The Fluttering Piety in a River Sutra

Abstract

The ambiguities of piety and impiety have been troubling human beings as they keep on wavering between the extremes of attachment and detachment. ‘A River Sutra’, recounts the actions in the lives of some common individuals inter connected through the mythological legends and folk anecdotes associated to Lord Shiva and the divine Narmada. The complexities, references and parallels intrinsic in Shiva’s folklores have been depicted through the everyday lives of the characters, who flutter between the urge of connectedness and disconnectedness to God. The paper tries to explore an answer to this intricacy of life through the collocation of Shiva’s piety with his link with the mundane life.