Aesthetics De/Reconstruction in Laxmi Prasad Devkota’s Muna Madan

Abstract
This article explores how Devkota, as an epitome of humanism, destabilizes the traditionally established
hierarchy between beauty and ugliness based on caste system and redefines them using Nepalese context
of 1930s for his politics of aesthetics. It shows how Devkota casts ugliness of the both upper caste and
lower caste people in order to expose hypocrisy of the so called pure upper caste Brahmins and Chhetris
who lack humanity, morality and honesty and to valorize humanitarianism of the lower caste
untouchables (Bhote) who are honest, moral, forgiving, tolerant, innocent and work-worshipping. The
study uses Bakhtinian idea of grotesque beauty including Mukarovsky’s concept of beauty determined by
social context and Raymond Williams’ challenge of universal idealizing of aesthetics. B.R. Ambedker’s
idea of Annihilation of caste and Dor B. Bista’s notion of caste hierarchy as a social construction by
power have been used to contextualize the study. It is found that Devkota in Muna Madan proves beauty
is grotesque and vice versa projecting the lower caste Bhote as the most humanitarian and beautiful
personality and exposing inhumanity and hypocrisy of Madan’s friends and the don.

Key Terms: aesthetics, grotesque, beauty, ugliness, destabilize, idealizing, humanity, universal, context,
hierarchy, politics, annihilation and casteism.

“This son of a Chetri touches your feet,

Introduction
Devkota’s epic Muna Madan redefines beauty questioning the caste based hierarchy between
beauty and ugliness casting ugliness of both upper caste and lower caste people and exposing the
selfishness of the former and selflessness of the latter and thereby proving grotesque as beautiful and vice
versa. The major motive of Devkota is to assert that no one is upper caste and lower caste by birth rather
it is the qualities and actions that determines purity, humanity, beauty and ugliness. He writes this epic to
subvert the caste based hierarchy and its aesthetics and equalize the society preserving humanity and the
humanitarian values. The poet highlights on his philosophy of life i.e. “work is worship”. For him, beauty
lies in humanity not in caste. It means that deifying and dehumanizing people in the name of caste is
hypocritical and grotesque whereas helping the helpless selflessly is the most beautiful thing of human
life.
Devkota has written Muna madan (1930), a long narrative poem being inspired from the Newari
Language ballad song Ji Waya La Lachi Maduni (it hasn’t been a month since I came). The ballad Ji
Waya La Lachi Maduni is a tragic song based on a Newa (original inhabitant of Nepal) merchant. There
are three persons in the song, the merchant, his mother, and his wife. The merchant is about to
leave Kathmandu for Tibet on work. The song starts with the wife pleading with her mother-in-law to
stop him, saying that it’s not even been a month since she came to their home and he wants to go away.
Being raised in Kathmandu, Devkota hears this song from the locals singing it at the local Pati. Being
highly absorbed by the song, he decides to re-write it in Khas Language. Because of the Rana rulers’ ban
on the Newa language, literature and trade, he alters the Newa merchant character from the original song
to a Chhetri character. Although Kshatriya people do not practice trade those days for their living, he had
to write in a way that lured the Rana rulers.

Review of Literature
Devkota broke new ground by becoming the first Nepali poet to employ the jhyaure meter of the
folk song, despised by earlier poets as vulgar and unfitting for serious poetry. Saphalya Amatya in “Some
aspects of cultural policy in Nepal” (UNESCO 1983) UNESCO Lbrary Press: Paris) shows respect to
Devkota:
The modern literature of Nepal is indebted to the poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota, the
dramatist Bal Krishna Sama and the poet Siddhicharan Shrestha, among others. The
revolution of 1950, in fact, changed the very nature of modern Nepali literature. (Amatya,
12)
The quote above shows that Devkota has greatly contributed in modernizing Nepali literature and so he
should get respect. Valorizing Devkota’s genius, a great Nepali scholar Mohan Prasad Lohani, in the
article “Devkota as a Multi-dimensional Genius”, writes:
Very few would dispute Padma Devkota’s assertion that irrespective of differences
between castes, races, sexes and religions, poet Devkota was able to create a globe of
human feelings in a language that is as simple and as complex as the people it talks about.
