Summary
In the year 1900, twelve-year-old Mariamma, a devout Saint Thomas Christian girl from Kerala, India, prepares for her wedding day. Despite her deceased father's wishes that she be educated and marry as an adult, Mariamma's opportunistic uncle arranges for her to marry a reclusive forty-year-old widower with a family history of drowning. Though Mariamma is afraid and mourns her father's absence, she does not protest the marriage, as she believes marriages are "decided by adults." The groom's sister, Thankamma, accompanies Mariamma and her mother across the Kerala waterways to a hallowed church said to have been established by Saint Thomas, where the marriage will take place. Though Thankamma is friendly and encouraging, the groom is horrified that Mariamma is "just a child" and leaves the church. Only through Thankamma's encouragement and insistence that leaving the altar will ruin Mariamma's reputation does the groom agree to marry her. After a quick ceremony, Mariamma and Thankamma depart for the family's massive secluded estate called Parambil by boat, while the groom inexplicably chooses to walk. For the first few days of her marriage, Mariamma clings to Thankamma and learns recipes at her side. She also cares for Jojo, the widower's two-year-old son, who immediately treats Mariamma as a new mother. On the first night, when Mariamma feels her homesickness and trepidation most acutely, an elephant named Damo visits her window, welcoming her to her new home in a magical, dreamlike interaction.
Over the next three years, Mariamma observes strange patterns and contradictions in her husband's behavior. Though he fearlessly climbs trees and exhibits great physical strength, he is deathly afraid of water, refusing to travel anywhere by boat and hiding from the rain. He is also highly intelligent, planning his estate strategically, but does not keep any books, pens, or paper in the house. Mariamma is lonely and isolated, as her husband rarely interacts with her and does not take her to church. She is unable to visit home, as in her rare letters, her mother insists Mariamma never visit her childhood home, leading Mariamma to fear for her mother's well-being. Mariamma does develop a close relationship with Jojo, the estate manager Shamuel, and even the spirit of Jojo's deceased mother. At the beginning of Lent, Miriamma misses her family's religious observances and decides to try one of Thankamma's superstitions, wishing on food as she prepares it and serving it to her husband. To Mariamma's elation, her husband agrees to take her to church, though he is unable to travel by boat and professes he "cannot forgive a God...who takes a mother from her child." Still, the church visit marks a turning point in their relationship, and the couple begins to grow closer.
On Mariamma's sixteenth birthday, Damo comes to visit her. Her husband also gives her an expensive set of gold kunukku earrings, marking her womanhood and indicating that he is ready to treat her as his wife. That night, the couple consummates their marriage. Mariamma experiences several conflicting emotions: discomfort and pleasure, fear and elation, a sense of power and a sense of helplessness. The emotional barriers between her and her husband vanish, and over the next several years, they begin to love one another. When Mariamma is nineteen, she is consumed by a bout of depression, crediting the feeling to her fear that her mother is being mistreated. Without a word, her husband and Shamuel collect Mariamma's mother, who has indeed been starved and overworked by her brother-in-law. During their tearful reunion, Mariamma discovers that she is pregnant.
Soon after Mariamma gives birth to her daughter, Jojo falls while playing and lands face-first in an irrigation ditch. Though the entire household tries to revive him, Jojo dies, having drowned on land. Over the following grief-filled days, Mariamma begins to resent her husband, and finally confronts him about what she calls "the Condition." In a moment of profound honesty, Mariamma's husband produces a family tree that documents how at least one person in each generation dies from drowning; he also reveals that he cannot read and was cheated out of his inheritance because he could not understand the documents he signed. Assuming a new role as the family matriarch, Mariamma records her name and Jojo's in the family tree and vows to discover a way to end the curse.
Analysis
Part One uses detailed descriptions of Kerala's history to ground the reader in the setting and introduce the themes of inheritance, legacy, and faith. The text describes legends of how Saint Thomas, one of the original Twelve Apostles who followed Jesus Christ, converted the people of Kerala and consequently established one of the earliest Christian communities. The descendants of the Saint Thomas Christians, like Mariamma, take pride in the legacy passed down by Saint Thomas and find identity, hope, and meaning in their faith. Mariamma is more moved by the church that serves as the venue for her wedding than by the marriage itself, and she consistently finds hope in her religion. Conversely, the text also describes the tumultuous history of the spice trade and colonization in Kerala, a violent legacy that shapes the characters' cultural context. The family's history of murder, enslavement, and apostasy is presented as a cause of The Condition, just as the inequalities and caste tensions of Kerala are a consequence of centuries of exploitation. Mariamma's husband views the legacy of his country and his family as interlinked and tries to remedy both by giving away shares of his land to disaffected family members and employees of lower castes, though he is not affectionate or emotional when performing these acts of charity.
