Question
Explain Titash Ekti Nadir as an epic about the Mallas.
Solution
Advaita Malla Burman’s Titash Ekti Nadir Naam is an epic about the Mallas, a community of fisherfolk who live off fishing in the river Titash.
(i)The novel is about three generations of the Mallas, about their recurring tragedies and the story of Ananta, a child born of parents who were tragically separated after their wedding night. Ananta leaves the community to get educated in the city.
(ii)The novel describes the community life of the Mallas in great detail, their Holi and Kali Puja festivals, boat races, bhatiali songs, their relationships of friendship and animosity with the peasants and the oppression of the upper castes.
(iii)Slowly the community breaks up and the Mallas start fighting amongst themselves as new cultural influences from the city start penetrating their lives.
(iv)The life of the community and that of the river is intimately tied. Their end comes together: as the river dries up, the community dies too.
(v)While novelists before Burman had featured ‘low’ castes as their protagonists, Titash is special because the author is himself from a ‘low-caste’, fisherfolk community.
(i)The novel is about three generations of the Mallas, about their recurring tragedies and the story of Ananta, a child born of parents who were tragically separated after their wedding night. Ananta leaves the community to get educated in the city.
(ii)The novel describes the community life of the Mallas in great detail, their Holi and Kali Puja festivals, boat races, bhatiali songs, their relationships of friendship and animosity with the peasants and the oppression of the upper castes.
(iii)Slowly the community breaks up and the Mallas start fighting amongst themselves as new cultural influences from the city start penetrating their lives.
(iv)The life of the community and that of the river is intimately tied. Their end comes together: as the river dries up, the community dies too.
(v)While novelists before Burman had featured ‘low’ castes as their protagonists, Titash is special because the author is himself from a ‘low-caste’, fisherfolk community.
