There's insanity in our family … It runs in our bloodâ€"the blood of the
Vaidic Brahmins … one or two of us go mad in every generation.'
From the ritual-bound household of an orthodox scholar in a small village in
Bengal in 1897 to Germany and Mumbai at the turn of the new millennium, The
Inheritors follows the shifting life patterns of a family through a melange of
narratives, memories and characters.
The unrelenting puritanism of Nyayaratna Bishnupada Deb Sharma drives his
daughter Radharani to insanity and throws into sharp relief his grandson
Shibkali's feeble attempt to break free. Giribala voices her resentment against
her circumstances through