The novel "Samskara" by U. R. Anantha Murthy begins in medias res. When the novel opens, we find that Praneshacharya, the protagonist of the novel bathed his wife, Bhagirathi, a withered invalid woman and took care of her to attain salvation or "moksha". At that point of time, Chandri, another important character of the novel,  brought the news of the death of Naranappa, the reprobate Brahmin of the agrahara, who had no heirs to perform his funeral rites.


             There is a confusion about the person who performed the death rites of Naranappa. All the brahmins of the agrahara were looking toward Praneshacharya for his valuable dicision about this matter:
          "Don't be in a hurry. Wait till Praneshacharya gives you a dicision. Don't agree too quickly to perform the rites......."

            The opening of the novel, thus, represents the typical orthodoxical brahmin rituals. As Naranappa, while living, did not perform any brahminical rituals, no one is ready to cremate his body.Even they said, "Alive,Naranappa was an enemy; dead, a preventer of meals; as a corpse, a problem, a nuisance." Here we also find that all the important characters of the novel are introduced here. The central theme or the interest of the novel i.e. the cremation of  Naranappa is also discovered in the very beginning.