(Swami and Friends introduces us to Narayan’s beloved fict...)
Swami and Friends introduces us to Narayan’s beloved fictional town of Malgudi, where ten-year-old Swaminathan’s excitement about his country’s initial stirrings for independence competes with his ardor for cricket and all other things British.
(The Bachelor of Arts is a poignant coming-of-age novel ab...)
The Bachelor of Arts is a poignant coming-of-age novel about a young man flush with first love, but whose freedom to pursue it is hindered by the fixed ideas of his traditional Hindu family.
(In The Dark Room, Narayan’s portrait of aggrieved domesti...)
In The Dark Room, Narayan’s portrait of aggrieved domesticity, the docile and obedient Savitri, like many Malgudi women, is torn between submitting to her husband’s humiliations and trying to escape them.
(The title character in The English Teacher, Narayan’s mos...)
The title character in The English Teacher, Narayan’s most autobiographical novel, searches for meaning when the death of his young wife deprives him of his greatest source of happiness.
(Mr. Sampath–The Printer of Malgudi is the story of a busi...)
Mr. Sampath–The Printer of Malgudi is the story of a businessman who adapts to the collapse of his weekly newspaper by shifting to screenplays, only to have the glamour of it all go to his head.
(In The Financial Expert, a man of many hopes but few reso...)
In The Financial Expert, a man of many hopes but few resources spends his time under a banyan tree dispensing financial advice to those willing to pay for his knowledge.
(The Mahabharata tells a story of such violence and traged...)
The Mahabharata tells a story of such violence and tragedy that many people in India refuse to keep the full text in their homes, fearing that if they do, they will invite a disastrous fate upon their house.
R. K. Narayan was an Indian writer. He published novels, short stories, travel books, essays, and retellings of Indian epics, as well as articles he produced as a journalist in his early years. Most of Narayan's prose centers around the fictional village of Malgudi, which Narayan used as a microcosm for studying the interaction between various classes and races of Indian society.
Background
Rasipuram Narayan was born on 10 October 1906 in Madras (nowadays Chennai). He was the third of eight children of Gnanambal Iyer and Rasipuram Iyer. His father was a well-educated school teacher in the education department in the princely state of Mysore, but Narayan was brought up in Madras by his maternal grandmother. His knowledge of the wealth of Hindu legends and myths reflects her storytelling, but she also taught him Sanskrit, the classical language of religion and literature, as well as Tamil, the South Indian language rich in song and poetry. From her, he learned to understand and enjoy classical Carnatic music, one of the most complex of Indian musical systems.
Education
Narayan first went to school in Madras. In 1922 he shifted to the school in Mysore where his father was the headmaster. Narayan was an indifferent student but an avid reader. He failed the school entrance examination twice and also was unable to get through college easily. Eventually, he did graduate from Maharaja College of Mysore with a bachelor of arts degree in 1930.
R. K. Narayan held honorary doctorates by the University of Leeds, the University of Mysore and Delhi University.
After graduating from Maharaja's College, Narayan took a job as a teacher. By his own account he was a disastrous failure, and after two attempts at maintaining discipline, gave it up and went home, deciding to devote himself full time to becoming what he always wanted to be—a writer.
The novel that he was writing was Swami and Friends, which drew very heavily upon his school experiences and was set in Malgudi, the imaginary South Indian town that figures in many of his later books. For most foreign readers, Malgudi is their entry into the complex world of India, in many ways physically chaotic but with a carefully articulated social order. There was little hope of a novel of this kind, written in English, being published in India, but in any case, his dream was to find a publisher in England, and against all probability his dream came true.
Swami and Friends was rejected by a number of publishers, but he had sent the manuscript in 1935 to a friend, Purna, who was studying at Oxford, who persuaded Graham Greene, already one of England's most famous authors, to read it. Greene was delighted with the novel and recommended it to Hamish Hamilton, the publisher. This was the beginning of a friendship that was of great importance to Narayan, for it brought him into the literary and academic world of Great Britain and the United States. He and Greene corresponded regularly, and Greene read and commented on his manuscripts, though they met only once, in 1956.