Water is the most significant symbol used throughout the text, and Part One uses evocative, setting-specific natural imagery to establish its symbolic weight. Like in Christian baptism, water simultaneously symbolizes death, rebirth, and interconnectedness. In Mariamma's town in Kerala, water is viewed as an essential mode of transport, promising a connection with the world beyond. Because of this positive, freeing association, Mariamma loves to swim, travel by boat, and rush out into the monsoon rains, feeling renewed after bathing or swimming. Her husband, by contrast, was raised to be terrified of water, and experiences pain and fear, even when bathing. His estate, Parambil, is so isolated from water routes that he is reclusive and limited. His fear of water is essentially a fear of death; contrasting his view of water with Mariamma's demonstrates how fearing death reduces the beauty of life. As Mariamma, observes, "all water is connected, and her world is limitless." Big Appachen, by contrast, "stands at the limits of his," unable to enter water and embrace uncertainty.
Healing is a prominent theme in The Covenant of Water and takes on many different forms. This theme is introduced when Mariamma first meets the elephant, Damodaran, and learns how Big Appachen saved the creature's life. Big Appachen found Damo with "one eye gone, bleeding, with a broken tusk sticking out between his ribs." Big Appachen healed Damo's physical body by removing the tusk and patching Damo's wounds, but Big Appachen's most impactful intervention was sitting beside Damo and speaking to him. This story highlights how personal connection facilitates healing, and that physical and emotional wounds are interdependent. Later, when Damo visits Mariamma to comfort her as she adjusts to her new home, the narrative demonstrates that those who receive true healing can extend healing to others.
The Covenant of Water questions traditional structures and contrasts them with evolving family dynamics. Family is a theme that the novel examines, questions, and critiques. At the beginning of the text, Mariamma's agency is diminished by the arbitrary rules structuring her family. Mariamma's mother is subject to her brother-in-law's cruelty and neglect after her husband's death, since in her culture, a woman lives in their husband's house for her entire life. Despite her father's wishes and own desires, Mariamma marries Big Appachen, and at first, feels lonely and insecure about her family role. However, Mariamma redefines her understanding of "family." Though she is married to Big Appachen, their early relationship is closer to that of a parent and child. Similarly, Mariamma assumes the role of mother for Jojo despite being only a few years older than him. She also feels a strong connection with Jojo's deceased mother and counts the woman's spirit as a family member with a voice in family matters. Mariamma "senses spirits everywhere" in the house, and invites them into her family.
Revealing secrets is the primary vehicle for healing family problems and reevaluating relationships, and secrets are a prominent theme throughout the text. It is only when Mariamma discloses her concerns about her mother's well-being to her husband that he takes action, subverting tradition and welcoming his mother-in-law into his home. In this way, Mariamma sharing her secret fears changes and heals her family, a connection that intensifies after her husband confides in her about the Condition.
The theme of superstition and faith is introduced in Part One. Religious faith, particularly trust in the will of God, ironically provides characters with both agency and a sense of control over their fates. Mariamma considers her life subject to the will of God and prays primarily for acceptance and understanding. She experiences intense emotions over family tragedies, such as Jojo's death, but ultimately regards these events as unavoidable. Though Mariamma does not use prayer or religion to influence others, she does turn to household "spells" and superstitions to exercise control over her fate. For example, when Mariamma wants to convince her husband to take her to church, she follows Thankamma's advice and makes a wish as she prepares food, which she then feeds to Big Appachen. These superstitions are validated, as Mariamma's "spell" is successful, the text suggests that the "spell" simply gave Mariamma the confidence she needed to advocate for herself. Still, the text maintains an ambiguous, mystical tone, never fully judging whether or not acts of faith or superstition are literal and supernatural, or coincidental.
To further enhance the theme of superstition and faith, the text integrates biblical quotations and allusions throughout, underscoring Mariamma's Christian worldview. For example, Mariamma compares Damo's ancient scent and appearance to "something out of the Old Testament" and mentally quotes emotionally significant biblical passages, such as reciting to herself "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer," to summon the courage to face her wedding day. By contrast, Mariamma evokes clinical language when referring to Big Appachen's family curse, naming it "the Condition." She debates whether or not the pattern is a curse or a disease, demystifying the family history and ascribing it physiological roots. This distinction between the supernatural and the physical begins the text's examination of medicine as a sacred vocation that is inextricable from belief. Since Big Ammachi considers matters of faith beyond her control, her insistence that the Condition is a medical disorder affirms her belief that she can discover a way to fix it.
