the other main character, narayanappa, a brahmin by birth but one who has rejected the set rules of brahminism by eating meat and by keeping the company of a prostitute named chandri. once narayanappa and his friends catches the sacred fish in the temple tank, cooks, and eats them. this causes the brahmins in the villages to rise up against him. they approach praneshacharya to throw him out of the village. praneshacharya decides against taking this extreme step and he believes that narayanappa can be convinced to get rid of his immoral acts. once narayanappa visits shimoga and he returns to duravasapura with high fever and dies. the brahmins are left in a piquant situation because, according to brahmin principles, a person who dies should be cremated as early as possible. none of the brahmins wants to cremate the body — they feel that by cremating narayanappa's body, they will become polluted as he was against the brahmin principles during his life.