Vol 11, Issue 3, MARCH/ 2020 ISSN NO: 0377-9254

Use of Religion and Myth in R. K. Narayan’s Works

Suresh Mandru Assistant Professor, H & S Department, Samskruti College of Engineering and Technology, Ghatkesar, Hyderabad-501301

Abstract- R. K. Narayan was born on 10th INTRODUCTION August,1906 in Madras in working class south Indian family R.K. Narayan is widely R.K. Narayan is considered to be one of the considered to be one of India's greatest leading authors of early Indian English English language novelists. The most literature along with Mulk Raj Anand and attractive feature of Narayan's personality is Raja Rao. We can find social context and that he is a pure Indian both in spirit and everyday life of his haracters highlighted in thought. R. K. Narayan is a name in English most of his works. He has often been Literature that does not need any compared to William Faulkner, who also introduction. He appears to be shinning like created a similar fictional town, and a glittering star in the galaxy of Indian explored with humour and compassion the fiction writers who wrote in English. His energy of ordinary life. But at the same time career as a writer spanned over 60 years. He he has also been criticised for the simplicity received a number of awards and honors of his prose. For his simple and modest including the AC Benson Medal from the writing style Narayan is often compared to Royal Society of Literature and the Padma the great American author William Vibhushan, India‟s second highest civilian Faulkner. R.K. Narayan, whose full name award. Narayan was also nominated to was Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India‟s Narayanaswami, was born on October 10, Parliament. He is widely known for his 1906 in Madras in a working class South simple and unpretentious writing style, often Indian family. Narayan's father was a head compared to William Faulkner. Most of his master.had frequent transfers. So it was not works show his deep interest in Hindu possible for Narayan to stay with his father. Religion and Myth. In this research article, a This is the reason Narayan spent his early humble attempt has been made analyze the childhood with his maternal grandmother, way how Narayan accepts the Hindu Parvathi in Madras and used to spend only a Religion and Myth in the lives of his few weeks each summer visiting his parents protagonists. He does not alter or modernize and siblings. It was his grandmother who the myths but through their symbolic taught him arithmetic, mythology and representation shows their timeless Sanskrit. relevance as the most immediate form of human experience.

Narayan studied at Lutheran Mission for Key words: spirit, thought, unpretentious eight years and also at the CRC High ,modernize, myth, galaxy, symbolic. School, Madras for a short time.When his father was appointed headmaster of the Maharaja's College High School in Mysore, R.K. Narayan moved back in with his parents. In 1926, he passed the university

