View source for Malgudi

{{Short description|Fictional Indian town in the works of R. K. Narayan}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2018}}
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File: Malgudi.jpg|right|250px|A drawing by R. K. Laxman for his brother R.K. Narayan's Magudi Days]] -->{{Infobox fictional location
| creator = [[R. K. Narayan]]
| blank_label = Country
| blank_data = [[India]]
| name = 
| first = ''[[Swami and Friends]]'' (1935)
| last = 
| type = Town
| located_in = [[Karnataka]]
}}

'''Malgudi''' ({{IPAc-en|m|ɑː|l|ɡ|ʊ|d|ɪ}}) is a [[fictional town]] located in [[Agumbe]] situated in the [[Shivamogga district]] of the Indian state of [[Karnataka]] in the novels and short stories of [[R. K. Narayan]]. It forms the setting for most of Narayan's works. Starting with his first novel, ''[[Swami and Friends]]'', all but one of his fifteen novels and most of his short stories take place here. Malgudi was a portmanteau of two [[Bengaluru]] localities - [[Malleshwaram, Bengaluru|Malleshwara]] and [[Basavana Gudi]].

Narayan has successfully portrayed Malgudi as a microcosm of India. Malgudi was created, as mentioned in ''[[Malgudi Days (short story collection)|Malgudi Days]]'', by Sir Fredrick Lawley, a fictional [[British Raj|British]] officer in the 19th century by combining and developing a few villages. The character of Sir Fredrick Lawley may have been based on [[Arthur Lawley]], the [[Governor of Madras]] in 1905.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thieme |first=John. |url=https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719059278/ |title=R.K. Narayan |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780719059261 |edition=Viva Books, New Delhi 2020 |location=Manchester and New York |pages=4 |language=en}}</ref> ''Swami and Friends'' also seems to have taken place during the [[Swadeshi movement|Swadeshi]] and boycott movement against the British. While some commentators have seen Malgudi as representing an unchanging, quintessential India, John Thieme (2007) takes the view that "far from serving as a metonym for a settled, secure India, the town is the product of a particular coming together of social, religious and above all psychic forces, which undergo transformations as they interact with one another". He argues that Malgudi is "[b]uilt on the fault-lines where classical Hindu discourse and the more 'realistic', supposedly Western form of the novel collide" and as such "it ushers new forms of fiction into being".{{ref}}

==Geography and origins==
Malgudi is located on the banks of the fictional river Sarayu, near the also-fictional Mempi forest, on the border of the states of Mysore and Madras and a few hours away from [[Madras]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Khatri|first=Chote Lal|title=R.K. Narayan: Reflections and Re-evaluation|year=2006|publisher=Sarup & Sons|location=India|isbn=9788176257138|page=3|url=https://www.amazon.com/R-K-Narayan-Reflections-Re-evaluation-ebook/dp/B008YG52FA}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Narayan|first=R.K|title=Memories of Malgudi|year=2000|publisher=Penguin India|location=Chennai|isbn=9780141002453|url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/n/r-k-narayan/memories-of-malgudi.htm}}</ref>

Malgudi was a [[portmanteau]] of two Bangalore localities—[[Malleshwaram]] and [[Basavanagudi]], the story is apocryphal. He created the town in September 1930, on [[Vijayadashami]], an auspicious day to start new efforts and thus chosen for him by his grandmother.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Parija|first=Kapileshwar|title=Short stories of R.K. Narayan: themes and conventions|publisher=Renaissance Publications|year=2001|page=60|isbn=81-86790-31-4}}</ref> As he mentioned in a later interview to his biographers Susan and N. Ram, in his mind, he first saw a railway station, and slowly the name Malgudi came to him.<ref>{{Cite book |year=2003 |title=Critical response to R. K. Narayan |first=Amar Nath |last=Prasad |publisher=Sarup & Sons |isbn=81-7625-370-7 |oclc=55606024 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vy0m8FpNXx8C&pg=PP1}}</ref>

==Localities and landmarks==

===Sarayu River===
Malgudi is located on the banks of the river Sarayu. In ''[[Swami and Friends]]'', Swami, Mani and Rajam spend most of their evenings playing or chatting by the river. In ''[[The Guide]]'', holy-man Raju fasts on the banks of the dry river Sarayu, praying for the rains to come. When [[Mahatma Gandhi]] visits Malgudi, the meetings and speeches are held right on the banks of river Sarayu.

