The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker

by Indira Goswami

Translated by the author from original Assamese novel, Une Khowa Howda. based on a nostalgic memory of early experiences. a reprint of a classic. includes notes and glossary.

Genres: India, Indian Literature, Fiction, Novels

362 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Indira Goswami was an Indian author known by her pen name Mamoni Raisom Goswami and popularly as Mamoni Baideo

She was the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983), the Jnanpith Award (2001) and Principal Prince Claus Laureate (2008). A celebrated writer of contemporary Indian literature, many of her works have been translated into English from her native Assamese which include The Moth Eaten Howdah of the Tusker, Pages Stained With Blood and The Man from Chinnamasta.

Reviews

[Rural Soul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Moth-Eaten Howda of the Tusker is another piece of literature dealing with rural feudalism and conservative society problems. The incidents take place in one of the seven sister states of India which have been source of my curiosity because of very different cultural, social and ethnic values from other parts of India.
One of my favourite and famous Bollywood actor (villain to be precised) Danny Denzongpa hails from Sikkim state. Another emerging actress from Meghalaya named Andrea Tariang did a great job in courtroom-drama Pink (2016). Last notable person from seven sister state is female boxer Mary Kom from Manipur.

The novel certainly has to do with something with author's own personal experiences as young widow. Story revolves around a young feudal/spiritual leader who have two young widows in his house and days and nights in rural parts of Assamese state watching curse of opium addiction. Rise of communist regime and personal traumas wrap up the novel in weird way that a person who doesn't have brief knowledge about alien culture of Assam cant enjoy it.
Mainly the novel was written in Assamese language that's why foreign readers will struggle to understand the social and religious rituals along with social taboos indicated in the novel.

[Manish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faced with the rising tide of communism and the impending Land Reform Act of the early 1950's., a heir of a Satta (a Vaishnavite ashram) in Assam is torn between tradition and the impending storm. Interspersed in the narration are the lives of widows, peasants and torch bearers of a dying traditional way of living. Set against the cultural history of Assam, this work would probably have been more enjoyable had I been more familiar with Assam.

[Dhrupad Rishav · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gorgeous, mellifluous, sprawling, and angry novel— set in the 1940s in rural Assam, it chronicles the deprivations of Hindu widows through the narratives of three women:
- Durga, the elderly, orthodox, cranky, quarrelsome, and long-suffering aunt-figure who only wants some money to go on a pilgrimage and scatter her husband's ashes (though, because she is a woman and a widow, she is cheated out of what little money she had),
- Xoru Gossani, the beautiful, lambent, mercurial, warm-blooded woman filled with a doomed desire for her bailiff (doomed as widow-remarriage is still forbidden in Hindi society),
- and Giribala, the nubile and rebellious child-bride, now a widowed adolescent, who is in love with a Christian missionary (untouchable by the dictates of the Hindu caste system), and who hungers for pleasure, and for meat and spice, foods forbidden to widows.

The tragic fates of these three women, each formidable in their own right, converge with that of Indranath, the libertarian Goswami landowner (Durga and Xoru Gossani's nephew and Giribala's sister), whose progressive ideals clash with his feudal class interests in the wake of the communist uprising that fumes just outside his privileged bubble.

A stunning feminist, intersectional, and political portrait of orthodox Hindu society, still riddled with religious rot even after India's independence, this novel is also available in English as "The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker" (translated by the author herself).

[Peekabook With Upasana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful story and beautiful writing. However I wish the stories of each characters were told in much details. I wished to read more about Elimon’s life and Indranath’s life.

[Abhijit Seal]

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