Kanthapura by Raja Rao # Questions and Answers (11 to 20) Short Answer-type Qs# Kanthapura

 

               Questions & Answers. Chapter 1: Kanthapura

Q11. How is the ‘puja’ to Goddess Kenchamma performed?

Ans. the people of Kanthapura offer clothes and gold to the deity to please her. They also offer a little portion of their first produce like rice and fruit. They offer saris and bodice साडी पर पहनने वाला वस्त्र clothes on every birth and marriage. They keep vigil at night thinking of her and sleep prostrating themselves before her. Throughout the harvest night, they dance, sing and clap their hands around the fire.

Q12. Describe the Brahmins’ quarter.

Ans. In the Brahmin quarter, there are twenty-four houses in all. Postmaster Suryanarayan has a double-storeyed house. Patwari Nanjundia has a verandah with two rooms built on to the old house. He has also put glass panes on the windows.

The widow, Rangamma has also a big house. Waterfall Venkamma feels jealous of her and keeps on speaking against her day and night.

Q13. Describe Waterfall Vekamma.

Ans. Waterfall Venkamma is Rangamma’s sister-in-law. She thinks her own house smaller than that of Rangamma’s. She is unable to bear the presence of Rangamma’s father and mother in the house. During the vacations, Rangamma’s younger brothers and the children of her elder brother from Bombay also come to spend the summer. This is also unbearable for her. Venkamma is full of poison against Rangamma. She wants to see her dead.

Q14. Describe Dore.

Ans. Dore lost his father and mother when he was still young. His two sisters were now married. So he is alone in the house. He has fifteen acres of wet and twenty acres of dry land.

He has acquired city ways. He reads city books, wears boots, suit and calls himself a Gandhian man. But after returning from Poona, he has given up wearing boots, a suit, and a hat and now he wears dhoti and khadi. The narrator also adds here that it is said that he has given up smoking also.

Q15. Describe Moorthy.

Ans. According to Achakka, the narrator, Moorthy has lived his life like a cow, quiet, generous, serene (peaceful), deferential (respectful), and Brahmanic. She expresses her deep likeness for Murthy by adding that she would have married her grand-daughter to him if she had one.  Coffee planter Ramayya had one day came to offer his own daughter’s hand to Moorthy, but their horoscopes did not agree.

Q16. Describe the Pariahs Quarter.

Ans. The narrator did never visit the Pariah quarter, but she has seen from Beadle Timmayya’s hut. She makes a guess that all the huts could be fifteen to twenty.  We come to know Sidda’s house having a verandah, a large roof, perhaps with a big granary inside. Sidda also owned a piece of land. His wife has gone mad recently. He spent much money on her ailment.

Q17. Write something about Bhatta.

Ans. Bhatta added a few acres to his own land. He is a clever fellow and he was sure to become the zamindar of the whole village. The narrator also adds in a satirical way that he walks about the streets with a loincloth about him.

 

Q18. Describe something about Potters’ street.

Ans. The Potters’ street had only five houses. Linggayya, Ramayya, Subbayya, and Chandrayya owned big houses. But old Kamalamma had a little broken house. Previously the Potter’s business of selling their pots was very profitable. But now, pots made up of other materials have come in the market. So many of them have left making pots. But Chandrayya still makes them on festival occasions. Other Potters have started doing work on their lands. Sometimes they go to the neighbouring villages to make bricks.

Q19. Describe the Sudras.

Ans. The narrator is not sure of other Sudras’ economic conditions. She says that they can be called neither poor nor rich. They are badly dressed and usually, they paid their taxes after several notices. The narrator says Range Gowda is their Godfather. He was always ready to save them. The Brahmins and the Pariahs do not like to get mixed up with them.

Q20. Describe Range Gowda.

Ans. Patel Range Gowda has a nine- beamed house near the temple square. He is fat and a well-built fellow in the village. He has much gold in his possession. He has three daughters, who live with him. His sons work with him on their combined land. Patel is called the Tiger of the village. His words are law in their village. He is an honest man and has proved very helpful to many a poor peasant. He is a real terror to the authorities.