He writes literature with high degree of aesthetic sense and sensibility. (39-40)
Here, Lohani tries to say that Devkota glorifies aesthetic sense of human being deemphasizing on any
caste, gender and sex. Another Nepali scholar Dr. Kumar Bahadur Joshi, in Analysis and Evaluation of
Devkota’s poetry Journey says:
Devkota’s contribution in Nepalese political history unforgettable for his sacrifice of his
job, family and relatives in democratic struggle with Rana Regime, editing Yugbani and
creating revolutionary and democratic writings and delivering awareness speech to the
public when he was in Banaras in 2004-2006. (15)
Here, Joshi acclaims that Devkota has sacrificed everything for revolutionizing and democratizing Nepali
literature. The jewel of Nepali literature, poet laureate Laxmi Prasad Devkota, who began to show poetic
genius from a very tender age, is regarded as the creator of romanticism -- a progressive trend in Nepali
literature. With his literary radiance, he has elevated the literary stature of Nepal in the eyes of the world
and is perhaps the first writer in Nepal who rose to majestic heights, where no others had ever been
before. Moreover, he is the first to begin writing epics in Nepali literature and his magnum opus Muna
Madan remains the highest selling book ever in the history of Nepal.

Theoretical Methodology
The study displays how Devkota in Muna Madan challenges the caste based aesthetics casting
ugliness and thereby redefining beauty. For this, they expose the hypocrisies of the so called upper caste
pure Brahmins and Chhetris and project the humanitarian qualities of the lower caste untouchables in
their texts. So, to prove the subversive politics of the writer for their mission of preserving Humanity, it is
necessary to show the paradigm shift in the notion of aesthetics. Therefore, the researcher has used
aesthetic theory of Mikhail Bakhtin together with Mukarovskian and Williamsian notion of aesthetics
which question the notion of universal beauty that can be studied here associating with caste created
concept of beauty. Moreover, the ideas of Nepali anthropological theorist Dor Bahadur Bista and Indian
Critical caste theorist B.R. Ambedkar also have been used to contextualize the study. Talking about Caste
system, Ambedkar acclaims:
Caste is another name for control. Caste puts a limit on enjoyment. Caste does not allow
a person to transgress caste limits in pursuit of his enjoyment. That is the meaning of
such caste restrictions as inter-dining and inter-marriage … These being my views I am
opposed to all those who are out to destroy the Caste System. (57)
Caste is the major tool of hierarchizing and controlling people in the society. Another theorist Dor
Bahadur Bist, in his book Fatalism and Development, writes: “Though Nepal is considered to have long
been Hindu, its native Hinduism has not included a belief in caste principles, which remain a foreign
importation with little popular support. Only in the past hundred and thirty-five years has the caste
system gained any kind of endorsement” (29). Hinduism is not based on caste system rather it is an
imported thing as it hierarchizes with power. The caste system is the recent phenomenon but it is
embedded with Hinduism by power. In his book Aesthetic Function, Norm and Value as Social Facts
(1970), Mukarovsky asserts:
This is actually the essential property of art. But an active capacity for the aesthetic
function is not a real property of an object, even if the object has been deliberately
composed with the aesthetic function in mi nd. Rather, the aesthetic function
manifests itself only under certain conditions, i.e. in a certain social context. (3)
In the same light, the British Cultural Marxist and the founding father of Cultural Studies Raymond
Williams challenges the traditional notion of aesthetics in art and literature through his book Marxism and
Literature (1978). He raises a perennial problem in literary theory- the definition of literature. Modern
literary theorists often look to formal artistic features intrinsic in works, discerning what Roman Jacobson
terms their literariness or poeticity.
