Title: "Myth in Raja Rao's Kanthapura"

Myth is expression of the total vision of the human situation, human aspiration, their
destiny and apprehensions. It is an aesthetic channel to ventilate, explore and recreate the
experience of the self in relation to the past, a mode of expression of the labyrinthine expression
of the self and the society. Quite a few modern writers have made a deft integration of myths into
the thematic fabric of their works - James Joyee in Ulysses, TS Eliot's in "The Wasteland" are
such examples. The mythical mode of narrating consists in "manipulating a continuous between
contemporarity and antiquity." Indian English novelists have nourished their workings on their
own Indian past. They have deretailed(?) their mythic experiences with the experience of the
immediate present sometimes. Raja Rao makes a digressional use of myth. Myth meanders
through the fabric of his fictional canvas.

Rao employs three types of myths in his work which are - Puranic myths, localized myths
and historical legends. The Puranic myths pertain to the binary opposition of the good and the
evil symbolized through the characters of Rama and Ravana. The Rama-Ravana appears to be
the second central thematic motif in Kanthapura. The novel is a fictional rendering of localized
myth such as that of Kenchamma. It is the legendary history of a remote hamlet in the Western
Ghats of India. The Puranic myths have been depicted to demonstrate selfless action as
expounded in the Bhagavad Gita. Moorthy becomes the symbol of selfless action, the symbol of
Mahatma in the tiny hamlet of Kanthapura's freedom struggle.

The village deity Kenchamma has a mythical semblance of the Puranic tales. Her divine
presence makes the deities in the ancient legends and myths presiding over the fate of human
beings. The Kanthapurians are devout worshippers of Kenchamma. They chant hosannas to her
which reminds me of ‘Durga-stuti’. In fact, as Rajesh Pallon says "The history of the Goddess
Kenchamma sittingin Kanthapura" finds a mythical parallel in the Ganga-Purana and also relates
with the Goddess Durga's killing of Mahisasura. Like them Kenchamma comes down from
heaven to rescue the Kanthapurians - from the dragonian rule of the white men, the phirangis.
The Kanthapurians resign all their sorrows to the will of Goddess Kenchamma, so much so that
they invoke her grace and benedictions to destroy the English in India. Hence, we find that Raja
Rao resorts to the localized myth of Kenchamma to elucidate the conflict of between the good
and evil. Like Chinua Achebe's 'Arrow of God', the divine power of Kenchamma is omnipresent
in Kanthapura to direct, control and preside over the life of the villagers.

Several myths have been associated with the river Himavathy, the daughter of
Kenchamma. Like the mother Ganges, Himavathy sustains and protects them. Myths such as 'the
Goddess of the River plays through the night(?) with the Goddess of the Hill. They drink the
waters of Himavathy to purify them and protect them from committing sins. 'Himavathy' is the
Kanthapurians what 'Gang Brata' was to the all Indians. The legend runs that the river Himavathy
‘while in the high spate, stood silently to allow the last rites of the pious Ramakrichhayya to be
performed,’ and after the last rites were over, it carried away ‘in fury all the holy ashes and
bones.’

Raja Rao evokes the idea of ‘Sthala-Purana’ in projecting the dedicated and selfless
deeds of the local Mahatma that is Moorthy. The impact of Gandhi was that of a traditional
religion. Moorthy, the Mini Gandhi instills the fire of revolution amongst the Kanthapurians.
Like Gadot in Samuel Beiket's "Waiting for Gadot", Gandhiji does not appear as a person but his
spiritual presence in present throughout the novel; later Moorthy also becomes all pervasive
throughout in Kanthapura and his character becomes mysticised. Like the Mahatma, Moorthy
leads the Kanthapurians, the little ‘soldier-saints’ of the village known as Satyagrahis who follow
the selfless action of Niskama Karma as enunciated in the Bhagavad Gita. The glorification of
the dormant and slumbering hamlet into action is the metaphysics of selfless action expressed
through Satyagraha. Moorthy is Jesus Christ to the Kanthapurians who has come to deliver them
from sin and suffering. They say with exultation “he is the saint of our village.”

