Kanthapura: Legendary History

Kanthapura: As A Legendary History

Introduction of Raja Rao:

    A Kannada novelist who had wrote many things about India is none another than Raja Rao. Raja Rao was born on 8^th of November, 1908. His birth place was Hassan, in the state of Mysore (presently Karnataka) in South India. H was born in well-known Brahmin family. He was the eldest child among all the nine children. His mother tongue was Kannada. He has completed his post-graduate education in France, but the form of all his books publication was in English. His father was teaching Kannada at Nizam College. His mother was died when he was just four year old. He was educated at Muslim Schools named Madarsa-e-Aliya. It was situated in Hyderabad. He also took his education at the Aligarh Muslim University. He graduated from the University of Madras. He also won the Asiatic Scholarship of the Government of Hyderabad in 1929, for study in abroad.Raja Rao moved to the University of Montpellier located at France. He was teaching French language and literature at there. He explored the Indian effects on the Irish literature. He married Camille Mouly in 1931.She was her first wife. She was teaching French at Montpellier. The marriage was couldn’t breathe more and it lasted in very short time of nine years in 1939. He also worked as a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin from 1966 to 1983. Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, was a friend of Rao, published his only a poem in the English language, "To Raja Rao".  After having a conversation with him.

He was an Indian writer of English language novels, short story and essays. His novels are still esteemed because of the realistic presentation of the past. Kanthapura was his first novel. The novels in which we can see his magnificent works were Kanthapura (1938) and The Serpent and the Rope (1960). The Serpent and the Rope was a semi-autobiographical novel. In this novel he wrote about his breakdown of their marriage. It was based on spiritual truth in India and Europe, which made him as one of the finest Indian Stylist novelist and won him the “Sahitya Akademi Award” in 1964. He published Gandhi’s biography “great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi”. For this he was awarded the “Neustadt International Prize for Literature” in 1988. He also honoured with “Padma Bhushan” in 1969 and with the “Padma Vibhushan” in 2007. He married Katherine Jones in 1965. She was an American stage actress. They have a son named Christopher Rama. They divorced in 1986. After that he married his third wife. Her name was Susan, whom he met when she was a student at the University of Texas in 1970s. Raja Rao died at the age of 97 on 8^th of July at Austin in Texas.

Kanthapura as a Novel:

    “Kanthapura” is the first Indian novel written in English. It was one of the finest novels that appear in mid-twentieth century India. It is also one of the finest depictions of the Freedom Movement commenced in the early twentieth century by Mahatma Gandhi to lead India towards freedom from the colonial British rule. We can say that it is a traditional novel but we can also add that it follows the oral tradition of Indian legendary history. In that time majority of people in India lived their life under the British rule. The British ruler used to harm our ideas and ideals of Indian Nationalism. It is the story about Gandhi’s struggle for independence from the British ruler. So they came to the village called Kanthapura, in south India. Kanthapura is realistic and impartial presentation of the impact of Gandhian movement. Gandhi’s philosophy of life and political struggle is found in some characters of “Kanthapura”.

Kanthapura as a village:

   Kanthapura is a small village. It is a social document about a village in turmoil and the people living in it. This village is a microcosm of the traditional Indian society with its entrenched caste hierarchy. It located at the Western Ghats of “Himvathi” river in South India. Kanthapura played a vital role in the novel “Kanthapura”. Raja Rao shows traditional society and rural culture of India. There were two types of Brahmin Quarters. First one is Sudra quarter and second one is Pariah quarters. There were many sub casts but still all the villagers share their feelings with each other. That shows the tradition of Indian culture. People of Kanthapura still have that spark for life and they believed in togetherness. Kanthapura was not financially rich and civilized but people still connected with ceremonies, rituals and festivals with each other. They celebrate all the festivals like Ganesh-Chaturthi, Dashehara, Kartik Purnima together. That shows their unity and love for each other. Religion, imparted through discourses and prayer, keep alive in the native a sense of the presence of god.

It was narrated by Achakka. She was an old village woman lived in Kanthapura. In the first paragraph Achakka informs us of Kanthapura geographical location:

Our village – I don’t think you have ever heard

About it – Kanthapura is its name, and it is in the

Province of Kara.

High on the Ghats is it, high up the steep mountains

That face the cool Arabian seas, up the Malabar coast

Is it, up Manglore and Puttur and many a centre of

Cardamom and coffee, rice and sugarcane.

Roads, narrow, dusty, rut-covered roads, wind through the

Forest of teak and of jack, of sndal and of sal, and

Hanging over bellowing gorges and leaping over

Elephant-haunted valleys, they turn now to the left

And now to the right and being you through the

Alambi and Champa and Mena and Kola passes into,

The great granaries of trade. There, on the blue waters.

They say, our cartd cardamoms and coffee get into

The ships the Red-men bring, and, so they say, they

Go across the seven oceans into the countries where

Our rulers live.

