Padmavati

A. Madhaviah, an outdoorsman and a lamplight scholar-writer, was fired with ardour to remove the evils that beset his Iyer Brahmin sub-caste as well as the larger southern society - a concern reflected in his writings.

This is the story about the maturing of a spirited girl born into the rigid confines of orthodox brahmin domesticity, "Padmavati", a hundred year old novel, sketches a true-to-life picture of Brahmin life in the rural south and student life in Madras.

The novel captures glimpses of three strata - a rich landholder, a dependent widow and the indigent student.