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Articles: Literature | Chillara Devullu
- Dr. Rajeshwar Mittapalli
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Realising that he would have to face the charge of murder in court he threatens to dig up an old murder case involving the Karanam and extracts a bribe of one thousand rupees from him for hushing it all up apart from his co-operation in the present situation.
The police and the courts of law are two closely related institutions. After the arrested Lambadas are taken to the police station they are brutally tortured and a confession of dacoity is extracted from them. While guarding the Lambadas, provoked by an insulting remark, the policeman Abdul Salam, kills one of them, Bheekya. At the court next day, a farcical trial follows. The Lambadas are sentenced to three years in prison while Abdul Salam is set free!
The decay and degeneration does not appear to be limited only to the secular institutions. Even the highly revered Vaishnavacharya, representing a high Hindu religious seat, behaves in an outrageous fashion by ravishing Tayaru in the night and justifies the act through sophistry.
Into this cesspool of corruption and decay, ignorance and backwardness, violence and blatant exploitation, Saranga Pani comes as a fresh breeze of honesty and uprightness. He is a highly accomplished musician, scholar, and a knowledgeable and worldly-wise man. Apart from the invitation from Reddy and his own wish to give music lessons to a few pupils in the village no compelling reason is cited in the novel for his coming to the obscure village all the way from a city like Bezwada (now called Vijayawada). Nevertheless, his coming to the village makes a big difference to many people, especially young women of marriageable age. He brings new ideas and modernity into the sedate and feudal value-ridden world of the village.
It is he who introduces factory-made cosmetics, photographs shot by his own flash camera and developed by himself and various musical instruments, though traditional, to the villagers. Being a gifted singer and an expert player of various musical instruments, he makes a very agreeable impact on Reddy who for some mysterious reason has a great taste for music. It may be that, in the tradition of the kings and feudal lords of yore, Reddy considers it a status symbol to have a musician at his ‘court.’
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