Maria Edgeworth, the Inventor of the Regional Novel:
Maria Edgeworth in English was the inventor of the regional novel. She was the inaugurator of this new kind of fiction. The eighteenth century novelists lacked a sense of place, they could not go beyond London and Bath. It was she who gave to fiction a local habitation and a name. She discovered the Ireland and the Irish peasant as Raja Rao has discovered his Kanthapura and inhabitants of this village in India.
 |
| The Novel Kanthapura As A Regional Novel Or A Sthala Purana |
Raja Rao's Influence as Regional Novelist:
So far as Kanthapura is concerned, regionalism unfolds a set of characters, who are lowly and they are to be raised from their lowly position to a higher one by volunteer leaders like Moorthy. Unlike Maria Edgeworth, Raja Rao does not wield much influence as a writer of regional novel and it is too early to say whether or not his influence shall go deep into the future regionalism of the country. Raja Rao, however, has put the seal of realism on his Kanthapura.
Raja Rao in Kanthapura writes about the future history, particularly of the aspect which relates to the rising of the people against the foreign rule in the country. As such the village in the novel becomes the microcosm of the universal fact of life.
The Detailed Mapping and Charting of Kanthapura:
Kanthapura is a regional novel. It unrolls the panorama of a village, its topography, its people and its society. It opens with the centaurs of the village, on the banks of the Himavathy; “........... in the province of Kara. High on the Gitats is it, high up the steep mountains ...... up the Malabar Coast........ many a centre of cardamom and coffee, rice and sugar – cane….. the forest of teak and of jack, of sandal and of sal, elephant - haunted valleys . Champa and Meena and Kola passes into the great granaries of trade.”
It depicts the Skeffington Coffee Estate as a wide - spread plantation, extending from the Bears Hill to the Kantur Hill, swelling in size with corresponding increase in the number of coolies till it embraces all the hills around Kanthapura. It depicts the society of the village, divided into the Brahmin Quarter, the Sudra Quarter, the Potter Quarter and the Welver Quarter. It depicts their houses: the Kannayya House, the Fig Tree - House, the Post - Office House, the Temple, the Corner - house of Moorthy and the Street Corner Beadle Timmayya's hut. It depicts the people: pock - marked Sidda, bent-legged Chandrayya, nose scratching Nanjamma, coffee - planter Rammayya, one - eyed Tippa and Jack - tree Tippa. Moorthy is known as Moorthappa, and Bhatta as Bhattare.
Religious Activities Strengthening the Regional Aspect:
Kanthapura has well - drawn pictures of the Market Day in the village, the ploughing season in Vaisakh, of the Kartik as the month of wandering gods, of the fair carts with the portrait of Ram, Krishna, Sankara and the Mahatma being sold. Even the imagery, derived from the soil, strengthens the regional aspect of the novel. The religious, economic and political aspects are described in terms of the flora and fauna and natural phenomena of the village.
Comparison of Characters and Things:
Characters have their parallels in animals; the good characters are associated with good animals, the bad characters conjure up the picture of the cunning, cruel and devastating animals. The picture of poverty is shown in the images of “granaries as empty as a mourning house” and the gaping sacks. The pictures of seniority / inferiority, of the powerful / helpful, of the mighty / the menial, of the royal / the common place, of the master / the slave are shown through animals. “Does a boar stand before a lion or a jackal before an elephant?”
The Presentation of the Region Gaining Depth and Complexity:
Kanthapura is a regional novel , and as such we are given a detailed account of its topography , of its crops , of its poverty , of its division into various quarters and of the illiteracy, superstitions, petty rivalries and jealousies of its people . The novel is a portrait - gallery full of the portraits of a number of living, breathing human beings. There are both major and minor figures, and both come to life in the hands of the novelist. As the action proceeds, his presentation of the region gains in depth and complexity, and it is realised that Kanthapura is symbolic of a wider and larger world, that, in short, it is a microcosm of India herself. The picture is further enlarged and enriched by the presentation of the life of the workers on the Skeffington Coffee Estate symbolic of the suffering of the industrial workers under a colonial rule. Kanthapura is a great regional novel for in it the novelist raises from the particular to the general, to the depiction of the universal human passions, sorrows and suffering.
