Victory City

The narrative of Victory City is built on a pattern of cycles and sequences. Over the course of her long life, Pampa witnesses the same people, the same arguments, and the same relationships emerge in different eras. One of the most prominent examples is the continual presence of a European in Bisnaga. Domingo Nunes is not only the father of Pampa’s three daughters, but he is instrumental in the naming of the city. Long after he departs, Pampa meets men from Europe who look exactly like Domingo. Fernao Paes, Niccolo de’ Vieri, and Hector Barbosa are all recurrences of the same type of person, echoed across the ages. Each time Pampa meets one of Domingo’s recurrences, she is slightly less enamored with him. From loving Domingo to barely registering the presence of Hector Barbosa, Pampa becomes aware of the way that history operates in a series of cycles. She feels trapped in the cycles, doomed to fall in love with the same men throughout the centuries she spends on earth. In the same way, her city is caught in these repeating cycles of growth, conquest, decline, and loss.

The structure of historical cycles is also evident in the battles that reverberate across time. Pampa founds Bisnaga with the aim of building a more equitable society, somewhere that women are not expected to throw themselves on the funeral pyres of defeated men. In spite of this stated goal, however, the tension between men and women is never entirely absent from the city. Male rulers frequently return to the idea of having women kill themselves at funerals, forcing Pampa to intercede. Similarly, her long battle against the conservative ideology of Vidyasagar continues throughout history. Though Vidyasagar is long dead, his ideas live on. Pampa finds herself fighting against Madhava Acharya, the inheritor of Vidyasagar’s religious institutions and beliefs. Since she is better practiced in this battle, however, she is able to get the best of him. Pampa begins to harness her understanding of the cyclical nature of history to her advantage, acting quickly against the reactionary forces of the past that seek to hold back her ideal society. By the end of the novel, she is refusing to entertain the possibility of another European lover and dealing with Madhava Acharya in short order.

Pampa’s enduring youth is a blessing and a curse. While she is forced to watch as everyone who she has ever loved dies, she is also able to recognize the patterns of history. Of all the characters in the novel, she importantly recognizes that history is cyclical. Every king of Bisnaga, for example, believes that he is uniquely powerful and intelligent. Krishna believes that waging war on his borders will help to quell a domestic dispute, just like the kings before and after him. He believes that he can do as he pleases with his wives, as he does not feel that the lessons of the past apply to him. Pampa has lived long enough to see kings rise and fall. She has been instrumental in both raising up and bringing down kings, so she understands that she—and she alone—can stand outside of history. This same unique ability, however, forces Pampa to reckon with the limitations of her power. She may be able to outmaneuver Madhava Acharya in the present or give Tirumalamba the independence that she (and Zerelda) always wanted, but she will not be able to stop these same cycles from recurring in the future. When she first founded Bisnaga, Pampa discovered that she could fill people’s minds with her whispers. Her magic gave them stories and identities that suited her ambitions. As the people grew older and developed free will, however, they became immune to her whispers. Pampa could not control them as she once had. Pampa is a powerful figure, but the cycles of history are simply too powerful and people cannot help but fight the familiar fights.