Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 01

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 178

140 / Jijñāsā
In The City and The River, Arun Joshi presents predominantly modern India scourged by selfseeking, shortsighted, lusty and power-hungry ruling classes. In The Last Labyrinth, he focuses on the greed and lust of an individual character. But in his scheme, there exists a greater, perennial India with its eternal wisdom. The clash of tradition and modernity, rationality and instinct will always be there. What is required is purification. This, however, is hard to achieve. The City is symbolic of the contemporary society. It is the inert battleground of power play. Som seeks the power of money and passionate love in Benaras while the Rulers of the unnamed City want unquestioned political power. The River is a primordial force to which all turn for help. In her anger, she becomes destructive though she is not life denying. On her bosom the Nameles-One is born to continue creation, life and its eternal quest. Taken as an Indian archetype, the river appears to be Gangā. In The Last Labyrinth also, it is Gangā at Benāras on whose waters Som is ferried to Gārgi's place.
Gita Mehta's Narmada too is a microcosm of India. She is the organizing principle of the novel. The six loosely knit tales give the novel multiplicity but the river vouchsafes its unity. The resulting figure," as a critic observes, “is one of unitary pluralism." The Narmadā Guest House is, indeed, mini-India and it reflects the culture of India. There is the river with its mythology, religion, superstitions, spirituality and archaeology, representing traditional, primitive and modern India. People who converge around the area come from different walks of life and belong to different religious groups. The Narmada joins the north and the south. Its legends are as much known to the tribals in Assam as to the tribals of the Vano village. The pre-Aryan and the Aryan cultures prevail. It is thus a secular river. If the traditional wisdom chants: "O Narmada defend me from the serpent's poison," the rational mind interprets it as the "serpent of desire;" if it stings, the result would be schizophrenic state, symbolized by Nitin Bose in the novel and Som Bhaskar in Joshi's work.
The three novels do not advocate detachment in the sense of running away from life, from action. Nāgā Bābā enters the battlefield of life, "Kurukshetra," after ten years of ascetic wandering. Tariq Miā makes himself socially useful by teaching his students. He is content with his life. The music teacher was attached to his blind pupil; this led him to grief and suicide. The significant thing is to maintain balance. Non-attachment is difficult, as the ugly daughter of the musician says, "It is an impossible penance, to express desire in my music when I am dead inside". But, it is worth trying as Nāgā Bābā alias Prof. Shankar shows.
The novels under discussion are the authors' cultural efforts at the restoration of community and repossession of culture. The city in The Last Labyrinth is Benāras, the cultural city of India; it is not the colonial city of which Sunil Khilnāni speaks in The Idea of India. The significance of Indian cities is given in a shloka, which refers to seven cities as mokshadayini. The Shloka runs thus:
Ayodhyā, Mathurāmāyā, Kāshi, Kanchi, Avantikā,
Puri, Dwarakatishchaiva saptehta mokshdāyikā Now, coming to the rivers, to the Indian mind rivers are not only the geographical features, they are the very sum and substance of our existence. We have mythologized our rivers, given them a form and a life of their own. They are timeless, ageless and immutable on whose bauks life has continued for ages and ages. They sustain and purify, give us joy, and in anger, they can even destroy, only to create again. Thus, hope is sustained; culture springs up around them and philosophy, religion,