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Small Scale Reflections on a Great House

-A K Ramanujan
About the Author
Poet, translator, folklorist, and philologist A.K. Ramanujan (1929–1993) was born in Mysore, India. He
earned degrees at the University of Mysore and Deccan College in Pune and a PhD from Indiana
University. Ramanujan wrote in both English and Kannada, and his poetry is known for its thematic and
formal engagement with modernist transnationalism. Issues such as hybridity and transculturation figure
prominently in such collections as Second Sight (1986), Selected Poems (1976), and The Striders (1966).
The Collected Poems of A.K. Ramanujan (1995) received a Sahitya Akademi Award after the author’s
death.

As a scholar, Ramanujan contributed to a range of disciplines, including linguistics and cultural studies.
His essay “Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?” proposed a notion of “context-sensitive” thinking based
in complex situational understandings of identity that differed significantly from Western thought and its
emphasis on universal concepts and structures. Context-sensitive thinking influenced Ramanujan as a
folklorist as well. His works of scholarship include A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India
(1997), Folktales from India: A Selection of Oral Tales from Twenty-Two Languages (1991), and The
Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology (1967).

For much of his career, Ramanujan taught at the University of Chicago, where he helped develop the
South Asian studies program. In 1976, the Indian government honored him with the title Padma Shri, the
fourth-highest civilian award in the country. Ramanujan also received a MacArthur Fellowship. The
South Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies awards the A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for
Translation in honor of his contributions to the field.

Sometimes I think that nothing

that ever comes into this house
goes out. Things that come in everyday
to lose themselves among other things
lost long ago among
other things lost long ago;
In the first lines of ‘Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House,’ the speaker begins by describing a house.
This house is special because everything comes into it, and nothing goes out. The speaker means this
physically, emotionally, and mentally. He describes how things come into the house every day, and “lose
themselves among other things”. The things pile up on top of other things, all of which came into the
house at varying times.
In these lines, time and accumulation appear to be important to the speaker. Whatever phenomenon is
occurring inside the house, it has been going on for a long time. So far, it seems as though the speaker is
interested in talking about history, specifically family, or genealogical history, and how it is built up over
generations.
lame wandering cows from nowhere
have been known to be tethered,
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given a name, encouraged

to get pregnant in the broad daylight

of the street under the elders'
supervision, the girls hiding
behind windows with holes in them.
In the next set of lines of ‘Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House’ the speaker goes into detail about
some of the things which end up inside the house. The first, are “wandering cows”. All of a sudden,
they’re at the house, and it is unclear where they came from. The speaker describes how from within the
house, girls would look out on the street and observe the female cows being impregnated by the males.
It is interesting how the speaker exposes these animals by emphasizing the “broad daylight”. of the
situation. This speaks to something untoward, not in the behavior of the cows, but if that same behavior
were too be replicated by human beings. This is emphasized by the fact that the girls inside the house feel
as though they need to hide “behind windows with holes in them” to watch the animals. Additionally, it is
interesting how the speaker refers to the cows as supervised by the elders. The older members of the
family are responsible for these animals.
Unread library books
usually mature in two weeks
and begin to lay a row

of little eggs in the ledgers

for fines, as silverfish
in the old man's office room
The speaker goes on to describe a few other items within the house. There are “unread library books”,
which go bad very quickly. The speaker does not make clear what he means by “mature,” but, it could
refer to the fact that they have become overdue at the library. Or, that those who were initially interested
in them have cast them to the side without a second thought. As they lay maturing in the house, they
turned into homes for silverfish. These bugs leave “little eggs in the ledgers”. Specifically, the eggs
appear where the library fines would be listed.
breed dynasties among long legal words
in the succulence
of Victorian parchment.

Neighbours' dishes brought up

with the greasy sweets they made
all night the day before yesterday
for the wedding anniversary of a god,
This line moves into the next, with the speaker describing the “old man’s office room.” The actions of the
silverfish are further explained in this section. The books they nest in have been discarded for such a long
time, that the creatures have been able to “breed dynasties among long legal words”. This contrast
strikingly with the “Victorian parchment” which should have an intrinsic worth.

The next stanza of ‘Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House’ speaks about community and the dishes
which were brought in by the neighbors. Nothing in this poem is contemporary. Everything, so far at
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least, has happened in the past. The neighbors brought in “greasy sweets” a few days ago, “for the
wedding anniversary ever God”. This speaks to the predominance of the Hindu religion throughout India.
But also gives the

Spirituality act of feeding a God a feeling of the commonplace. The dishes have been left behind, as
though they were dishes for any living person.

never leave the house they enter,

like the servants, the phonographs,
the epilepsies in the blood,
sons-in-law who quite forget
their mothers, but stay to check
accounts or teach arithmetic to nieces,

or the women who come as wives

from houses open on one side
to rising suns, on another

Line twenty-seven of ‘Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House’ begins by reiterating the fact that these
dishes, along with everything else, are never going to leave the house they entered. Over the next few
lines, the items, people, and experiences build upon one another quickly. Some of the things that never
leave the house are servants and “phonographs,” the latter of reference to old-fashioned record players.
Less tangibly, epilepsy in the blood does not easily leave a home. This is a very clear reference to family
history, specifically, blood relations. With this line a reader can confirm the poet’s interest in tracing the
history of his family through what the house has seen. He goes on, describing sons-in-law who forget
their mothers but stay in the house for other reasons.

