By C.V. Raman Pillai. Translated from the original Malayalam by G.S. Iyer

The moral compass of the novel, expressed in the word ‘qualities’, is the key to differentiating Parukutty’s prince-like lover, presumed dead, and Padmanabhan Thampi, who is wooing her. This takes us beyond the legalistic question of who the rightful successor to the throne should be. Had Thampi been that person, he would still be deemed unworthy in the moral scheme that the novel upholds. In this sense, Marthandavarma is a profoundly moral novel.


Reviewed by: Himansu S Mohapatra
By Basudev Sunani. Translated from the original Odia by Raj Kumar

Burnt is the story of Makaru’s journey, both in life and on the train, the latter holding a tight grip on the narrative as the protagonist—if a victim may be so called—recollects the anguish of both witnessing and suffering atrocities perpetrated on the untouchable class of Lathore. The narrative begins with a realist description of the train compartment in which Makaru (who appears to be the alter ego of the novelist) is travelling. He looks upon his fellow passengers, many of whom are from the more privileged class of society but with hardly any civic sense, smoking like a chimney, throwing peanut shells and even allowing little girls to urinate on the floor.


Reviewed by: Sumanyu Satpathy
By Gourahari Das. Translated from the original Odia by Manoranjan Mishra

How the mind plays tricks in the most complex of situations is illustrated in this novel, which the translator has brought out effectively. Debadatta, who detested everything about the place he has been posted to, suddenly realizes he has formed an attachment to the same place he thought vile.


Reviewed by: Sabita Radhakrishna
By Madhaviah Translated from the original Tamil by Meenakshi Tyagarajan Katha

The novel opens in a small village in Tirunelveli district in south Tamil Nadu. Our protagonist Narayanan is a shy and sensitive young boy and his honest testimony in the court of law leads to his father Sitapathi Iyer’s imprisonment. Despite his father’s misdeeds and notoriety pushing his family into penury, his virtuous mother’s upbringing and erudite teacher Rajagopala Iyer’s guidance infuse right values in him.


Reviewed by: Divya Shankar

Renowned Hindi author Mridula Garg emphasized that writing must create disturbance and discomfort. She challenged the assumption that women’s rebellion must necessarily be directed against the home, calling this a problematic reduction. On translation, she cautioned against imposing personal interpretations that distort the original text, while asserting that she writes not ‘as a woman writer’ but simply as ‘Mridula Garg’.


Editorial
Edited by Susmita Basu Majumdar

. Bordeaux urges caution in numismatic studies, emphasizing the need for chemical analysis in addition to the usual focus on visual representations, scripts and the external forms of coins so as to arrive at surer conclusions. Kazim Abdullaev’s discussion, highlighting the problems when the provenance of coins is unknown, is in a sense complementary; he also touches on the untidy, and occasionally murky world of markets for antiquities. François Thierry provides a glimpse of premodern ‘numismatists’—Chinese scholars who described,


Reviewed by: Kumkum Roy