54 pages • 1 hour read
A River Sutra
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Character Analysis
The Narrator
The unnamed narrator of A River Sutra is also the protagonist and the observer through whom the reader experiences the stories of the novel. He is a retired bureaucrat who recently lost his wife, and he takes a job overseeing a rest house on the Narmada river to retreat from the world. He views this act as being a direct contrast to his life as a bureaucrat, implying that he used to be both wealthy and powerful. At the rest house, however, the narrator’s job is not stressful or busy, and he spends his days talking to people. He encounters a variety of people from different cultures and lifestyles, and through them, he gains a greater appreciation for people’s beliefs and lived experiences. Though the narrator is often incredulous or confused when he listens to stories, the motif of his confusion is a means by which the novel communicates its intent; the novel explains the stories through other characters’ interactions with the narrator.
The narrator is a hero archetype, in the sense that he is on a quest for enlightenment. In this way, he is like the protagonists of other works, such as Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, which is also set in India. As with many works that discuss enlightenment, the narrator thinks that he is pursuing one path when he is really pursuing another. The narrator sees himself as a vanaprastha, a forest hermit, thinking that isolation and tranquility are necessary to reflect on his life and achieve a measure of peace with himself. However, the rest house is bustling with diverse pilgrims, travelers, and religious figures, all of whom influence and direct the narrator’s search for meaning. By the end of the novel, the narrator is in the process of realizing that experience and contact with humanity, rather than tranquility and isolation, are the keys to enlightenment.
The narrator is also used as a framing device in the novel, as he serves as a vessel for the stories narrated by the various characters. Even when stories are related to another character—like the Naga Baba’s story, which is originally told to Tariq Mia—the reader experiences these stories as they are related to the narrator, which narrows the collection of diverse tales into the point of view of just one character. The narrator’s frustrations at reconciling and overcoming his own emotional responses to these stories serve to show how stories can impact their listeners, even when their listeners do not fully grasp the story’s meaning and significance.
Tariq Mia
Tariq Mia is a mullah, or scholar of Islamic theology. He is the leader of the mosque near the rest house where the narrator lives and works. Tariq Mia is an older man, notably older than the narrator, and he refers to the narrator as “little brother,” both to show their close relationship and their difference in age. At the mosque, Tariq Mia is a teacher, and he frequently references his pupils; the narrator prefers to see himself as Tariq Mia’s peer, rather than another pupil. However, Tariq Mia’s role in the novel is as a sage or mentor, guiding the narrator on his journey toward enlightenment. Early in the novel, Tariq Mia comments that the narrator has experienced very little of life, and he is ultimately the character who reveals to the narrator that he is mistaken in his intention to retreat from the world.
Critically, Tariq Mia is a character who provides explanations, though they are sometimes cryptic—such as his explanation of Ashok’s story being about the capacity of the human heart to love, which the narrator did not understand even after Tariq Mia’s explanation. As a teacher, Tariq Mia does not explain the stories in detail to the narrator, allowing the narrator to form his own conclusions, even though, near the end of the novel, the narrator still does not understand his own journey. Much like the Naga Baba, Tariq Mia retains an air of mystery and he takes a stance of non-interference with the narrator’s life and search for meaning. However, Tariq Mia represents a tranquility that is incapable of “returning” to the world, as the mosque is his home. As such, when the narrator begins to understand his own need for the world, he stops visiting Tariq Mia, realizing that Tariq Mia has already completed his own journey.
An important element of Tariq Mia’s character is his open discussion of religious and cultural beliefs outside of his own. Though he is a Muslim, and an Islamic theologian, he still engages readily with the other faiths in the region, such as the Vano beliefs, the Jain ideology of ahimsa, and the various discussions of Hinduism and Shiva that occur in the novel. Part of the novel’s overarching theme of The Diversity of Indian Religious and Cultural Traditions involves the discourse between beliefs, which are embodied in Tariq Mia’s ability to discuss the Narmada both as a spiritually charged Muslim location and as a holy site for a myriad of other beliefs.