   The story took place less than two years earlier, and all the memory was quite fresh in the mind of the grandmother. She and her female audience whom she addresses as “sisters” had survived the turbulence of social and political change. She creates her faithful image of an Indian way of life, circumscribed by tradition and indebted to its deities, of whom Kenchamma. She was the great and bounteous goddess.The grandmother recites distinctive sthala-purana about the goddess: “She called a demon ages, ages, ago, ademon that had come to ask our young women as wives. Keuchamma came from the heavens… and she waged such a battle and she fought so many a night that the blood soaked into the earth, and that is why the Kenchamma. Hill is all red. If not, tell me, sister, why should it be red only from the Tippur stream upwards, for a foot down on the other side of the stream you have mud, black and brown, but never red? Tell me, how could this happen, if it were not for Kenchamma and her battle? Thank heaven, not only did she slays the demon, but she even settled down among us, and this much I shall say, never has she failed us in our grief”.

 The novel “Kanthapura” takes us to the world of history of Hindu. We also experienced the Hindu epics and also come across the Hindu thoughts. The novel has also developed its mythic and symbolic framework. We find some elements whish shows the message of Nationalism that were ancient history, religion, characters from the epics, natural landscape and simple life of the village community of Kanthapura. Hari-Kathas was practiced by the villagers. As it is a traditional form of storytelling. Hari-Kathas are the story of God. Jayramchar was Hari-Katha man who narrated Hari-Katha based on Gandhi and his ideals. Afterwards he was arrested because of the political propaganda installed in the story.

   The leading character of the novel was “Moorthy”. He was the protagonist of the novel. He was a young guy with full of enthusiasm. He was also a well educated city boy. He discovered a half buried “Linga” from the village and installed it. After that a temple was built at there in the village and it became the centre point of the villagers. They used to celebrate all the ceremonies at there in the village. When he first time meet Mahatma Gandhi, he was very much impressed with him. So Moorthy decided to take a decision for his village. So he decides to bring his inactive village to the centrestage of national politics. When he returns to the village, he tried to put on Gandhian philosophies in the village. He tried to make them true satyagrahis. The novel is very much focused on Moorthy.

   One another leading character of novel is Rangamma. She was also one of the strongest women characters of the novel. She is a widow. And she has not any child. Her parents live with her. They were the necessary part of village Kanthapura. Rangamma was the first choice for the women member when Moorthy takes the step to make Congress Committee in Kanthapura.  She was backbone for Moorthy. She gives her house to use as Congress office. She was very much connected with Moorthy.

   Bhatta is also one other character of the novel Kanthapura. He is very sharp and judicious. He divides Moorthy in two different camps. One is Moorthy Camp and second one is Anti Moorthy Camp. Bade Khan was a police officer. He was Non Hindu of Kanthapura. He was brought and supported by the coffee planters. They were English men. Bade Khan was an enemy of the people of Kanthapura, as he supports the outsiders like English Men. Ratna’s character is related to Rangamma. She is a child widow. She was very strong and brave girl in very beginning but in absence of Moorthy and Rangamma she became a very good leader. Later she joined the main stream politics.

    Moorthy started living with Rangamma after the death of his mother. Moorthy was invited by Brahmin clerks at Skeffington. It was for to create awareness among all the coolies of the estate. When Moorthy was in the way for Kanthapura, Bade Khan hit him then Pariah coolies were stood with Moorthy. Though he was able to follow Gandhian Non Violance Principle, but this incident made him sad and he was unhappy after this. All the villagers were afraid after forced by British ruler to change their side and the government of British Ruler provoke them to inflict violent. And they arrested Moorthy. So Rangamma was decided to go for bail but they refused to do so. They punished Moorthy for three months strict imprisonment. Moorthy was facing very tough time in the prison. But the women of Kanthapura decided to fight for the freedom. So they create their own group. They named it Women’s Volunteer Corps. The leader of the group was Rangamma. In leadership of Rangamma, all the women of village had also started fight against cruel British ruler. She motivates all the women by telling the story of historical characters like Rani Laxmi Bai, Sarojini Naidu and many more. And there for Moorthy came out from the prison and he became stronger than before. And then he again started working for freedom. Threw his committee he was spreading the message of non-violence. He had worked hard for to get freedom from them.   

                In Kanthapura, we find the rural Indian culture. Moorthy was Raja Rao had define it very well threw out the novel. He didn’t define India through the geographical and tropical landmarks that are in India or the kings who were ruling India since long time. He says that they all are Indian and they essentially share the vision called India. Raja Rao was in against of comparing western history with the puranic history. Kanthapura was the imaginary novel of Raja Rao. There was no actual presence of Gandhi but his thought was alive in the characters whom they following very deeply. All the thoughts of freedom and better life were truly effects on the mind of the villagers.

