Beliefs Overshadow on the Social Issues Potrayed in the Novel The Man From Chinnamasta by Indira Goswami

Abstract

Dr. Indira Goswami (Mamoni Raisom Goswami) is one of the leading writers of the India today. She has won the Jnanpith Award for the year 2000, which is the highest literary award of India today. She belongs to the family of Sattra adhikars (Head of Vaisnava monastery) of South Kamrup in Assam. Her father, Late Uma Kanta Goswami, was an economist, who worked as the Director of Public Instruction of the Government of Assam. Indira did her schooling in Guwahati and Shillong. She has written eighteen novels, and several hundreds of short stories. Her novels and short stories have been translated into many Indian and Foreign languages. She tries to write from her direct experiences of her life. She only moulds her experiences with her imagination. Her novel The Man from Chinnamasta is a story of sacrifice. In this novel she portrays the picture of ancient India and the practice of animal sacrifice. Religion has been always a major preoccupation in the novels of Indira Goswami, especially the practices of orthodox Hinduism, the author was born and brought up in the midst of these cultural practices and was aware of its violence and cruelties. The story is set in pre- independent British India, particularly around the ancient Kamakhya temple in Assam.