96
Narmada and the Ganga from the saptsindhu – group of seven major rivers – are considered to be the most ancient and the holiest r ivers of India respectively. Number of stories, myths and beliefs are woven around them . All major novels on both these rivers give knowledge about ways of life on and aro und the banks of the rivers …show more content…
Thus the river brings a pilgrim near to the nature with all his devotion and attention.
Shusaku Endo in his novel Deep River depicts four major characters from
Japan – each battling their own inner turmoil and u nsaid pain – to India on the Ganga ghat as a part of their pilgrimage tour of famous Buddh ist monuments. Each one of them has taken up this tour for personal reasons li ke Isobe who is looking for the reincarnation of his dead wife who had made him promi se on her death-bed that he would go out in search of her. One research paper b y an American scientist and few correspondences with him gave Isobe a clue that a g irl called Rajini, near Varanasi in northern India is claiming to be Japanese in her pr evious life. This brings Isobe on the
98
banks of the Ganga. Another character, Kiguchi, a World War II veteran, now a businessman, is still tormented by the time he had spent fighting for life in the
Burmese jungles. He too wishes to pay homage to his fellow soldiers as well as the
Indian and British troops he fought against. Mitsuk o, a middle-aged lady, is looking for her friend Otsu who wanted to be a priest, and whom in her youthful arrogance she had tried to seduce and distract from the spiri tual path. She really does not