Williams sees literature instead as a shifting historical product- not a transcendent entity
but a complex mutating human product linked with concepts such as literacy, imagination,
taste and beauty all sophisticated by socio-historical conditions. He also notes that
criticism and its function have similarly mutated to reflect changing roles. (Leitch, 1566)
For him, aesthetics is a socio-historical matter. Williams, moreover, questions the idealizing and
standardizing notion of literature as it discriminates in the name of equality. Such literature forcefully
establishes that the universal standard is beautiful otherwise the grotesque. Next Aesthetic theorist Mikhail
Bakhtin subverts the classical aesthetics focusing on the ugliest as the most beautiful. Bakhtin claims that
“the grotesque body . . . is never finished, never completed; it is continually built, created, and builds
and creates another body” (Rabelais 317)

Textual Analysis
Bringing the sky “down to the earth” (Rabelias174), Devkota, through Muna Madan, “renews
and regenerates” (Rabelias174) the concept of aesthetics and humanity. He brings the upper castes on to
the earth, “digs the grave” (Rabelias174) for the caste hierarchy and glorifies the humanitarian qualities
of the lower caste people. For this, he uses the Bhote from the lower caste and Madan’s friends and the
don from the upper castes where the former is full of humanly qualities and so beautiful but the latter are
cruel, immoral and inhuman and so grotesque. In this way, Devkota subverts the notion of aesthetics
created by caste system. Doing so, the poet attempts to preserve and promote humanity demoting the
“discriminatory caste system and its evils” ( Ambedkar, 17). It proves that Devkota is the epitome of
humanity in the society.
Devkota, to redefine beauty, casts the ugliness first in the text. When Madan is about to leave
Kathmandu for Lhasa, Muna cries a lot and requests him not to go. At this time, Madan tells her to smile
in the farewell. “If you smile, I can drive to respectable position of Indra / Oh love! Smile for me” (12).
Traditionally, smiling in the farewell is grotesque and crying in such moment is beautiful as it shows
strong love and affection. But the poet focuses on smiling in the farewell which is subversion of the
conventional way of bidding good bye. Smiling is the sign of good luck and so it is beautiful not ugly.
Another example of casting ugliness is Madan’s narration of the troublesome path to Lhasa when
Muna requests him to take her with him. “Don’t tell so, understand Muna, your feet are soft like flowers/
thorny jungle, stiff way, how can I take?” (12) Madan tries to convince her not to take her with him
because of difficult ugly path to Lhasa. He shows his love to Muna claiming that her soft smooth feet
cannot face ugly rough way which he is going to. Moreover, the path is ugly as there is fear of wild
animals which can attack the human beings. He convinces her that “the house has been dilapidated by
loan” (13) which he wants to renovate earning money in Lhasa.
Fear, doubt and Jealousy are generally considered to be ugly as they destroy humanity. But
Devkota presents them as beautiful in the poem. When Madan insists to leave for Lhasa, Muna expresses
her fear, doubt and jealousy if Madan forgets her when he finds beautiful girls in Lhasa. “Young lady of
Lhasa, faster in eyes, carved in gold/ nightingale voice, rose blossomed on cheeks/ if you forget home,
there will be rain of tears” (13), expresses Muna fearfully in front of Madan. More than doubt and
jealousy, Muna shows her deep love and respect to Madan. Therefore, the ugly fear, doubt and jealousy,
as they are of/for love, are really beautiful.
Ashes and dried spring are usually believed to be the ugliest things for human beings. Both of
them symbolize the death of life and humanity. However, Devkota takes them positively as they can
indicate the “regeneration and renewal of life” (Rabelais 151) after death. In Muna Madan, the poet uses
the ashes image for regeneration of memories of lives. “Memories cry every second awakening from the
ashes” (14). When Muna doubts and fears if Madan forgets her seeing the beautiful Lhasa ladies, she
utters the lines to remind him of her love to him which continues even after her death. Therefore, the ugly
tagged ‘ashes’ is the beautiful thing in the epic. Moreover, the ugly tagged lower caste Bhotinis are
projected more beautiful than Muna, the upper caste woman which can be seen from her jealousy and
fear.
Conventionally, the dark and cloudy sky is grotesque in comparison with the clear blue sky.
However, the dark things can be beautiful as they can indicate generation of something new. “The
grotesque body . . . is never finished, never completed; it is continually built, created, and builds and
creates another body” (Rabelais 317). In the epic, the cloudy sky is expected to be clear removing the
darkness, dust and dirt. “Control and hold your heart my Moon, it is a shot cloud/ the sky clears into clear
blue wiping the dust/ dear, there will not be dark forever, day will come back” (Muna Madan 15). Madan
claims that the dark is momentary which naturally brings light fulfilling all the dreams and expectations.
