Rao, Raja
(b. 1909), Indian novelist. Raja Rao was born in Hassan, a provincial town of Karnataka, India. He graduated from the University of Madras and continued his studies at Montpellier and the Sorbonne. His remarkable literary reputation is based mainly on three novels, though he did write some short stories, too. He has lived for much of his life in the West, and has been married to two Western women. His long novel, The Serpent and the Rope (1960), about an Indian student married to a Frenchwoman, shows his deep understanding of French history and medieval Christian philosophy. His first novel, Kanthapura (1938), on the other hand, is set in his home state of Mysore and is a fine depiction of an Indian village and the impact of Gandhian teaching on its people. In l988 Raja Rao became the tenth recipient of the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In the late twentieth century he taught philosophy in several American and French universities.
Further Reading
Narasimhaiah, C. D. (1987) Raja Rao. London: Lucas Publications.
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