Chapter 12-

KARTIK has come to Kanthapura, sisters-Kartik has come with the glow of lights and the unpressed footsteps of the wandering gods; white lights from clay- trays and red lights from copper-stands, and diamond lights that glow from the bowers of entrance-leaves; lights that glow from banana-trunks and mango twigs, yellow light behind white leaves, and green light behind yellow leaves, and white light behind green leaves; and night curls through the shadowed streets, and hissing over bellied boulders and hurrying through dallying drains, night curls through the Brahmin Street and the Pariah Street and the Potters' Street and the Weavers' Street and flapping through the mango grove, hangs clawed for one moment to the giant pipal, and then shooting across the broken fields, dies quietly into the river-and gods walk by lighted streets, blue gods and quiet gods and bright-eyed gods, and even as they walk in transparent flesh the dust gently sinks back to the earth, and many a child in Kanthapura sits late into the night to see the crown of this god and that god, and how many a god has chariots with steeds white as foam and queens so bright that the eyes shut them- selves in fear lest they be blinded. Kartik is a month of the gods, and as the gods pass by the Potters' Street and the Weavers' Street, lights are lit to see them pass by. Kartik is a month of lights, sisters, and in Kantha- pura when the dusk falls, children rush to the sanctum flame and the kitchen fire, and with broom grass and fuel chips and coconut rind they peel out fire and light clay-pots and copper candelabras and glass lamps. Children light them all, so that when darkness hangs drooping down the eaves, gods may be seen passing by, blue gods and quiet gods and bright-eyed gods. And as they pass by, the dust sinks back into the earth, and night curls again through the shadows of the streets. Oh! have you seen the gods, sister?

Then when the night is on this side of the day, and the Kartik lights have died down, a child wakes up here and begins to cry and a cough is heard there, and in Suryanarayana's house a lantern is seen in the court- yard, and the beat of feet is heard here and the hushed voices of men and women are heard there. Then there is a fuss and a flutter in Rangamma's house, and every- one rubs the eyes and asks, 'Sister, who is dying? Sister, who is dying?' and Nanjamma says to her neighbour Ratnamma, And old Ramakrishnayya? We saw him only yesterday evening at the river, and he looked so whole and healthy,' and Postmaster Surya- narayana's wife Satamma says, 'No, surely it is the heart trouble of Rangamma,' and then comes the roar of Waterfall Venkamma, Ah, you will eat blood and mud I said, you widow, and here you are!'; and Pandit Venkateshia's daughter-in-law Lakshmi takes her lantern and rushes to Venkamma and says, ' And what is it, Venkamma?'Oh, daughter of the mother-in- law, what is it but that this pariah-polluter has had royal visits?'' But what is it, Venkamma, what?'-' Ah, you are a nice one too, and three legs of a bedstead plus one makes four, does it or does it not, my daughter?' And seeing Timmamma and Satamma she says, 'Oh, don't you see the policeman at the steps?' and Tim- mamma swings the lantern, and beneath the bulging veranda stones is seen the gaunt figure of a policeman, and one by one as the men rise up and gather in the Post-Office-House courtyard, the children wake up and rush to the hanging lanterns, broom grass and cattle grass in hand, and our Seenu says I'll go,' and as he gathers his shawl and goes to Rangamma's door the policeman says he has no permission to let anyone in, and Seetharam comes along and Dore and Ramanna and the elders, and everybody gathers in the courtyard half covered and half awake, while from this lane and that lane rises the thin dust of Kartik lights re-lit.

And there is noise in this part of Rangamma's house and that, and there comes the regular cry of Ran- gamma's mother: 'Oh, sinners, sinners, to have this in our old age!' and Ramakrishnayya comes and spits across the courtyard and behind him comes Rangamma, a shawl thrown over her shoulders, and then there is seen a light in the front room and Surappa says, 'We cannot see anything from here--come let us go up to Sami's,' and we all rush up there and standing on the veranda we see what is happening in Moorthy's room. Over against the cracked wall Moorthy is standing, a bright light falling on his tight-lipped face, and the Police Inspector, a short, round man, is standing beside him, a note-book in his hand. In the middle of the room is a heap of books and charkas and cotton and folded cloth, and policemen in dress are turning them this side and that, and trunks are laid open and boxes are slit through, and sometimes there is laughter. The voice of the Police Inspector is not heard. But now and again we see Moorthy's head nodding--he merely nods and nods and seems to smile at nothing.

