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Ravi's mother too plays a limited role in the novel. She is mother who is over-burdened with the drudgery of rearing up a family of numerous daughters and sons and a blind old irritable husband. She lives a poor, miserable life. The family has to live in hardship on whatever Ravi earns while working in the bank. Later on, things become still worse when Ravi goes mad. She is meek and tolerant as she bears ungrudgingly the insults and rebukes that her blind husband hurls at her. He is peevish and uncontrollable in his outbursts. She remains patient. She has to take a loan of two rupees from Srinivas to purchase rice which they have not taken for the last many days. She is a patiently suffering mother who is wholly devoted to her family.
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| Ravi's Mother |
Ravi's sudden insanity upsets the mother highly since he is the only earning member of the family. She believes superstitiously that Ravi's madness is the result of an evil influence of some spirit. She, therefore, summons services of an exorcist to cure him. She is ready to undergo any sort of discomfort for her son. She takes him to a temple at Sailam for a week where, as advised by the exorcist, he can be cured. She undertakes the journey and leaves her husband to the care of Srinivas's wife to whom she expressed her gratitude for her co-operative and helpful attitude.
There is a mention about the four daughters of Sampath who appear only once in the novel at the time of Srinivas's visit to Sampath's house. They entertain him with a song at the harmonium. There is a reference to numerous sisters of Ravi. Only one of them makes her individual appearance when, told by her mother, she asks Srinivas for a loan of two rupees to purchase rice. They are shadowy characters as they are referred to hurriedly. They are stated only to point out the enormity of family burden that Sampath's wife has to bear meekly.