Devkota acclaims like Mukarovsky that even the grotesque is “beautiful according to the context”
(Mukarovsky 3-4). Darkness with hope of light is always positive. This shows that it is the context that
determines the aesthetics of anything. Therefore, beautiful can be ugly and vice versa according to the
context.
Beauty and ugliness are inextricably embedded with each other; they are not hierarchical. Madan’s
journey is both beautiful and ugly at the same time. On the one hand, it is full of thorny hills, stiff mole
hills, cold misty and snowy atmosphere and Rocky Mountains. On the other hand, the journey is joyful
because of Madan’s dream of earning money and returning home for better life. Devkota casts ugliness
through the lines:
 Hills and thorns, stiff mountains full of thousand hurdles
Way to Lhasa with stone and soil bare and treeless
Full mist full snow blossoming poison
Drizzling rain cold wind moving like cold ice. (17)
The path is so difficult that it is poisonous to life because of icy cold atmosphere and deadly stiff
mountains. The atmosphere is so frightening and lifeless that it can be taken as the most grotesque one.
The poet exposes such ugliness of Madan’s journey. However, it is quite beautiful as he is facing it for
betterment of his life fulfilling the dream of prosperous life earning money in Lahsa.
The more Madan walks on the way to Lahsa, the more complicated it becomes. He has to face so
many ups and downs. The path becomes the best example of the grotesque beauty. Devkota describes the
way casting ugliness:
The narrow stiff cliff
The rope-like bridge and the dizzy top mountains
High altitude breaking heart and lungs
Stony teeth on the way edgy and uncomfortable
Snowy teeth sharp storm rattling the teeth. (19-20)
The journey is full of sufferings because of narrow cliffs, rope-like bridge and teeth rattling snowy cold
atmosphere. The description shows that the path is dreadful as if there is no other such dangerous way.
However, such deadly path is nothing for Madan as he lives in hope and dream of beautiful life full of
material prosperities and renovation of the dilapidated parts of the life.
This epic subverts the notion of hierarchy between beauty and ugliness through the portrayal of
cruel nature and kind human i.e. Bhote. The general belief and the nature glorifying faith is that nature is
beautiful whereas human is ugly as s/he destroys even the beauty of nature. But, Devkota, like
Mukarovsky, questions the belief and claims that nothing can be beautiful and ugly rather it “depends
upon the context” (Mukarovsky 4). Devkota portrays:
The heart is bitten by the rattling teeth of the storm
Bhoteli clothes Docha and furry caps
Dry meat yak milk and sheep furry clothes
Make him live though suffered a lot on the way
Nature goddess cruel and unloving to human. (23)
The superiority of nature and the inferiority of the human is subverted showing nature as cruel and human
as kind. The nature tortures Madan a lot on the way to Lahsa but the human Bhote saves his life with
medicine, clothes, food and drink. We worship nature as goddess keeping the human in the lower
position. But, in the poem, the human seems to hold the superior position to nature for his kind
heartedness. This shows that the beautiful nature is ugly and the ugly human is beautiful which is the
subversion of aesthetics.
In the beauty redefining process, Devkota casts the ugliness and blurs the gap between beautiful
and ugly. When Madan goes to Lahsa, Muna feels lonely in the house. She always lives remembering
Madan, her love and life. In his absence, everything is dim for her. Even her life is not bright. Moreover,
the bright moon itself is dim and desperate for her. “Dark nights, bright nights moon itself is desperate”
(23). When Muna and Madan are alone in two different worlds-Kathmandu and Lahsa, there is no
difference between dark nights and bright nights for Muna because her brightness of life is very far from
her. Even the twinkling stars are dim for her. Devkota, through narration of such situation, proves the
beautiful to be grotesque. It symbolically tells us that life without love and company is totally dark even
in bright light.
Muna Madan is popular for casting many instances of ugliness as the poet intends to revisit
aesthetics. When Muna and Madan are living separately, once Muna sees an appalling dream. In the
dream, she is chased by the buffalo causing her fall down in the mud. When she awakens, her whole body
shivers with fear. She thinks that it is the sign of bad omen. The line goes: “What a dream I saw today?