The Police Inspector then turns towards Badè Khan, who is now seen clearly in the lantern light, and shouts, 'Bind this man!' and when they are beginning to pull out ropes from their belts, there is noise in the street below, and there comes Range Gowda, Mada and a lantern with him, and when he sees the policeman, he says something to Mada, and Mada goes away, and before the cock has time to crow three times, there is Pariah Rachanna and Madanna and Lingayya and Lingayya's woman, and they all gather at Rangamma's door and cry out, 'Hèlè! Hèlè! What are you doing with our master?' and the policeman shouts, 'Hè, shut up, you sons of my woman!'-'Hè, hè, do you think we are going to be silent because of your beards and batons If you are not silent, you will get a marriage greeting today!'-and Rachanna says, 'Ah, I've seen your elders, you son of my concubine, and I shall see.. And at this the policeman grows so wild that he waves his lathi and Rachanna comes for- ward and says, 'Hè, beat me if you have the courage!' and Rangamma leans out of the veranda darkness into the starlight and says, 'Hè, Rachanna, this must not be done!' and Rachanna says, ' And what is to be done, Mother? They are going. to take away our master!' And Range Gowda says something to Mada and Mada says something to Rachanna and Rachanna says some- thing in the ear of everyone, and when Moorthy is seen on the threshold, the bright light of the police lantern falling on his knit face, Rachanna cries out 'Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!' and the policeman rushes at them and bangs them with his lathi and Rachanna quavers out the louder, Gandhi Mahatma ki jai!' and other policemen come and bang them too, and the women raise such a clamour and cry that the crows and bats set up an obsequial wail, and the sparrows join them from the roofs and eaves and the cattle rise up in the byre and the creaking of their bones is heard. And then men rush from this street and that street, and the Police Inspector seeing this hesitates before coming down, and Rachanna barks out again, 'Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!' And the Police Inspector shouts, Arrest that swine!' and when they come to arrest him, everybody gets round him and says, 'No, we'll not give him up'. And the Police Inspector orders, 'Give them a licking,' and from this side and that there is the bang of the lathi and men shriek and women weep and the children begin to cry and groan, and more and more men go forward towards Moorthy, and more policemen beat them, and then Moorthy says something to the Police Inspector and the Police Inspector nods his head, and Moorthy comes along the veranda and says Brothers!' and there is such a silence that the Kartik lights glow brighter. Brothers, in the name of the Mahatma, let there be peace and love and order. As long as there is a God in Heaven and purity in our hearts evil cannot touch us. We hide nothing. We hurt none. And if these gentlemen want to arrest us, let them. Give yourself up to them. That is the true spirit of the Satyagrahi. The Mahatma '- here the Police Inspector drags him back brutally, but Moorthy continues-The Mahatma has often gone to prison..and the Police Inspector gets so angry at this, that he gives a slap on Moorthy's face, but Moorthy stands firm and says nothing. Then suddenly Rachanna shouts out from below, Mahatma Gandhi ki jai! Come, brothers, come!' and he rushes up the steps towards Moorthy, and suddenly, in sinister omen, all the Kartik lights seemed quenched, clay pots and candelabras and banana trunks and house after house became dark, and something so sinister kicked our backs that we all rush up behind Rachanna crying, 'Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!' and now the police catch Rachanna and the one behind him and the one behind the one who was behind him, and they spit on them and bind them with ropes, while at the other end of the courtyard is seen Rangamma, Badè Khan beside her. Then the Police Inspector thinks this is the right time to come down, for the lights were all out and the leaders all arrested, and as Moorthy is being dragged down the steps Rachanna's wife and Madanna's wife and Sampanna's wife and Papamma and Sankamma and Veeramma come forward and cry out, 'Oh, give us back our men and our master, our men and our master,' but the Police Inspector says, 'Give them a shoe-shower,' and the policemen kick them in the back and on the head and in the stomach, and while Rachanna's wife is crying, Madanna's wife is squashed against a wall and her breasts squeezed. And Rangè Gowda, who has stood silent by the tamarind, when he sees this rushes down and, stick in hand, gives one bang on the head of a policeman, and the policeman sinks down, and there is such a clamour again that the Police Inspector shouts, Disperse the crowd!' and he slips round the byre with Moorthy before him, while policemen beat the crowd this side and that side, and groans and moans and cries and shouts and coughs and oaths and bangs and kicks are heard, while there is heard, Mahatma Gandhi ki jai! Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!' And this time it was from the brahmin quarter that the shouts came, and policemen rushed towards the brahmins and beat them, and old Ramanna and Dorè came forward and said, 'We too are Gandhi's men, beat us as much as you like,' and the policemen beat them till they were flat on the floor, mud in their mouths and mist in their eyes, and as the dawn was rising over the Kenchamma Hill, faces could be seen, and men became silent and women became sobless, and with ropes round their arms seventeen men were marched through the streets to the Santur Police Station, by the Karwar Road and round the Skeffington Coffee Estate and down the Tippur Valley and up the Santur Mound, and as the morning cattle were going out to the fields, and the women were adorning the thresholds for a Kartik morning, brahmins and pariahs and potters and weavers were marched into the Police Station-seventeen men of Kanthapura were named and locked behind the bars. And the policemen twisted their arms and beat them on their knuckles, and spat into their mouths, and when they had slapped and banged and kicked, they let them out one by one, one by one they let them out, and they all marched back to Kanthapura, all but Moorthy. Him they put into a morning bus, and with one policeman on the right and one policeman on the left they carried him away to Karwar. We wept and we prayed, and we vowed and we fasted, and maybe the gods would hear our feeble voices. Who would hear us, if not they? The gods indeed did hear our feeble voices, for this advocate and that advocate came and said, 'I shall defend him,' vakils and advocates and barristers came and said, And we shall plead for him,' and the students formed a Defence Committee and raised a huge meeting, and copper and silver flowed into the collection plate, and merchants came and said, And here we are when money is needed'. And when Moorthy heard of all this, he said, 'That is not for me. Between Truth and none shall come,' and Advocate me Ranganna went and saw him and said. Moorthy! The Red-man's judges, they are not your uncle's grandsons,' and Moorthy simply said, 'If Truth is one, all men are one before It,' and Ranganna said, 'Judges are not for Truth, but for Law, and the English are not for the brown skin but for the white, and the Govern- ment is not with the people but with the police'. And Moorthy listened to all this and said, If that is so, it will have to change. Truth will have to change it. I shall speak that which Truth prompteth, and Truth needeth no defence,' and Ranganna spoke this of cor- ruption and that about prejudice, but Truth, Truth, and Truth was all that Moorthy said, and old Ranganna, who had grown grey with law on his tongue, got so wild that he banged the prison door behind him and muttered to himself, 'To the mire with you!'

