# Kamala Markandaya

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**Kamala Markandaya** (23 June 1924 – 16 May 2004),[1] pseudonym of **Kamala Purnaiya**, married name **Kamala Taylor**, was a [British Indian](/source/British_Indian) [novelist](/source/Novelist) and [journalist](/source/Journalism). She has been called "one of the most important [Indian novelists writing in English](/source/Indian_English_literature)".[2]

## Life

### Early life

Markandaya was born into an upper-middle-class [Deshastha Madhva Brahmin](/source/Deshastha_Madhva_Brahmin) family.[3][2] A native of [Mysore](/source/Mysore), India, Markandaya was a graduate of [Madras University](/source/University_of_Madras), and afterwards published several short stories in Indian newspapers. After India declared its [independence](/source/Independence), Markandaya moved to [Britain](/source/UK), though she still labelled herself an Indian [expatriate](/source/Expatriate) long afterwards. Kamala was a descendant of diwan [Purnaiya](/source/Purnaiah) and was fluent in [Kannada](/source/Kannada_language) and [Marathi](/source/Marathi_language).[4][5]

### Career

She was well-known for writing about [culture](/source/Culture) clash between Indian urban and rural societies, Markandaya's [first published novel](/source/Debut_novel), *[Nectar in a Sieve](/source/Nectar_in_a_Sieve)* (1954), was a bestseller and cited as an [American Library Association Notable Book](/source/American_Library_Association_Notable_Book) in 1955. Her other novels include *Some Inner Fury* (1955), *A Silence of Desire* (1960), *[Possession](/source/Possession_(Kamala_Markandaya_novel))* (1963), *A Handful of Rice* (1966), *The Coffer Dams* (1969), *[The Nowhere Man](/source/The_Nowhere_Man_(Kamala_Markandaya_novel))* (1972), *Two Virgins* (1973), *The Golden Honeycomb* (1977), and *Pleasure City* (1982). Her last novel, *Bombay Tiger*, was published posthumously (2008) by her daughter Kim Oliver. Her First Published Novel's Title "Nectar in a Sieve" (1954) had been taken from [S.T. Coleridge](/source/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge)'s Poem "[Work without Hope](/source/Work_without_Hope)" - "Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live."[6]

### Death

Kamala Markandaya died aged 79 on 16 May 2004.

## Works

- *[Nectar in a Sieve](/source/Nectar_in_a_Sieve)*, London: Putnam, New York: John Day, 1954
- *Some Inner Fury*, London: Putnam, 1955, New York: John Day, 1956
- *A Silence of Desire*, London: Putnam, New York: John Day, 1960
- *[Possession; a novel](/source/Possession_(Kamala_Markandaya_novel))*, London: Putnam, New York: John Day, 1963
- *A Handful of Rice*, London: Hamish Hamilton, New York: John Day, 1966
- *The Coffer Dams*, London: Hamilton, New York: John Day, 1969
- *[The Nowhere Man](/source/The_Nowhere_Man_(Kamala_Markandaya_novel))*, New York: John Day, 1972, London: Allen Lane, 1973
- *Two Virgins*, New York: John Day, 1973, London: Chatto & Windus, 1974
- *The Golden Honeycomb*, London: Chatto & Windus, New York: Crowell, 1977
- *Pleasure City*, London: Chatto & Windus, 1982. Published in the United States under the title *Shalimar*, New York: Harper & Row, 1982
- *Bombay Tiger*, New Delhi: Penguin, 2008 (Posthumously published)

## Literary criticism

- Almeida, Rochelle. *Originality and Imitation: Indianness in the Novels of Kamala Markandaya*. Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2000.
- Aror, Sudhir K. *Multicultural Consciousness in the Novels of Kamala Markandaya*. Authors press, 2011.
- Jha, Rekha. *The Novels of Kamala Markandaya and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: A Study in East-West Encounter*. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1990.
- Joseph, Margaret P. *Kamala Markandaya*, Indian Writers Series, N. Delhi: Arnold-Heinemann, 1980.
- Krishna Rao, A. V. *The Indo-Anglian Novel and Changing Tradition: A Study of the Novels of Mulk Raj Anad, Kamala Markandaya, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao, 1930–64*. Mysore: 1972.
- Parameswaran, Uma. *Kamala Markandaya*. Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 2000.
- Shrivastava, Manish. "Conflicts of Sensibility in Kamala Markandaya's *A Silence of Desire*". *Synthesis: Indian Journal of English Literature and Language*. vol.1, no.1.
- Singh, Indu. "The Feminist Approach in Kamala Markandaya's Novels with Special Reference to *Nectar in a Sieve*", *Synthesis: Indian Journal of English Literature and Language*, vol. 1, no. 1.

## See also

- [Indian writing in English](/source/Indian_writing_in_English)

## References

1. ["Kamala Markandaya"](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/58634.Kamala_Markandaya) at Goodreads.

1. Alison Donnell (ed.) (2002). ["Markandaya, Kamala"](https://books.google.com/books?id=VfdpdZ9DwH0C&pg=PA192). *Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture*. Routledge. pp. 192–3. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.

1. [*World Literature Today, Volume 76, Issues 1-4*](https://books.google.com/books?id=gqgPAQAAMAAJ). University of Oklahoma Press. 2002. p. 133. Markandaya was born a Madhwa Brahmin, and, typical of some subsects of the Madhwas who live in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (some of them still remember Marathi and speak it), knows about the customs of the Tamilians.

1. [*Indian Writing Today, Volumes 3-4*](https://books.google.com/books?id=CukvAAAAIAAJ). Nirmala Sadanand Publishers. 1969. p. 35.

1. Angara Venkata Krishna Rao (1997). [*Kamala Markandaya: A Critical Study of Her Novels, 1954-1982*](https://books.google.com/books?id=qbwLAQAAMAAJ). B.R. Publishing Corporation. p. 13. ISBN 9788170189411. Born in 1924, Kamala Markandaya hails from a well-to-do orthodox Brahmin family of Dewan Purnaiya of Mysore in South India. Her maiden name was Kamala Purnaiya; and her pen-name is Kamala Markandaya.

1. Foundation, Poetry (2024-03-04). ["Work without Hope by Samuel Taylor Coleridge"](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43999/work-without-hope). *Poetry Foundation*. Retrieved 2024-03-04.

## External links

- [Kamala Markandaya biography](https://web.archive.org/web/20070928150532/http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Markandaya+Kamala)
- Francis C. Assisi, ["A Pioneer Who Influenced All Of Us..."](http://www.outlookindia.com/article/A-Pioneer-Who-Influenced-All-Of-Us/224017), *Outlook*, 25 May 2004.
- Ramaswamy, S. (13 June 2004). ["Perhaps, the most outstanding novelist"](http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun132004/sh2.asp). Deccan Herald. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20040823120012/http://deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun132004/sh2.asp) 23 August 2004 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 9 October 2020.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kamala Markandaya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Markandaya) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Markandaya?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.