Margayya Charachter & Summary

Margayya, the titular expect, provides financial consulting
services in the town of Malgudi. His office is a spot under a

banyan tree. Through a combination of skill and wiles, he
expands his moneylending business and gains considerable
wealth. An altercation with his old friend Pal, however, brings
about his ruin.
Meena is Margayya’s wife. Innocent where he is sly, she is

subordinated to his schemes and verbal abuse. Her submissive
behavior generally enables her husband’s unscrupulous tactics.
The notable exception is when she is propelled to action over
concern for their son, Balu, and goes to Madras looking for him.
Balu, Margayya and Meena’s son, grows into an irresponsible,

unmotivated youth in part because of their indulgent attitude in
his childhood. Balu’s rash behavior is not limited to his own life,
as he destroys his father’s business records. Marriage does not
change his habits, as he fails to support his family. His father’s
efforts to change his trajectory contribute to Margayya’s downfall.
Dr. Pal, a writer who dabbles in several genres, also considers

himself a sociological expert. A foil to Margayya, he specializes in
manipulating words rather than numbers. His advice and
participation, by providing Margayya with an erotic book and
securing office space, help impel his friend’s ascent. While he
helps engineer Balu’s marriage, he also encourages his dissolute
ways. The rumors he spreads finally lead to his friend’s ruin.
Brinda is a lovely 17-year-old who marries Balu and has his

child. Her complaints over her husband’s behavior lead Margayya
to confront Pal over his negative influence, in turn leading to his
assault.
Madan Lal is an important printer who becomes enthralled by

and then decides to publish the sex manual, which Margayya had
provided after buying it from Dr. Pal.
Arul Doss is an elderly bank worker; an authoritarian figure, he

evicts Margayya from his post under the tree.
Margayya
Margayya, the owner of a small business, in his thirties. A wizard

with numbers, crafty, and unscrupulous, Margayya earns a
modest living as a financial consultant from a spot under a
banyan tree in the Indian town of Malgudi. Eventually, he
becomes a wealthy moneylender and banker, but when he
assaults an old associate, he loses his reputation, his business,
and his fortune.
Meena
Meena, Margayya’s wife, his uncomprehending confidant and his

scapegoat. Although she is frightened by his rages and his
irrational schemes, she accepts the various changes in her
fortune with docility. The only time she asserts herself is when
she thinks that Margayya has driven their son Balu to suicide;
then her fury and her grief frighten him into going to Madras to
find Balu.
Balu
Balu, Margayya and Meena’s son, who is first seen as a spoiled,

uncontrollable baby. He is later a failure at school, a runaway,
and even, after his marriage, a wastrel. Ironically, it is his childish
destruction of his father’s account book that drives Margayya
from the banyan tree to a new business venture and wealth. At
the end of the book, it is an attempt to stop Balu’s debauchery
that causes Margayya’s downfall.
Dr. Pal
Dr. Pal, a self-styled journalist, author, and sociologist. A lean, confident thirty-year-old when he first
appears, Dr. Pal has a seemingly intellectual patter that awes Margayya. Periodically, he turns up to
direct Margayya’s life. At first, his influence on Margayya is benign. It is Dr. Pal who sells him the
sexually explicit book whose publication becomes the basis of Margayya’s fortune; it is he who
moves Margayya into the fortunately situated office and pushes him into banking; and it is he who
arranges an appropriate if inaccurate horoscope so that Balu can marry the girl whom Margayya has
selected. At the end of the story, however, it is Dr. Pal who encourages Balu’s debauchery and who
takes revenge for the assault by spreading the rumors that ruin Margayya.
Brinda
Brinda, Balu’s wife, a beautiful, sweet seventeen-year-old, the

daughter of a man who owns a small tea estate. At first, she is as
delighted with her young husband as Margayya is with her and
her station. When Balu mistreats her, however, she confides in
her father-in-law. These complaints lead to his attack on Dr. Pal.
In the collapse of his fortunes, Margayya is comforted by the fact
that Brinda’s baby will now be living with him.
Madan Lal
Madan Lal, the principal printer in Malgudi. A large, red-faced

man who is aware of his own importance, he is so fascinated by
the sex manual that Margayya has bought from Dr. Pal that he
stops work to read it and then arranges to publish it.
Guru Raj
Guru Raj, a dark, talkative, and polite blanket merchant, the

friend of Dr. Pal. He rents an office to Margayya.
Arul Doss : - Arul Doss, the head servant at the Cooperative Bank. An old Christian, wrinkled, with a
white mustache, he has the air of authority that derives from his uniform and his position. When he
brings Margayya word that he must leave his place near the bank, Doss frightens Margayya and his
clients, even though he himself laughs at Margayya’s boldness.
The Inspector
The Inspector, a Madras policeman. A kindly man, he befriends Margayya on the train and finds the
runaway Balu for him.
Sastri
Sastri, Margayya’s accountant. A tired old man, he occasionally

