KANTHAPURA
-Raja Rao
Raja Rao’s first novel
Kanthapura (1938) is the story of a village in south India named Kanthapura.
The novel is narrated in the form of a ‘sthala-purana’ by an old woman of the
village, Achakka. Kanthapura is a traditional caste ridden Indian village which
is away from all modern ways of living. Dominant castes like Brahmins are
privileged to get the best region of the village whereas Sudras, Pariahs are
marginalized. The village is believed to have protected by a local deity called
Kenchamma.
Rather than being a
traditional novel with a neat linear structure and compact plot, Kanthapura follows
the oral tradition of Indian sthala-purana, or legendary history. As Raja Rao
explains in his original foreword, there is no village in India, however mean,
that has not a rich legendary history of its own, in which some famous figure
of myth or history has made an appearance. In this way, the storyteller, who
commemorates the past, keeps a native audience in touch with its lore and thereby
allows the past to mingle with the present, the gods and heroes with ordinary
mortals.
The story is narrated in
flashback by Achakka, a wise woman in the village. She, like her female
audience (whom she addresses as “sisters”), has survived the turbulence of
social and political change which was induced by Mohandas K. Gandhi’s passive
resistance against the British government. Achakka provides a detailed picture
of the rural setting, establishing both an ambiance and a rhythm for the novel.
It is clear that her speech and idiomatic expression are meant to express a
distinctively feminine viewpoint an extraordinary achievement for a male
Indo-English novelist. Achakka quickly creates a faithful image of an Indian
way of life, circumscribed by tradition and indebted to its deities, of whom
Kenchamma, the great and bounteous goddess, is made the village protectress.
She is invoked in every chapter, for the characters never forget that her power
resides in her past action. It is she who humanizes the villagers and their
chants and prayers ring out from time to time.
The narrator establishes the
parameters of the story within old and new legends. While Kenchamma and Siva
are remembered for their marvelous feats and interventions in human affairs,
analogies are sometimes drawn with contemporary figures such as Gandhi who
serve to turn fact and history into folklore, and who provide the motive for
political struggle. At the beginning, while there are simply rumors of Gandhi’s
activities, the villagers follow their customary routines. Then, Moorthy, a
young, dedicated Brahmin, inspired by Gandhi, returns to Kanthapura to
propagandize the cause of the Indian National...
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