Book review: Tiger Hills

Sarita Mandanna's Tiger Hills depicts three generations of a Kodava family. Her narrative is laced with Kodava spices, rituals, anecdotes, and festivals. Coorg comes across vividly, with nature fresh and sparkling. The vast amount of facts laid out on Kodava culture in the book is well researched. Her characters are true to life in their passions and folly. Both minor and major characters are well rounded personalities with their zest for life, love for their land and compassion for their fellow beings. The Kodava clans are kingly and noble in their principles, sentiments and way of life.

Mandanna has been successful in creating a wonderful world full of intricate social drama, complex cultural tradition, and profound emotions woven in a spiritual relationship between the people and the land. The story spans over fifty years, from 1878 through the coming of World War II. The influence of the Europeans over the Kodava people and their land is well documented in the novel. "Tiger Hills" centers on universal theme of relationship between man and nature, the unpredictable nature of life and the undying devotion between man and woman which transcends this life. Mandanna's evocative language brings all events to life.

Devi is the only girl born to her family of male children for over sixty years. She is very much pampered. Headstrong Devi and orphaned, sensitive Devanna grow up together. They are inseparable as children. Devi knew her mind when she was just 11. When she meets 21 year old macho Machu, the tiger killer, the hero of Coorg at his tiger marriage, she knows he is her future husband but destiny has a different plan for her.
Devanna turns out to be very clever in math and botanical study. He is taken under the wing of a missionary who loves Devanna like a son and wants him to have a brilliant future. Though happy with his profession, Devanna has set his heart on Devi. He doesn't realize that he is just a childhood friend and Machu the Tiger killer, the hero of Coorg, possesses her heart.

One fateful day in a fateful moment Devanna loses his sanity, and destroys Devi and his life forever. In the typical manner of a family honour resting on its women; Devi marries Devanna to protect it. Machu remains her husband in her eyes, in her heart even when he marries and begets a child elsewhere. It is not surprising that Machu's child becomes her child, to be adopted and brought up as her own with her own son Nanju.
Devi follows the dictate of her heart to fight for her happiness. She had declared to Machu that loving him was like being given the gift of flight, to have all of the sky at her disposal, to soar where she will. She is true to Machu in her heart, even though a wedded wife to Devanna. Devi and Devanna live as man and wife under a roof but are apart as if an ocean separates them. When Machu dies a hero's death, it is as if a part of Devi has died too. Yet Machu lives on in the soil of Tiger Hills, in the heart of Devi, in the image of Appu and in the tiger claw brooch gifted by him which brings her solace.

All said and done, Devanna is Devi's pillar of strength. He is her steadfast friend. The vein of love for Devi runs deep in Devanna. When he had come to know that Devi loved Machu, he tried unsuccessfully to end his life, so that Devi and Machu could be together but he survived as he imagines that he was spared, to look after Devi. Without her having to say anything he takes care of her smallest needs. His love is revealed through his garden in Tiger Hills Estate. The garden was in the shape of a woman's head and filled with all the flower plants and fruit trees loved by Devi.

Devi realizes of Devanna, her husband and her friend that he was the one she unfailingly depended upon, to remove the thorns from her life, to set the world right again. There was a deeper dimension to such love. Love is what endures, through the years. Devanna's undying love and devotion of 30 years gives Devi her happiness back. It is proved that love conquers all obstacles.