There are no gods in Manav Kaul’s world, only temples, and children forced to survive without them. His book Shirt Ka Teesra Button, translated by Sayari Debnath under the title A Temple of No Gods, follows the story of Rajil, a boy who lowers his gaze to the third button of his shirt whenever fear or shyness takes over—justifying its title in Hindi.
Set in a small village, the plot carries the familiar characteristics of Indian storytelling, following Rajil and his friends Radhe, Choti, and Ghazal. At its heart is a dilapidated temple with neither gods nor priests. Surrounded by broken walls and ruins, the temple of no gods becomes the place for secret meetings between friends and lovers. It is here that the true selves emerge from the shadows of the seemingly ordinary individuals living in rural India.
Rajil is a contemplative boy, consumed by the questions of sin and virtue, of crime and punishment. He worries whether Chitragupta, the god who keeps score of sin and virtue, tallies his sins, and if they can be balanced by his virtues. At this point, Ghazal introduces him to two epic works of literature—Bhagwati Charan Verma’s Chitralekha and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. These texts anchor his inner turmoil, but as the narrative progresses, Kaul strips away the comfort of divine justice.
Even as Rajil is haunted by the idea of Chitragupta’s judgement, he comes to realise that there is no god to keep an account of his sins and virtues. His quest for becoming virtuous is lost behind as life pushes him into circumstances where, setting ethics aside, he must act for his survival. It dawns on him that we are merely slaves to our circumstances. There is no god in the temple, and Chitragupta is not looking down upon us to keep an account of virtue and sin. In the novel, as in the real world, evil deeds go unpunished and innocent people suffer catastrophe.
The book reminds one of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Morrison set out to expose the reality of the most vulnerable member of society—the girl child. Similarly, Kaul brings out the vulnerability of children surrounded by adults who fail to protect them. Children in both novels conjure a new reality in order to survive. Both Morrison and Kaul use magical realism to write stories that are intimately haunting. With a subtly feminist subtext, Kaul paints an unseen picture of childhood in rural India that focuses on the dangers of patriarchy. Populated with complex characters, the book shows us that survival itself becomes a kind of prayer in the absence of god.