“Our village - I don’t think you have ever heard about it - Kanthapura is its name, and it is in the province of Kara.” 

This is a classic tone-setting line, establishing that Kanthapura is an out-of-the-way location where an untold drama took place against the backdrop of a great historical event. By establishing that the reader likely never heard of Kanthapura, the novel feels new in a way a better known location would not. 

“Why should a widow, and a childless widow too, have a big house like that? And it is not her father that built it. … It’s my husband’s ancestors that built it.” 

This line establishes the source of Waterfall Venkamma’s longstanding enmity against Rangamma. It is not anything due to the younger woman’s actions, but simply the fortune she has encountered that Venkamma believes should be hers. This will set the tone for the two women’s tumultuous relationship over the course of the book. 

“He was not like corner-house Moorthy, who had gone through life like a noble cow, quiet, generous, serene, deferent, and Brahmanic.” 

Moorthy’s evolution from kind, educated, and respected young man to firebrand rebel is at the core of Kanthapura’s narrative. This line will be seen as deeply ironic as the book goes on, as Moorthy’s activism far eclipses that of the young man with whom he is positively contrasted.