“Who was this Gandhiji” Narsa asked Achakka this in Kanthapura. And he got reply “An old man- a bewitching man, a saint you know...! He looks beautiful as morning sun and he wers only a loincloth like a pariah ... He is a great man. They say he is an incarnation of God, and that is why everybody touches his feet even Brahmins my Son”. The novel records the Gandhian impact on a typical Indian villege through an informal but very intimate narration of an elderly widow,Achakka. Gandhi’s character was portrayed as a hero’s like Ram, Krishna, Shiva in the novel “Kanthapura”. The novel defines Gandhi as a divine reincarnation of Shiva. Kanthapura emerges to be a laboratory of the Gandhian thought and theory. The novel is a veritable grammar of the Gandhian myth. In Kanthapura, religion, an integral part of culture has been used for a secular and political purpose such as attaining Independence. Here religion has got a very significant role to play in defining the identity of people and also of the nation. The novel has a latent pattern to the treatment of castes and communities of Kanthapura. The congress workers, who were so passionate about ‘swadeshi’ and give up anything foreign, and they humiliate the European model of nation. This idea requires a nation state to have a singular form. A nation is a community of people who have a common language etc. Thus in Kanthapura, Congressmen including Moorthy follow the same model of the nation-state. Sankaru epitomises this: his insistence on speaking Hindi even to his mother instead of the local language Kannada; his fanatic resistance to the use of English and so on. This conception of the nation informs that of everyone: e.g. the narrator visualises Moorthy {when in prison} to be wearing kurta pyjama instead of dhoti. The Hindi teacher is not from any Hindi speaking region but a Malayali [Surya Menon]. Thus, the very conception of ‘Nation’, which is conceived after the European model of the nation-state, undermines the ‘Swadeshi’ spirit of nationalism. Any pure form of nationhood untouched by colonialism is seriously questioned.

Conclusion:

Raja Rao doesn’t miss the rhythm of “Indianness’ throughout the novel. In whole novel we find everything related to India and people of India. Raja Rao had included all the elements of Indian and Western spirit. So the novel had proved Raja Rao an extra ordinary novelist. Kanthapura is a documentization of philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and the theory of Hinduism, the spirit of nationalism and an acknowledgement of common people in India. The structure of the novel also put a lime light on the women and Dalits and how they were treated in the society and how because of the British rule they enjoyed certain privileges which were otherwise next to impossible. A quote by C. Kodhndaraman

“The British rile in India gave dalits and women an opportunity to display their anger and power which in a subtle way foretells that they are capable of fighting any type of oppression. They can both be admired and feared: admired for their role in the freedom struggle and feared for the potential they represent which can subvert and transform the status.”

Reflect the elements of Humanism and Feminism in the novel Kanthapura. Meenakshi Mukherjee says about the Kanthapura is on feminism “Making this old woman the narrator enables Raja Rao to mingle facts and myths and in an effective manner. For the old woman, Jawaharlal is a Bhratha to the Mahatma who she believes will slay Ravana so that Sita may be freed. For her Gandhi has attained the status of god and Moorthy is regarded Avatar in Kanthapura. The characteristically concrete imagination of the uneducated mind pictures the Mahatma as large and blue like the Sahydan mountain on whose slops the pilgrims climb to the top, while Moorthy is seen as a small mountain. To her the Satyagraha becomes a religious ceremony to which she devotes her sacred ardour.” And we can see this threw the character like Rangamma, Ratna and Moorthy.

Raja Rao had played the role of social critic in the novel and he was constantly in talk with his readers, which proved the quality of his writing skill and his mentality. He shows the glory of India threw the mother tongue of India like Hindi and Sanskrit. He had created a microcosm of fiction. Kanthapura shows the mirror image of the contemporary Indian society. In the beginning of the novel, the concept of freedom and nationalism is alien to the villagers. Alans Kohn said about nationalism: “Nationalism in India is not as a vehicle of individual liberty but as adoration of collective power.” The element of spirituality is brought through the use of myths and legend. It is the work of social realism. The life here is symbolic.

In Kanthapura Moorthy’s character is reflects the character of Gandhiji and Gandhiji was compared with the figure of god Rama. R. s. Singh had said upon this: “It may be clarified at outset that Kanthapura, is not an allegory because the comparision between Gandhi-British rule and Ramam-Ravana situation is not collaborate and complete. It is only a convenient comparison. A villager born and brought up in Indian Tradition understands easily a contemporary problem if it is explained through the widely-known fables, legends and religious stories of god, demons and superman The stories of Ramayana are repeated in our village. Therefore, it is but natural that a novel dealing with political awareness takes into consideration the rural vocabulary and obsessive images.” Thus the novel ends as it is the end of “Kalyuga with the Pralay”. All the villagers left the Kanthapura and settle in Kashipura. It also indicates about civilization and modernism to the India. Raja Rao had written a marvelous story on freedom for the history of Indian writing. Kanthapura also came out as a symbol of our glorious literature. We can say that it is an historical navel by Raja Rao.