The Buffalo chased me/ my heart trembles if remembered that buffalo which caused a fall on the mud”
(29). She laments a lot but her mother-in-law consoles and endeavours to convince her. This ugly
frightening circumstance brings the mother- in- law and the daughter- in- law closer to each other.
Coincidentally, Madan becomes sick in the jungle on the way to Kathmandu as he suffers from cholera.
To reread aesthetics, Devkota firstly exposes such examples of ugliness in the text.
One of the general understandings of people is that the relationship between mother- in- law and
the daughter- in- law is antithetical. It means their relationship is not beautiful but ugly. However,
Devkota subverts such traditional notion of relationship and establishes the new one. In the poem, Muna
respects her Mother- in-law just like her own mother and the Mother- in-law also behaves Muna as her
own daughter and thereby harmonizing the relationship. “Oh daughter like my daughter- in- law! Don’t
shiver like that” (29), consoles the old woman. “You are my mother, you are my father, I open spring of
my heart” (29) expresses Muna with respect to the old woman. It shows that both of them love and
respect each other. It is nothing more than Devkota’s subversion of conventional consideration of
adversative relationship between mother- in- law and the daughter- in- law.
Devkota casts the ugly circumstance in the poem when Madan gets sick on the way. He suffers
from cholera in the jungle returning to Kathmandu. He requests his friends to save him even for his
mother and wife. He continuously pleads such Chhetri friends for his life but they desert him in the
jungle. Madan pleads:
Oh my friends, don’t leave me in the jungle
Making me prey of crow and vulture
My old mother at home will die
Moon like Muna will be shocked and die
Dried throat and burned chest, wipe my tears
Still life still hope, understand this pain
It is worshipping god to wipe tears of a human by a human. (31)
Madan wants to live but he is in a dreadful situation as he is suffering from cholera in the jungle. He
doesn’t want to be food for crow and vulture because he has responsibilities of his wife and mother. He is
worried about his mother and wife who will be shocked to death after the news of his death. His throat is
dried and there is burning in his chest but the friends do not listen to him. Devkota exposes such a
grotesque scenario with beautiful hope of life. He interweaves ugliness and beauty together. His major
motive is to redefine beauty with ironical exposing of the inhuman human beings.
When the nature and circumstance become too much unfavorable to man, ugliness surrounds him.
When Madan is helpless in the jungle after desertion of his friends, he notices everything around him
anti-life though he has a strong hope and desire for life. Devkota describes: “Darkness arose in jungle, the
air slept / All birds stopped twittering and singing, the cold troubled / Bad fortune so all jungles and hills
were cruel / Cruel stars, cruel world total bareness” (32). The ugliest thing cast here is Madan’s
sufferings. Because of darkness, silence of birds and stagnancy of the air, pessimism exceeds. All the
jungles, hills, stars and the whole world are cruel which do not support life. However, Madan hopes for
his life. It means that Devkota inculcates beauty even within the grotesque in his subversion and
redefining process of aesthetics. Therefore, every beautiful and grotesque thing exists together with each
other. “All the images are connected with the contradictory oneness of the dying and reborn world”
(Rabelais 217). Here, Devkota’s idea seems similar to that of Bakhtin.
Even the grotesque can be beautiful and vice versa which Devkota depicts through Madan’s old
physically ugly but full of humanitarian values and the don physically attractive but lacking all humanly
qualities.
Madan’s mother with old white hair helpless in the bed
Setting moon waiting in pain on the last moment
Dried oil, light of the house but very dim
Ready to depart making totally dark
How did that black snake raise its heart?
How did the don send the letter of Madan’s death?
Poison sack on teeth of snake
Darkness surrounds inside human heart. (45-47)
Madan’s mother has the grotesque body as she is very and just waiting for death. However, she is kind by
heart as she love her daughter-in-law like her daughter. She also waits for Madan though she is about to set
like the moon. Contrarily, the don though has strong physique, appears as a black snake with poison in the
teeth. It means he gives the fake news of Madan’s death to the family which causes Muna’s death. It shows
that a man though beautiful outside can be grotesque inwardly. In this way, the poet subverts the notion of
aesthetics bringing ugly and beautiful body and heart together.
