LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:6 June 2018
ISSN 1930-2940

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Of Innocence and Experience: Tracing the Journey of Ramaswamy
in Raja Rao’s The Serpent and the Rope

Goutam Karmakar


Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_and_the_Rope

Abstract

Being a true Advait Vedantin, Raja Rao remains a Sadhak (in the sense of quester) throughout his life. And by employing the spiritual space in his novels, he seeks to decode the truth coupled with mysticism and innocence. His protagonists never stop questioning their own perception and understanding of life and this self-introspection help them to get a holistic view of life. But in gaining this knowledge his protagonists have to undergo a journey from innocence to experience. By pointing out the deeper spiritual, moral, philosophical and existential issues, Rao shows his readers the way towards self-realization and this self-realization comes after the protagonists’ confrontation with spiritual dilemmas, moral conflicts, inner turmoil, psychological anguish and identity crisis. His The Serpent and the Rope is bound to be counted in this context because in true sense of term the spiritual aspiration of Raja Rao is reflected in his Ramaswamy, the mystic-protagonist of The Serpent and the Rope. If Ramaswamy’s marriage to Madeleine is an act of pure innocence and ignorance of his native trading and cultures, then the journey towards experience begins with his return to India and here his longing for a sense of belonging acts as a medium. If Ramaswamy’s ritual marriage to Savithri paves the way for spiritual salvation of him then his yearning for the guidance of a guru gives his journey a meaning which helps him to realize himself and this paper attempts to show this journey of ignorant and innocent Rama and how he realizes the experience.

Keywords: Raja Rao, The Serpent and the Rope, Education, Experience, Ignorance, Innocence, Salvation, Journey

Introduction

I had serious questions of my own and I could not name them. Something has just missed my life, some deep absence grew in me like a coconut on a young tree, that no love or learning could fulfill…I wondered where all this wandering would lead to. Life is a pilgrimage, I knew but pilgrimage to where and what? (The Serpent and The Rope 26)

The above quoted lines from Raja Rao’s ‘The Serpent and The Rope’ carry within themselves the very essence of Rao’s narrative technique which provide his readers the elements of truth of innocence and the ultimate experience issuing out from the journey of his mystic protagonists. This metaphorical journey has been shown here by Ramaswamy whose quest for the knowledge in a way reflects Rao’s quest. And Rao has shown this journey with his Vedantic notions, Advait philosophy, realization of the self, notion of appearance and reality, Buddhists perceptions and ultimate salvation. The lines such as “there is no body to go now, no home, no city, no climate, no age…who are you? whose; whence have you come?” (402) vividly portray Rao’s politics of truth and truth is nothing but the perpetual existential crisis and agony of mankind issuing out of his ignorance and innocence and all these result in the quest for Mukti, which is nothing but the realization and experience of one’s own self. Ram’s journey shows how he speculates on every event which in turn compels him to think on the nature of existence. Rao with his fictional space tries to show the subtle metaphysical problems and his Rama tries to show his eagerness to attain metaphysical wisdom. This attainment of wisdom and experience can be traced in the very title of the fiction which is highly symbolic in nature. While the serpent stands for illusion, the rope points out the eternal truth and both the serpent and the rope together pave the way for salvation and Tiwari aptly comments on this issue:

The logic is employed to illustrate the absolute reality of the Brahma as against the unreality of the visible universe. Even as a rope is mistaken for a serpent in the darkness, so also the phenomenal universe, which is false, is regarded as real for lack of accurate knowledge; Brahma satyamjaganmithya. That is, Brahman is the Single Reality and the visible world is an illusion which in fact is denied to our perception because of our psyche being enveloped in “Avidya” or “Ajnana. (158)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Goutam Karmakar
Assistant Professor of English
Barabazar Bikram Tudu Memorial College
Purulia
West Bengal
India
goutamkrmkr@gmail.com

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