===Streets and neighbourhoods===
Market Street is the central street of Malgudi, the location of several big shops including Bombay Anand Bhavan and Truth Printing Works. Kabir Street is the residence of the elite of Malgudi, while Lawley Extension is a new upcoming lane housing the rich and the influential. Elleman Street, home to the oil-mongers, is the last street and beyond it lies the river Sarayu. Other streets include Grove Street, Kalighat Lane and Vinayak Muduli Street.

Between Elleman Street and the river lie Mallappa's Grove and the cremation ground. The [[Dalit|Untouchables]] and sweepers live on the lower banks of the river.

===Buildings===
Palace Talkies was built in 1935 to replace the old Variety Hall. Albert Mission School and Albert Mission College are the more popular educational institutions. There are also the board school and the town elementary schools.

===Other landmarks===
Malgudi has a small railway station which in many episodes, is central to the storyline. The main hospital of Malgudi is Malgudi Medical Centre (MMC). The statue of Sir Fredrick, seated on a horse, forms another major landmark. Another important place is The Board less, a small restaurant without any board. Boardless is a centre of discussion for current events in Malgudi.

===Mempi Forest===
Mempi forest is on the other side of Sarayu. It houses many hills and caves. Animals to be found there include tigers, members of the deer family, [[langurs]] and water buffalos.

==Conceptualization==
Various critics compare Narayan's Malgudi with [[Thomas Hardy]]'s [[Thomas Hardy's Wessex|Wessex]] or [[William Faulkner]]'s [[Yoknapatawpha]]. It was a town created from his own experiences, his childhood, his upbringing. The people in it were people he met every day. He thus created a place which every Indian could relate to. A place, where, in the words of [[Graham Greene]] (from the introduction to ''The Financial Expert''), you could go "into those loved and shabby streets and see with excitement and a certainty of pleasure a stranger approaching past the bank, the cinema, the hair cutting saloon, a stranger who will greet us, we know, with some unexpected and revealing phrase that will open the door to yet another human existence."

==In contemporary culture==
''[[Malgudi Days (TV series)|Malgudi Days]]'' a 1986 Indian television series directed by [[Kannada]] actor and director [[Shankar Nag]], based on the eponymous works of R.K. Narayan was mostly shot near [[Agumbe]] in [[Shimoga]] District, [[Karnataka]]. Some episodes, however, were also shot at [[Bengaluru]] and [[Devarayanadurga]] in [[Tumakuru]] District, Karnataka.

The concept of ''Malgudi'' as an "idyllic spot located in [[South India]]" seems to have taken root in popular imagination. Some restaurants offering South Indian fare go by the name or extensions of ''"Malgudi."'' The Shyam Group operates Malgudi restaurants in [[Chennai]], [[Bangalore|Bengaluru]] and [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chennaionline.com/Hotelsandtours/Events/03malgudi.asp |title=Andhra Food Fest at Malgudi |access-date=22 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012193227/http://chennaionline.com/Hotelsandtours/Events/03malgudi.asp |archive-date=12 October 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2004/12/16/stories/2004121601430100.htm |title=The Hindu : Metro Plus Bangalore / Shopping : Winners from Chettinad |access-date=22 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517213902/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2004/12/16/stories/2004121601430100.htm |archive-date=17 May 2011 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> A restaurant named "Malgudi Junction" is located in [[Kolkata]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061015/asp/calcutta/story_6866554.asp |title=The Telegraph - Calcutta : Metro |website=www.telegraphindia.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930033140/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061015/asp/calcutta/story_6866554.asp |archive-date=2007-09-30}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|India}}
* [[Malgudi Days (disambiguation)|Malgudi Days]]
* [[Masinagudi]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{R. K. Narayan|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Fictional populated places in India]]
[[Category:R. K. Narayan]]