‘The Gardener’ presents the story of two farmers who get actively involved in rivalry and each one tries to overtake the other in earnings, wealth and social prestige. But, at one point, Basavaiah takes recourse to force and forcibly occupies a part of Tammanna’s landholdings. Until now both of them had tried to upstage the other using tangible means. But now Tammanna realizes the limitations of muscle power and so uses his ‘intellect’ to unleash a strategy by which he wishes to annihilate Basavaiah completely. He gets all his bitter experiences with Basavaiah composed in the form of ballads and songs and sings them in public.

Thus, Tammanna tries to give a fitting reply to Basavaiah’s use of physical force and so their fight takes a psychological dimension. Basavaiah fails to match up to the manipulatory tactics of Tammanna and shrinks in humiliation. However, he tries to console his wounded pride by indulging in luxurious living. No matter what he does, he does not succeed in upstaging Tammanna. It is at this stage higher forces play their own role. Tammanna falls ill and Basavaiah enjoys psychologically telling himself that Tammanna’s disease is Basavaiah’s health. This way, Basavaiah gets the satisfaction of finding a reason to keep himself happy. So, here the story has now passed from the physical dimension to the psychological dimension.

At this stage, Tammanna comes out with another plan. He plans to use something beyond man’s life. Tammanna thinks that as long as Basavaiah knows that he is alive, Basavaiah will continue to take him as his rival. So Tammanna hits on an idea which works at a level higher than the physical and psychological level. His plan is to beat Basavaiah on another plane, which is beyond man’s limits. He knows for sure that if Basavaiah comes to think that Tammanna is dead, Basavaiah will stop treating him as his rival. Tammanna goes away to Chennarayapatna and spreads the news that Tammanna is dead. It is sheer coincidence that Basavaiah dies a natural death. But Tammanna comes to feel guilty that he was the cause of his death. This incident brings him back to his senses and he reflects over his life.

Now, after the death of Basavaiah, Tammanna has become a non-entity. When he reflects over their mutual game plans, Tammanna realizes that man invents several reasons to make his life meaningful. He also realizes that man can go on indulging in whims and fancies until a certain age only. Later, when the man comes to confront reality, he comes to see the truth. Then he becomes spiritual. That is when a man realizes his limitations. Thus we see the plot taking several dimensions from physical to psychological and then to spiritual.

But, this story also takes another dimension. Earlier, stories that used to focus on man’s vices like cruelty, meanness, greed, jealousy, rivalry, etc., used to be portrayed on a smaller canvas and the stories used to be confined to people living in towns, cities and kingdoms. We are now in the post-modern society and the common man is now being influenced by global forces. In traditional societies, solutions to man’s mundane, existential problems used to be found locally. A king or a Lord or a chieftain or a zamindar used to dispense justice. But this story is situated in a post-modern society.

When Basavaiah acquires Tammanna’s land forcibly, Tammanna’s followers offer three solutions – seek the help of the police; seek a legal solution; or take recourse to use muscle power. The three strategies suggested by Tammanna’s followers saturate this story in the post-modern scenario. Their thinking exhibits a modern world where police, law court and mafia exist. Even at the national and international levels, big countries like Russia and America follow such strategies.

The fact that Tammanna makes a reference to Russia and America, is only a hint by the author that the problems of ‘man’ in the modern society cannot be confined to the war between ‘virtues and vices’ of the yesteryears but man’s problems are complex and are reflected at the global level also.

Similarly, when Tammanna makes a reference to Russia’s declaration to America that America is not their enemy and she will not wage a war against America, it is only a strategy by the writer to suggest that Tammanna and Basavaiah belong to postmodern society. One can also infer that a literary artist in the modern world cannot be blind to man’s problems in general and try to suggest solutions at the local level. Man’s problems are deep-rooted and have implications at different levels. Man’s problems go beyond a nation and though problems of human society are the same, they assume different dimensions as human society becomes more and more complex every day.