Summary
The next part of the book picks up as Praneshacharya is in the aghara, caring for his wife. Everything in the temple is tremendously quiet, to an unnerving degree. He sits and thinks about what he has done, feeling guilty. He recalls that Naranappa said that his lifestyle was too remote and that he did not understand the passionate emotions depicted in the Vedas. Praneshacharya experiences feelings of intense desire, as he begins to sense that his encounter with Chandri has unlocked previously dormant feelings of lust in his heart.
He leaves the aghara and walks through the forest. He comes to a river and begins to swim, feeling momentary relief. He then recalls that it is time to feed his wife and heads back into the village. He comes home and notices that his wife appears to be in even worse condition and that she has a growth on the side of her body. He goes outside briefly and sees crows on the rooftops. He goes back in, suddenly overcome with fear, and finds that his wife is dead. He touches her forehead and feels that it is cold.
He travels to the aghara to take care of his wife's body and speaks with several other Brahmin. He cremates her remains and weeps. He then departs from the village. The Brahmins share a ceremonial meal and note Praneshacharya's absence. They wonder about how he has taken their announcement regarding their decision to go elsewhere for answers about Naranappa. They speak with a swami. The swami says that Brahminism never left Naranappa, but to make up for his transgressions, his wealth will have to go to the temple. Garuda and Lakshmana put forward claims on Naranappa's gold. The swami scolds them for their selfishness. The narrator notes that they leave behind another Brahmin who was also displaying signs of a fever.
Praneshacharya walks through the forest. He feels guilty for not waiting for his wife's body to burn down so he could put her bones in the stream, as tradition dictates. Still, he has a sense of completing an obligation and being newly unburdened. He reflects on why he chose to walk away from everything. He tells himself that he failed to serve the other Brahmins. He notices a calf sitting behind him. It licks his face.
Praneshacharya then notices a farmer who is tending his herd. They have a brief conversation. Praneshacharya is incredibly nervous that the farmer will figure out who he is and begin to question his presence in the area. The man asks him to help with a predicament, as he recently purchased a wife for his son and she seems to be possessed. Praneshacharya says a relative has recently died and he is currently in a period of pollution, meaning he cannot perform any traditional chants.
He walks on, continuing to reflect on his choices. He thinks about why he slept with Chandri and how much of an active choice it was. He also feels overwhelmingly drawn to her and wants to be with her again. He feels that he would give everything up to be with her again, but then feels great shame for what he has done. He is uncertain if he can still be a spiritual leader in any real capacity. He thinks back on a close friend of his who, like Naranappa, showed a lack of belief in their faith.
He recalls how his friend gave up his studies to be with a woman. He wonders what has become of him and if he still stands behind his decision. Praneshacharya then encounters a man named Putta. Putta is very friendly and takes an immediate interest in Praneshacharya. Praneshacharya tries to shake him off, but sticks close to him. He tells Praneshacharya that he has a friend nearby who he is welcome to stay with. Back in the village, everyone is shocked to discover that Naranappa's body was taken and cremated. Subsequently they are also panicked by what now appears to be a string of fever-related deaths, including Naranappa, Dasarcharya, and Praneshacharya's wife. More deaths follow and the village is thrown into turmoil.
Analysis
Faith is a major thematic element in this part of the book. Praneshacharya's faith in Brahmanism is profoundly shaken by his experience with Chandri. He feels as though he is unfit to lead and has lapsed in his moral fortitude. This feeling becomes increasingly ingrained as he thinks back to his friend who gave up his faith in order to be with a beautiful woman. He has the strong sense that he is no different than his friend or Naranappa, and that he is undeserving of respect or esteem. This is supported also, in his mind, by the fact that he failed to lead his community during the disagreement over Naranappa's body. It is a low point for his faith in that he has never felt so distant from it before. In his mind, he has failed on every count of being a true Brahmin and does not deserve the title anymore.
Devotion is another major theme in this part of the book. Praneshacharya is unsettled after sleeping with Chandri, but his wife's death is what really cements his feelings of failure. Praneshacharya viewed his devoted care for his wife as a kind of penance. By choosing to marry someone with whom his entire relationship consists of service, without any emotional or physical affection, he feels that he has committed himself to a life of truly pure faith. The end of her life represents the end of his obligation to her, which ultimately unmoors him. Without the support of his texts or his routine care for his wife, he experiences profound alienation from his beliefs. He is uncertain if the path he has chosen still means anything or if the choices he has made have ultimately made him a more devout Brahmin. Her death is yet another overwhelming blow to his faith, as he no longer has an act of daily devotion to hold onto as evidence of his faith.
Desire is also a significant theme in these pages. Praneshacharya spends his time in the forest reflecting on what he did with Chandri. He questions the root cause of his decision to sleep with her, upset by the possibility that it was simply lust. He continues contending with the strength of his feelings for her. He wonders if he was passively drawn into physical pleasure or if he made some sort of conscious choice to have sex with her. While neither option is a happy one for him, he feels that the latter is at least more readily explicable. What he fails to properly account for is the possibility of his romantic feelings for Chandri, as she showed him kindness in a moment when he was vulnerable. While Praneshacharya frames so much of this experience as the triumph of desire, the reader is left to wonder whether he is merely suffering from holding himself to a standard of excessive restraint.
The ending chapter of this section shows the village in complete disarray. Rocked by multiple fever-related deaths, the people are in a state of panic, as they worry about the possibility of a plague. At the same time, no one knows where Praneshacharya is and they do not know what to do. Still, old strife remains, as Garuda and Lakshmana's feud continues even as death sweeps through the aghara. This scene, taken as a whole, shows the complete disintegration of the village community, as they are leaderless and thrown into complete chaos. Their inability to find common sympathy is highlighted here, as even the worst circumstances do not bring them together.
This section is the narrative's crisis point. Praneshacharya wanders through the forest, lost and uncertain about his faith and future. The village is coming apart at the seams as bodies are burned and vultures circle the skies. The tensions that Ananthamurthy suggested at the novel's beginning come to fruition here.
