Lakshmi Kannans Language of Nature in Muniyakka

G.Eswari Prabhu

Our beautiful Planet, the Earth, is our only home. It has to be sustained for future
generations. It is mans foremost duty to love, cherish and live in harmony with Nature.
The rural and tribal folks of India feel divinity permeating everything on Earth. Their
puja is not complete without honouring trees, mountains, rivers, animals and reptiles.
This icon worship symbolizes Hindu ideology to protect and preserve nature. They
worshipped trees and plants like the banyan, bilva, and the tulsi because they knew
that they were connected. They expressed their gratitude by naming them Varuna-the
Rain God, Vaayu-the Wind God, Bhoomaata-Mother Earth, the Ganga- water God,
Koormam-the turtle God, Bhairavar-the dog God and so on.
The concept of Mother Earth is an ideal of Eco-feminism, which explores the
connection between Woman, Man and Nature. The concept of filial bonding is important
to mankind, studied by anthropologists and sociologists. In a country where nature is
revered as a nurturing agent, the institution of family seems to be failing and the strong
bond of solidarity is breached.
Scanning through the history of Indian English literature many texts can be read with
an eco-critical perspective. The writers have dealt with beauty, the power of nature and
also about the misuse of our environment. They have also shown interest towards nature,
culture and landscapethe rivers and mountains in Raja Raos Kanthapura, a calamitythe flood in Kamala Markendyas Nectar in Sieve. Malgudi, the landscape is the hero in
R.K. Narayans novels. Anita Desai compares her heroine Maya in Cry, the Peacock with
the peacock in the jungle.
Lakshmi Kannans writing is anthropocentric, as she dwells on the inner psyche of
womanhood which is filtered through the human consciousness of Muniyakka.
Muniyakka seeks an identity and purges her emotions in Nature. The reader visualizes
Muniyakka in various roles-as an old mother, the duty conscious wife, a domestic aid and
a universal thinker. Having worked in Rama Raos house for a long period, they allowed
her to build a small hut in their sprawling garden of coconut trees, peepul and jackfruit
trees. Mrs. Ratna Rao treated her as an old member of the family and she was the main

-2participant in their festivities. The garden was pampered by the Raos. It looked a
picture of health, bursting with flowers, fruits [and] looked like children who had been
brought up with care and affection. Muniyakka was very fond of the garden and lavished
her affection on it.(Muniyakka 106, 107 henceforth referred to as MU). She competes
with the gardener and waters the fruit and flower-bearing trees. There is a Chinese
proverb which says whoever loves and understands a garden will find contentment
within. May be Muniyakka too felt the same.
After the days work, scolding her dead husband and absent sons, she eats the ragi
broth for dinner. Then, lazily nibbles a piece of jaggery. This is followed by an arecanut
and her eyes are fixed on some distant point in the darkness. It is at that still moment
she felt evacuated--her mind swept clean like the interior of the hut, purged of all
disturbing thoughts and stilled to a mute point. Not a fibre of her being movedthis
sense of peace never lasted for long(MU 106). Betty and Theodore Roszak call it
Deep Form. This is the correspondence between formative processes of mind and
formative processes in nature.(Coupe 226)
This old woman with spindly legs in the cold Bangalore winter works at Anjaneyulus
house for twenty rupees and at Vasudev Chettys house for thirty-five rupees. The breach
in family bonding would have occurred when her now dead husband Bairappa,
squandered her hard-earned money and wasted his life by smoking, drinking and
gambling. Muniyakka may have turned from this worthless man to her sons to satisfy her
cravings for love. Just as she takes care of the garden now, she would have showered her
love on her sons but when they got married they deserted her.
The last job of the day for Muniyakka was to clean the temple floorthe temple of
Nagaraj. She reveals the contrast when people smash a snake to pulp if it was not a cobra
and bang their heads on the curved stone snake in the temple to beget children. She too
prayed like other foolish women. This is one of the oldest rituals known to humankind
seeking help in the creation of the next generation. The wish for children says Ploss,
apart from religious and moral motives, is rooted in the instinct of self-preservation of
mankind(Gisbert 88) Muniyakka too worshipped with kumkum, haldi and flowers.
She too begged for favours: Give me a songreat Nagaraj (MU 108). Like other

-3women, she too had been foolish and prayed with great faith and had three useless sons,
Each worthless son, lusting after his own wifeThey dont need a mother any more
(MU 108). Of all the human bonds, the maternal bond is the strongest. John Bowlbys in
the Attachment Theory speaks of the dynamics of long term relationships between
humans especially among families(wikipedia) which means that human bonds are
developed biologically for survival and its psychological aim is for security.
It is here that Lakshmi Kannan shows the interdependence of Muniyakkas thoughts and
the garden terrainthe relationship between the language and the landscape. The
writer also reveals the interconnected factor of man with nature.

