Sight
Rao provides a vivid description of the Kanthapura village to create a clear picture of the village to the reader. Through his description, the reader is able to create a mental image to see what the village looks like. He writes, “High on the Ghats is it, up the steep mountains that face the cool Arabian seas, up the Malabar Coast is it, up Mangalore and Puttur and many a centre of cardamom and coffee, rise and sugarcane. Roads, narrow, dusty, rut covered roads, wind through the forests of teak and jack, of sandal of Sal and plant-haunted valleys; they turn now to the left and now to the right and bring you through the Alambs and Campa and Mena and Kola passes into great granaries of trade" (1).
Groaning Carts
The sense of hearing and sight are depicted to the reader through the groaning of the carts. The narrator says that the carts labor across the roads of the village, transporting either the coffee produce or any other merchandise by or for the Red-man. The last lights seen are those of the train of carts. Voices are also heard from the cart-man. The narrator writes, “Cart after cart groans through the roads of Kanthapura, and many a night, before the eyes arc shut, the last lights we see are those of the train of carts, and the last voice we hear is that of the cart-man who sings through the hollows of the night" (1).
Subba Chetty
The narrator uses Subba Chetty’s bulls to impart the sense of hearing to the reader. There is a voice from Subba Chetty’s bulls as they get beneath the repression. Those bulls that are not fast enough start grinding and rumbling as an indication of the level of their tiredness. To bring out this imagery precisely, the narrator writes, “Sometimes when Rama Chetty or Subba Chetty have merchandise, the carts stop and there are greetings, and in every house we can hear Subba Chetty’s 350-rupee bulls ringing their bells as they get under the yoke" (1).
The Noise
The narrator is using the train of carts to illustrate the sense of hearing to the reader. He writes that once the carts are on the other side of the hill, their noise starts vanishing into the dark night. The people living in the village believe that the goddess of the hill absorbs the carts’ noises. He writes, “And once they are on the other side of the Tippur Hill the noise suddenly dies into the night and the soft hiss of the Himavathy rises into the air" (1).
