MYTHOLOGICAL AND FOLK ELEMENTS: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE SELECTED NOVELS OF RAJA RAO AND R.K.NARAYAN A Thesis Submitted for the Award of the Ph.D. degree of UNIVERSITY OF KOTA in the Faculty of Arts By TANU RAJPAL Under the supervision of Dr. (Mrs.) Jatinder Kohli Department of English Government College Kota, Kota. UNIVERSITY OF KOTA, KOTA 2017 (i) Dedicated to my Father & Mother, For their ceaseless Love and Inspiration. (ii) DECLARATION I, Ms. Tanu Rajpal D/o Sh. Anil Rajpal resident of Vigyan Nagar, Kota, hereby, declare that the research work incorporated in the present thesis entitled Mythological and Folk Elements: A Critical Study of Selected Novels of Raja Rao and R. K. Narayan is my own work and is original. This work (in part or in full) has not been submitted to any University for the award of a Degree or a Diploma. I have properly acknowledged the material collected from secondary sources wherever required. I solely own the responsibility for the originality of the entire content. Date: Signature of the Candidate Place: Kota (iii) SUPERVISOR'S CERTIFICATE I feel great pleasure in certifying that the thesis entitled Mythological and Folk Elements: A Critical Study of Selected Novels of Raja Rao and R. K. Narayan embodies a record of the results of investigations carried out by Ms Tanu Rajpal for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English, Govt. College, Kota, Kota (Rajasthan) under my guidance. I am satisfied with the analysis of data, interpretation of results and the conclusions drawn. It is an original piece of research carried out by the candidate under my supervision. She has completed the residential requirement of 200 days by residing at the headquarters (Govt. College, Kota) of my workplace i.e. Kota, as per the rules of University of Kota, Kota. I recommend the submission of thesis. DATE: PLACE: Dr. (Mrs.) Jatinder Kohli Research Supervisor Department of English Govt. P. G. College, Kota (iv) Acknowledgement May Success tend good people's labour, By grace of him, on whose brow gleams, The moon's delightful crescent favour, Bright as foam on Ganga's streams. (Hitopadeśa, Prastāvika 1) Writing this thesis, has been a challenging and rewarding task for me which would not have been possible without the blessings of God and a number of people who contributed to final result in many ways. To commence with, I pay my obeisance to God who bestowed upon me courage, patience, inspiration and the light. I express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. (Mrs.) Jatinder Kohli, Lecturer, Govt. College, Kota who ploughed through several preliminary versions of my text, making critical suggestions and enhancing my skills. Words and lexicons cannot be justifying in expressing a sense of gratitude which flows through my heart for her valuable guidance and constant encouragement. Without her continual inspiration, it would not have been possible to complete this study. I owe my special thanks to all the Faculty Members of Department of English, Govt. Colllege, Kota for providing necessary help and support. I am immensely indebted to Dr. Rajesh Gupta, Lecturer, Aklank Girls P. G. College and Mrs. Anjana Sharma, Librarian, Aklank Girls P. G. College for their unstinted support, timely motivation, sympathetic attitude and unfailing help during the course of entire study. (v) I feel a deep sense of gratitude to my father Sh. Anil Rajpal who formed part of my vision and taught me to strive hard in every situation of life. Words would fall short to express my deepest gratitude and write my feelings for my mother Smt. Mamta Rajpal who has been an infinite source of motivation, selfless love, spiritual support and solace of heart. I will always remain indebted to her for making me what I am today. I am also thankful to my brother Manjeet and sisters for their endless prayers and good wishes. I owe my deepest appreciation from the depth of my heart to my husband Sh. Mohan Kumar Sahetya for his unconditional love, help, sacrifices and constant encouragement throughout the course of this study and to my beloved son Shabd who remained instrumental by being calm and considerate to bring the work in the present form. At last, I pay my deepest thanks to all those who have, directly or indirectly, been supportive to make it possible for my research work to see the light of day. Tanu Rajpal (vi) CONTENTS CHAPTER NO. TITLE PAGE NO. CANDIDATE'S DECLARATION (iii) SUPERVISOR'S CERTIFICATE (iv) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (v) 1. FORMALISTIC SCHEMA 1 2. THEMATIC CONCERNS 39 3. FOLK ELEMENT: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS 74 4. MYTHOLOGICAL ALLUSIONS: AN EXPLORATION 168 5. FORM AND TECHNIQUE 217 6. CONCLUSION 244 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 267 APPENDIX 286 (vii) Chapter – 1 Formalistic Schema 1 Chapter – 1 Formalistic Schema The India of Brahma and Prajapathi; of