And then came Sadhu Narayan who had renounced hair and home and was practising meditation on the banks of the Vedavathy, and he said, 'Moorthy, you are a brave soul and a holy soul. And there is in you the hunger of God, and may He protect you always. But Ranganna comes and tells me, "I cannot change his heart. You are a religious man, go and speak to him," and I came to see you. I have neither hair nor home, and I have come to tell you, this is not just. Defend one must against evil; if not, where is renouncement, continence, austerity, and the control of breath? To which Moorthy says, 'You are a holy man, Sadhuji, and I touch your feet in reverence. But if Truth needs a defence, God Himself would need one, for as the Mahatma says, Truth is God, and I want no soul to come between me and Truth.' And Sadhu Narayan speaks about the world and its wheels and the clayey corruption of men, but Moorthy always says Truth, Truth, and Truth, and Sadhu Narayan gets up to go and he says, 'May at least my blessings be on you!' and Moorthy falls at his feet and holds them in grateful respect. And it was only after this that Sankar, our Sankar, who was the Secretary of the Karwar Congress Com- mittee, comes and says, 'Well, Moorthy, if such be your decision, my whole soul is with you. Gandhiji says, a Satyagrahi needs no advocates. He is his own advocate. And how many of us did go to prison in 1921 and never had touched the shadow of an advocate. I am an advocate, you will say, but you know I am an advocate for only those who cannot defend them- selves.' And Moorthy says, 'Then if you agree with me, brother, there can be nothing on my conscience,' and Moorthy's lips tremble and he falls at Sankar's feet, but when Sankar lifts him up, Moorthy says, 'No, brother, you are my elder and a householder. I need your blessings.' And Sankar says, 'If so it is, my blessings are always with you'; and Moorthy feels so exalted that he goes to Sankar and embraces him and says, 'Brother, you are with me?' And Sankar says, 'I am with you, Moorthy,' and then they sit for a while holding each other by the hand, and as the warder comes and says, 'Now it is time for you to go, sir,' Sankar rises up and says, ' But I can hold meetings for you, Moorthy?' and Moorthy says, 'Of course, brother!' And Sankar goes straight to Advocate Ranganna and Advocate Ranganna says, 'Certainly'. Then he sees Khadi-shop Dasappa and Dasappa says, 'Oh, most certainly '. And then he sees the President of the College Union and this one says, 'We are wherever you are,' and so Sankar sends for his Volunteers and says, A meeting in the Gandhi maidan today,' and Volunteer after Volunteer goes out to the cloth bazaar and the fish bazaar and the flower bazaar and the grain bazaar, and as the noon cools down, there is a huge crowd in the Gandhi maidan, and the Volunteers are there in khadi kurta and Gandhi-cap crying out, 'Order, brother, order! Please take your seats, brother, please!' and Sankar goes up to the platform, and there is a huge ovation and Mahatma Gandhi ki jais, and Dasappa comes and there is an ovation again, and Advocate Ranganna comes and there is an even greater ovation, for everybody knew he had lately thrown open his private temple to the pariahs, and with folded hands people hymn up, 'Vande Mataram'. Then they all squat down and Sankar and Ranganna and Dasappa make speeches about the incorruptible qualities of Moorthy, and they say how the foreign Government want to crush all self-respect, and they then speak of charka and ahimsa and Hindu-Moslem unity, and somebody cries out, And what about the Untouchables?' and Sankar says 'Of course, we are for them -why, has not the Mahatma adopted an Untouchable?' and somebody cries out again, Ah, our religion is going to be desecrated by you youngsters!' and Sankar says, 'Brother, if you have anything to say, please come up to the platform,' and the man says, And you will allow me to speak?' and Sankar says, 'We have no enemies,' and the man is seen coming from the other end of the maidan, a lean, tall man in durbar turban and filigree shawl, and he wears gold-cased rudrakshi beads at his neck, and he goes up the platform and says:

'Brothers, you have all heard the injurious attacks against the Government and the Police and many other things. I am a toothless old man and I have seen many a change pass before me, and may I say this: All this is very good, but if the white men shall leave us tomorrow it will not be Rama-rajya we shall have, but the rule of the ten-headed Ravana. What did we have, pray, before the British came-disorder, cor- ruption, and egoism, disorder, corruption, and egoism I say he continued, though there were many shouts and booings against him- and the British came and they came to protect us, our bones and our dharma. I say dharma and I mean it. For hath not the Lord said in the Gita, Whensoever there is ignorance and corruption I come, for I, says Krishna, am the defender of dharma, and the British came to protect our dharma. And the great Queen Victoria said it when she put the crown of our sacred country on her head and be- came our Beloved Sovereign. And when she died- may she have a serene journey through the other worlds!-and when she died-you are too young to know, but ask of your grandfathers how many a camphor was lit before the temple gods, and how many a sacrificial fire was created, and how many a voice did rise up to the heavens in incantation. For not only was she a great Queen, a Mother-Queen, but the most courageous defender of our faith. Tell me, did she not protect it better than any Mohomedan prince had ever done? Now, I am an old man. You are all young. Things change. But what I fear for tomorrow is not the disorder in the material world, but the corruption of castes and of the great traditions our ancestors have bequeathed us. When the British rule disappears there will be neither brahmin nor pariah, vaisya nor sudra-nay, neither Mohomedan nor Christian, and our eternal dharma will be squashed like a louse in a child's hair. My young brothers, let not such confusion of castes anger our manes, and let the religion of Vasistha and Manu, Sankara and Vidya- ranya go unmuddied to the Self-created One. Now I have said all I have to say.

But before he has stopped somebody says, are a Swami's man?'-and the old man says, 'So you 'And of course I am, and I have the honour to be'.-' And the Swami has just received twelve hundred acres of wet land from the Government. Do you know that?' says a youngster.-'Of course, and pray what else should he do if he is offered a Rajadakshina, a royal gift?and the youngster says, 'So the Swami is a Government man?'--and the old man says, 'The Swami is neither for the Government nor against it, but he is for all who respect the ancient ways of our race, and not for all this Gandhi and Gindhi who cannot pronounce even a gayathri, and who say there is neither caste nor creed and we are all equal to one another, while the Swami...And somebody cries out, Do you know the Swami has been received by the Governor?'-and Sankar rises up and says, 'No interruptions, please!'-and the old man answers, And of course, but why not? And do not the dharma sastras say the King is the protector of faith? And I cry out "Long live George the Fifth, Emperor!"' and he hobbled down the platform.

Then came youngster after youngster and said Moorthy was excommunicated by the Swami, for Moorthy was for Gandhiji and the Untouchables, and the Swami was paid by the British to do their dirty work. 'I have grown in the Mutt,' says one, and I have known what they do. The Mutt, brothers, is the best place for retired High Court judges, Police Inspectors, and God-dedicated concubines, and they are not with us, are they?' And Sankar rises up again and says, 'Now it is better we talk of other things,' but the young man continues, The whole trouble has been hatched by the Mutt'. Then Advocate Ran- ganna gets up and says, 'And I too have been ex- communicated, for I have thrown open the temple to the pariahs,' and there is a violent ovation, and Ranganna continues, And I know one thing too that few know, and it is time I said it in the open,' and everybody began to stand up and the Volunteers cried, 'Sit down, please, sit down!' And when there is silence again, Ranganna continues: Not long ago, I received a visit of a man, and he comes to me and says, "The Swami would like to see you," and I say, "If the Swami likes to see me, I am indeed most honoured!" and straight I go the next morning with fruits and flowers, and the Swami receives me with smiles and blessings and he says, "I need your help,

Ranganna," and I say, "Of course, everything is yours, Swamiji," and the Swami says, "There is much pollu- tion going on and I want to fight against it," and I say, "I am for fighting against all pollution," and the Swami says, "For some time there has been too much of this pariah business. We are brahmins and not pariahs. When the pariahs will have worn out their karma, and will have risen in the waters of purification, nobody will prevent them from becoming brahmins, even Sages, in their next lives. But this Gandhi, who is no doubt a very fine person, is meddling with the dharma sastras, the writ laws of the ancient sages, and I am not for it. He said he would like to see me, and I saw him and told him what I thought of it. But he said we did not interpret the dharma sastras correctly, and of course it was ridiculous to say that, for who should know better, he or I? But one cannot break the legs of the ignorant. Now, what I have to say is simple: we want to fight against this anti-Untouchable campaign, and I may tell you in confidence, the powers that be, well, they are with the guardians of our trusted traditions."

"Swamiji," I said, "how can you accept the help of a foreign Government? Do not the dharma sastras themselves call the foreigners mlechas, Untouchables?" and the Swami said, Governments are sent by the Divine Will and we may not question it," and he added, "And I may say the Government has promised to help us morally and materially," and at this I got so angry that I rose to go, but the Swami held me by the two hands and said, "Do take your seat!" but I said, "No, I cannot, I cannot," and it was on that very day I took the vow to open our temple to the pariahs, and that is why I opened it to them..." There was a long ovation-' And therefore, brothers, know for sure what religion is wearing behind its saffron robes. Choose between a saint like Mahatma Gandhi who has given up land and lust and honours and comfort and has dedicated his life to the country, and these fattened brahmins who want to frighten us with their excommunications, once the Government has paid them well.'