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examination and joined Maharaja College of Hindu way of life that has largely moulded Mysore. After completing his graduation, Narayan to the coreof his heart. As a result Narayan worked as a school teacher in a the use of myth appears almost everywhere local school for some time. But soon he in the novels of R. K. Narayan. realized that he could only be happy in The sum and substance of the Hindu religion writing fiction, and that is the reason he lies in the theory that God is omnipresent, decided to stay at home and write. His omnipotentand omniscience. If one decision of staying at home and writing was surrenders unto Him, He takes care of upported by everyone in his him/her and resolves the problems.He looks family.R.K.Narayan began his writing after and saves the person only when the career with in 1930, person places his/her unconditional which was rejected by a lot of publishers. relianceupon Him. A. R. Kulkarni observes: The book was important in the sense that it “In fact two evils flow when a man places was with this book that he created the reliance upon Godfor the solution of the fictional town of . In fact most of problems…………firstly, he is always his works including Swami and friends are dependent on God and is not preparedto take set in the fictional town of Malgudi which any initiative himself. There is no scope for represents any Indian town of South India, self-reliance. Faith in God and faith in but having a Unique identity of its own.In oneselfrun counter to each other. Secondly, 1933,Narayana worked as a reporter for a this belief leads to idleness and inaction.”2 newspaper called „The Justice‟ and in the This is why mostof Narayan‟s characters are meantime, he sent the manuscript of Swami dependent on God and appear mere puppets and Friends to his friend at Oxford who in the hands of fate. Tomost of Narayan‟s showed it to Graham Greene. Greene got the characters, every phenomenon on earth is book published and thus his first book got pre-ordained. They remain captiveof published. His second novel, The Bachelors circumstances for most part of their life. of Arts was published in 1937 again by They remain frustrated either with their own Graham Greene, who by now had become self orwith the people around them. Swami ( his counsellor and guide as to how to write Swami and Friends ), Chandran ( The and what to write to target the English Bachelor of Arts ),Sampath ( Mr. Sampath ), speaking audience. The book, The Bachelors Margayya ( ), Jagan ( of Arts was based on his experiences at ),Raju, , college. Shrinivas of The Man Eater of Malgudi and In an interview with Ved Mehta, R. K. Savitri of The Dark Room are allutterly Narayan admitted to him, helpless creatures in the hands of fate. To “…………….inability to write illustrate the point, we take the example of novels without Krishna, Ganesh, Hanuman, Savitriof The Dark Room. She runs away astrologers, pundits and Devdasis or temple from home in protest against her husband‟s prostitutesand explained his point of view by illegal love affairwith a trainee officer adding in his characteristic humble way that working under him. But she too accepts in any case thathas turned out to be my defeat in the end. The futility, thefrustration India.”1 He spontaneously chooses the and her own inescapable weakness made her Hindu myths and legends aroundwhich his cry and sob. “A wretched fate thatwouldn‟t novels are usually woven. As a matter of let me drown the first time…….this is fact, he owes a great deal too Hindu defeat. I accept it, I am no good for this religionthat reflects in his novels. It is the fight.”3

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for the woman to follow. She is expected to The most important dogma of the Hindu be obedient to her husband and to maintain religion is the acceptance of the truth that marital God exists in fidelity even if the husband is cruel to her the form of one Absolute OM. There is one and involved in debauchery. She has no Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar right in the (Shiva). household property. For example, Savitri in There are several divine forms known as The Dark Room has absolutely no rights in gods and goddesses. Soul is immortal and her own ultimately it household. And yet she puts up with insult merges with God, the Divine Spirit. This is and maltreatment at the hands of her evident in the second half of The English husband. But Teacher when she finds it all intolerable, she leaves where the death of the wife fills the hero the home to assert her individuality. Krishna, with belief that However, she hasno courage to face the death is notthe end of everything and that challenges of life. In the end she comes back human personality has several other planes accepting total defeat. of existence. With thisbelief in mind perhaps Janamma another character in the novel, Krishna on his wife‟s death undertakes also believes that total submission to the psychic contact with the spirit ofhis wife. He husband leads expects that finally he will be united with to peace. The dictum laid down by Manu Susila. “A cool breeze lapped our faces. and later moralists that a woman shall have The boundaries of our personalities no right is suddenly dissolved. It was a moment of rare, so deeply embedded in the minds of both immutable joy, that Ramani could bluntly tell Savitri that a moment for which one feels grateful to she has no Life and Death.” This is on the lines the right whatsoever. Utterly helpless she writer had repents: “In Yama‟s world the cauldron undergone when he too lost his dear wife. must be ready for Narayan writes: “This outlook may be me for the sin of talking back to a husband unscientific, but and disobeying him, but what could I do?” It it helped me survive the death of my is very wife……………. I could somehow manage shocking that even in modern times Ramani to live after her quotes the ancient epics and scriptures death…………….” 4 which enjoin upon women the strictest identification with Hindu epics Ramayan and Mahabharat their husbands. Even Rosie who is highly which are the backbone of Hindu religion educated, reveal that for and leaves her husband for the sake of her the woman, her husband is everything. He is aspirations, longs to die at her husband‟s equivalent to God for her. Total submission doorstep. Howpathetic her words are: “he and may not admist me over the threshold, in devotion to the husband is the only way for which event it is far better toend one‟s life the woman to attain peace. This is the only on his doorstep.” 5 religion Manu, the acknowledged Hindu law giver divides the Hindu society into four castes:

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the Brahmin,the Kshtriya, the Vaishya, and sympathetic towardsRosie, but she changes the Shudra. In Manusmriti, Manu prescribes her attitude when she learns that Rosie the duties of all thefour divisions of the belongs to dancing girl class. Sheflares up: society. The duty of the Brahmin was to “Are you of our caste? No, our class? No,… learn and teach; to perform yajnasand to After all you are a dancing girl. We do make perform yajnas for others; and to give notadmit them in our families.” Jagan is and take alms (donations). The duty of reluctant to accept Grace as his daughter-in- theKshtriya was to protect people,to donate law. EvenRaman‟s aunt could not alms, to perform yajnas, to learn and not to accommodate the idea of Raman‟s marriage involve insensual pleasures. The Vaishyas with Daisy, a Christian girl.Narayan does were supposed to do agriculture and not seem to be opposed to love marriage as business, to protect animals,to donate alms, he himself has gone through it. But to learn and to make money through interest. evenNarayan‟s love marriage could not have There was assigned only one duty tothe materialised, had Rajam belonged to a Shudras and that was to serve the above different caste.Malgudi wears a festive look three divisions candidly. 6 on Mahatma Gandhi‟s visit to the town. But Shriram‟s Granny appears restless for the Mentioning the duties of the Shudras, reason that he allows untouchables to touch Bhisma said in The Mahabharat, “The the Hindu gods. From the conversation Creator intended the Mahatma Gandhi undertakes with an urchin shudras to become the servants of the other of a sweeper occupying the Divan much to three orders. For this the service of the the chagrin of the Municipal Committee othrer three chairman, it becomes clear that he takes classes is the duty of the Shudras. By such immense interest in listening him about his services of the three, a Shudra may attain father‟s calling. The Mahatma advises him great to be neat and tidyno doubt, but he never happiness.”7 In The Bhagwad Geeta Lord enquires of him whether he goes to school at Krishna says, “The fourfold system was all. This shows how the Mahatma looks at created by Me in accordance with varying the problem. disposition and the actions ( resulting from them ).” 8 Otherworldliness and quietism is at the root of the Hindu religion. This is seen in the This divisionhad become so rigid in the attitude of many protagonists created by R. course of time that they had come to be K. Narayan in his novels. Frustrated under degenerated into watertightcompartments. the pressure of social customs and As a result, the people of one caste had no circumstances, they sometimes run away reciprocal relations with those of from the problems of life, other times they anothercaste. The people of upper three become monk and still other times they seek castes could at least mix with each other. refuse in the philosophy of life. For instance, But the fourth one whichincludes Shudras Krishnain The English Teacher finds peace (untouchables) was totally alienated from in the world of spirits. Shrinivas in Mr. the main stream of life. Narayanportrays this Sampath and Natraj inThe Man Eater of condition of the society gracefully in his Malgudi find refuge in the philosophy that novels. Raju‟s mother does not approve the moral order establishes itself, and that, ofRaju‟s marriage with Rosie as she belongs since they find nothing wrong with the to a low caste family. She is at first world, it is absolutely unnecessary for them