The Topography not only Vivid but also Symbolical:
The opening portrayal is superb. The site, the surrounding with the perfume of cardamom and sandal; the great granaries of trade and the Red - men who carry the product to their home – country: the slow moving carts of the migration of coolies to the Estate, of the exodus of the Satyagrahis; the grinding, the groaning, the bulls ringing their bells as they get under the yoke, are a pointer to the exploitation and misery for the people under the yoke of British rule. The sandal points to the snakes of the Skeffington Coffee Estate. The balls (sprightly bulls) presage Moorthy, the active pioneer who pulls the cart of Kanthapura in order to deliver it from the yoke of the British. The Red - men greedy and crafty are set off against the benign and bounteous Kenchamma and the Himavathy. The atmosphere is of hollow darkness with a streak of light from the cart man, the wavering lantern of Moorthy and the streaming star - light, of abundance against exploitation, of tranquil ignorance against turbulent illumination, of the bellowing gorges, the hissing of the Himavathy and the groaning and cries of the people and sluggishness yielding place to momentum.
The Local Legend: Goddess Kenchamma:
Every village in India has its own sthala - purana or legendary history, and Kanthapura is no exception to this rule. It has a legend concerning the local goddess Kenchamma who protects the villagers from harm and presides over their destiny. We are told that Kenchamma is the mother of Himavathy, and then is given an account of its past. She killed a demon long ago. The demon used to come to ask the villagers’ young sons as food and their young women as wives. Kenchamma came from heaven. It was the sage Tripura who had made penances to bring her down. She waged a battle and she fought so many a nights that the blood soaked and soaked into the earth, and that is why the Kenchamma Hill is all red.
The Skeffington Coffee Estate:
The Coffee Estate is a land of storm, incessant rains, disease and death, suffering and exploitation; a den of snakes and human snakes who are more poisonous than cobras (snakes bit only when annoyed, men exult in biting): a spectacle of grim poverty where coolies are used as slaves and their daughters and wives forced to lie with the Sahibs; of superstition (Kenchamma’s grace is more unfailing than medicine); a damned place from where no one has gone back that came from Godavary. This is conveyed through the innocent and helpless animals juxtaposed with the preying animals, the whispering cries against the growling, the mourning against the roaring the helplessness against the power: " ....... the tiger who feasts on the deer; the storm whips the tree to the bow.” The well - like silence of the valley, the whipping of the fireflies are shown against the mournful cries of jackals and the grunt of a cheetah or a tiger. Soon Bade Khan's growling is heard against the whispering answers of Moorthy. The rural setting is more than locale; it symbolizes the issues of universal importance.
A Number of Local Rituals:
There is also an account of a number of local rituals. There is the ritual of yoking the bulls to the plough under the Rohini Star or of the traditional belief that at the beginning of Kartik, gods can be seen passing by, blue gods and quiet gods and bright - eyed gods or to the different modes of appearing the goddess Kenchamma. All these make up the fabric of living of which the narrator is a part.
The New Sthala - Purana:
Not only has the novelist given us an account of the legendry history of Kanthapura, he has also created a new Sthala - Purana for the region. This has been done by mythicising the heroism of the local hearts and heads in the cause of their mother land. Some of the chief characters are gods, other beings larger in power than humanity. Moorthy is presented as a figure much above the common run of men. A dedicated, selfless soul, he is idealised to the extent or being regarded as a local Mahatma. And, of course, there is the real Mahatma also, always in the background though nowhere physically present. The village women think of him as the Sahyadri Mountain big and blue, and Moorthy as the small mountain.
Recalling the Glorious Past of the Motherland:
The legendary figures of Ashoka, Chandragupta, Vikramaditya and Akbar rise up with their distinct qualities. The legendary figures of Buddha and Sankara hold us in awe with their wisdom and knowledge of this world and beyond.
The Reasons of Being Kanthapura, a Sthala - Purana:
Every village in India, Raja Rao tells us, has a Sthala - Purana. In this novel he has given us the Sthala - Purana of a South Indian village. Kanthapura is a Sthala - Purana because here he tells us about the physical features of the place and manners, customs, habits and traditions of the people. He draws a picture of their past and present, their myths and legends, their ideals and beliefs. He shows us how the message of the Gandhian non - violent fight for independence reached Kanthapura and how it ended all the differences in that caste ridden village and imbued them with the spirit to fight and died for Gandhiji's social, political, economic and religious ideals. Thus the local colour is very strong in Kanthapura. The characters in it breathe the soil which nurtured them. The soil has a peculiar kind of environment and atmosphere. The people in the village came into the vortex of the ferment of the India - wide politics and are re - awakened from their centuries old stupor. The characters, with the heritage of their traditions, conversation, little rivalries of their individual groups or group carry with them the scent or aroma of their livings. The background of the novel is consisted of the regionalism of the geographical kind. The places have served their purpose already and are of no use now.