement about the development of the story. How a woman, who was in her late sixties and never used to the structure of a novel did this is a constant surprise to me.
She begins with the ambience of River Ganga and its surroundings in a pilgrim center. Strangely enough she does not name the place. It could be any one of the places of pilgrimage on the banks of the Ganga. In fact, the Ganga is the most important character in the first chapter. She describes its flow, early morning glow and the eternal crowds of people that arrive to bathe in the Ganga, purify themselves and do the death rituals for their ancestors. The crowds of people who throng such centers is a constant factor. Without them the function of the Ganga would never be complete. In fact, the most constant factor in any Indian pilgrim center is the crowds of people - That is one place where there is no difference between people, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, the saintly and the worldly, the truthful followers and the charlatans. Ganga is in that sense a true mother who never makes any disctinction between her children. To her all are children, the needy, the realised, the hypocritical and worldly, the truly spiritual. In the story this has a great significance. Thankam Nair, one of the heroines has come to this place with her son and granddaughter with a specific purpose - to immerse the mortal remains of her beloved brother in the waters of the Ganga, do the last death rituals for a childless man, her beloved brother and to find out her sister in law with whom she had lost contact and wanted to meet. Rumour had informed her that her sister in law lived in this place. So, she chose to come here. But, she also wanted to immerse the mortal remains of her beloved brother in the scared river according to the rituals of Hinduism. She is the searcher of the one person who alone can redeem her from her worldly occupations and give release. Where else except on the banks of the Ganga can one do this? We have to also remember that from childhood we are taught that a dip in the Ganga would remove all our sins and give us the ultimate relase (Mukthi).
But, Lalithambika is not satisfied to start the novel with a tame and usual entry of one of the main protagonists to the banks of the Ganga. She has to describe how the Ganga herself entered the world. The story goes that the Gangamata was very moved by the pleading of King Bhagiratha who wanted to immerse the mortal remains of his sinned and cursed ancestors immured in the netherlands and give them the ultimate release. Their only chance was an immersion in the waters of the Ganga. So, when this agonised king pleadingly called out to the Ganga, she came to the Earth. She is basically a woman and has a great deal of compassion to those who call out to her in agony. Apart from that she is the sacred river, the life giver to all human beings. So, she came and Lalithambika's description of that fall of the Ganges from the coils of her husband, Lord Siva, to the earth is one of the most beautiful prose passages in malayalam literature. I feel only a woman could have written such a passage, a woman, a mother, a compassionate being. In this description of the flow of Ganges, Lalithambika uses one word sentences which are very effective as visual narration. It is not just a description but the visual of the descent of the river from the mountains to the plains. Another device she uses is to have different words which mean almost the same thing, coninuously for effect and emphasis. It takes on a chanting quality, only these words are not strung in praise of the Lord God, but attempts to capture the wondrous flow of the river eternal, symbol of a compassionate woman.
This is also a prologue to the saga of forgiveness which is related in the novel. Everything else is unimportant, except the spiritual journey of a human soul from worldliness to a heavenly understanding. The banks of the Ganges is an ideal place to forget what could have been and immerse oneself in what could be,even at a late hour. In that sense the message of the book is truly hopeful, the release of a yearning soul from all its worldly bondages.
But, in the midst of all this other worldly detachment Lalithambika does not forget to end the whole novel on a note of love which is an all encompassing emotion in this and all other worlds. Without love there can be no real self realisation or release. This again is a truly feminine perspective, that the foremost quality or Guna in this world is love. With love one can achieve almost anything. Even in the midst of detachment and spiritual yearnings love has to flourish in order to gain real release or self fulfilment. As a messiah of love she reveals all her true femaleness and redeems her concept of life, fulfilment and release. The first chapter is like a curtain raiser. It has the quality of "coming events cast a shadow before" and even a saintly woman like Sumitrananda realises that she won't have a real release from the worldly bondages without giving expression to it. Love challenges even detachment and release and wins. There is a hint of that in the first chapter itself.
By moving from the past to the present and backwards effortlessly, all along she gives again a filmic touch to the novel. Only in a film can you so frequently shift from the present to the past and back again in a seamless way. Time loses its artificial fragmentation into the past, the present and the future and flows like the eternal river Ganga, effortless, spontaneous and suggesting eternity. In that sense also River Ganga makes its presence througout the novel not through words, but its implicit presence..
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