At this the Police Inspector comes up and says, 'I put you under arrest!' and Advocate Ranganna answers, 'Well, on what authority?' and the Police Inspector shows him a magistrate's order, and Ran- ganna offers himself up to the Police, and there is a huge, hoarse cry, and ovation after ovation rises- 'Gandhi Mahatma ki jai!' Vande Mataram! '—and processions immediately form themselves, and with Volunteers on either side they march through bazaar and street and lane, and women rush to the veranda, and children follow them still muttering the multipli- cation tables, and as dusk falls and lights flash from house to house, so shrill rises the cry of Mahatma Gandhi ki jai!' that by the Imperial Bank buildings police cars are already waiting, and the crowd is violently dispersed.

And when the morning came the papers were full of it, and Rangamma's Blue paper brought it all to us, and that is how we knew it all. And then we looked at each other and said, 'So that is how it is with Bhatta,' and everybody said, 'And so it is!' and Rangamma said, 'That is why Badè Khan was so often seen with him,' and Nanjamma said, 'Do you remember, sister, he was nowhere to be seen on that awful night?' and everybody said, 'Yes, surely and fools we were not to have seen it earlier,' and we all felt the kernel of our hearts burn, for Bhatta had walked our streets a copper pot in hand and we had fed him. Only Rama- krishnayya said, 'There is still many a good heart in this world, else the sun would not rise as he does nor the Himavathy flow by the Kenchamma Hill,' and all looked at the stars and said, 'Yea, the stars of the Seven Sages hang above us,' and as a wall-lizard clucked propitiously, we all beat our knuckles upon the floor and named the Holy Name, and there came with it such peace into our hearts that we walked back home with the light in our souls. And somewhere beyond the Bebbur Mound, somewhere beyond the Bebbur Mound and the Kenchamma Hill, out against the sky that rises over Karwar, out over the river, there seemed to stand as one might have said, the supple, firm figure of Moorthy, a Gandhi-cap upon his head and a Northern shirt flowing down his waist to the knees. And there was something in his eyes that shone and showed that he had grown even more sorrowful and calm.

And week after week passed, and Rangamma's Blue paper brought us this news and that news, and Pandit Venkateshia said, 'Why should I not make it come?' and he too began to receive it every Saturday evening, and Rangè Gowda came and said, 'Ran- gamma, Rangamma, I do not know how to read, but my little mosquito goes to school and, if he is worth the milk he has drunk, he will read it out to us,' and he too began to get the paper through Postman Subbayya, and evening after evening we gathered on Rangamma's veranda, and when Ramakrishnayya had explained to us a chapter from the Vedanta sutras, kneading vermicelli or shaping wicks for the festivals, we began to speak about Moorthy, while our men sat at the village gate, rubbing the snuff or chewing the tobacco leaf, and it seems they said many wicked things about the Government.

Then Seenu would sometimes go to Karwar with a Friday cart and come back with a Tuesday-morning cart, and he would tell us about Sankar and Advocate Ranganna and Seetharamu; and Vasudev, too, would sometimes go in a Skeffington Estate lorry, and he would sometimes slip through the evening and tell us about Moorthy and the Case, and everybody said, 'The Goddess will free him. She will appear before the judges and free him.' And Rangamma vowed she would offer a Kanchi sari to Kenchamma if he were released, and Ratna said she would have a thousand- and-eight flames ceremony performed, and Nanjamma said she would give the Goddess a silver belt, and Pariah Rachanna said he would walk the holy fire, and all said, 'The Goddess will never fail us-she will free him from the clutches of the Red-man'. But Vasudev, who was a city boy, said, 'No, sister, they will give him a good six months,' and we all said, 'No, no, never!' and Vasudev said, 'Well, think what you will, I know these people,' and Rangamma then suddenly said, 'Let me go to the city and see cousin Seetharamu, he is an advocate and he can tell me something about it,' and Nanjamma said, 'I too will come with you, sister, for I have to go to my daughter's confinement, and now or in three weeks is all the same to me,' and that is why one Pushya night Kitta put the bulls to the cart, and Rangamma and Nanjamma went down to Karwar to see Moorthy. And when they had bathed and said their prayers, Rangamma said to Seetharamu, Seetharamu, who is looking after Moorthy's affair?' and Seetharamu said, 'Why, Sankar!' and she said, 'Why not go and see him?' and he said, 'Of course!', and he put on the turban and the coat and they went straight to Sankar, and when Sankar saw Rangamma he said, 'Aunt, it is a long time since I saw you-how are things with you?' and Rangamma answered, Everything is safe-but I have come to speak about Moorthy,' and Sankar said, I love him like a brother, and I have found no better Gandhist,' and Rangamma said, 'Why, he is the saint of our village,' and Sankar said, 'Some day he will do holy deeds,' and Rangamma said, 'Is there nothing to be done to free him from prison?' and Sankar said, 'We have done all we can, but the Police say it is he who arranged the assault, the assault of the pariahs on the Police,' and Rangamma said, 'Siva! Siva! Never such a thing would our Moorthy do,' and Sankar said, 'Of course, of course, aunt,' and Rangamma said, 'Is there nothing I can do here?' and Sankar said, 'Nothing for the moment. But stay and wait for the results,' and Rangamma said, So be it,' and that is why she did not come back even for the harvest reapings.

