Clarinda written in English is a novel set in the mid-18th century. The story is based on a historical figure, a real Clarinda, the widow of a Maratha Brahmin, who had been one of the King's servants in Tanjore, and after her husband's death became theconcubine of an English oficer of the name Lyttleton. She asked Rev. Schwartz to baptize her when he visited Palayamkottai. He refused, however, because of her 'irregular union'. Some years laterm after her husband's death, she was accepted into the chruch.
From these bare facts, Madhaviah creates a fictionlized early life of Clarinda as she grows up in the principality of Tanjore. The imagined story of this unusual woman, who gradually takes control of her life, gives Madhaviah the opportunity to work out some of his favourite themes: woman's education, the question of sati and widow re-marriage and the encounter between Hinduism and Christianity. The cross cultural, inter-religious relationship which is at the heart of the novel is unusual and profoundly interesting.