Birth, death and rebirth are cyclical orders of nature. Even the beautiful life ends in ugly death
and the ugly death leads to beautiful reconciliation and regeneration. “Uncrowning is regenerative as well
as destructive—it digs a bodily grave for a new birth” (Bakhtin qtd. in Vice 174). Devkota also shows
Madan requesting god for his death when he loses his wife and mother though he returns home alive
defeating the death in the jungle. He wants to die in such lonely condition expecting reconciliation with his
love Muna. “How did the fire eat the soft body of Muna, sister? / Please give me those ashes to keep on my
chest and heart/ Hey god! Raise the curtain fast and then I will thank you” (53). Madan expresses his desire
to be together with Muna in the heaven. It is his death wish for reconciliation with Muna. Therefore,
Madan wants to “dig his own grave for new birth” (174) as claimed by Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World.
Although it is primarily a romantic tragedy designed to tug at the heartstrings, Muna
Madan contains a number of moral statements and comments on the Nepali society of its time. The
melodramatic climax of the tale makes its principal message clear: loved ones are far more precious than
material wealth. Certain passages from Muna Madan have the quality of proverbs and are often quoted by
ordinary Nepalese in the course of their everyday lives:
hataka maila sunaka thaila ke garnu dhanale?
saga ra sisnu khaeko bes anandi manale!
Purses of gold are like the dirt on your hands,
what can be done with wealth?
Better to eat only nettles and greens
with happiness in your heart. (13)
The spiritual prosperity is far greater than physical prosperity. The spirituality is beautiful whereas the
material property is ugly as it makes people greedy and sinner. The most progressive element of the poem
is its implicit rejection of the importance of caste: Madan is saved by a Tibetan, a meat-eating Buddhist
whom an orthodox Hindu would regard as untouchable. Here, the poem proclaims a belief in the
goodness of humble people. It also shows the gradual change in attitude of people about caste. Dor Bdr.
Bisat in Fatalism and Development writes: “The abolition of caste laws (differential punishment for
offenders of different castes for the same offence), in 1963, has done much to change the attitude of the
people towards the caste structure” (55). In Muna Madan, the poet also projects humanitarian attitude of
lower caste people and respect of lower caste Bhote by the upper caste Chhetri Madan: “This son of a
Chetri touches your feet,/ but he touches them not with contempt, / a man must be judged by the size of
his heart, / not by his name or his caste”(33). Through these lines, Devkota attempts to downsize caste
superiority and its philosophy. He boldly claims that a person should be judged not by his caste but by his
action, behavior and the character. Talking about Muna Madan , in Periodic Analysis of Devkota’s
Poetry, Joshi writes: “it is the first great epic written in our ethnic melody Jhyaure . It is short but perfect
which makes Devkota the greatest epic writer” (50). Joshi further projects: “Devkota shows his life
philosophy presenting the Bhote as a symbol of ideal human for his humanitarian work” (56). Offering
Bhote as a man of humanity, Devkota efforts to redefine the caste created notion of beauty in Muna
Madan. Joshi, talking about the text writes:
The epic presents the conflict between material prosperity and spiritual prosperity
symbolically through Muna and Madan respectively where Muna gets victory by losing
but Madan is defeated though he wins. Moreover, the poet shows his aesthetic concern
through his disorientation towards materialistic wealth loving city feudal civilization and
orientation towards Madan’s spiritual love, Bhote’s humanitarianism, simple pure ethnic
culture and natural context. (61)
Beauty is in humanity not in caste and so Bhote is more beautiful than Madan’s Chhetri friends. The
Bhote is selfless and helpful who helps the helpless selflessly whereas Madan’s friends are selfish and
inhuman. For the poet, the greatest beauty lies in mental happiness not in material property. Joshi further
admires:
The poet, in Muna Madan, raises the consciousness that Mental Happiness is not in
physical wealth but in the Bhote who adopts simple, pure and natural ethnic civilization
untouched by wealth. The Bhote is, in fact, moral reincarnation of Devkota himself and
Madan’s sister is the speaker of Devkota’s life philosophy. (64)
These lines highlight Devkota’s philosophy of simple spiritual life with humanity. The poet beautifies the
so called ugly Bhote according to caste system showing him honest, moral and humanitarian. Joshi
writes: “The Bhote is firm in his ideal of life so he is a good moral character. He symbolizes Devkota
himself. Though from ethnic civilization, he is enlightened and good human being. Moreover, he is a
lively character” (65).
