54 pages • 1 hour read
Gita MehtaA River Sutra
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide describes the novel’s treatment of sexual assault, death by suicide, and caste-based discrimination against the Dalit people. This section also cites the novel’s use of an offensive term for sex workers.
The narrator reflects on his chosen role as a vanaprastha, which translates as “someone who has retired to the forest to reflect” (1). He was once a respected bureaucrat, but he decided to become the manager at a small rest house on the Narmada River after his wife’s death, shocking his colleagues.
The rest house, which is meant for traveling pilgrims, is built in the Mughal architecture style, but it also has some lingering marks of British rule with its portico and Victorian-style plaster. The narrator’s clerk, Mr. Chagla, lives in the nearby town of Rudra, below which is a temple town called Mahadeo, which also shelters pilgrims. Pilgrims and religious persons in Mahadeo often light diyas or clay lamps and float them on the river; the narrator thinks the light from the numerous diyas makes the river look like it is on fire. The source of the river, Amarkantak, is a holy place for worshippers of Shiva, a Hindu ascetic god. The legends say Shiva created Narmada out of his sweat, forming her into a beautiful woman and marrying her to the ocean. The rest house is guarded by tribe members from the Vano village nearby, who worship Narmada as a different incarnation of a woman who protected the Vano tribe from Aryan conquest. Beyond Narmada’s valley, there is a Muslim village where the narrator’s friend, Tariq Mia, is the mullah, an Islamic theologian. Pilgrims, dressed in white, are constantly passing along the river; they walk along the river to its source, then back down to the ocean.
On his way to visit Tariq Mia, the narrator sometimes stops at the Jain caves. Though the caves are abandoned, he occasionally meets Jain pilgrims there, such as two members of the Sky Clad sect who do not speak or wear clothes. The narrator recalls meeting a Jain pilgrim who is travelling to Mahadeo to regroup with other Jain monks. The narrator asks the monk to stop and tell him more about the Jain religion, such as their practices of nonviolence and nonattachment to worldly things. The monk has a shaved head to spurn vanity and covers his mouth with a cloth to avoid inhaling insects and harming them. The narrator says that he, too, has rejected the world, and the Jain monk sits down on a rock after brushing it thoroughly to avoid accidentally killing any bugs.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Monk’s Story”
The Jain monk, Ashok, describes the day of his renunciation. His father makes a huge display of wealth to mark Ashok’s departure from worldliness, and Ashok is reminded of Mahavira, the founder of Jainism who was born a prince and renounced his wealth and position to follow the spiritual path. The procession that Ashok’s father organizes involves elephants painted with scenes from Ashok’s life, and Ashok sits on one, covered in diamond jewelry, throwing jewels and money into the crowd. Ashok’s father owns a large diamond company, though, as Jains, they do not own diamond mines because of the human, animal, and environmental consequences of mining practices, which violate ahimsa, or the belief of nonviolence. Ashok has always criticized his father for participating in the diamond trade, since they benefit from the violence of diamond mining. Ashok recalls how his father gave him total freedom in his youth, allowing him to live and study overseas. Ashok spent large amounts of money, had sex with many women, and threw many parties. After returning home, Ashok had an arranged marriage and two children, but he became increasingly detached from possessions and pleasures. After speaking with a Jain monk, he became convinced of his need to renounce worldly pleasures, though the monk made it clear that monkhood involves suffering beyond what Ashok could imagine.
At the renunciation ceremony, Ashok has all of his head shaved except for five hairs, while Jain monks chant about the suffering he will face, such as heat, cold, hunger, and shame, as he will need to beg for charity to sustain himself. Ashok looks at himself in the mirror as he changes into his mendicant garb, and he fears that he does not have the strength to withstand asceticism. Returning to the ceremony, Ashok paces the stadium with his mendicant’s staff and bowl, then he plucks out his remaining five hairs, drawing blood and screams from the crowd, while the monks chant about the good Ashok will bring into the world. Ashok concludes his account by telling the narrator that he cannot rest any longer, or else he might miss his rendezvous with the other Jain monks at Mahadeo.
