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Raja Rao (1908-2006) is one of the triumvirates of the pioneering Indian novelists in English. His contribution to the growth of the English Novel in India is enormous. Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan are known as "The Big Three", an apithet coined by the noted English critic William Walse. Speaking of The Big Three, Walse Writes, "It is these three writers who defined the area in which the Indian novel was to operate. They established its assumptions; they sketched its main themes, freed the first models of its characters, and elaborated its peculiar logic. Each of them used an easy, natural idiom which was un effected by the opacity of a British inheritance. Their language has been freed of the foggy taste of Britain and transferred of to a wholly new setting of brutal heat and brilliant light." Kanthapura was Raja Rao's first novel in English. It was published in 1938. His other famous novels are The Serpent and the Rope (1960), Cat and Shakespeare (1965), Comgrade Kirilone (1976 etc.
The success of any literary artist lies not only in his ideas but also in his expression. The style reveals the nature and the intention of the writer. In other words, literature is all about experimentation with different styles. It is righty said that 'style is man' means man is recognize by his style. In literature by reading the text of any writer we can assume his character and his intellectual power. Style reveals the author himself. Style differs from person to person. So it's necessary to notice and analyze the literary technique used by writer. In the preface of Kanthapura Raja Rao observes that "the telling has not been easy, he had to convey in a language that is not one's own the spirit is one's own." He uses it in Kanthapura and all other novel; he has tried to give expression to the thought and the feeling, the culture and ideology of Indians in English.
The use of ancient pur anas
Raja Rao used the ancient Puranic method of storytelling rather than follows the western style, according to him puranic method of storytelling is natural and true to nature and true to the atmosphere of India, which gives it Indianness...