Devkota glorifies the beauty of the ethnic people in Muna Madan. He writes: “Those young
strong white Bhotinis / Black eyes buttery skin of Lhasa city” (18). He strengthens and beautifies the ugly
tagged Bhotinis by caste system. For him the Bhote race can popularize Nepal in the world. The people of
this race are the real beautiful rulers because they rule winning others’ heart. In the poem, the Bhote gets
deep respect from the Chhetri Madan. The poet glorifies the culture and life style of the Bhote so as to
redefine beauty subverting caste hierarchy. He argues:
Nepal, full of holy culture and civilization
Hidden heaven with miraculous better race
Mountain ruling intelligent penancing tribe
Nepal will be popular in the world. (19)
The Bhote tribes are better races with holy culture and civilization who have strength to rule even the
highest peaks. Moreover, the poet shows the Bhote as altruistic: “Bhoteli clothes Docha and hairy cap /
Yak milk tea and dried meat / Saved him though suffered on the way” (23). In the beauty redefining
process, Devkota casts ugliness of the so called upper caste people: “Beautiful Muna sitting on the
window / City don noticed her as angel / Moved around the house for her” (24). “Don’t leave me in the
forest my friend / Making me prey of crow and vulture / My old mother at home will die / Moon like my
Muna will be shocked” (31). Though Madan requests his friends when he suffers from cholera in the
jungle, they desert him there mercilessly: “I don’t want to die in the jungle / Dried throat burnt chest wipe
out my tears / Still life still hope feel the pain / Wiping out tears is worshipping god” (31). It shows that
the so called beautiful upper caste people are really ugly, more grotesque.
But, Devkota presents the Bhote as the godly figure for Madan who saves his life. Though he is
tagged ugly by the caste system, he holds divine qualities of saving life. The Bhote finds him sick and
alone crying in the jungle and promises to save him scolding his friends as evil:
God you are the only friend in the forest
You saw stony heart in man
Bhote found the sick man crying
Your Evil friends, says with love
You will not die though my house is far
I will carry you there. (32)
It shows Bhote’s greatness and proves him to be the most beautiful humanitarian person in the world
which teases the so called upper caste people. Moreover, Madan touches Bhote’s feet respecting him as
god for saving his life selflessly. For him, a man is great not by caste but by heart: Touching Bhote’s feet,
Helpless Madan says/ You are my god with sweet voice, oh Bhote brother / Chhetri’s son touches your
feet without contempt / Man is great not by caste but by heart” (32-33). It shows that Devkota casts
ugliness and redefines beauty which is in humanity not in caste. He presents the Bhote, taken as “lower
stratum of body part with dirt and impurity” (Rabelais 338) by caste system, especially by Brahmins, a
source of “regenerating humanity and beauty” (Rabelais 151) in life. Bakhtin’s idea of grotesque body as
the source of democracy, equality and humanity is applicable in Devkota’s Muna Madan.
Moreover, Devkota glorifies Bhote’s humanitarian qualities like love, kindness, care, selflessness,
sacrifice and self-satisfaction. When Madan is on the verge of life and death alone in the jungle suffering
from cholera, the Bhote appears as god for him. He carries him to his home, cures him, feeds him and
ultimately saves his life. He asserts: “Bhote carried home and kept in wool / Kindly made me drink water
/ Searched and gave me herbal medicine to drink / Strengthened me with yak milk / Support of branch
stroke of air wall of stone / Madan felt richer and dearer than castle / Soft woolen bed to rest / Heavenly
life there” (33). For him, Bhote’s heart is pure and divine as he take Madan to heavenly life from the
deadly one: “No knives on smile no poison in words / No pollution in air, no anger and greed in heart /
Lama living luxuriously alone / Looking with rags but great heart / Keeping yak having gardens
collecting families / Growing them with total idealism” (33-34). The Bhote, though in rags, holds the
great heart, laborious action loving life ideal life. Devkota questions the caste system and valorizes the
lower caste people who have ideal, heavenly life through selfless and sacrificial heart. This idea of the
poet is similar to Bakhtin’s idea of grotesque as beautiful.
