When we talk about experience as knowledge we can say that each time we undergo any experience, we learn something. All these experiences help us learn from the mistakes we made and guide us on how to do better the next time we face a similar challenge. This cumulative learning over time adds up to knowledge. This concept of ‘experiences as knowledge’ can be applied to understand certain aspects of ‘ Annayya’s Anthropology’ written by A.K Ramanujan.

In the short story ‘Annayya’s Anthropology’, Annayya is a young man who was born in Mysore and is now in America for further studies. In a textual analysis of the story we can see many instances when Annayya uses his experiences from when he was back in Mysore to relate to a particular text while he is studying in America in an attempt to gain self- knowledge. One such instance is when he reads in Manu about the twelve impurities of the human bodies and tried to recall his experiences of what he had been told about it. He recalled that “he had been told as a child not to spit, to clean himself after a bowel movement and after urinating” ( Ramanujan, A.K “Annayya’s Anthropology” npg) and also gave the example of his aunt that “ whenever his aunt went to the outhouse she took with her a handful of clay” ( Ramanujan,A.K “Annayya’s Anthropology” npg).

From the story, we get to know that, while living in India, “Annayya was obsessed with things American, English or European”(Ramanujan, A.K “Annayya’s Anthropology” npg). Living in a conservative Indian society, the best he could do to quench his thirst for the western way of life was to read about it. It was only when he arrived in America that “he drank beer and whisky, ate beef, used toilet paper instead of washing himself with water, lapped up the Playboy magazines with their pictures of naked breasts, thighs, and some navels as big as rupee coins””(Ramanujan, A.K “Annayya’s Anthropology”)Once in America, he gets questioned frequently on rituals of Hinduism,'Why do your women wear that red dot on their forehead?'In order to answer such queries correctly, Annayya starts to read, and gradually gets obsessed with books on Indian tradition.It is then that Annayyachances upon a book called ‘Hinduism: Custom and Ritual’ which was written by Steven Fergusson, an American anthropologist whoo had done his field studies in India while on a Ford Foundation fellowship. “What amazing information this Fergusson chap had given! There was a quotation from Manu on every page”(Ramanujan, A.K “Annayya’s Anthropology” npg). While he was reading about the four aspects of funeral rites, Annayya realized that he had very little experience when it came to funerals. Yet his theoretical knowledge of the funeral rites of Brahmins was truly remarkable as he knew everything from how the position of the dead Brahmin should be before his funeral to the ten different items that had to be given away as charity following a Brahmin’s death.

As for Steven Fergusson, the only reason that he was able to write the book was because he was able to experience and witness all of the traditions and rituals first hand. Steven Fergusson, who was an ‘ outcaste foreigner’, had come to Mysore and during his three year stay there from 1966-68, had been helped by Annayya’s cousin Sundararaya and his familyin collecting material for the book. 'How much did the Fergusson chap pay him?'wondered Annayya.In a tragic twist,Annayya recognises people and the veranda of a house in the photographs in the book only to realise that they document the funeral of his own father!

'All these years, Annayya had not really seen death.'Now, as he witnessed second -hand his father's funeral and his mother's shaved head, he realised that the theoretical knowledge of the entire ritualistic procedure of a Brahmin's funeral that he had could never have prepared him for the actual experience .And by not informing Annayya of his father's death and performing the funeral rituals himself, Sundararaya had robbed and cheated him of his rights .'The story tugs at the immigrant's dread that distance will prevent his fulfilment of filial duty.'(Kumar Amitava, Kenyon review, volume XXIV/number 3/4, page 76)

Through this story, Ramanujan has made the reader realise that one cannot substitute reading up on certain matters for actually experiencing them.Theoretical knowledge can only enhance one's appreciation and understanding of one's experiences.'Death is an individual grief; for other it may have only academic interest. '(Uma Mahadevan Dasgupta, The Hindu, dated May 15th, 2016) So what for Fergusson was just an incident in an anthropological study was an opportunity for Sundararaya to exploit commercially and was actually a life changing and tragic time in Annayya's life which he missed to experience first -hand.