Saturday, 17 October 2015

KANTHAPURA IN MYTHICAL APPROACH.

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NAME :- PIPAVAT GOPI
CLASS :- M.A.
SEM :- 1
Roll NO. :- 31
TOPIC :- KANTHAPURA IN MYTHCAL APPROACH
SUBMITTED TO :- SMT. S.B. GARDI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & M.K. BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
EMAIL ID :- pipavatgopi 2311@gmail.com
YEAR :- 2015-2016


KANTHAPURA IN MYTHICALL  APPROCH:-

                                The examination and analysis of the context and divergences of the literatures of different peoples of the world wel literature was a term coined by gothe which was of all nations and peoples and which , by a reciprocal exchange of ideas , mediates between nations and helps to enrich the spirit of man. Philosopher – novelist raja rao has been termermed as the most brilliant master of  indian writing in English. When raja rao’s  first novel  Kanthapura was published in 1938 , the “ profound simplicity of classic “ (kantak 188)  broke new grounds in the history of indian English writing,  offering  a wonderful paradigm of the synthesis of the cross cultural experience. It was through this novel that indian English literature had established its credential all over the world ,which at that period of time had some sharp minsnomers concerning the impact of multi culturality.
                                                   The novel kanthapura is set against the backdrop of southern indian village in the 1930’s where the villagers   are content and dependent in their own homogenous culture and tradition .“ the power of the novel as a bearer of  cultures is especially magnified when it traverses across cultures , impinging upon the consciousness of colonized people”

 THEME OF KANTHAPURA  :

Kanthapura a regional novel expands in to a sthala –prana and a macrocosm of India. It is indian in its theme, myths , images , narration and style. The theme of kanthapura is concerned with the impact of Gandhi on the religious , social , economic and political life of  a quiteand obscure village of south india, coiled like child on its mother’s lap. It shows  how the clarion – call of Gandhi  turns thousands of youths in to soldiers against the rule of England, shouting , clamouring and struggling for the emancipation of their motherland from the shackles of slavery.
Kanthapura is Indian both in theme and treatment. Raja rao has shown to other Indians the technique of  writing in English and to express in a foreign language a sensibility which is essentially Indian.

BEGGNING OF KANTHAPURA :

                                                    The opening paragraph of kanthapura begins with shifts in perspectives, which passes through scattered stage of transition where everything is in bits and pieces with a preparation to be reassembled again.  The breathless narration by the garrulous achakka, playing many roles , recalls the orality of past traditions :
                                                                                “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 center of cardamom  and coffe ,rice and sugarance “   It is Achakka who goes on to show how the village is presided over by the overpowering legend of goddess kenchmma. “Kenchamma is our goddess. Great and bounteous is she.  She killed a demon ages ,ages ago , a demon that had come tom demand our son’s as food “  in this wide range of themes and styles , and the various mechanisms a common universal pattern , despite differences factors in  structures and vision. And even if we are to valorize differences , the arrangement persists in a “ betweenness” which aptly describes rao’s  first fictional adventures, fusing the folk idiosm and myth , the aural and visual with a certain amount of levity and understanding .he could well perceive that the world that the characters of his first fiction lived in was a virtual seeing ,listening, hearing ,world , and he strove to refurbish the seen ,the heard and the felt as  a tool to transform the understanding and the experiences of the world As a visual domain. Here in lay the close links with the visual and the verbal as sites of identities. This interplay  between the verbal.

NATURAL SETTING OF NOVEL :

                                                       What is interesting is the world of  kanthapura that the novelist creates with all its natural setting. The novelist glues the readers right from the beginning.
“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 puttar  and many a center of cardamom and coffe, rice and sugarcane. Roads , narrow , dusty , rut – covered roads ,wind through the forest of teak and jack , of sandal of Sal , and hanging over bellowing gorges and leaping over elephant- hunted valleys , they turn now to the left and now to the right and bring you through the alamba and champa and mena and kola passes in to the great granaries of trade.
                                                         The story is narrated against the back ground of an indian with their distinct Indians traits and indiansensibility  &close contact with nature , betraying a distinctive & sensibility. Indian sesnsibility is essentially religious poitics gets spiritualised. India’s most important leaders And social reformers have all been great figures, and social political ends have been in the guise of religion. This was also so in the of Gandhi and his non –cooperation ,non violent

MICROCOSM TO MACROCSM :
Kanthapura is a microcosm of the indian society with divison of people in to castes ,untouchability ;poverty , exploitation by usuures and foreign  rulers and ruthless tyranny at their hands .
Kanthapur is microcosm of the macrocosm for what happens in kanthapura was happening all over the country during those stirring days of  theGandhian freedom struggle. As raja rao tells us in the very first sentence of his novel.

KANTHAPURA AS MYTHICAL APPROCH :
In kanthapura raja rao has made an effective Use of the mythical technique used with such success by English writers like T.S eliot and jamesjoyce. The use of mythical technique means that the past is juxtaposed with the present and in this Way the past may serve as criticism of the present and in this way the past may  be used to heighten and glorify the present. In his ‘waste land ‘ T.Seliot has used the mythical technique to critisize the present and in kanthapura raja rao has used this very technique to glorify the present and purana. It is in this way that the gandhian movement “is assimilated in to the racial heritage as myth and legend “ according to meenakshi Mukherjee “kanthapura is again another and a larger attempt at creating  a sthala, purana, i.e., legendary  tale of specific locality.”
                                                                           Raja rao gives a glowing description of the village ‘kanthapura’ .there are five passage of out standing description which reach poetic climax. Moorthy gets so much engrossed in the congress movement that he ignores even his mother’s affection. Raja rao has brought the indian atmosphere thoroughly well in to his study. The various ceremonies and their ritis :hair –cutting , rice  eating ceremony ,marriage ceremony and death anniversary ceremony; marriage ceremony and death anniversary ceremony. Are all  described with the natural touch and living force. The description of the skeffington coffee estate is magnificent  piece of masterly prose.life in the coffe estate is vivified in lurid colours and realistically described incidents. the description of the kartik festival of lights is a brilliant master piece of poetic prose.

  POLITICAL  APPROCH :

                                         Mythicising of the political leaders is freely done by the grand mother ,narrator .Gandhi  is the invisible god while moorthy is the visible avtar. The reign of the red . man is asuric and it is resisted by the  devas, the satyagrahis Gandhi mahatma is ram , the foreigner or  the brown inspector of police , who flourishes a lathi on the satyagrahis is soldier in the ten headed ravan’s  army of occupation ; satyagrahi in prison is the divine klrishna himself in kansa’s prison.
                                       
                                          Kanthapura’s [puranic texture is reflected in its abundant application of the hindu myths and legends  , its  recurrent  use of certain virtues and vices to create an atmosphere of tension  and conflict  and its occasional display of harmony and understanding between the human and  natural worlds.
                                               
                                       Raja rao skillfully exploits the traditional mythological device in driving home a point , as well as the south Indian folk idom in making the action of the novel  authentic artistically convincing.it is a beautiful combination of fact And fiction , myth and history. Dr. Krishna sastry remarks , “ it describes the whole gamut of the gandhian revolution in microscopic way.”
                                  Kanthapura  is raja rao’s Ramayana and serpent and the rope is the rope is his mahabharat. As  c.d narasimhiah says “it is a breathless tale from the begging to the end and fascinating told.itgives us an insight in to the appealing social conditions of our villages as also the values.
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