Tracing the Landscape of Caste in Perumal Murugan's Pyre

Landscapes are central to storytelling as much of the lingering memories of a text concern not only characters, plots and conversations but also the sense of the place that readers obtain from the understanding of landscape. Writers use landscape to establish a solid background for the story, create a desirable mood, and reflect characters and themes. In other words, landscapes are a harmonious appendage to the scheme of the narration. Identity, too, is tied to the landscape as it is a spatial phenomenon that people identify with. Landscape serves both literal and metaphorical purposes. Hannah Kent, in “Most Powerful Landscapes in Fiction”, remarks that the sense of the place is what cements a novel’s memorability, “The skill in writing landscape is to capture it in concise, startling references, well placed within the narrative, that accumulate to create a pervading presence” (par.4). This article traces the landscape of the novel Pyre and through it, the landscape of caste. Pyre tells the tale of a naïve couple that comes across the crushing weight of the caste system and its violent manifestations after their inter-caste marriage.