remonstrates with his employer about his unkindness to
customers. He has no real status, however, until Margayya
entrusts to him the search for an appropriate wife for Balu.
Summary
Margayya who adopted his name, which means “one who shows the way”), a financial expert, is one
of the minor businessmen who are to be found in most Indian towns and cities. Neither a
moneylender nor really a banker, he is a manipulator of others’ affairs who accumulates a modest
income by giving financial advice, selling forms, and showing illiterate farmers and peasants how to
obtain loans from the Central Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank in Malgudi. His role as middleman is
lucrative, for he has almost no overhead: His pen, ink, blotter, and account book are contained in an
old, gray tin box that he carries with him and that constitutes his office when he sits under a banyan
tree across the lawn from the bank. When he is rebuked by Arul Doss, the chief peon of the bank, for
being a nuisance on the premises (normally trying to obtain loan application forms or even new
clients), Margayya decides that large sums of money—necessary for the type of life and position in
society of which he judges himself deserving—are not to be made from villagers’ small transactions;
rather, they are to be made by devotions to Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, whose favors to
the elect are almost boundless.
A priest from a run-down local temple prescribes special rituals for obtaining the favor of Lakshmi:
mixing the ashes of a red lotus with the milk of a smoke-colored cow, exorcising rodents and
cockroaches from his house, decorating the doorways with mango-leaf garlands, and repeating a
special mantra a thousand times daily for forty days. The result is that Margayya becomes a devotee
not of Lakshmi but of money itself.
During his search for the red lotus, Margayya meets Dr. Pal, author of a 150-page manuscript, “Bed-
Life, or the Science of Marital Happiness,” and he decides to become the publisher of his manuscript
rather than a seller of snuff or tooth powder—two possibilities that attract him now that he is
almost penniless after his forty-day absence from his banyan-tree “office,” during which his son,
Balu, has thrown his account book into a sewer canal.
Madan Lal, the proprietor of the Gordon Printery on Market Road, reads Pal’s manuscript and offers
to publish it in partnership with Margayya under the title Domestic Harmony—though it is really an
amalgam of the Kama Sutra and the writings of Havelock Ellis. Sold at one rupee a copy, Domestic
Harmony (promoted as sociology but in reality a work of prurience) becomes Margayya’s means to
unexpected riches and position (as secretary of the town elementary school—through a
manipulated election).
Yet in spite of his newfound social status resulting from his increased wealth, Margayya is distressed
by the lack of academic progress by his son Balu. Even after teachers are pressured, Balu fails to gain
admission to a university and so runs away to Madras, confessing that he hates studies and
examinations.
Word is received that Balu has died—but the cause is unknown. Margayya (to economize) takes a
third-class train to Madras, where, with the help of an inspector of police, he learns that Balu is alive
and that the postcard announcing his death was written by a madman, who is a cinema owner; Balu
is the supervisor of street urchins who wear sandwich-board advertisements for films. After
reconciliation, Margayya and Balu return to Malgudi.
After preliminary inquiries about a bride for Balu, Margayya is aided by Dr. Pal, who persuades an
astrologer to manipulate horoscopes. Balu and his bride, Brinda, move into a fashionable new house,
and Dr. Pal becomes a tout for Margayya, who decides to become a deposit-taker rather than a
lender. He quickly achieves celebrity status, and he is virtually a currency-hoarder.
Balu has fallen under the influence of Dr. Pal, however, who is part owner of a “house of
debauchery,” and Margayya assaults Dr. Pal, who then spreads rumors about Margayya’s bank being
insolvent. There is a ruinous run on the bank, and even Balu’s house and property are attached. In
about four months, Margayya, crushed, suggests that Balu take up the old, gray tin box and set up
office under the banyan tree while he plays at home with his grandson.

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Margayya, the titular expect, provides financial consulting

services in the town of Malgudi. His office is a spot under a

Meena is Margayya’s wife. Innocent where he is sly, she is

Balu, Margayya and Meena’s son, grows into an irresponsible,

Dr. Pal, a writer who dabbles in several genres, also considers

Brinda is a lovely 17-year-old who marries Balu and has his

Madan Lal is an important printer who becomes enthralled by

Arul Doss is an elderly bank worker; an authoritarian figure, he

Margayya, the owner of a small business, in his thirties. A wizard

Meena, Margayya’s wife, his uncomprehending confidant and his

Balu, Margayya and Meena’s son, who is first seen as a spoiled,

Brinda, Balu’s wife, a beautiful, sweet seventeen-year-old, the

Madan Lal, the principal printer in Malgudi. A large, red-faced

Guru Raj, a dark, talkative, and polite blanket merchant, the

Sastri, Margayya’s accountant. A tired old man, he occasionally

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