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to do anything in the universe because all icons etc. In most of his novels, R. K. the hardships of this life will be Narayan refers to the fables and legends of compensated in the life hereafter. Narayan India. In the was a firm believer in the other world. In early episodic novel Swami and Friends, it is spite of the fact that he knew that the general implicit in Swami‟s actions and reactions trend of the time to come was to be rational that he and scientific, he believed in the age-old believes in the myth that the omnipresent sacred Hindu shastras. He believed in the and omniscient God has the power to immortality of soul firmly. He admitted in convert sand into his autobiographicalbook My Days that the money. He goes on to bury two pebbles in psychic contact he narrated in The English the backyard hoping and praying for divine Teacher was actually based onhis own intervention which would change the psychic experiment with the spirit of his pebbles into three pie coins. When his hopes dead wife. In addition to it, his novel A are dashed, he kicks at themin anger and Tiger forMalgudi is solely devoted to frustration only to repent at his action, represent the Hindu philosophy that made fearing the retribution of gods. the hermit believe that hehimself and the R. K. Narayan‟s novel The English Teacher tiger were once brothers in their previous is highly supernatural and autobiographical. life. Krishna Hindu religion and myth go hand-in-hand. in The English Teacher, after the loss of his Myth is a symbolic narrative medium wife, pines for the wife Susila, grief-sticken transmitted and through both oral and written narrative desolate. The experiments in psychic medium. It apparently relates actual events communication with Susila, his dead wife and characters with the help of amedium, introduces a of quasi-historical origins and is associated whimsical or fantastical element into the with human belief system. The meaning of story that has so long been very myth, as much truthful to life. Automatic writings given in Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, and attempts at psychic contact with the is a traditional story usually involving dead are not supernatural or altogether uncommon. Beginning as an imaginary people and embodying popular interesting account of domestic felicity, it ideas on natural or social phenomena. Such later gets boggeddown in the so called stories spiritual things and philosophic discussions, collectively are also called myth. Myths are which have in them, no grainof truth at all. specific accounts of gods or superhuman Even the writer‟s own psychic contacts with beings the spirit of his dead wife that hasoccasioned involved in extraordinary events or the novel, is but a hallucination on his part. circumstances. Time in most cases, is The profound realization that dawns uponthe unspecified, understoodas existing apart protagonist, the end as the unmitigated from contemporary human experience, loneliness, is the only truth of life that dislocated from history. Myth is makes himsurvive the death of his beloved distinguished from symbolic behaviour and wife. Narayan‟s recording in his memoir My symbolic places or objects, such as temples, Days of the event ofhis wife‟s death idols, deserves attention here: “More than any other book, The English Teacher

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isautobiographical in content, very little part Narayan's works will be disappointed, since of it being fiction. The English Teacher of western concepts have little to do with his the novel,Krishna is a fictional character in vision of the fictional city of Malgudi; but he goes life. As a detailed reading shows, Narayan is through the sameexperience I had gone steeped in Hindu philosophy, and though he through, and he calls his wife Susila, and the discardsmany of its notions, he assimilates child is Leena instead of Hema.The toll that the basic truths. Narayan does not seem to typhoid took and all the desolation that support the theoryof Karma, but at the same followed, with a child to look after, and time he does not support the Epicurean thepsychic adjustments, are based on my theory of 'carpe diem' or 'seizethe day'. Our own experience. deeds in this life will have repercussions in this life only, and through the realisationof For R. K. Narayan, death is not a full stop. our follies and delusions comes wisdom. He As he states in The English Teacher, it is believes in making our faculties and more of a experiencesuseful in this life, rather than comma, with each hiatus leading to the birth accumulating them for an after-life. of a new identity which replaces the Narayan's view is that wisdomis not gained previous one. through meditation, or by spiritual But the western concept of identity as a contemplation, but by going through mask is against Narayan's oriental theexperiences that life has to offer. philosophy. His Raju in The Guide has an ordinary protagonists do not merely play one role childhood, an extra-ordinary love affair, a after the other, they live out one existence, parasitic life which which is not extends to his term in jail. In plain and a performance but pure reality. As a simple words, Narayan portrays a normal Spectator Review once put it, his success Indian man in lies in portraying different circumstances. What happens to the 'extra-ordinary ordinariness' of day-to- Raju has something in common with what day life. Narayan is steeped in Hindu happens to philosophy, and Savitri in The Dark Room when she tries to though he discards many of its notions, he commit suicide after being driven out by her assimilates the basic truths. As he says in husband,to the headmaster in The English The English Teacher when he does not die on the day an Teacher: My knowledge of past, present and astrologer predictedthat he would, to Jagan future strictly pertain to this life. Beyond in The Vendor of Sweets when his son Mali that I have violates all his notions of life,and to nothing to say, because I believe I shall once Chandran in when he again be resolved into the five elements of renounces everything and becomes a which I sanyasi.They all die a death, but this death is am composed: and my intelligence and not an end but the starting point of a new memory may not be more than what we see life. 10 As Narayan says about Chandran in air and when he becomes a sanyasi because he water! couldn't marry a young girl called Malathi. Those who try to find existentialism, Others may renounce with a spiritual motive nihilism, magic realism, and all other kinds or purpose . . . But Chandran's renunciation of 'ism' in wasnothing of that kind. It was an

