July 8, 2006

 Raja Rao, the Indian writer credited for his authentic portrayal of Indian values in English publications died on July 8, 2006. From his obituary in The Guardian this description of two books Rao wrote. "Aiming at an ultimately positive encounter between east and west, Rao's metaphysical novel, The Serpent and the Rope (1960), displays an intellectuality that goes beyond the textual, through its metaphysical associations and a spiritual dimension that tells us much about the Indian and European worlds. His protagonist, Ramaswamy, entertains his friends with philosophical discussions ranging over an impressive set of themes - including Buddhism, theology, monasticism and world politics - while at the same time he charmingly invites the reader to envisage reality from his Hindu viewpoint, offering the key of distinguishing the projected reality of the serpent from the existing reality of the rope, an image derived from Shankara. ...[In a subsequent book,] Rao manages to bridge the very idea of opposition with his Vedanta philosophy, which denies ontological opposites like space/time, cause/effect, reality/illusion by maintaining that they are identical, since change is unreal. Ramakrishna Pai, an alter ego of the novelist, discovers that it is avidya or logical thinking that impedes the recognition of the unity of the individual self with Brahman. All his questions are answered by his guru, who guides him to the understanding of the all-embracing consciousness." The name of this subsequent book is The Cat and Shakespeare (1965).