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Coolies
An originally Sanskrit word for a great ruler or king. Over time, it became a relatively common title denoting honor.
Maharaja Quotes in Kanthapura
The Kanthapura quotes below are all either spoken by Maharaja or refer to Maharaja. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Section 5
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And they all rose up like one rock and fell on the ground saying, “You are a dispenser of good, O Maharaja, we are the lickers of your feet…”
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[Pariah Siddayya] tells you about the dasara havu that is so clever that he got into the Sahib’s drawer and lay there curled up, and how, the other day, when the sahib goes to the bathroom, a lamp in his hand, and opens the drawer to take out some soap, what does he see but our Maharaja, nice and clean and shining with his eyes glittering in the lamplight, and the Sahib, he closes the drawer as calmly as a prince; but by the time he is back with his pistol, our Maharaja has given him the slip. And the Sahib opens towel after towel to greet the Maharaja, but the Maharaja has gone on his nuptial ceremony and he will never be found.
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Section 18
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“Satyanarayan Maharaj ki jai!”
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Get the entire Kanthapura LitChart as a printable PDF.
Maharaja Term Timeline in Kanthapura
The timeline below shows where the term Maharaja appears in Kanthapura. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Section 1
Sometimes, the poet Sastri delivers Harikathas—he has been honored by the Maharaja of Mysore and, according to rumors, even has a permanent role lined up in the...
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Section 5
...the maistri repeated in their native language. The coolies begin worshipping the Sahib as a Maharaja, and the maistri spits in one worker’s face when she asks for pay. The maistri...
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...harmless unless attacked, and sits to tell the story of a snake he calls the Maharaja, which hid in the Sahib’s drawer and slithered away when the Sahib fetched his pistol.
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