Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man Literary Elements

Religious fiction

The novel takes place in the small village of Durvasapura, located in the Western Ghats of Karnataka

The novel is written from a third-person perspective. The narrator is omniscient and moves between various perspectives.

The tone of the novel is mystical and ruminative. The mood of the novel is dark and tragic.

The protagonist of the novel is Praneshacharya. The antagonist is the larger Brahmin community in Durvasapura.

The major conflict of the book is Praneshacharya's quest to find authentic spirituality.

The climax of the novel occurs when Praneshacharya heads back to his village.

It is foreshadowed that Praneshacharya will become involved with Chandri when he repeatedly admires her beauty and kindness.

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The novel makes multiple allusions to Hindu traditions, customs, and history.

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The paradox at the center of the story is Naranappa's funeral. No one wants to perform the funeral rites because he did not behave like a proper Brahmin, but not performing the rites for him makes the rest of them bad Brahmins.

There is a parallelism between Praneshacharya's relationship with Chandri and Shripati's relationship with Belli, in that they are both between men from a high caste and a woman from a lower one. They are different in that Shripati is driven solely by lust while Praneshacharya has more complex motivations.

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The night sky is personified in the second part of the novel, when Praneshacharya looks up and sees a constellation of the goddess Arundhati, who represents faithful wives. He believes it is "twinkling shyly" at him.