PREFACE

Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan are two prolific writers of Indian English fiction.
Of the triad of Raja Rao, R.K. Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand, Rao and Narayan are
considered to be the novelists who moved the western world as they have written
fiction that appeals to all genres of readers. The two writers have been able to draw the
interest the intellect of the readers to the social, economic, political and philosophical
conditions that existed in those times. Their writings have been able to influence the
minds of the reader in such a way that on e would be compelled to read the novel till
the end at one go as the language, flow and sequence of events and the philosophical
digressions that the characters undertake to understand the situations they get into are
to reckon with. R.K.Narayan was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1958 for
The Guide. He was also awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1964 for his immense
contribution to English literature. Raja Rao was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award
in 1964 for The Serpent and the Rope.

The present study aims to make an impartial, judicious and deep scrutiny of
Raja Rao’s and R.K. Narayan’s works. It attempts to take a fresh look at their works
revealing the so-far-unexplored aspects of the territories of spiritual ideologies in their
works as both writers come from Brahmin families of South India. Operating at all
levels of their writings, it endeavours to analyse the philosophy that underlies in their
portrayal of characters. On the one hand it weighs the struggle to identify the inner self
and see light at the end of it to attain the highest state of peace and on the other it
examines the various philosophies that influence both the writers in exposing these
areas in their works. The study seeks to answer two questions, one, to analyse the self
in the characters which transgresses beyond the physical and aims to become one with
the Absolute and two, to understand that the characters are only human and the non
self plays truant with them and how they learn to overcome these materialistic planes
to reach the zenith of spiritual wisdom.

i
 The First Chapter Introduction introduces the spiritual territories that we need
to find in the works and the ideologies that lie behind them and about the two authors
with regard to their life and the formative influences. The novels of Raja Rao and R.
K. Narayan have also been discussed to take a deeper look in the subsequent chapters
for detailed analysis. This would help in heightening the understanding and
appreciation of the works and at the same time insinuates what the thesis aims at.

The Second Chapter Symbolic Fabric: Kanthapura highlights the use of the
technique of Harikatha to blend the narrative with deep rooted religious faith and
revitalized the spiritual springs within. The rich Sthala-purana or legendary history is
the narrative form used. The story can be taken as an encyclopedia of ancient and
medieval Hinduism. The structure and rhythm reflect the flavor of Indian speech in
English much different from the intonations of the King’s English. Transliterations
indicate the local language influencing the use of picturesque nicknames, expressions
and idioms. The complete Indianness of Kanthapura in spirit and sensibility, form and
style reflects clearly the sense of belonging to the place. The range of the novel is
limited and the area of East-West confrontation it covers is as narrow as the village it
forms its setting. The novel has given partial scope to the philosophical quest which
has been an essential part of his novels. This way, one would be able to pay attention
towards the sublime states that one can attain through the simple lives of the people
discussed in the novel.

The Third Chapter Suggestive Modalities: Serpent and the Rope will
concretize the metaphysical structure of thought. The novel has a wide intellectual
culture – the Vedas, Upanishads, Buddha, Shankara, jostle with kathas. Knowledge
alive with understanding becomes the marvelously felt thought and to the reader it
feels like lived experience. It is a symbolic novel with ideas. It has a complex structure
and orchestrates a number of themes of central concern to the East and West. The
characters leap out of their local context, become symbolic and echo in the corridors
of time. The philosophical and dense passages and light passages full of sunshine and

ii
warmth are woven in a pattern which enacts the concept of the Serpent and the Rope,
the inner and the outer reality.

The Fourth Chapter Norms of Causation: The Cat and Shakespeare and The
Chessmaster and His Moves rediscover the metaphysic of life in the ‘way of the
kitten’- “surrender to Destiny”. Raja Rao calls this a ‘metaphysical comedy’. It is a
novella in outer form, but ontological comedy in inner form. The ‘Prahasana’ is
wholly Indian in spirit and texture. The physical details of the novel, the cat, the rat,
the wall, and the ration shop are all subsumed into the details of the myth and the
allegory. The dialectical form of the novel thus lends to it the conceptual unity and the
centrality of the theme on hand. It carries the philosophy of self-surrender and
acceptance of the world as a necessary step towards metaphysical identification. In
short, ‘Visishtadvaita’ (non-dualism) that is, mere devotion to the Divine is enough.
The novel is a complex work since it encompasses quite divergent strands:
metaphysics and satire. All men are kittens carried by, the cat, the mother principle: to
accept is the best way ‘to be’ and ‘to know’. Regarding the symbolism of the title,
Man must learn the ways of the kitten if he has to gain release from the rat-ridden
blind alley.

Mother cat and Karma encompassing the varied realms of fiction and reality
and the way these seemingly irreconcilable characters are reconciled in the harmony
of art. The bilva tree, Shiva are some of the symbols, the devices of fable and parable
serve to reinforce the experimental range of the novel, and endeavour ‘to transmute
the conceptual thinking into concrete sensations’ such that the facts of the situation
acquire by themselves the power and potency of generalisation.

Symbolism assigns an understanding to the distress caused due to the situations

existing around us. The use of this will help me to highlight how one can resort to it to
achieve control of the senses.

The Fifth Chapter Territories of Textual Turmoil: The English Teacher are
unpretentious. The most noteworthy quality of his works is that he knows his
limitations and seldom ventures beyond. His plots are thin but he is able to engross his

iii
readers through “suspense’ and ‘curiosity’. “Malgudi is the hero of Narayan’s novels’.
All ten novels and most of the short stories are set in Malgudi, which could be a small
town in South India by a similar name. His characters are one-dimensional and his cast
in each novel is limited. His prose is of the plains in the South in April when the rivers
are streamlets standing still in the torrid blaze of the tropical sun, appreciated by
passers-by not so much for their meager beauty but for the sheer fact that they are
there, still surviving under the summer sun. This metaphor applies to his early work
too. It is appreciated for the sheer fact of its existence at a time and place when the
literary climate was dry and barren. The excerpts will help me analyse the reason for
the turmoil and how one can come to an understanding of himself that all things
material are short lived and seeking the simple joys of life will keep one happy.

The Sixth Chapter Self and Non-Self: The Bachelor of Arts indicates how
Narayan has an easy flow of words, speaks at a basic level and needs an essential
receptivity from his audience. The limitations of his vocabulary are accentuated by his
proneness to economize on words. He uses both fantasy and realism in eight of his ten
novels. The first half often has excellent, realistically drawn setting, characterization
and action. About half way through, there is a distinct break and fantasy takes over.
He is proficient in animating the middle class urban life in south India. He is fine in
bringing out the eccentricities and vices of the common men and excellent at
portraying rogues because his rogues are common men. The middle class man due to
deprivation of many rich luxuries of life seeks solace in the sublime and satiates
himself with what he has and controls himself by understanding that desiring for more
leads only to sorrow and suffering ultimately assigning him the spiritual embodiment
of attaining the ethereal. Through these works, I will be able to throw light on the path
that one can transcend to and exult in the available resources that they can afford.

The Conclusion will deduce the outcomes of spiritual ideologies through the
reflections from the novels.

iv