Kanthapura by Raja Rao: Bhatta’s Character
This chapter introduces us to ‘Bhatta’, who plays a
negative role to create hurdles in Moorthy’s way. The narrator tells us that
his last visit to the city has changed his thinking. Before his last visit to
the city, he used to sit and sing with the people of Kanthapura.
But all of a sudden, he got involved in business
pursuits. He has also started giving money on loans to people. He was always
ready to do sale and purchase deeds. He would mortgage people’s land to give
them loans at a very high rate of interest. During elections, he is the person
who lends money to people inside or outside Kanthapura. He has financed
Seenappa’s and Chandra Shekhara’s elections.
He is always ready to help the people of Kanthapura to
solve their money-related problems. But, he does not do it in charity. He
exploits people’s problems and charges high rates of interest if his clients
are in serious problems.
As a human being, Bhatta is a very cunning, greedy and
cruel person. In his early youth, he did work as a priest. He is the first
Brahmin of the village, but quite opposite to the noble Brahmins like Moorthy
and Ramakrishannayya. He is an agent to the British Govt. he is an expert in
reading the Hindu calendar. So, people often approach him for his guidance
about the auspicious days for marriages and knowing about the dates of
festivals.
The narrator also gives examples to prove Bhatta’s
greed for money and how he exploits people in their difficult times. He lent
ten rupees to Rampur Mada
for a nuptial /ˈnʌp.ʃəl/ (wedding)
ceremony at six percent interest payable in two months. Lingayya has to pay
his revenue to avoid an arrest warrant. He gets twenty-one rupees and eight
‘annas’ for six months at ten percent interest.
Kanthamma needs one hundred and twenty rupees for her
son’s marriage. She has to mortgage her two and a half acres of wetland to get
this loan at seven percent interest.
In the meantime, Bhatta’s wife Savithramma dies of an
accident. Offers came to him for his second marriage from here and there. But
he marries the daughter of a rich landlord of Alur. She is only twelve and a
half years old. She brings a rich dowry for him. After his second marriage,
Bhatta became richer and richer. Now he
is able to lend more money to the people
of Kanthapura and those of the adjoining areas.
Thus Bhatta became the owner of thirty-seven acres of
wetland and ninety acres of dry land in all the villages: Kanthapura, santur,
Puttur, and Honnali
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