A River Sutra: A Dialogic and Meta-Narrative Work

Abstract

A River Sutra (The holiest river Mother Narmada), a great novel of Geeta Mehta was published in 1993 which received the greatest attention of all Mehta’s works. The story is told and set around Narmada in central India Though Geeta Mehta, as a postcolonial writer perhaps, known more for her essays than novels, is also a documentary filmmaker and journalist. She is one of the well-known contributors in Indian English Literature, which has a long tradition of women writers such as earlier novelists Kamla Markandaya, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, etc. All these activities share a focus on India, the country of birth – its history, politics and cultures. The same concerns inform her novel: A River Sutra, a modern revisitation of prevalent traditions of Indian aesthetic and philosophical thought.