This episodic narrative meanders charm- ingly while the authors digress to regale us with myths and legends, with no particular historical perspective. The spatial emphasis renders chronology irrelevant. But, interestingly, like any epic narrative, this formidably researched riparian saga uses a common literary trope of that genre: it starts in medias res, in the middle of the story, for though the narrative begins at the source of the river in Kodagu, the authors’ quest for ‘nadi mulam’ begins at the point it merges with the sea in Tamil Nadu. Temporally, one even senses a postmodern (yet essentially Puranic) notion of non-linear time.
June 2014, volume 38, No 6