Varuna, Mithra and Aryaman; of Indra, of Krishna, Shiva and Parvathi; of Rama, Harishchandra and Yagnyavalkya; this India was a continuity I felt, not in time but in space; as a cloud that stands over a plain might say, 'Here I am and I pour' – and goes on pouring. The waters of that rain have fertilized our minds and hearts, and being without time they are ever present. It is perhaps in this sense that India is outside history. A patch of triangular earth, surrounded by the three seas, somehow caught the spirit without time, and established it in such a way that you can see the disk of gold shine miles above the earth. (SR 128) In the above excerpt Raja Rao has glorified the repository of Indian mythology and folklore. India is the country whose foundations are deep-rooted in Puranas, Upanishads, epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, great scriptures like Bhagavad Gita and Ramcharitamanas. India being one of the oldest and stable civilizations has always been deeply entrenched with things that are conventionally understood as art. It has been enchained with the cultural and spiritual moorings from time immemorial. Whether that is the Vedas and the Jatakas stories or Panćatantra and Hitopadeśa – Indian sense of subtle domain has always been a giant monolithic force in motion and continuous evolution. Attracted by her richness she was the cynosure of the world. This made many warriors and foreign kingdoms as well as peripatetic, who came here, explore the land and mostly got settled and assimilated at this land. All this enriched the whole gamut of art, culture and literature of this place. 2 Man creates Literature and Literature studies man – his origin and evolution, his interests and inclinations, his emotions and sentiments, his efforts, successes, failures and frustrations, his feelings of love, hatred, faith, devotion, loyalty and patriotism and above all his general behavior, virtues and vices. Language is a medium of social interact, specific to each culture passed down as legacy from one generation to the other to give identity and pride with a sense of belonging to a community or even a nation that maintains distinct culture. In a multicultural society, the dominant language in the majority group becomes the social interact with the minority cultural groups who however maintain their own language to interact with their own community. Literature represents the language, culture and tradition of certain group of people but it is more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. It introduces us to new worlds of experience. It enables humans to probe deeper into the human psyche by providing them with an array of situations which humans can identify with and learn from. It does not exist as an autonomous entity but rather is found within a socio-political, cultural, ideological and aesthetic context which conditions its reception at different moments and different places. Literature, either in spoken or written form, characterizes the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, intellectual and emotional features of any society. Mythology – a body or collection of myths belonging to people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors and heroes and Folklore - the oral tradition which consists of the whole of that which is transmitted by word of mouth, are chief elements of any literature. Literature is a process of widening mythology and folklore. Literary works may thus be regarded as mythopoeic and folkloric, tending to create or recreate certain narratives which human beings consider crucial to their understanding of the world. 3 Lawrence Coupe observes: . the work of the myth is to explain, to reconcile, to guide action or to legitimate. We can add that myth-making is evidently a primal and universal function of the human mind as it seeks a more or less unified vision of the cosmic order, the social order, and the meaning of the individual's life. Both for society at large and for the individual, this story-generating function seems irreplaceable. The individual finds meaning in his life by making of his life a story set within a larger social and cosmic story. (Myth 6) Myth and folklore are therefore very important components of cultural and literary experiences. They are not only the outpourings of the heart of the natives but they carry culture, heritage, social customs, mores and modes of behavior. The folklore has been an eternal part of every culture since ages. When it comes to Indian folklore, the country of diverse religions, languages and cultures, it has a complete range of tales, short stories and mythological legends, which emerge from all walks of life. The interesting stories range from the remarkable Panćatantra to Hitopadeśa, from Jataka to Akbar – Birbal. Not only this, the great Indian epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita are full of didactic stories inspired from the lives of great souls.