Raja Rao was a distinguished writer, philosopher and teacher who wrote the first major Indian novel in English,

Kanthapura

(1938).

Raja Rao was born on 9 November 1908, in Hassan, in the state of Karnataka in south India, into an orthodox and well known Brahmin family. His father was a teacher and scholar. His early education was in Hyderabad, and then in Aligarh Muslim University, in north India. In 1929 he graduated with B.A. in English and History, and then, on a scholarship awarded by the government of Hyderabad, left for the Collège des Ecossais, Montpellier in France. There he studied French language and literature, and later at the Sorbonne where he studied the Indian influence on Irish literature, under the supervision of Louis Cazamian. In 1932 Rao was appointed to the editorial

2358 words

Citation: Aikant, Satish. "Raja Rao". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 January 2004; last revised 11 July 2006. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5032, accessed 29 March 2024.]

5032 Raja Rao 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.