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Electronic International Interdisciplinary Research Journal (EIIRJ) Electronic Bi-monthly Reviewed Journal Nov/Dec 2012
ISSN 2277-8721
A STUDY OF MYTHOLOGY OF RAMAYANA IN RAJA RAO’S KANTHAPURA
Dr. P.M. PATIL Member BOS in English, Shivaji University, Kolhapur Head, Department of English Arts, Commerce & Science College, Palus. Dist-Sangli . 416310.(M.S) ABSTRACT
The most celebrated ancient heroic text of India is the ‘Ramayana’. It provided themes for important later literary works in Indian languages. The poet Valmiki, who lived around the 3rd century BC, put the Ramayana into form. This epic tells the story of the hero Rama, the prince of Ayodhya and incarnation of the god Vishnu. Rama willingly accepts exile in the forest to redeem a promise made by his father. Rama’s wife Sita is then kidnapped and Rama rescues her by slaying her abductor, the demon king Ravana. There was great impact of Ramayana on the work of the Indian English novelist and the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Raja Rao. For him, literature is Sadhna, not a profession. Raja Rao first of introduced the elements of an epic breadth of vision, a metaphysical rigour, a philosophical depth and a symbolic richness in Indian English novel. He has learnt the art of narration from Valmiki. He has been influenced by Vedas. This research paper modestly attempts to study the mythology of Ramayana in Raja Rao’s ‘Kanthapura’.
KEYWORDS: Raja Rao, Kanthapura, Ramayana, myth, Mahatma. Introduction: The novel Kanthapura has been described as the „most satisfying of modern Indian novels‟. Dr. M. K. Naik considers Kanthapura is “…… a story of a small South Indian village caught in maelstrom of the freedom struggle of the 1930s and transformed so completely in the end that „there‟s neither man nor mosquito‟ left in it.”1 S.K. Srinivas Iyengar comments, “Gandhian politics, half poetical, half whimsical, sets the tone of Raja Rao‟s first novel Kanthapura”2 while C. D. Narasimha rightly observes, “There
ISSN 2277-8721
A STUDY OF MYTHOLOGY OF RAMAYANA IN RAJA RAO’S KANTHAPURA
Dr. P.M. PATIL Member BOS in English, Shivaji University, Kolhapur Head, Department of English Arts, Commerce & Science College, Palus. Dist-Sangli . 416310.(M.S) ABSTRACT
The most celebrated ancient heroic text of India is the ‘Ramayana’. It provided themes for important later literary works in Indian languages. The poet Valmiki, who lived around the 3rd century BC, put the Ramayana into form. This epic tells the story of the hero Rama, the prince of Ayodhya and incarnation of the god Vishnu. Rama willingly accepts exile in the forest to redeem a promise made by his father. Rama’s wife Sita is then kidnapped and Rama rescues her by slaying her abductor, the demon king Ravana. There was great impact of Ramayana on the work of the Indian English novelist and the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, Raja Rao. For him, literature is Sadhna, not a profession. Raja Rao first of introduced the elements of an epic breadth of vision, a metaphysical rigour, a philosophical depth and a symbolic richness in Indian English novel. He has learnt the art of narration from Valmiki. He has been influenced by Vedas. This research paper modestly attempts to study the mythology of Ramayana in Raja Rao’s ‘Kanthapura’.
KEYWORDS: Raja Rao, Kanthapura, Ramayana, myth, Mahatma. Introduction: The novel Kanthapura has been described as the „most satisfying of modern Indian novels‟. Dr. M. K. Naik considers Kanthapura is “…… a story of a small South Indian village caught in maelstrom of the freedom struggle of the 1930s and transformed so completely in the end that „there‟s neither man nor mosquito‟ left in it.”1 S.K. Srinivas Iyengar comments, “Gandhian politics, half poetical, half whimsical, sets the tone of Raja Rao‟s first novel Kanthapura”2 while C. D. Narasimha rightly observes, “There