To elucidate and explicate the theme of redemptive suffering in human society, Raja Rao
takes the myth of suffering to absorb the evil of others. Like the chief characters in myths which
are mythicized by exalting and elevating them above the common rung of humanity and
therefore faithfully obeying whatever they do, here to the Kanthapurians follow Moorthy’s
actions, faithfully. As Gandhi had preached non-violence, Moorthy followed his words by
practicing it in the villages. His resolve to go on fast because there has been much violence in the
Skeffinton estate regarding him makes others too practice fasting later in the novel. It becomes
an important ritual to the villagers to gain divine grace and appease the gods. Besides fasting, the
performance of various rituals lend a mythical frame of allusion to the novel. The Kanthapurians
offered the Goddess Kenchamma saree and gold drink to ward off the makefie(?) influences.
During the ploughing time the villagers wait for the 'Kohins' star to "yoke their bulls to the
plough." Plowing is considered to be fruitful only if the omen of the eagle, the vehicle of goddess
Kenchamma shows itself. The villagers light Bonfire and song and dance in Kenchamma's
honour. When Murthy is in prison the kanthapurions sing 'bhajans' with cymbals(?). The
congregational worship ritual for appeasing Kenchamma is another instance of the mythic
fashion and style. Ratna offers 10 coconuts and a Kumkum to Kenchamma for the recovery of
Moorthy. Rice and coconut were to Kanthapurians the traditional symbols of fertility and of a
prosperous marital status of a lady.

The Rama Ravana myth has its associations with the good and evil forces used in the
novel in order to portray the struggle for independence from the British rule. The freedom
movement is equated with the Mahabharata Yuddha. There the divine powers of Lord Krishna
regulate the war and here the invisible and redemptive presence of the Mahatma control the
actions of the Kanthapurians. Mahatma Gandhi is thus described as the incarnation of Rama and
Krishna, born to liberate Mother India from the draconian rule of the demons, Ravana and
Kansa. Through the Harihatta man, Jayaramachar, Raja Rao harnesses the Puranic style to
describe the birth of the Mahatma who was sent to this world by Brahma for destroying evil and
a restoring good. Like Ravana, the British had come to 'kidnap' our political freedom - the swaraj
and Gandhi's visit to England to attend the Round Table Conference in 1931 was to them like
Ram'a visit to Lanka to save Sita from the hands of Ravana. Gandhi has further been compared
with Lord Shiva, his idea of swaraj has been compared with the three eyes of Shiva: "Shiva is the
three eyed, and Swaraj too is three-eyed, self - purification, Hindu-Muslim unity and Khaddar."

The battle between the suras and Asuras is a recurrent motif in the Hindu mythology and
in Kanthapura too, we have a fight between the Britishers and the Indians - the tussle between
Satyagrahis and the agents of the British government is symbolic if the clash between the suras
and Asuras. The Skeffinton Coffee Estate is the world of the Asuras in miniature. The morally
corrupt British officials there let loose a reign of terror and Mahatma Gandhi, the suras came
with his Vanar Senas, the Satyagrahis, to save these people.

Through the characters of the Swami, another Asura, Raja Rao has sarcastically portrayed
the Indian natives joining hands with the British to betray Gandhi's fight against the 'Goras' for
attaining freedom and exercise their diabolic designs to dissuade the villagers from joining
Moorthy's non-cooperation movement. Things do fall apart in Kanthapura when people like
Bhatta, Waterfall Venkamma and the Swami's agents start fermenting chaos by joining hands
with the corrupt British rulers. Anarchy is let loose upon the Kanthapurians. The end of the novel
is like the end of Kaliyuga with Pralay engulfing the whole village. All the villagers leave
Kanthapura at the end of the novel to settle down in Kashipura and Ranga Gowda finds that
'there is neither man nor mosquito in Kanthapura.'

Myth and symbols in the novel occur as an artistic and a creative mode of 'conveying' a
meaningful world view of human reality in terms of shared human experience. Thus, there is a
perceptible mythical pattern in Kanthapura. The use of Indian myths like Ramayana and
Mahabharata, level a fairy tale charm, a romantic aura to the novel and stimulates our
imagination. In Kanthapura, the author shows us the power of these myths which ignited and
encouraged faith - the most vital strength to fight against all kinds of evil.

Achebe held that the literature of the colonized should begin by dramating moments of
indigenous resistance - "Discuss Kanthapura as a 'Gandhi novel's in the light of the above.

