Sweet Water & Other Country Stories

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About the Book Sweet Water & Other Country Stories contains eighteen of the best short stories of Vyankatesh Madgulkar, noted Marathi writer. The stories in this collection record extensive history and individual feelings of the characters vividly without ostentation, sentimentality or elaboration.

Madgulkar's keen observation of country people and country phenomena, his admirable restraint in interpretation, directness of style and aptly concise, minimally country' language reveal why he was one among the four makers of the Marathi short story.

About the Author Vyankatesh Madgulkar dominated the second half of the twentieth century in Marathi Literature. A pillar of the short story, pioneer in country writing and depiction of the downtrodden rural people, he was equally versatile in other forms like the novel and film script. But his strength was the short story, as this volume amply demonstrates.

Introduction One of the most interesting developments in Marathi literature has been its country writing, to the best of my knowledge the only Indian language to have any. As a growing movement that breaks the "literariness' of urban writing, and as a means of depicting entrenched and regrettable social reality, it is very important. The single most important modern writer in this development, and an author with intimate knowledge of the countryside and country folk as well as the uncanny ability to represent them authentically, was Vyankatesh Madgulkar. It is in his writing that, besides, one finds the main tap root of what has come to be known as Dalit Literature. In this volume are represented English translations of some of his accomplished and telling country stories, both as his due and as a worthwhile introduction to the past six decades of Marathi literature.

In several ways Marathi literature always attempted to break the power structures of feudal and custom-ridden society. It has always seen as its main task to provide hope of comfort and solace to the people, particularly to the repressed 'lowly' rural people. From the saint-poetry that originated seven hundred years ago to the present time, with occasional periods of lassitude or relapse, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, it has been written in the 'illustrious vernacular. It defied the Sanskritic tradition and hegemony in language and resiliently absorbed considerable linguistic, cultural and political changes. It sought to remember the under-privileged, claimed the right to supply their need and to Professor Padmakar Dadegaonkar, who taught until 2010 at the Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies at the University of Hyderabad, gave invaluable help in the making of this introduction.

**Contents and Sample Pages**