to the setting, accustomed

to wait and to yield to monsoons
in the mountains' calendar
beating through the hanging banana leaves
And also anything that goes out
will come back, processed and often
with long bills attached,
There are young women who enter the house from orthodox families and have to observe certain rituals.
These are centered around the comings and goings of the monsoons and calendar dates. Another
important aspect that can be found in association with the young women and the household are banana
trees. The leaves, which have a number of uses, reference traditional mealtime practices, including dietary
restrictions. For the first time, the next stanza allows something to leave the house. As soon as it exits, it
“will come back “. But it is often changed. He speaks about these things exiting and coming back with
“long bills attached “. At this point is unclear what the speaker is referring to, but beginning in line forty-
three, it becomes evident.
like the hooped bales of cotton
shipped off to invisible Manchesters
and brought back milled and folded

for a price, cloth for our days'

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middle-class loins, and muslin

for our richer nights. Letters mailed
In lines forty-three to forty-eight, the speaker describes “hooped bales of cotton”. These are some of the
items that leave the family and return processed. The cotton in particular goes off to “invisible
Manchesters”. And when it comes back, it is “milled and folded”. This is a simple reference to the way it
is processed within a factory. There are different kinds of cloth in the family, kinds for a “middle-class
loin” and another cheap fabric, “muslin,” which the speaker says is for “richer nights”.
have a way of finding their way back
with many re-directions to wrong
addresses and red ink-marks

earned in Tiruvalla and Sialkot.

And ideas behave like rumours,
once casually mentioned somewhere
they come back to the door as prodigies
The next stanza of ‘Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House’ speaks about letters. In this case, as with
everything else in the house, the letters have a way of “finding their way back”. But, it’s not always an
easy process. There are often markings on the letters which tell of the various twists and turns they took
along the way to find their way back to the house. This is one of the clearest metaphors in the poem. It
speaks directly to the way that family members emerge from the household, enter out into the wider
world, and after a time, drift back to the family home. These people would be changed, and “marked” by
their experiences. This interpretation is solidified when the speaker describes ideas and the way they
“behave like rumors”. These rumors come and go from their origins, twisting and changing, but
eventually coming back as “prodigies / born to prodigal fathers”. These children return to their families
but, only “vaguely look like” the people they remember.
born to prodigal fathers, with eyes
that vaguely look like our own,
like what Uncle said the other day:

that every Plotinus we read

is what some Alexander looted
between the malarial rivers.
The next lines are a little bit vaguer. But they refer to Alexander the Great and his exploits in India. It is
not specifically Alexander the speaker is interested in talking about, rather those like him. These are the
people who come to the country, take information, of any variety, and bring it back to their homes. Then
there are others, such as the philosopher Plotinus who use the information relayed to them and cite it as
their own.
A beggar once came with a violin
to croak out a prostitute song
that our voiceless cook sang
all the time in our backyard.

Nothing stays out: daughters

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get married to short-lived idiots;

sons who run away come back
Moving away from distant history, but still, in the realm of storytelling, the speaker describes how a
beggar came to the house and sang a “prostitute song”. After hearing the tune, the cook sang it repetitively
in the backyard of the house. There is nothing that the family can keep from becoming part of their
history. Through surprising means and twists of fate objects, people, songs and stories become integral
pieces of a family ‘s history.

in grand children who recite Sanskrit

to approving old men, or bring
betel nuts for visiting uncles

who keep them gaping with

anecdotes of unseen fathers,
or to bring Ganges water

Perhaps in reference to the previous lines about prodigal sons and their progeny, the speaker describes
how often times children of sons come back and “recite Sanskrit / to approving old men”. These are the
grandchildren who are learning the history of India and are looked upon favorably by their grandparents.

Additionally, the speaker describes visiting uncles. These family members come with stories to tell of the
fathers who are not present. They are “anecdotes”, a choice of word that should lead a reader to question
the veracity of the stories.

in a copper pot
for the last of the dying
ancestors' rattle in the throat.

And though many times from everywhere,

recently only twice:
once in nineteen-forty-three
from as far as the Sahara,

As the poem begins to come to an end, the speaker describes how often times water from the Ganges
River is carried into the house for the dying. This is a common ritual performed in Brahmin families, of
which the poet is a part.

The next stanza is a little more confusing. It references how certain family members sometimes go to war,
but they come back, even if they are changed. Sometimes they go “as far away as the Sahara”.

half -gnawed by desert foxes,

and lately from somewhere
in the north, a nephew with stripes

on his shoulder was called

an incident on the border
and was brought back in plane

and train and military truck

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even before the telegrams reached,

on a perfectly good
Chatty afternoon

In line eighty-two the way that one particular soldier was changed is explained. This person was “gnawed
by desert foxes,” suffering, presumably, serious injuries. Another male family member also returned but
he came with “stripe/on his shoulder”.

Unfortunately for this man, he was not alive. He was brought back in a plane, and a train, and then a
military truck. All of this occurred very efficiently, in fact, the transit of the body reached the family
before the telegram notifying them of the death did.