Chapter 3 Summary
The narrator laments the monk’s story, thinking he may one day see the monk’s body floating down the river, as he often sees dead ascetics sent down the Narmada. The narrator travels on to see Tariq Mia, who acts surprised to see him, even though the narrator knows Tariq Mia watches for his arrival. The narrator notes that the tomb of the 16th-century Sufi poet Rumi is located at Tariq Mia’s mosque. They sit down to have tea and play chess, as usual, and the narrator tells Tariq Mia about the monk’s story. The narrator notes that he often feels like Tariq Mia can read his mind. After listening to the story, Tariq Mia recommends meditating on Kabir’s toothbrush, a tree that grew from the twig the poet Kabir threw into the mud along the Narmada. The narrator reflects that the monk said he only loved one thing, but the narrator never found out what that thing is. Tariq Mia says that the monk loves the secret capacity of the human heart for love, and he plays the narrator a record on a gramophone. The recording is of singing, which is beautiful, but the words of the song are gruesome in their submission to God. Tariq Mia offers to tell the narrator the story of how he got the record, noting that a man arrived late one night, claiming to have murdered someone and saying that the record needed to be delivered to Rumi’s grave.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The opening chapters focus on introducing The Spiritual Significance of the Narmada River. At the very beginning of the novel, the narrator identifies himself as a vanaprastha, or a person “who has retired to the forest to reflect” (1). In this way, he combines the idea of retirement with the spiritualism of an ascetic. He explains that since he is “simply not equipped to wander into the jungle and become a forest hermit” (1), he takes on the role of maintaining a rest house on the Narmada River. He sees this as a place of spiritual significance since he can fulfill his quest here to renounce worldliness and reflect on life’s meaning and purpose. The people he meets and the stories they tell him help him to achieve this purpose since they, too, are drawn by the river to reflect on their lives and actions.
These chapters also focus on The Diversity of Indian Religious and Cultural Traditions. The rest house the narrator manages symbolizes this: While its main purpose is to shelter Hindu pilgrims, it is constructed largely in the Mughal style, and it also has elements of British architecture. The narrator describes the place as a location between beliefs and cultures. The Vano tribe, which practices its individual form of Hinduism, resides closest to the rest house; the closest town is Mahadeo, which is a center for Hindu pilgrimage; Tariq Mia’s mosque adds Islam to the region; and the Jain Caves are en route to the mosque. It is important to note that Hinduism, which is the majority religion in India, is not a unified practice or belief system, rather constituting a wide variety of beliefs that share in the broader Hindu pantheon. As such, the religion the Vano tribe practices is also Hindu, though they may not believe in the worship of Shiva that the narrator highlights in Mahadeo. The role of the Narmada river in these different cultural and religious practices carries common elements, such as both the Vano tribe and the worshippers of Shiva envisioning the Narmada as a woman. The Hindu belief about the Narmada River is that she is “the most dangerous of her kind: a beautiful virgin innocently tempting even ascetics to pursue her” (8); this legend mimics the narrator’s fascination with the river since he, too, has been drawn to the Narmada despite his aspirations to renounce the world. On the other hand, the Vano tribe sees the river as “a half-woman with the full breasts of a fertility symbol but the torso of a coiled snake” (5). The Vano tribe believes they used to rule a snake kingdom, making the snake torso of Narmada a comfort, rather than a threat. These competing perceptions of the river show how different cultures and religions can view the same thing differently. Though the beliefs surrounding the river is different, the environment and the value of fresh, running water is inevitable in originating and sustaining diverse belief systems.
The narrator begins the novel by explaining his reasons for taking up residency by the Narmada. This sets up the theme of The Importance of Storytelling in Creating Meaning and Knowledge since he not only explains his motivations and quest for meaning, but he also provides a root from which other stories can grow to help him gain understanding. Soon, the narrator convinces Ashok to share his story, as well, and the novel begins to grow out of the different stories and perspectives being shared. Ashok’s story presents the perspective of a wealthy Jain man and the events that led him to renounce the world. In this way, Ashok’s story layers onto the theme of The Conflict Between Materialism and Enlightenment. Ashok spent his youth chasing pleasure, only to eventually reject all material and worldly pleasure in search of a greater happiness, or enlightenment. The monk who guides Ashok tells him: “Many men die before they learn the desire for freedom lies deep within them, like a dammed river waiting to be released” (29). These words relate back to the Narmada’s significance, with the river’s flow being a metaphor for freedom. For Ashok, “freedom” means freedom from material pleasures or the boredom of his wealthy life, which brings him no happiness. Ashok’s story also presents another side to Indian culture and diversity, as the crowds of people buying and selling at the bazaar and Ashok’s father’s mercantile successes and relaxed view of religion show that secular India is just as important and relevant to an understanding of broader Indian culture and society. While there are pilgrims, Muslims, and Jains in and around the rest house, there is also the world of bureaucracy and business that both the narrator and Ashok left behind.