Other novels followed regularly, all marked by kindly ironic wit as he observes the comic absurdities in the lives of many of his characters; at the same time, he conveys the disappointments and tragedies of their everyday lives as they confront the conflicts engendered by their ambitions, their weaknesses, their self-delusions, and society's demands. His second novel, The Bachelor of Arts, published in 1937, is also autobiographical, and in some ways is his most humorous book, ending with the central character falling in love and marrying, euphoric in his happiness. His next novel, The Dark Room (1938), explores new territory, perhaps less successfully, with the story of a woman who, against all conventions, leaves her bullying husband.
There was a long break before The English Teacher was published in 1945 (in the United States it was published under the title Grateful for Life and Death). It is the most somber of Narayan's novels, and the most autobiographical. The story of the death of the young wife of a struggling schoolteacher replicates the death of Narayan's wife in 1939, leaving him utterly bereft, with his small daughter. Unable to work, he turned to spiritualism, and he believed that a medium had put him in contact with her.
The friendship of the English mystic Paul Brunton helped him to return to writing in 1945, and Narayan began editing a literary journal, Indian Thought. He gave this up, however, to become his own publisher. Narayan entered a new and fruitful period, publishing some of his work in both England and the United States, including The Financial Expert (1952); The Guide (1958), which many readers consider his best work; The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961); The Vendor of Sweets (1967); and The Painter of Signs (1976). The Guide was made into a widely publicized but unsuccessful movie, which many reviewers, including Narayan himself, considered a serious distortion of the novel. In addition, he published collections of short stories, essays, and notable retellings of the great Sanskrit epics The Mahābhārata (1978) and The Rāmāyaṇa (1972).
In 1956 he made his first visit outside India, stopping in London, where for the first time he met Graham Greene, on his way to the United States. There he met many authors, film personalities, and intellectuals. In My Dateless Diary (1960) he gives a humorous but very penetrating account of American life, including delightful meetings with actress Greta Garbo, who wanted him to discuss mysticism, which he felt unable to do. He subsequently became fond of travel, traveling often to London and New York as well as to many cities in Europe and Asia.
In his 80s, Narayan continued to have books published. In 1990, he published his next novel, The World of Nagaraj. Later, he returned to his original inspiration, his grandmother, with the 1994 book Grandmother's Tale and Other Stories.
Achievements
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan was one of the best-known of the Indo-English writers. He received numerous literary honors in foreign countries, as well as one of India's highest national awards, the Padma Bhushan. In 1985 the president of India appointed him a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, as one the country's most distinguished citizens; there, he took a special interest in the welfare of children.
When Narayan was twelve years old, he participated in a pro-independence march, for which he was reprimanded by his uncle, because his family was apolitical.
In 1986 Narayan was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's parliament. During his term, Narayan focused on the heavy load of school books and the negative effect of the system on a child's creativity. His inaugural speech led to the formation of a committee chaired by Prof. Yash Pal in order to change the school educational system.
Views
Quotations:
"No one ever accepts criticism so cheerfully. Neither the man who utters it nor the man who invites it really means it."
"Friendship was another illusion like love, though it did not reach the same mad heights. People pretended that they were friends, when the fact was they were brought together by force of circumstances."
"Society presses upon us all the time. The progress of the last half century is the progress of the frog out of his well."
Membership
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami was an honorary member of the British Royal Society of Literature and American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Interests
music and long walks
Connections
Narayan had spotted fifteen-year-old Rajam Iyer as she was waiting for water at a local street tap. He persuaded his father to send a proposal of marriage to her father. He married Rajam on July 1, 1934. Their marriage produced one child - Hema. Five years into his marriage, his wife died after a short illness of what was probably typhoid.
Father:
Gnanambal Iyer
Mother:
Rasipuram Iyer
Brother:
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Laxman
R. K. Laxman was known for his creation The Common Man and for his daily cartoon strip, You Said It in The Times of India.
late wife:
Rajam Iyer
Daughter:
Hema Narayan
Friend:
Graham Greene
Graham Greene was an English writer. In many of his works, the detective story is combined with religious overtones.
References
R. K. Narayan: Contemporary Critical Essays
This collection of eighteen essays is the first major work to evaluate the contributions of India's foremost literary figure writing in English, R. K. Narayan.
