The Marabar Hills from the 1984 film adaptation of "A Passage To India"
In his novel, A Passage To India, E.M. Forster uses a series of symbols to describe a tumultuous political climate in colonial India. There are many interesting parallels and points of thought to be discovered within the book, and chief among them are the Marabar Caves, where the main turn of the plot occurs. In the book, a group led by the young doctor, Aziz, and containing notably Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested go on an expedition to visit the caves and absorb their splendor, but the trip changes each person in a very dramatic and unexpected way. The caves themselves do not participate in the action, but act as a sort of ever-present symbol acting as a backdrop to each character’s alteration. The Marabar caves, and Marabar hills that contain them themselves are fictional, but based on very real caves and hills in India called the Barabar caves. There are some key physical differences to note between the real and fictional caves.
Barabar site: Sudama and Lomas Rishi Caves, Bihar (India) (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barabar_Caves_1.JPG)
First, the Barabar hills, located in Bihar, India, contain a total of four caves, three have which have been separately named and are each unique. None of them completely match the description of Forster’s caves. Forster’s Marabar caves number in the 20’s or 30’s, as he states “Having seen one such cave, having seen two, having seen three, four, fourteen, twenty four…” The caves are all alike, completely anonymous and indistinguishable from one another. This is an important element in the actual story itself. In his story, Forster uses the caves to symbolize native India; to the colonial English, India was a sea of alike brown faces. The people of a country of such a massive population have this same type of anonymity – no one is readily distinguishable. There are no special caves or less special caves, none of any more or less significance than any other. Though they might differ in size or shape slightly, from the outside they all look alike. This can also be interpreted as commentary on the caste system in place in India : that ultimately, regardless of social status, all Indians are the same shells and innards.
Another notable difference between Forster’s caves and the Barabar caves is their inner caverns. Forster describes the inside of his caves as first a narrow hall which leads into a large circular chamber. The walls are polished smooth and reflect any light in the cave, though the actual chambers are very dark, as all light has been lost in the hallway leading up to it. Each cave is identical in this theme, hallway to chamber, following the previous motif. However, as Sujit Mukherjee observes in his article “The Marabar Mystery an Addition to the Case-Book on the Caves,” in the actual Barabar hills “There is no suggestion of a narrow passage leading to a wide, circular space (as de-scribed by Forster) in any of these caves.” Again, Forster alters his descriptions of the caves purposefully. The mirror-like polished walls of Forster’s caves lend themselves to be interpreted in a way as to show a sort of crushing agnosticism. Though people seem to be driven by a pursuit of the spiritually unknown, the earthen element of the caves reflects the harsh truth; there is no one here but you, and what you see here is all there is.
This soul-crushing quality is also noted by George H. Thomson in his article, “Thematic Symbol in A Passage to India.” In it, he states that “just as the Marabar Hills signify the material universe void of life, so the Marabar Caves signify the universe of man void of spirit.” This quality is reinforced by another trait of the Marabar caves, which actually is shared by the Barabar caves, the cacophonous echo. The echo inside of Forster’s caves is an overwhelming thunderous “boum,” which dulls then overwhelms the system. In the story, Mrs. Moore is deeply affected by the echo, as is Adela Quested. The chambers of the Marabar caves turn all noise, loud or soft, into a riotous chorus. This again demonstrates the oneness of the nation. Under the thumb of British rule, all of India is one. The smallest grain of sand to the largest of elephants, the richest doctor to the poorest farmer, all are equal in the caves. Mrs. Moore is traumatized by the echo; it causes her to lose her faith in humanity, God, and in the future in the futility and sameness of the ceaseless echo of the caves. Interestingly, the actual Barabar caves do seem to possess this quality to an extent as well. David Lean, on the website “A Passage to India” has a section dedicated to the location notes on the Barabar caves, which he visited. He notes that one of the caves was
"Just another cave, it seemed, until the guide gave a shout. That shout echoed from the cave walls, and the echo sustained itself in a most curious way, for a period of approximately three seconds. Just try timing that on your watch, and you will see that three seconds is an extraordinary time for a sound to sustain - something that I have never experienced elsewhere, in all of my travels. I made my own sounds, and each one sustained its echo in the same way." (http://www.mapability.com/travel/p2i/barabar.html)
The Barabar caves seem to have played a religious role in their time, and this role in a way suits the Marabar caves as well, though in a very antithetical way. The Marabar caves in A Passage To India are remarkable in their plainness, and exhibit the shallowness of life in a spectacular way. The Barabar caves served a similar function but for seemingly different reasons. According to the British Library in the short article accompanying the following picture:
The Barabar caves generally consist of two chambers, the first allowing worshippers to congregate in a large rectangular hall, the second providing a focus for their worship in a small, circular, domed chamber. This inner chamber probably held a small stupa like construction at one point however they are now empty.
The caves served as a place of worship and self reflection for those who sought understanding. On the other hand, the Marabar caves seemed to force self-reflection upon Mrs. Moore and all else who entered the caves. It is this parallel that leaves little wonder as to why Forster chose the Barabar caves as a model for the Marabar caves. And although the Barabar and Marabar caves and hills differ in size and scale, they can both serve as reminders of a higher understanding of both human and spiritual nature.
Caddy, Alexander E. "Entrance to one of the Barabar Hill caves." 1895. The British Library. 26 March 2009. Web.11/30/2010 http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/e/019pho000001003u0045a000.html
Norbert, Klaus. “Barabar site: Sudama and Lomas Rishi Caves, Bihar (India).” Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. 4 December 2009. Web. 12/01/2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barabar_Caves_1.JPG
Lean, David. "The Barabar Caves." A Passage to India. March 13th, 2008. Web. 12/01/2010 http://www.mapability.com/travel/p2i/barabar.html
Mukherjee, Sujit. "The Marabar Mystery an Addition to the Case-Book on the Caves." College English, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Mar., 1966):,501-503 National Council of Teachers of English. Web. 11/29/2010 http://www.jstor.org/stable/374029
Thomson, George H. "Thematic Symbol in A Passage to India" Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Jul., 1961): 51-63 Hofstra University. Web. 11/29/2010 http://www.jstor.org/stable/440627
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