Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: story is set in street in small village called in Western Ghats of Karnataka, Fact2: majority of people belong to community of Madhwas, Fact3: people live in street, Fact4: devout Brahmin is considered as leader of Brahmin community of village and surrounding ones, Fact5: Karnad To remain marries invalid woman focused on goal and as act of self-sacrifice
Output (English): The story is set in a street in a small village called Durvasapura in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. A majority of the people who live in the street belong to the community of Madhwas a Brahmin community. The people who stay here have a traditional mindset and strictly follow the rules defined by their religion. Two of the main characters in the story are Praneshacharya Girish Karnad and Narayanappa. Praneshacharya is a devout Brahmin who has completed his Vedic education at Varanasi and has returned to Duravasapura and is considered as the leader of the Brahmin community of his village and the surrounding ones. His main goal is to attain liberation moksha and he is willing to go to any length to achieve it. To remain focused on his goal and as an act of selfsacrifice, he marries an invalid woman and hence remains celibate. The other main character, Narayanappa, a Brahmin by birth but one who has rejected the set rules of Brahminism by eating meat and by keeping the company of a prostitute named Chandri. Once Narayanappa and his friends catches the sacred fish in the temple tank, cooks, and eats them. This causes the Brahmins in the villages to rise up against him. They approach Praneshacharya to throw him out of the village. Praneshacharya decides against taking this extreme step and he believes that Narayanappa can be convinced to get rid of his immoral acts. Once Narayanappa visits Shimoga and he returns to Duravasapura with high fever and dies. The Brahmins are left in a piquant situation because, according to Brahmin principles, a person who dies should be cremated as early as possible. None of the Brahmins wants to cremate the body — they feel that by cremating Narayanappas body, they will become polluted as he was against the Brahmin principles during his life. However, the Brahmin principles also stipulate that a nonBrahmin cannot cremate the body of a Brahmin. Praneshacharya, being the leader, is responsible for finding the solution to this difficult problem. He reads the holy books, but they dont provide any solution. He then goes to a temple to pray to God and spends a whole day there. Disappointed at not being able to solve the problem, he trudges back home. On his way, he encounters Chandri. He is mesmerised by her beauty and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he finds himself lying on Chandris lap. Chandri rushes home, finds that Narayanappas body has started to rot, gets it cremated in secrecy, and leaves Durvasapura. Praneshacharya is left in a piquant situation on whether he has to reveal his immoral act to the people of the village or keep quiet about it. Feeling guilty, he leaves the village but the guilt never leaves him. Finally deciding to own up to his act, he returns to the village and the story ends there. Its left to the imagination of the viewer on whether Praneshacharya owns up or not.