A Celebration of ‘Nothing is Insignificant’

Kuvempu, the visionary writer from Karnataka, published his acclaimed novel Malegalalli Madhumagalu in 1967. Cast in a unique realist format, the novel proclaimed Kuvempu’s commitment to inclusivity and equality, and empathetically delineated the lives and aspirations of a people located around the forests of Malnad at the turn of the 20th century. The English translation of this complex, multicentred novel, Bride in the Hills (2024) is ably accomplished by Vanamala Viswanantha. In his novel, Kuvempu celebrates the ordinariness of life and culture; the epigraph to the novel dedicated to the reader declares that nothing is insignificant, and all waters are sacred. Vanamala Viswanatha’s translation honours this ideology and captures the rich poetic undertones of Kuvempu’s narration.