Mr. Chagla and Dr. Mitra
Mr. Chagla and Dr. Mitra are secondary characters in the novel, and their lives and perspectives inform the narrator’s perception of the stories he encounters. Mr. Chagla is the narrator’s assistant. He is characterized by an air of simplicity, a strong work ethic, and a desire to serve his guests. Mr. Chagla is open to the spirituality of the region, even clarifying the point of divine abstraction for the narrator in his explanation of how love can exist as a god because of its critical importance to human experience. His daily bike ride to and from the rest house shows Mr. Chagla’s dedication to his role at the rest house, as well as his desire to provide food and drink for anyone who visits. Mr. Chagla’s kindness and work ethic represent the Hindu concept of dharma or duty; in this, Mr. Chagla finds a kind of enlightenment in the fulfillment of his responsibilities.
Dr. Mitra, unlike Mr. Chagla, is educated and flippant, often joking about the beliefs of others and embodying a kind of jovial irreverence. This contrasts with the seriousness—and sometimes fear—with which Mr. Chagla approaches issues of spirituality and the unknown. While Mr. Chagla takes the myths and deities of the region very seriously, Dr. Mitra encourages the narrator to question the verity of the stories. His dismissal of the honeybees around the Immortal’s head, for example, is meant to show that many of the myths and legends surrounding the Narmada are not necessarily true or meaningful, even when taken as abstractions of human experiences.
Dr. Mitra and Mr. Chagla express elements of characterization that the narrator is missing. The narrator often fails to understand the deeper meaning of the mythology surrounding the Narmada, and he also tends to take the stories he hears too seriously. Mr. Chagla’s peaceful fulfillment of his dharma contrasts with the narrator’s indecision regarding his own life, as Mr. Chagla has found his vocation and completes it daily and without complaint. Dr. Mitra, on the other hand, possesses a genuine detachment from the myths and legends that plague the narrator’s thoughts, laughing at the stories of gods and magic, and thus making himself immune to their impact. In this novel, both characters are necessary to show how the narrator’s internal conflict is unique and embodies a personal turmoil that not every character experiences.
The Naga Baba/ Professor Shankar
The Naga Baba, or Professor Shankar, is an ascetic of Shiva who later becomes an archeologist. In Tariq Mia’s telling of the Naga Baba’s story, the Naga Baba underwent severe training to become a Naga sadhu (or ascetic), including going extended periods in harsh weather without food or water. His practices of isolation, hermitage, and begging for alms with a human skull show how the ascetic’s life is dramatically different from the other lifestyles presented in the novel. His foray into the Dalit sweeper village, as well as his rescue of Uma from the brothel, serve to highlight the disparity between the wealthiest members of Indian society, like Ashok and, formerly, the narrator, and the most impoverished. However, the Naga Baba is not impoverished like the Dalits he encounters; he chooses a life that is separate from the world, and he doles out blessings as he sees fit and lives off the kindness of strangers.
At some point after saving Uma, the Naga Baba “reenters” the world, becoming Professor Shankar, an archeologist chronicling the history of the Narmada River. As Shankar, the Naga Baba appears to be an ordinary, intelligent scholar, and he displays both an immense knowledge of the Narmada and a total rejection of its spiritual value. This presents a radical change, as his life as an ascetic was steeped in mysticism and spirituality, whereas Shankar literally rejects the idea of mythology or spirituality, focusing instead on the physical history of the Narmada.
The character of the Naga Baba/ Professor Shankar is a foil to the narrator, as the Naga Baba follows the opposite path that the narrator thinks he himself is on, moving from asceticism to professionalism. The narrator is shocked and upset at the end of the novel because he finds out that the Naga Baba successfully “reentered” the world, which conflicts with the narrator’s sense of permanence as a vanaprastha who has renounced the world. However, the Naga Baba’s story shows that a person can change their path or shift their mindset at any time, and his success in doing so shows that the narrator, too, can “reenter” the world if he so chooses. The Naga Baba shifts his mindset from total adherence to spirituality to total rejection of it, both of which are superior to the narrator’s tendency to flirt with spirituality without committing to either faith or rationalism.
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