The great serpent to destroy is the will to power : the desire for one man to have some dominion
over his fellow man". - Orwell, "Showing (?) an Elephant"

It is impossible to dominate completely any race or man. No one welcomes subjugation

or takes it lying (?) down. Gandhi had the 'Power' to make the whole country obey him and in an
organized way expel the foreign rule of the BRitish. Mahatma Gandhi wielded a great influence
on the Indian masses. In the opinion of Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi was like "a powerful current of
fresh air... Like a beam of light that pierced the darkness and removed the seabes (?) from our
eyes." In the early phase of his life, Raja Rao too was influenced by the Gandhian thought which
was one of the most challenging philosophies of the era. Hence in his first novel Kanthapura, he
mainly portrayed the Freedom Movement launched by Gandhi in the 1920s to liberate India from
the imperialistic hegemony of the British. But Raja Rao has a strong myth making consciousness
and so in his novel he intermingled the Gandhi factor with allusions to myths and legends; infact
Gandhi himself quoted the myths to guide his people in the freedom struggle. So, it was quite
easy to mingle myth and Gandhism in the novel.

Raja Rao makes a digressional use of myths. Myth meanders through the fabric of his
fictional canvas. Rao employes three types of myths in his novels - the Puranik myth, the
localised myth and rites and rituals. The Puranic myth pertains to the binary operation of the
good and evil symbolized through the characters of Ram and Ravana. The Rama-Ravana myth
appears to be the central thematic motif in Kanthapura. The novel is also a fictional rendering of
a localised myth of one named goddess Kenchamma. Before the introduction of Gandhism in
Kanthapura we find the inhabitants performing several rites and rituals, bhajans and Harikathas
in the name of the goddess. Later of course we shall see the people praying to goddess
KenChamma to release them from the evil hands of the Britishers and such other things
relatively for the welfare of the country and the countryman fighting for such cause.

As an advocate of Gandhian philosophy, Raja Rao believes that the future of the world is
in Gandhism. The first person to introduce this Gandhism to Kanthapura was Moorthy. Moorthy
acquired spiritual strength in his first meeting with Gandhi. His meeting with the 'God beaming
Mahatma' who primarily preached to him his political ideology provided him with divine R?
revelations. When he saw Gandhi, Moorthy felt that there was something of a silent communion
of the ancient books. He felt spiritually elevated as he remarked, "there is but one free in life and
that is truth and there is but one love in life and that is the love of mankind and there is but one
god in life and that is the god of all." Moorthy wept softly and acquired perfect peace after seeing
the Mahatma. He pledged to Gandhi that he would abandon the foreign University in which he
was studying aiming to become a sub-collector or assistant Simar(?), to stop wearing foreign
clothes and help his country by going to work among the dumb(?) millions of the villages,
making them do as he himself promise to do - abandon foreign things. The fact that Moorthy
gained self-realisation after a glimpse of the godly Mahatma evinces his faith in Gandhism.

Hence, he spread Gandhism in his birth place. Raja Rao creates the sthala purana in
projecting the dedicated and express deeds of the local Mahatma, that is Moorthy who followed
Gandhi and practiced his principles. The impact of Gandhi was that of a traditional religion.
Murti was the 'Gandhi incarnate' who instilled the fire of revolution among the Kanthapurians.
Like Gordon in Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot", Gandhiji does not appear as a person
but his spiritual presence is pervasive throughout the novel, through Moorthy. He introduced the
harikatha man JayaRamaChar who was expected to narrate Hari Katha but he deliberately mixed
religion with politics talking about Shakuntala and Yashoda and then adding something about
Swaraj. Moorthy introduced this process because he knew that the subtlety of the Gandhian
thought and the complex political situation of the pre independence era could be explained to the
villagers only through legends and religious stories of gods, for once they understood they would
take keen interest in the political activities of the country and even participate in these. After
Hari Katha, Moorthy introduced the charkha asking the Kanthapurians to spin their own cloth
and make their own saree and now that they were aware of the events of the British,
they agreed to spin.

Raja Rao's fascination for Gandhism is reflected in his affirmation of Gandhian values in
the novel. Moorthy invariably reached the Gandhian principles of non violence, love of mankind
and abolition of untouchability. His resolve to fast because much violence had taken place in the
Skeffinton Coffee Estate reflected his belief in non-violence. He said that such an incident would
have never occurred had he honestly practiced non-violence in his life. Seethamma's(?) writing
submission to be torture by the British government signifies his belief in the Gandhian
philosophy of non-violence. The idea of non-violence implies the extirpitation of hatred from
one's heart for it is mainly the scorn that causes enmity and violence. As Range Gowda wishes to
settle scores with Bade Khan(?), the policeman appointed by the government to watch the
political activities of the freedom fighters in Kanthapura, Moorthy dissuades him from resorting
to violence. Similarly, when Gowda expressed his desire to teach a lesson to Puttaya (?) for
unjustly drawing all the canal water to his fields, Moorthy tried convincing with the Gprinciples
of non- violence and love for the enemy. Before the civil disobedience movement is initiated
against the British the freedom fighters are specifically instructed that their struggle to win
freedom must be non-violent. Even an unintentional act of violence should be penanced for and
prayed for self-purification.

