Samskara: A Rite for a Dead ManSamskara 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 |
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Acharya Acharya-re agrahara answer asked bath beat belch Belli brah brahminhood brahmins breasts burned Chandri cremated dark Dasacharya dead body death-rite demon dharma Dharmasthala dhoti Durgabhatta Durvasapura excommunicated eyes face fear feet fellow flowers forest Garuda Garudacharya give gold guru hair hand head heart holy hunger Kaimara Kannada Kundapura Lakshmana Lakshmanacharya Lakshmidevamma leaf legs listened lived looked Lord lowcaste Madhva Mahabala Malera Manjayya Maruti meal monastery mother mouth Muslim Naran Naranappa Narayana night Padmavati Parashara Parijatapura plantains pollution Pranesha Praneshacharya Praneshacharya felt Putta rats rice rites ritual river rupees sacred sage samskara Sanskrit sari saru Sheshappa Shiva Shivamogge Shripati Sitadevi sitting sleep Smarta smell someone stench stood suddenly talk tell temple temple chariot there's thing thought Tirthahalli touched Tunga river turned uppittu verandah village Vishnu Vishvamitra vultures waiting walked What's wife wife's woman words