Tenants of the Earth: A Multidimensional Study of Nature, Culture, and Resistance in Narayan’s Kocharethi: The Araya Woman

Abstract

Aims: This paper undertakes an ecocritical analysis of Kocharethi: The Araya Woman, examining the novel through interdisciplinary lenses such as theological ecology, postcolonial environmentalism, Marxist ecocriticism, and animal studies. It investigates the erosion of indigenous ecological knowledge and spiritual cosmologies, critiques the forces of capitalist and colonial exploitation, and interrogates the anthropocentric paradigms that dominate the Anthropocene discourse.

Methodology and Approaches: The research adopts a qualitative, interpretive literary methodology, guided by an ecocritical theoretical framework. Primary attention is paid to close textual analysis of Kocharethi: The Araya Woman in English translation.

Outcome: The study reveals Kocharethi as a significant ecocritical text that intertwines indigenous ecological sensibilities with a pointed critique of capitalist and colonial modes of environmental exploitation. Through its emphasis on reciprocity, spiritual ecology, and ancestral wisdom, the novel articulates a vision of sustainable living grounded in indigenous epistemologies.

Conclusions and suggestions: Kocharethi: The Araya Woman presents a nuanced ecological vision, revealing how external disruptions fracture indigenous systems grounded in reciprocity, spiritual continuity, and ancestral stewardship. It emphasizes human responsibility as transient custodians, advocating a relational ethic vital to contemporary environmental discourse. Despite being written in 1988, published in 1998, and translated into English by Catherine Thankamma in 2011, the text remains underexplored in scholarly discourse.