Raja Rao facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Raja Rao
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 8 November 1908 Hassan, Kingdom of Mysore, British India (now in Karnataka, India) |
| Died | 8 July 2006 (aged 97) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, professor |
| Language | Kannada, French, English |
| Alma mater | Osmania University University of Madras, University of Montpellier Sorbonne |
| Period | 1938–1998 |
| Genre | Novel, short story, essay |
| Notable works | Kanthapura (1938) The Serpent and the Rope (1960) |
| Notable awards |
|
 Literature portal |
|
Raja Rao (born November 8, 1908 – died July 8, 2006) was an Indian-American writer. He wrote novels and short stories in English. His stories often explored deep philosophical ideas.
His book The Serpent and the Rope (1960) was a very important work. It was a bit like his own life story, about searching for spiritual truth in Europe and India. This book showed he was a great writer and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964. Later, he received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988 for all his writings. Raja Rao's work is a big part of both Indian English literature and world literature.
Contents
About Raja Rao
His Early Life
Raja Rao was born on November 8, 1908, in Hassan. This was in the Kingdom of Mysore, which is now Karnataka in South India. He grew up in a Kannada-speaking family. He was the oldest of nine children.
His father, H.V. Krishnaswamy, taught Kannada and Math. His mother, Gauramma, was a homemaker. Sadly, his mother died when Raja Rao was only four years old. This loss deeply affected him. The idea of losing a mother or being an orphan often appeared in his books. He also spent time with his grandfather, which was important to him.
Raja Rao went to a Muslim school in Hyderabad. After finishing school in 1927, he studied at Nizam's College. He became friends with Ahmad Ali there. He also started learning French. After college, he won a scholarship to study in France in 1929.
He moved to the University of Montpellier in France. There, he studied French language and literature. Later, at the Sorbonne in Paris, he looked into how Indian ideas influenced Irish literature. In 1931, he married Camille Mouly, a French teacher. He wrote some of his first stories in French and English.
A Writer for India
Raja Rao returned to India in 1939. He helped edit a book called Changing India. This book collected important Indian ideas from different thinkers. He also took part in the Quit India Movement in 1942. This was a big movement for India's freedom from British rule.
His first two books showed his support for India's freedom. His novel Kanthapura (1938) was about how Gandhi's ideas of nonviolent protest affected a village. He used a storytelling style similar to old Indian folk tales. He also wrote about Gandhi's ideas in his short story collection The Cow of the Barricades (1947).
After a long break, he wrote The Serpent and the Rope (1960). This book explored the connections between Indian and Western cultures. The "serpent" in the title means illusion, and the "rope" means reality. His book Cat and Shakespeare (1965) was a funny story that answered some of the philosophical questions from his earlier novels.
Later Life and Awards
In 1966, Raja Rao moved to the United States. He became a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He taught there until 1986. He taught courses on different philosophies, including Indian philosophy.
He married Katherine Jones, an American actress, in 1965. They had a son named Christopher Rama. After they divorced, he married his third wife, Susan Vaught, in 1986. In 1988, he won the important International Neustadt Prize for Literature. In 1998, he wrote a book about Mahatma Gandhi called Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi.
Raja Rao passed away on July 8, 2006, in Austin, Texas. He was 97 years old.
The Raja Rao Award
An award called the 'Raja Rao Award for Literature' was created in his honor in 2000. This award recognized writers and scholars who made great contributions to literature and culture from South Asia. It was given out seven times between 2000 and 2009.
Some of the people who received the award came from different countries. These included K. S. Maniam from Malaysia and Yasmine Gooneratne from Sri Lanka. The award was stopped in 2009.
Kanthapura Summary
Kanthapura (1938) is Raja Rao's most famous novel. It tells the story of a village in South India called Kanthapura. An old woman from the village, Achakka, tells the story like a traditional folk tale.
In the village, some groups like Brahmins had more advantages. Other groups, like Pariahs, were not treated as well. But during festivals, everyone came together. The villagers believed a local goddess named Kenchamma protected their village.
The main character is Moorthy, a young Brahmin. He goes to the city to study and learns about Gandhian ideas. Moorthy starts living like Gandhi, wearing simple clothes and speaking out against the unfair caste system. Because of this, the village priest turns against him. Moorthy's mother dies from sadness.
Moorthy then lives with Rangamma, an educated widow who supports India's independence. Moorthy tries to share Gandhi's teachings with workers at a coffee estate. A policeman beats Moorthy, but the workers stand up for him. Moorthy continues his fight against unfairness. He becomes a strong follower of Gandhi.
The British government arrests Moorthy, saying he caused violence. Moorthy refuses bail and spends three months in prison. While he is in jail, the women of Kanthapura take charge. Rangamma leads them, telling them stories of brave Indian women. The police attack the village, and it is burned. When Moorthy is released, he sees that his village has changed a lot. Much of the land has been sold, and he feels that Gandhi's ideas might not work in the same way anymore.
Awards and Honors
- 1964: Sahitya Akademi Award (a top Indian literary award)
- 1969: Padma Bhushan (India's third highest civilian award)
- 1988: Neustadt International Prize for Literature (a major international literary award)
- 2007: Padma Vibhushan (India's second highest civilian award, given after his death)
See also
- List of Indian writers