Murthy moved about teaching and asking people to follow the Gandhian principles and
be a member of the Congress and in this act, he did not even leave behind the lower caste people.
When introducing the charkas he went to the Pariah people's houses to give them charkhas to the
greatest astonishment and anger of the upper-class Brahmins. Moorthy himself was a Brahmin
and thus when he did such violation of caste, they revolted. The more they protested the more he
went openly to the lower class, untouchables, Muslim houses and talked to them and once even
participated in a person's death rituals. Gandhi had preached the abolition of untouchability and
through Moorthy this message was spread in Kanthapura. When later the inhabitants went to
fight against the British people, everyone was seen to be united and helped each other to forget
their caste and creed.

Gandhi's nonviolent revolution was an amazing phenomenon for the whole world as it
was a war without violence and a battle without hatred. It was a new technique employed by the
political weak against the strong. Moorthy's assertion that "the purer we are the greater will be
our victory" corroborates the Gandhian precepts that good ends can be achieved only by good
means. When Moorthy was arrested and taken away and people beaten up, the Satyagrahis did
not become violent. Amidst 'Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai' they got beaten up without retaliating till
they were half dead.

As the people of Kanthapura were extremely faithful to God and as Gandhi himself took
his ideals from Bhagavad Gita and Upanishad, and stressed on faith towards God, the villagers
were enrolled as members of the Congress in the sanctuary and the oath taking ceremony was
performed before the gods in the sanctum. Moorthy invariably asked the recruits to stand before
the god and vow that they would never break the laws and promise to spin the yarn, practice
ahimsa and seek truth. The emphasis on the religious faith of the freedom fighters who derived
inspiration from Ramayan or the Gita, affirm the novelist's abiding belief in the eternal values of
Indian metaphysics. When Moorthy was arrested, the inhabitants of Kanthapura invoked the
goddess to set him free. It is in the name of goddess Kenchamma that the people willingly
pledged not to drink at the government managed toddy booths. As the freedom fighters picketing
the toddy trees, where assaulted by the cruel police men, they turned to Kenchamma Hill to seek
strength from the goddess for renewed resistance. That is why they rush forward, “through the
lathis strike their back hands and heads.’’
More the fire burnt within them, more did the Satyagrahis make dangerous moves. After
Gandhi broke the salt law, Moorthy told the Satyagrahis to prepare themselves to fight. As daily
news of the progress of Gandhi's path walk to the sea came to them, the more did they feel eager
to act. Self-purification, penance by doing bhajans, fasting, practicing exercising and drills,
meditating and other holy practices made them internally strong and the 'Don't-touch-the-
Government Campaign' was proposed by Moorthy when Gandhi was arrested. This prepared the
men, women and children to picket toddy estates. The women hid their jewlery and fancy foreign
saris obeying Gandhi’s emphasis on non-attachment to riches which was also reminiscent of the
Vedantic advise that greed for wealth should be dispelled to seek liberation.

According to this 'Don't-touch-the Government-Campaign' the people were not supposed

to pay government taxes" to pay government taxes and the revenues, and the toddy booths were
picketed because they belonged to the British people. They went to the toddy plants grove and
caused violence when they picketed the toddy plants. They were beaten up but the police could
not do anything else other than that. Then the people want to ... To picket. Now that people could
not be threatened through beatings and sending to prison, they were forced to do things. After the
incident of the toddy booth picketing, the labourers who previously belonged to the Skeffinton
Coffee Estate, and who came to join the Satyagraha were taken back to the place, like slaves.
Revenue notices were sent to the land holders and Moorthy was again arrested.

Things started to fall apart in Kanthapura slowly as it had to, when people like Bhatta, Waterfall
Venkamma or the Swami's agent fermented chaos by joining hands with the corrupt British
rulers. The British took away everybody's lands, houses, property and everything and auctioned
them to such people like Bhatta and to the Britishers themselves; but that could not despirit the
Satyagraha. The village was engulfed in Pralaya and everyone left the village to settle down in
Kashipura.

Raja Rao's Kanthapura is however, a remarkable rendering of India's struggle for independence
which affected even the remotest villagers in the country. The novelist elevates the Gandhian
movement to be a mythological plane. Gandhi wanted all people, the rich and the poor, to lead a
dignified life without exploitation of any kind. It is therefore, natural that Gandhi and the
retaliation of the Indians have left an indelible mark on India's literary firmament.