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alternative to suicide.Through this symbolic These statements also support the view that death, however,emerges a Chandran who most of Narayan's characters are in quest of realises that he had been 'humbugging inner through life' and comes back tothe peace and freedom from the collective. mainstream, a thoroughly changed man.The Krishna tells us in English Teacher, on his ending of The Guide leaves us an day of unresolvedproblem. Does Raju die at the retirement: „Let me assure you I'm retiring, end of the novel? No. For the first time Raju not with a feeling of sacrifice for a national has done somethingwithout any profit for cause, butfor a very selfish purpose. I'm himself, and the moment he has seeking a great inner peace‟. accomplished this selfless task he This freedom, however, does not make them hasrenounced his previous life. Hence we selfish. This is almost the Hinayana form of are witnessing his rebirth, not death, and this Buddhism where the salvation of the self is is reinforcedby the image of Raju as a baby. followed by the salvation of others. Raju's Like a phoenix, Raju annihilates the past and penance is recreates himself.Similarly, after her failed for the greater common good, just as are the attempt at suicide, Savitri could be said to headmaster's and Krishna's. And The experience rebirth. She almostsettles down Vendor of to a new life, but has to go back to her Sweets ends with Jagan's statement that he previous existence since very strong will look after Grace, as is evident in his bondsexist between her and her married life, words, 'It's a especially in the form of her children. For duty we owe her.' Raju, theheadmaster and Jagan, life has been Instead of looking for threads of renewed, as is evident in Jagan's statement Existentialism, Narayan's characters can be near the end of thenovel: „I am a free analysed in the light man‟.But for Savitri, being a woman makes of the Buddhist concept of Nirvana. Nirvana it impossible for her to attain thisfreedom. is a state of utter extinction, not of existence, Throughout The Dark Room Narayan but of portrays the helplessness of Indian passions and suffering; it is a state beyond women.Throughout his work Narayan the chain of causation (in the case of Raju), focuses how unique experiences change our a state of vision of life.Raju's meeting with Rosie and freedom (Jagan). It is in addition a state of his subsequent term in jail, Krishnan's sense bliss (the headmaster). It is the truth of utter of loss at the death ofhis wife Sushila, selflessnessand insubstantiality of things, of Jagan's clash of ideals with his son Mali, the emptiness of the ego, and of the Chandran's infatuation for Malathi andhis impermanence of all things.With the consequent sanyas, all change their realization of this truth, ignorance is perspective of life. Life to Narayan is the destroyed, and, consequently, all craving, greatest teacher.The headmaster in The suffering,and hatred is destroyed with it English Teacher tells us: „You may treat me (Chandran).Narayan states his law of life in as dead or as one who has taken Sanyasa The English Teacher: The law of life can't Ashrama‟.Jagan in The Vendor of Sweets, be avoided. The lawcomes into operation the showing a similarity with Raju, says: At moment we detach ourselves from our some stage in one's life mother's womb. All struggle andmisery in one must uproot oneself from the life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or accustomed surroundings and disappear. get away from it or in allowing ourselvesto