And when she came back for the Corn-distribution Barber Venkata said, And, Mother, what about Moorthappa?' and Pariah Rachanna took his two measures and said, 'And, Mother, what have the Red- man's Government said about Moorthappa?' and Boatman Sidda said, 'If this Government's people were really sons of their father, they would have asked us to stand and bear witness before them!' and Gold- smith Nanjundia said, 'Oh, let them do what they like. Our Moorthy is like gold-the more you heat it the purer it comes from the crucible,' and the women. said, 'Oh, when you strike a cow you will fall into the hell of hells and suffer a million and eight tortures and be born an ass. And if this Government cannot tell the difference between a deer and a panther, well, it will fall into the mouth of the precipice,' and Ricc- pounding Rajamma, who had an evil tongue, said, 'May this Government be destroyed!' and she spat three times. And so, from day to day, people said this against the Government and that against the Police, and when our Rangè Gowda got dismissed from his Patel-ship, they all cried out, Oh, this is against the ancient laws--a patel is a patel from father to son, from son to grandson, and this Government wants to eat up the food of our ancestors,' and everybody, as they passed by the Kenchamma grove, cried out, 'Goddess, when the demon came to eat our babes and rape our daughters, you came down to destroy him and protect us. Oh, Goddess, destroy this Government,' and when the women went to cut grass for the calves, they made a song, and mowing the grass they sang:

Goddess, Goddess, Goddess Kenchamma, The Mother-in-law has wicked eyes, And the Sister-in-law has hungry stomach, Betel-nuts never become stone, And a virgin will never become pregnant, Red is the earth around the Goddess, For thou hast slain the Red-demon.

Goddess, Goddess, The Mother-in-law has wicked eyes, And betel-nuts will never become stone.
And Kanchi Narsamma, who had a long tongue, added:

Lean is the brahmin-priest, mother, And fat is he when he becomes Bhatta, mother, Fat is he when he becomes Bhatta, mother And he will take the road to Kashi, For gold has stuck in his stomach, And he will take the road to Kashi.

And the Sister-in-law has hungry stomach, Betel-nuts will never become stone..

To tell you the truth, Bhatta left us after harvest on a pilgrimage to Kashi. But, don't they say, sister, the sinner may go to the ocean but the water will only touch his knees.

