कोसला (1963)

Kosala (English: Cocoon), sometimes spelled Kosla, is a Marathi novel by Indian writer Bhalchandra Nemade, published in 1963. Regarded as Nemade's Masterpiece, and accepted as a modern classic of Marathi literature, the novel uses the autobiographical form to narrate the journey of a young man, Pandurang Sangvikar, and his friends through his college years.

Kosala is considered to be the first existentialist novel in Marathi literature. Since its publication, its open-ended nature and potential for varied interpretations have been viewed as ground-breaking. The novel has become a modern classic of post-1960 Marathi fiction, and has been translated into eight South India languages and into English.

Publication

Kosala, Bhalchandra Nemade's debut novel, was conceived and written during his Mumbai phase.

At 21, Nemade had failed in his journalistic aspirations, and returned to his native village. He was rebuffed there by his father, who was disappointed that his son risked squandering an expensive education to end up being a cowherd.

In 1963, Nemade was 25 and living in his village. Likening himself to the Hindu king Trishanku, accepted neither by the city nor his village family, a despairing Nemade shut himself away and wrote his novel over a three-week period. Kosala was published in September that same year by J. J. Deshmukh, who had learned of Nemade's talent and encouraged him to write during his sojourn in Mumbai.

The novel proved innovative, and quickly became a success. As a Bildungsroman, tracing the author's own story from childhood until his return to his village, it broke with Marathi narrative traditions. Several editions appeared in the years following the novel's initial publication. The twenty-second edition of Kosala was published in 2013.

Contents

Kosala uses the first-person narrative technique to recount the first twenty-five years in the life of Pandurang Sangavikar, a young man of rural upbringing who moves to Pune for his higher education. He feels isolated in his new social setting, and this persistent feeling of estrangement leads him to return home. There, he encounters further disillusionment, with the death of his sister, his father's domination, and his own financial dependence. The novel aims to portray the spectrum of society from the viewpoint of Pandurang as a young boy.

Characters

Main characters:

Pandurang Sangavikar – The protagonist, and only son of a rich village farmer. His fellow hostel students call him by his nickname, Pandu.

Pandurang's father – The head of a joint family, and a rich and respected man in his village.

Mani – Pandurang's younger sister.

Giridhar – Pandurang's village friend.

Suresh Bapat – Pandurang's college friend in Pune.

Plot

The story unfolds during the 1950s in Khandesh (a region in Central India), and in Pune. Using the autobiographical form, Kosala narrates the life-story of Pandurang Sangvikar, a young man of 25, in six sections.

Pandurang is the son of a well-to-do farmer from Sangvi, a village in Khandesh. His family includes his parents, his grandmother, and his four sisters. Pandurang's relationship with his father is a difficult one, and they have been estranged since Pandurang was a boy. His father, who typifies the patriarchal family head, beats his son in childhood for wandering around in the company of his friends. He does not allow the young boy to learn to play the flute, or to perform in his school's plays. Pandurang considers his father excessively money-minded, materialistic, selfish, unscrupulous, and dictatorial. In sharp contrast to his relationship with his father, Pandurang loves his mother and his sisters dearly.

After passing his local school's matriculation examination, Pandurang moves to Pune to attend college. While studying, Pandurang lives in a hostel. He decides to make the most of college life, and becomes the secretary of the college debating society, prefect of the hostel, and directs a play at the college Annual Day function. Out of kindness, he gives responsibility for the management of the hostel mess to one of his poor friends. But, although Pandurang tries to help everyone around him, he ultimately discovers that his friends are using him. Finally, when he fails his exams badly and his financial position deteriorates, his father becomes angered by Pandurang's lifestyle. Pandurang learns a lesson: that good deeds do not count for much in life.

In his second year of college, Pandurang is an entirely new man, carefree and adventurous. Even his father now hesitates to ask him to mend his ways. He is shaken by the untimely death of his younger sister, Mani, but otherwise has no care for anything. In consequence, he fails his exam. After unsuccessful attempts to find work in the city, ultimately Pandurang returns to his village, his mind "existentially vacant". He is now one of many unemployed youngsters of the village. As Pandurang tries to understand their views on life, their sorrows and their joys, the true meaning of life begins to dawn.

Theme and techniques

The main theme of Kosala is alienation. The novel is influenced by existential philosophy, exploring existentialist ideas such as an obsession with birth and death, dread, alienation, and absurdity. Like other existential novels, Kosala uses the first person point of view to recount an individual's experiences, and in this exploration raises many questions regarding the meaning of life and the value of existence. It is considered the first existential novel in Marathi literature.

The novel's protagonist, Pandurang, has been described as a "quintessential anti-hero", refusing all forms of colonial modernity: literacy, Western education, Urbanization, industrialisation, capitalism, nationalism, and the values of "progress" they embody.