Indian Orthodoxy Reflected in Samskara

Abstract

Samskara, by Anant Murthy, exposes hypocrisy, castism, orthodoxy and superstitions of Indian villages. The people of Durvashapura, a typical Indian village, suffer from superiority complex that they believe that they are greater and more religious than other caste people. The conflict between tradition and modernity, conventional and unconventional, conservation and modernism and also between the various castes are at the core of the novel through the characters of Praneshacharya, Chandri, Naranappa, Lakshmidevamma etc. The whole novel moves round a question – ONCE A BRAHMIN, ALWAYS A BRAHMIN?
This novel proves that Samskara is not the estate of the high caste Brahmins only but the act of Samskara would become the estate of low caste people also. In short, the aim of the novelist is to expose the follies and foibles of Indian Brahmin Society in a very satirical way.