And when Rangamma went back after the Corn- distributions, she went straight to Sankar instead of staying with cousin Seetharamu, for she had seen much of Sankar and she had liked him and he had liked her, and he had said to her, 'When you come to Karwar next, come and stay with me, aunt, and you will help me in my work,' and Rangamma had said, 'I am poor of mind and of little learning, what can I do for you, Sankaru?', and he had answered, 'That does not matter, aunt-what we need is force and fervour, and I am living with my little daughter and my aged mother, and you may perhaps arrange my papers and look after the Congress correspondence,' and though Rangamma was the humblest of women, she liked this, and she said, 'If the gods choose me, I will not say "Nay", and that's why she went to stay with Sankaru. And when Waterfall Venkamma heard of this she said, 'Oh! this widow has now begun to live openly with her men,' and she spat on the house and said this man had her and that man had her, and she began to say she would go to the courts and have back Rangamma's property, for land and lust and wifely loyalty go badly together, like oil and soap and hot water. But she said, Let Bhatta come and he will do it for me'. But our Rangamma was as tame as a cow And as and she only said, 'One cannot stitch up the mouths of others. So let them say what they like.' everybody knew, Sankar was an ascetic of a man and had refused marriage after marriage after he had lost his wife, and everybody had said, 'This is not right, Sankaru. You are only twenty-six and you have just put up the Advocate's sign-board, and you will soon begin to carn, and when you have a nine-pillared house you will need a Lakshmi-like goddess to adorn it,' but Sankar simply forced a smile and said, 'I have had a Lakshmi and I, a sinner, could not even keep her, and she has left me a child and that is enough'. But his old father came and said, 'But, no, Sankaru, you cannot do that. You are our eldest son, and you have to give us at least a grandson so that when we are dead our manes would be satisfied,' but Sankar smiled back again and said, 'If you want the marriage-thread to be tied in an ocean of tears, I shall. But otherwise I will not. I have a daughter and I will bring her up. And you will come and stay with me and we shall have a household running,' and the old mother wept and the old father knit his eyebrows, but Sankar smiled back and said, 'I shall obey you,' but they did not press him further, and they said, 'His wife Usha was such a god-like woman. She would never utter a word loud, and never say "nay" to anything. And when she walked the streets, they always said what a holy wife she was and beaming with her wifehood, and never a mother-in-law had a daughter-in-law like her,' and they both said, 'Well, we can understand Sankaru. When one has lost Usha nothing can replace her.' And they never again gave Sankar's horoscope to anyone, and they came to stay with him and look after his sanctum and his child. And the old father, who was a retired Taluk Office clerk, knew how to write English, and he said he would address envelopes for Congress meetings, and sometimes he went to join Dasappa, who had opened a khadi shop in the town. And when Dasappa was ill or away on Congress duty, it was old Venkataramayya who looked after the shop, measuring out yard after yard of khadi and saying, 'This is from the Badanaval centre, and that is from the pariahs of Siddapura, and this upper cloth is almost the work of the Mahatma, for where do you think it comes from?-Sabarmati it- self!' And when a young man came to buy a towel or pair of dhotis he would say, 'Hè, have you read the latest Young India?' and if he should say 'Nay,' he would tell them they were a set of buffaloes fit to be driven with kick and knout, and thrusting the paper into the young man's hands, he would offer him a chair and say, 'Read this, it is useful,' or 'Skip through this, it is less useful,' and when children came he gave them pinches and peppermints and told them stories of Tilak and Gandhi and Chittaranjan Das, and such funny stories they were, too, that they called him Gandhi- grandpa. And his wife cooked food for the family and she said, 'One day Sankar will carn as much as Advo- cate Ranganna, and he will buy a motor car, too,' but Sankar laughed and said, 'Mother, you must forget your dreams. Don't you see I am not a man to make money?' At which Satamma said this about what Ramachandra had said about Sankar's reputation, and that about Professor Patwardhan's appreciation: 'Your son Sankar, he is a saint,' and when he walked the main bazaar, they used to say, 'Look there, there goes the Ascetic Advocate'. People sometimes looked at his khadi coat and his rough yarn turban and laughed at this 'walking advocate,' and others said, 'No, no, he follows the principles of the Mahatma '.- And what, pray, are the principles of the Mahatma?'- 'Why, don't you know Sankar does not take a single false case, and before he takes a client he says to him, "Swear before me you are not the criminal!" and the client says this and that, but Sankar always comes back to the point and says, "You know if you do not  tell me the whole truth, well, I may be forced to with- draw in the middle of the case," and, indeed, as everyone knows, he withdrew in the middle of the casc between Shopkeeper Rama Chetty and Contractor Seenappa over false accounts, between Borchalli Nanjunda and Tippayya, and you know how he with- drew in the last criminal case they had in Karwar. You see, this is what really happened. One Rahman Khan was supposed to have tried to murder one SubbaChetty, for Subba Chetty had taken away his mistress Dasi. And everybody said, 'Poor Subba Chetty, poor Subba Chetty!'-and everybody said, 'He will win the case easily'. And Subba Chetty was an old client of Sankar and so he goes to Sankar and tells him the story and swears it is all true, and Sankar says, 'Now this is going to be a criminal case, and if you have hidden a thing small as a hair, you will come to grief,  Subba Chetty!' And Subba Chetty sheds many a tear and says he is a good householder and he would never tell a lie and the lingam in his hand is witness to it. And Sankar takes the case and prepares the papers, and he says he will have to see Dasi, but Subba Chetty says, Dasi is very ill, Father, but her word is my word and my word is hers,' and Sankar says, 'Bring her before the sessions,' and Subba Chetty says, 'If Siva wills, so it shall be,' and Sankar says, 'Then you may go'; and the case is filed and summonses are sent and the hearing arrives, and Subba Chetty is the last to come and says the wheels broke down and the rains, how they poured, and this and that, and when Dasi comes to the bar she is as hale as a first-calved cow, and she turns this way and she turns that way and she does her hair and wipes her eyes and stands up and sits down and bites her sari-fringe, and Subba Chetty gets angry and says, 'Stop this concubine show!' And when the cross-examination begins it is Advocate Ramanna who begins to heckle her with questions, and Dasi breaks into a fit of sobs and says something and Subba Chetty cries, Woman! Woman!' and Dasi runs up to the advocate and falls at his feet and says, 'I know nothing, Father! Nothing!' And when Sankar hears that, he asks the judge for permission to speak to his client, and he says to Subba Chetty, 'On your mother's honour, tell me if you have not concocted the story to pinch Rahman Khan's coconut-garden?' And Subba Chetty trembles and says, 'No, no, Sankarappa!' But Sankar has seen the game and he turns to the magistrate and says, 'I beg to ask your Lordship for an adjournment,' and the magistrate, who knows Sankar's ways, says, 'Well, you have it'. When Sankar gets back home, he asks Subba Chetty to speak the truth, and Subba Chetty tells him how he had employed Dasi to go and live with Rahman Khan and to enrage him against Subba Chetty, with drink and smoke and lust,' and with drink and smoke and lust Rahman Khan had cried out he would murder that Subba Chetty and had run out with an axe and Subba Chetty had cried out, Murder! Murder!' in the middle of the street, and Dasi had run out innocently and tried to calm Rahman Khan, who was so weak that he had rolled upon the carth, an opium lump. And when Sankar heard this he said, 'Go and confess this to the magistrate,' and the next day the magistrate gave him three years' rigorous imprisonment, with one year for Dasi. And in public Sankar had asked pardon of Rahman Khan, who got six months, too. It is from that day that people said, 'Take care when you go to Sankar; he will never take a false casc'. And he took but the lowest fee, and when the clients were poor he said to his clerk, 'Make an affidavit for Suranna's Dasanna. Stamps, private account, please,' and people began to come to him more and more and never was there a man in Karwar that had risen so quickly in public esteem and legal success as he. But he never bought a car and never dressed in hat and boots and suit, and always smiled at everyone. when the court was over he did not go like Barrister And Sastri and Advocate Ramrao to the Bar Club to have whisky and soda and God knows what, but he went straight to the floor above the khadi shop, where the new Hindi teacher Surya Menon held classes, and when Sankar had time he divided the class into two and gave a lesson to the late-comers. He said Hindi would be the national language of India, and though Kannada is good enough for our province, Hindi must become the national tongue, and whenever he met a man in the street, he did not say How are you?' in Kannada, but took to the northern manner and said Ram-Ram'. But what was shameful was the way he began to talk Hindi to his mother, who understood not a word of it, but he said she would learn it one day; and he spoke nothing but Hindi to his daughter, and if by chance he used an English word, as they do in the city, he had a little closed pot, with a slit in the lid, into which he dropped a coin, and every month he opened it and gave it to the Congress fund. And if any of his friends should utter an English word in his house, he would say, Drop me a coin,' and the friends got angry and called him a fanatic; but he said there must be a few fanatics to wash the wheel of law, and he would force his friends to drop the coin and if they refused he dropped one himself. And he was a fanatic, too, in his dress, you know, sister. When he went to a marriage party he used to say, Everyone must be in khadi or I will not go,' and they said, 'Oh, one must have a nice Dharmawar sari for the bride; she cannot look like a street sweeper,' and he would say 'Well, have your Dharmawar saris and send your money to Italian yarn-makers and German colour manufacturers and let our pariahs and peasants starve,' and when they pleaded, 'Just one Dharmawar sari?' he would say 'I am not the head of the family, but if you wear anything but khadi I will not go!' And that is how nobody in their house nor in their cousin's house had any new Dharmawar saris, and when they went for any kumkum and haldi invitation, they put on their old saris and slipped out through the back door. And he also made the whole family fast-fast on this day because it is the anni- versary of the day the Mahatma was imprisoned, fast on that day for the Jallianwalabagh massacre, and on another day in memory of the day of Tilak's death, and some day he would have made everyone fast for every cough and sneeze of the Mahatma. 'Fasting is good for the mind,' he would say, and even on the days he fasted he was in full spirits and went to court and span his three hundred yards of yarn every morning instead of his prayers, and he said the gods would be happy when the hungry stomachs had food.