The relationship

between man and Nature is like the relationship between Pindanada, the microcosm and
Brahmananda, the macrocosm.(speaking tree) With a failing vision, Muniyakka peers
into the inky darkness of the garden. The strong breeze howls and hisses like many
snakes. The coconut trees swayed like the female devil in Kokkina Halli, her native
village, or the ghost dance with loosened hair as if in a trance. She felt she is surrounded
by a thousand snakes. Muniyakka could completely identify herself. Her mind danced,
pulsating with the rhythm of the dwamsha of Kali (MU 107).

She drinks up

nourishment from the trees and the air and has a deep bonding with the Earth. It may be
a dance of frustration. The garden functions as a symbiosis between mind and nature
It shows a web of vital relationships embedded in all things. This is where ecocriticism is most appropriately applied to a work in which the landscape itself is a
dominant character, when a significant interaction occurs between author and place.
Landscape by definition includes the non-human elements of place-the rocks, soil, trees,
plants, rivers, animals, air as well as human perceptions and modifications.(wikipedia)
Rachel Azimas theory of ecocriticism focuses on re-theorizing root metaphors which
is called self-transplantation. The trope of self-transplantation enables authors to tap
into evocative power of roots while avoiding exclusive and xenophobic moods of
belonging.

The naturalising performed by root metaphors reflects a questionable

application of non-human biology in a human context. We observe plants behaving in

ways we code as natural and we describe ourselves in these scientific terms in order to
achieve the naturalizing effect.(Shikha 7) .

-4To Muniyakka, her familys association has been temporary. Even though she is old
she still remains hard-working. She is meticulous not only in her daily chores but also in
observing the sraddha for the death anniversary of her husband. Her sons ignore the day.
Placing the items on the plaintain leaf, she feels relationships are a hypocrisy, Husband!
Son! What a humbug all these relationships are(MU109) When such sons cannot
even think of their mother will they ever care for Mother Earth and treasure her for
generations. Muniyakka proves to be an honest servant in different households and is her
familys true servant or famula from the latin word familia or family.
This uneducated rural woman has no friends. She mastered the art of soliloquy
tirelessly and continuously. And the most meaningful conversations, she had were the
ones she had with herself. (MU104). People and children called her walkie talkie.
(MU 105) She has been pushed to what Thomas Hobbes says of the ancient manman
was at first little more than a brute, leading an isolated life (Lysander 32) If not for
her association with nature, Muniyakka would have lost her sanity. She is no brute,
readers not only sympathise with her but are surprised at her optimism. She remains a
homosapien and a homoloquensshe seeks company in nature and shares her thoughts.
To Muniyakka, nature is an absolute companion and makes us reflect on the poet Robert
Duncans statement We are linked to one anothera symposium of the whole.(Coupe
xvii)
. Nature has helped Muniyakka live in perfect tune as she enjoys Natures devil dance
in isolation on that rainy night. Muniyakka ponders over the enigmatic and philosophical
questions: Whos a devil and whos not a devil? Who am I? And you? Who the devil are
you? Where are we going? How far?...and for what?(MU 110) These existential
questions show that mortality is the intrinsic human condition in our earthly journey
juxtaposed with the eternal world. Love has to evolve into our genes to live in harmony,
connecting the subtle threads of kinship. This becomes integral for a receptive bonding
with ones mother and also with Mother Earth.

References
Kannan, Lakshmi. India Gate and Other Stories. OUP: Disha Booka, 1993.
Coupe, Laurence Ed. The Green Studies Reader. New York:Routledge, 2000.
Gisbert, Pascal S.J. Fundamentals of Sociology. New Delhi: Orient Longman Limited,
1973.
Lysander, H.C. Elements of Sociology. Madras: Popular Book Depot, 1974.
Shikha, Kumari. Ecocriticism in Indian Fiction. IRWLE vol.7, No.1, Jan. 2011.
www.speaking tree.in
wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocriticism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment theory