Swapna Saraswata is a collection of short histories by Indian writer
Gopalakrishna Pai
Gopalakrishna Pai is an Indian author who writes fiction and non-fiction books in the Kannada language.
Pai has received the Karnataka Sahitya Academic award, Centre's Kendra Sahitya Academi Award.
Pai is the author of the book ''Swapna Saraswa ...
.
Publication
It was first published in the year 2009 under Bhagyalakshmi Publications, Bangalore. It consists of 474 pages. The cover page was designed by Chandranatha Acharya.
Contents
The book narrates the
Gaud Saraswat Brahmin
Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) (also Goud or Gawd) are a Hindu Brahmin community of the north. The Konkani speaking Gaud Saraswat of Goa and southern India claim to be descendents of these Gaud Saraswat Brahmins of the north that migrated to ...
(GSB) community's diaspora along the west coast of India between the early 16th Century and late 18th Century. The author put in years of research, delving into written histories and oral narrations, covering a huge time span and the social dynamics within the community in the perspective of historical events.
"Swapna Saraswata" is the story of the fall of GSB community who lived in Goa four hundred years ago. It is a tragic story of the Gowda Saraswat Brahmin community leaving their land in Goa and migrating to an unknown land due to the oppression by the Portuguese. The arrival of the Portuguese to India, the conquest of Goa by the colonists and the conversion of temples, the destruction of temples, etc., have profoundly affected the beliefs and emotions of the local Gowda Saraswat Brahmin families. In such a situation, Vittu Pai, the grandson of Narasappayya, a resident of the Verane village in Goa, vacates the village with 5-6 families in the night in order to preserve culture, faith, religion, and life. They were emotionally attached to that land and culture and it was painful for them to vacate the village. To escape from the hands of Portuguese many families travelled till Kochi, and few families settling in the places of Coastal Karnataka. Likewise, the family of Vittu Pai settles in the southern village called Bellambeedu in Kumbale. They start their new business there and settled. The novel is meant to convey a kind of message to anyone facing a storm of change by quoting the example of the life of the Gowda Saraswat Brahmin community who have seen many difficulties of survival in history.
Author mentioned that he has worked for nearly 20 years and sourced 4,000 books, manuscripts and documents for this work. He has traveled from
Goa
Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
to
Kochi
Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...
to meet people and studied their lifestyle. He has worked for nearly five years on the draft and revised it six times.
Awards and recognitions
This book won the
Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award
Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award is an annual literary award given to literary works in Kannada by the Karnataka Sahitya Academy. Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award is given to individual books published in various genres like poetry, novel, short ...
in the year 2009 and the H. Shantaram Literary Award
This book won 2011's Kendra
Sahitya Akademi Award
The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
for the author under the category Kannada.
Translations
The book has been translated into English, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. The English translation, ''Swapna Saraswatha'', was published by Manipal Universal Press in the year 2017 under its series - ''Indian Literature in Translation''. Translated into English by Smt. Sumathi Shenoy, Shri. M R Rakshith, Smt. Savita Sastri, It has taken the saga of this community to larger English audience.
References
{{reflist
2011 Indian novels
Novels in Kannada
Sahitya Akademi Award-winning works
Kannada literature