The Complex Epic Mode In Raja Rao's 'Kanthapura'

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Raja Rao’s spectacles and the vision of life are complex, so the expression requires a complex medium or genre. The simple narrative mode may not cop with his requirements. Therefore, besides using the mythical and legendary mode, his first novel Kanthapura has been written in the puranic mode. The Serpent and the Rope has been presented in the complex epic mode and has been compared with ‘The Mahabharata’ (Iyengar: 397). The Cat and Shakespeare is written in the form of a comedy. Some critics call it the Upanishadic mode on the basis of the philosophical revelations and divinations artistically weaved in it. Comrade Kirillov, the fourth novel, is garnished in an altogether new mode – ‘a prismatic mode’ (Tripathi: 5). As the light of the sun passes the prism dividing itself into seven colours though the ray of light is one. So the tale of Kirillov is presented in different forms and colours in the different sections of the novel. The Chessmaster and His Moves has been furnished in a complex mode, complex in the sense that it includes the epic, the Upanishadic, and the puranic into one. The novel is replete with reflections and generalizations of life, ideas and concepts into an epic style.
The first novel Kanthapura describes a small, sleepy, south Indian village of that name. It shows how this village gets involved in the whirlpool of the Indian freedom struggle under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and ultimately meets a tragic end of complete destruction. To speak of the

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