But what a good expression he had on his face, sister! He looked a veritable Dharmaraja. And Rangamma told us never a man smiled more and sang more at home than he, and he was always the earliest to rise and the last to go to bed, yet he was always in the best of health. 'Lemon water and gymnastics, gym- nastics and lemon water, can keep the plague at the doorstep,' he used to say, and to tell you the truth, never had Rangamma looked so healthy and serene as she did then. She was nearing forty, but she looked hardly thirty-three, and there was not a grey hair on her head. And she could work, too, then, she could talk and write and hold classes and sometimes she even went, they said, to meetings with Sankar. And once Sankar had asked her to say a few words about Moorthy, and she had stood up and spoken of Moorthy the good, Moorthy the religious, and Moorthy the noble, and she had found no more words, and she had come down from the platform and had begun to shiver and tears had come into her eyes. But she said that was the first time, but if she had ever to speak again she would have no such fears, and of course we knew she was a tight-jawed person and she could speak like a man.

Rangamma came back from Karwar for the Magh cattle fair, and two days later we heard that the Red- man's judges had given Moorthy three months' rigorous imprisonment. The whole afternoon no man left his veranda, and not a mosquito moved in all Kanthapura. We all fasted. The next day the rain set in and it poured and it plundered all the fields and the woods, and Rama- krishnayya, going to spit over the railings of the veranda, stumbled against a pillar and, falling, lost consciousness, and that very night, without saying a word, without giving a sigh, he closed his eyes for ever. And everybody said, 'The rains have come; oh, what shall we do for the cremations? Oh, what?' And Pandit Venkateshia immediately sent for the beadles and asked them to raise a mango pandal on the banks of the Himavathy, and the good pariahs, they worked hour after hour during the night, and when the next morning the body was washed and the corpse tied to the bamboo, the rains suddenly lifted themselves up, and behind the jack-fruit tree the sun rose like a camphor censer alit, and while the waters were still gurgling in the gutters, the procession hurried on, and and they lighted the pyre in the open, and the head burst but a moment later, and we lifted our eyes to the heavens and muttered, 'He goes the way of the saints'. And Rangamma vowed she would take his bones to Kashi, but all of a sudden the river began to swell and when it came crawling by the pyre, people asked, 'What shall we do? Oh what?', but the swell bubbled out by the pyre and Rangamma gave a sigh, and when the body was ashed down whole and only a few cinders lay blinking behind the bones, a huge swell churned round the hill and swept the bones and ashes away. And we all cried out Narayan! Narayan!', and that night, sister, as on no other night, no cow would give its milk, and all the night a steady rain kept patter- ing on the tiles, and the calves pranced about their mothers and groaned. . . . Lord, may such be the path of our outgoing Soul!