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be hurt by it. A profound unmitigated “It kills the wife soon after the marriage, he loneliness is the only truth of life. This view said, when pressed by Chandran‟s father.”11 iscomplimented in The Vendor of Sweets: D.W. Krishnan holds the same belief when We are blinded by our attachments. Every he says in his letter to Chandran‟s father: attachmentcreates a delusion and we are “However carried away by it. Raju, Chandran, Krishna, we can only propose. He on the Trupati and Jagan all try toescape from this law by Hills alone knows what is best for us.” In clinging to various kinds of attachment, be it The Financial love for a woman, or forone's son but Expert, even Margayya who is modern in realisation does eventually come to them all. outlook never spared a dig at the custom of Thus, all religion and myth exhibitedin tallying Narayan‟s novels centres round his own horoscopes as a preliminary to marriage. He vision of life.Hindu religion is inseparably seems to believe in Astrology up to some associated with Astrology which is so extent closely associated with IndianMythology. though he could not uproot himself from the Astrology is the study of the movements and religious taboos fully. This is in keeping relative positions of celestial bodies with R. K. ashaving an influence on human affairs and Narayan‟s vision that the law of life cannot the natural world. be avoided. Not only R. K. Narayan but his protagonists R. K. Narayan‟s remarkable popularity lies also believe in Astrology. Many of the in his extraordinary gift of storytelling, with protagonists the headymixture of Indian myths and lore. in his novels are staunch in his faith in This adds to their appeal. Narayan‟s creative Astrology and thus, in fatalism. They brilliance is visiblein his use of myth as a believe that wrong strategy to present contemporary truth. His matching of horoscopes of the bride and the Malgudi and its inmates acquirea mythical bridegroom results in calamity or even death aura- the village, the Nallappa grove, the of eitherof the two. For example, in The Sarayu River, etc. accentuate this. His Bachelor of arts Chandran‟s father takes novelsproject an Indianness through the initiative in sending oneMr. Shastrigal to the presentation of Malgudi which emerges as house of the bride (Malthi ) to bring about steeped in the threethousand years old the settlement. Horoscopes wereexchanged. tradition of Hindu culture. The gods and But the bride‟s father D. W. Krishnan Iyer demons, an integral part of the was so orthodox in his attitude that Indiantradition, are a constant source of herejected the proposal outright, saying that inspiration for him. It is in this sense that R. Chandran‟s horoscope was ill-matched. “I K. Narayanincorporates mythical incidents know a littleof Astrology myself. I am and the experiences of gods and demons, prepared to overlook many things in a making them relevant tothe people of horoscope. I don‟t usually concern myself Malgudi. Myth cannot be relegated to the with the factors that indicate prosperity, world of obscurity since it is not a deadform. wealth, progeny, and all that. I usually R. K. Narayan does not alter or modernize overlookthem. But I do feel that we can‟t the myths but through their symbolic ignore the question of longevity. I know representation shows their timeless hundreds of cases wherethe presence of relevance as the most immediate form of Mars in this house (of horoscope)………I human experience. can tell you that……..” He hesitated tosay it.

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References 1. G. B. Baghmar, R. K. Narayan: as novelist: Thesis submitted to Nagpur University, Nagpur, 1981. 2. K. Kulkarni, The Buddha, the Trimurti and the Modern Hinduism (Nagpur Suvichar Prakashan, Dhantoli, 1980), p. 73 3. R. K. Narayan, The Dark Room (New Delhi Orient Paperback, 1978), p 124 4. R. K. Narayan, MY Days (Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1979), p 135 5. R. K. Narayan, The Guide (Mysore: Indian Thought Publication, 1979) 6. Pandit Rameshwar Bhatt, Manusmriti, Sanskriti Prakashan, New Delhi), Ed. 2011 7. P. C. Roy, The Mahabharat, I and XII: 60 passion.Trans (Indian Thought Publications, 1958) P 80 and 220 8. Bhagwad Geeta 9. R. K. Narayan, My Days (Mysore: Indian Thought Publication, 1979), pp. 134 – 135 10. Cambus Alert, The Outsider, 1942 11. R. K. Narayan, The Bachelor of Arts (Mysore: Indian Thought Publication, 1979) pp. 87 -88

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