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About This Book
When a family decides to remove its ancestral gods from a deserted village home, it marks more than a physical relocation. It signals the end of a way of life. After returning to Palasgaon, four brothers confront the slow, irreversible unravelling of the world that shaped them. The house that once held festivals and faith now stands neglected; the village has thinned out; devotion has become impractical, even inconvenient. For some, the gods remain living presences, bound to memory and meaning. For others, they are symbols of obligations that no longer fit a changed social and economic reality. As the family prepares for the final rituals, buried resentments, longings and private griefs rise to the surface. First published in Marathi in 1961, The Gods Are Leaving is a modern classic—a profound exploration of a society in transition, where inherited faith collides with modern pressures, and tradition yields—uneasily—to new values of mobility, pragmatism, and individual survival. D.B. Mokashi captures the inner lives of his characters with remarkable sensitivity, showing how historical change is experienced not as abstraction, but as emotional loss, confusion and quiet resistance. Shanta Gokhale’s elegant and nuanced rendering brings this deeply human novel about belief and doubt, continuity and rupture, to a new generation of readers.
About The Author
D.B. Mokashi Digambar Balkrishna (D.B.) Mokashi (1915–1981) was an Indian novelist and short story writer, best remembered for his works Gupit (1957), Palkhi (1957), Sthalyatra (1958), Amod Sunasi Ale (1960), Dev Chalale (1961), and Zamin Apli Ai (1966), all of which were honoured by the Maharashtra government with its Outstanding Literary Work Award. Shanta Gokhale Shanta Gokhale was born in Dahanu and brought up in Mumbai. She has worked as a lecturer in English at Elphinstone College and H.R. College of Commerce, as a sub-editor with Femina, as a P.R. Executive with Glaxo Laboratories and as arts editor with the Times of India. Gokhale has written two novels in Marathi, Rita Welinkar and Tya Varshi. Both won the Maharashtra State Award for the best novel of the year and have been translated by her into English. Her most recent book is her memoir, One Foot on the Ground. She has translated Smritichitre: The Memoirs of a Spirited Wife by Lakshmibai Tilak and the novel Kautik on Embers (Dhag) by Uddhav J. Shelke. Apart from these she has also translated plays by Vijay Tendulkar, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Satish Alekar, G.P. Deshpande, Premanand Gajvi and Makarand Sathe. She has also translated from English into Marathi the play Mister Behram by Gieve Patel and the novel Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto. She is the author of Playwright at the Centre: Marathi Drama from 1843 to the Present; and the editor of The Scenes We Made: An Oral History of Experimental Theatre in Mumbai, Satyadev Dubey: A Fifty-Year Journey Through Theatre and The Theatre of Veenapani Chawla: Theory, Practice and Performance. She has been a culture columnist with The Independent, The Sunday Times of India, Mid-Day and Mumbai Mirror. In 2016, she received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for her overall contribution to the performing arts. She has also received lifetime achievement awards from Thespo, Ooty Literary Festival and Tata Literature Live!.
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