In Muna Madan, Devkota questions the concept of beauty made by caste system. In this system,
the lower caste people are uncivilized, impure and so ugly. But, for Devkota, a man becomes beautiful
when he is dutiful as a human being. Though the Bhote race is considered to be ugly and impure by the
caste system, the poet valorizes them as the real beautiful people in the human world. So, he mentions:
 Bhote’s daughter was like Buddha and forest god
Her name was Lawa who was the soft heart
Lama families sang a song in the jungle
With Sweet voice, harmonious rhythm and melodious words
Madan’s soul enjoyed in Buddha Lok
Listened to song that melted the heart (34-36).
It means that “beauty is determined by the context” (1) as put forward by Mukarovsky. Bhote is beautiful
and Madan’s friends are ugly in that context of saving life. The poet brings out the humanitarian and more
the divine qualities of the Bhote and his daughters. The place of the Bhote is compared with the Buddha
Lok which is peaceful, casteless, classless and out of any kinds of inequalities and cruelties. By showing
heart melting culture and behavior of the Bhote and the stone-like heart and culture of the upper caste
people, Devkota subverts the notion of aesthetics created by the caste system. He further writes: “Madan
looks back to Bhote’s yard / Finds beautiful kids playing with ease / Speaks looking back again to Bhote /
Madan reveals the hidden inside out” (41) The context here shows that “beauty is the matter of time,
place and situation” (Mukarovsky 3-4). Beauty is a socio-historical aspect which changes according to the
context. Lastly, he puts forward: “The mind is our lamp, the body our offering / and Heaven the grace
which rewards them / Our deeds are our worship of God / so says Laxmi Prasad” (55). Devkota claims
that beauty lies in in good deeds by heavenly mind and body.

Conclusion
This redefining process casts ugliness of the both upper and lower castes and makes the caste
based transcendental beauty ugly and the made ugly the real beauty thereby subverting the hierarchy.
Being the epitome of humanity, Devkota always raises the voice of the voiceless and works for choice of
the choiceless attempting to equalize and harmonize the society without any kinds of discriminations and
hierarchies. Therefore, he is the writer of the margin trying to bring them in the mainstream. He
challenges the idealizing notions of literature which deifies the Brahmins and dehumanizes the lower
castes. Devkota’s this idea is similar to Raymond Williams’ notion of “questioning idealizing” (Marxism
and Literature 10). Therefore, Devkota is the god in mortal form for all the marginalized and
dehumanized people though they are from the so called upper caste society. He is the preserver and
promoter of humanity in the caste stricken discriminatory Nepali society in particular and in the whole
world in general. Thus, he is immortal in all the caste ridden societies through his contributions and
equalizing humanitarian philosophies.
In order to destablize the hierarchy of aesthetics made by caste system, Devkota valorizes the
caste tagged ugly lower caste people through Bhote. Though Madan’s friends show inhumanity, the
Bhote comes as a savior or god for Madan. He takes Madan to his house and treats with medicine. He
feeds him properly and because of caring and nourishing Madan gets healthy. Seeing humanly quality of
the Bhote, Madan bows down to him and shows respect. Being from upper caste, he touches the feet of
the Bhote and says that a man is great not by caste but by heart. Through the epic, Devkota attacks upon
caste system and highlights on humanity. For him, it is not the caste but humanity which is beautiful. The
caste system categorizes the Bhote as impure, uncivilized, ugly and grotesque. But, in Muna Madan, we
find him the most civilized, humanitarian, moral, honest and divine figure which really subverts the
beauty concept proving ugly beautiful and vice versa.
Thus, Devkota’s Muna Madan can be studied as deconstructive text of the 1930s caste ridden
Nepalese society. This epic subverts the caste created hierarchical concept of aesthetics casting ugliness
and thereby redefining beauty-proving grotesque as beautiful and vice versa. The writer’s main intention
in the text is to change the society empowering the caste dehumanized people and downsizing the caste
deified people endeavoring to redefine beauty and aesthetic principles and values. Therefore, this study
can be a source for future researchers in deconstructive aesthetics and a supportive tool for marginalized
people of the world in general and the caste stricken people in particular to fight against any kinds of
hierarchization and dehumanization establishing equality, morality and humanity in the society.

Works Cited
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