Discuss how the narrative of Samskara has been organized.

 The narrative of Samskara can be summarized as follows:

(a) The first part of novel contains ten chapters. In these ten chapters we have the opening of the novel and the first stage of development in the character of Pranesacharya. It ends with Pranesacharya failing to fulfil his Brahminical duty.

(b) The second chapter has six chapters and leads us to the second stage of transformation of Pranesacharya. It ends with death of Pranesacharya’s wife and his abandoning of everything and leaving Durvasapura.

(c) The third part of novel has two chapters. The second chapter of this part is the longest. This part ends with Pranesacharya going back to Durvasapura to confess and take responsibility of his actions. 

The Narrative: Three Important Features

The narrative of a novel is very important the understanding of theme as it holds and gives a new dimension to theme inherent in the novel. Let us look at the three important narrative features of the novel.

Focalization :

The narrator of the story is one who tells the story while the focalizer is the person whose vision is verbalized by the narrator. In the novel Samskara, the narrator is also the focalizer as it is his vision which is being verbalized. So in that sense he is a narrator-focalizer. There is no doubt that the narrator of the novel is not the part of actions happening in the novel. But still one can easily say where his sympathy lies? And when his tone becomes ironical? 

This omniscient narrator can enter into anyone’s mind and tell us his thoughts and ideas. This narrator also proves to be helpful at the opening scene of the novel where, lots of conflict has been presented.  It is through this voice we are being made aware that what is right and what is wrong. The narrator also tells us about the psychological conflicts going on in the mind of Pranesacharya since the beginning of the novel till the end of it. Apart from the narrator Pranesacharya is also a focalizer as we see him not only watching himself but also other characters, like Naranappa, Chandri, Putta, and Padmavati. Another character who also is a focalizer is Putta.

Intertextuality :

The semiotic notion of intertextuality introduced by Julia Kristeva is associated primarily with poststructuralist theorists. Kristeva referred to texts in terms of two axes: a horizontal axis connecting the author and reader of a text, and a vertical axis, which connects the text to other texts (Kristeva 1980, 69). Uniting these two axes are shared codes: every text and every reading depends on prior codes. Kristeva declared that every text is from the outset under the jurisdiction of other discourses which impose a universe on it (cited in Culler 1981, 105).

She argued that rather than confining our attention to the structure of a text we should study its ‘structuration’ (how the structure came into being). This involved siting it within the totality of previous or synchronic texts’ of which it was a transformation’. The presence of intertexuality in Samskara, cannot be denied, in fact it is a very special feature of the novel.

It appears in form of many references to Indian tradition in the form of myths, parables, and characters from epic. There are some western references too, in the novel. Some of the references are:

(a) The story of Menaka

(b) The story of Matasyagandha

(c) Reference to Shakuntala

(d) There is an allusion to Urvashi in part two of the novel

(e) Then there is allusion to Trishanku. 

Structure :

The structure of the novel can be outlined as follows:

(a) Part one contains ten chapters, which ends with the failure of Pranesacharya’s Brahminical mission.

(b) Part two has six chapters which end with the death of the wife of Pranesacharya.

(c) The third part of the novel has only two chapters, the first one short while the second one is the longest. This part ends with Pranesacharya going back to Durvasapura to confess and take responsibility of his actions to overcome his fear for lifetime.

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