US university acquires Indian author's works
HOUSTON:
Renowned Indian-American author and philosopher Raja Rao's archive that
includes a broad range of materials from unpublished works to manuscripts of
his well-known novels has been acquired by the University of Texas for
advancing the study of arts and humanities.
Rao's estate donated the archive to the Ransom Centre, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas in Austin.
According to Ransom centre, "It's a notable acquisition in part because Rao is widely considered to have been one of India's most noted authors, having received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and other honours".
The Harry Ransom Centre is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the US and Europe for the purpose of advancing the study of the arts and humanities.
Raja Rao (1908-2006), considered one of India's earliest and most outstanding English-language novelists, was the author of numerous works of fiction, short stories, poetry, talks, essays and "The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi" (1998), about Mohandas Gandhi's time in South Africa.
Rao's archive includes a broad range of materials, from unpublished works to manuscripts of his well-known novels 'Kanthapura' (1938), 'The Serpent and the Rope'(1960) and 'The Chessmaster and his Moves' (1988).
"Departing boldly from the European tradition of the novel, Raja Rao has indigenized it in the process of assimilating material from the Indian literary tradition," said R Parthasarathy, professor emeritus of English at Skidmore College.
Rao's estate donated the archive to the Ransom Centre, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas in Austin.
According to Ransom centre, "It's a notable acquisition in part because Rao is widely considered to have been one of India's most noted authors, having received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and other honours".
The Harry Ransom Centre is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the US and Europe for the purpose of advancing the study of the arts and humanities.
Raja Rao (1908-2006), considered one of India's earliest and most outstanding English-language novelists, was the author of numerous works of fiction, short stories, poetry, talks, essays and "The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi" (1998), about Mohandas Gandhi's time in South Africa.
Rao's archive includes a broad range of materials, from unpublished works to manuscripts of his well-known novels 'Kanthapura' (1938), 'The Serpent and the Rope'(1960) and 'The Chessmaster and his Moves' (1988).
"Departing boldly from the European tradition of the novel, Raja Rao has indigenized it in the process of assimilating material from the Indian literary tradition," said R Parthasarathy, professor emeritus of English at Skidmore College.
Educated at the Aligarh Muslim University and the University of Madras and other foreign universities, Rao was already an internationally known author when he was recruited by former UT President John Silber to teach Indian philosophy and Buddhism in Austin.
His archive contains materials in
several of the languages that Rao spoke, including English, French, Sanskrit
and his native Kannada.
Rao
won the Indian National Academy of Letters' Sahitya Akademi Award for
Literature in 1964 for the philosophical novel 'The Serpent and the Rope.' In
1969, he was the recipient of the Padma Bhushan Award, one of India's highest
awards for literature, and in 2007 he was posthumously awarded the Padma
Vibhushan by the government of India.
Alongside the archives by Rao at the Ransom Centre are manuscript collections of prominent international writers including J M Coetzee, Anita Desai, Doris Lessing, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Amos Tutuola.
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