7 I have not been able to trace the source of this quotation.
8 Chāndogya Upanis.ad, VI.8.7, in The Principal Upanis.ads, ed. & trans. S. Radhakrishnan. London: Allen and Unwin, 1953, p. 458.
9 Raja Rao, ‘The Writer and the Word’, The Literary Criterion 7.1 (Winter 1965): 231.
10 Robert Redfield, Peasant Society and Culture: An Anthropological Approach to Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956, pp. 67–104.
11 Janet Powers Gemmill, ‘The Transcreation of Spoken Kannada in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura’, Literature East and West 18.2–4 (1974): 191–202.
12 Gemmill, ‘The Transcreation of Spoken Kannada in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura’, p. 194.
13 C.D. Narasimhaiah, ‘Indian Writing in English: An Introduction,’ The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 5 (1968): 14.
14 Quoted in M.K. Naik, Raja Rao. Twayne World Authors Series. New York: Twayne, 1972, p. 106.
15 Louis Dumont and David Pocock, ‘On the Different Aspects or Levels in Hinduism,’ Contributions to Indian Sociology 3 (July 1959): 45.
16 Bhavabhuti, Rama’s Later History (Uttararāmacarita), part 1: Introduction and Translation by Shripad Krishna Belvalkar. Harvard Oriental Series, 21. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1915, p. 39.
17 Raja Rao, The Cat and Shakespeare. New York: Macmillan, 1965, pp. 8–10. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
18 Arthur Avalon, ed. Kulacūdāmani Nigama, with an introduction and translation by A.K. Maitra. Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1956, ch. 1, verses 25–26.
19 Raja Rao, The Policeman and the Rose: Stories. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1978, p. 88. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
20 Rabindranath Tagore, Stories from Tagore. New York: Macmillan, 1918, p. 122. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
21 Integral Yoga Institute, ed. Dictionary of Sanskrit Names. Yogaville, Buckingham, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1989, p. 57.
22 Sushil Kumar De, ed., and Rev. V. Raghavan, The Meghadūta of Kālidāsa, 3rd ed. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1982, verse 11.
23 Raja Rao, On the Ganga Ghat. Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1993, p. 112. Subsequent citations from this edition are indicated in the text parenthetically by page number.
24 Sankara, Ātmabodhah.: Self-Knowledge, trans. Swami Nikhilananda. Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1967, p. 261, verse 11.
Notes
1
1 A character in the Mahabharata, humiliated because he had walked into a mirror thinking it was a path in the park.
2 The home of the Nehru family.
3
1 The temple dancers who are dedicated to the gods. They belong to the concubine class.
2 2 A silk and spangled string in yellow, tied round the wrist by brothers and friends of a woman towards whom they feel protective, for rakhi means ‘protection’. The festival of Rakhi comes in the month of Sravan, in autumn, on the day of the full moon.
4
1 The tiger’s sportfulness. The name of a metre.
2 A musical instrument consisting of jars filled with water.
6
1 The exact astrological time fixed for tying the tali round the neck of the bride. This is the most important part of the wedding ceremonies.
2 1693 CE
3 It is believed the great Indian mathematician Ramanujan died in Cambridge of undernourishment, being a vegetarian.
4 A small white wild-flower, considered very sacred.
7
1 Satyavrata means, ‘he who has taken the vow-of-truth’.
2 In the Mahabharata Savithri marries, against all odds, Satyavan (The Truthful) and conquers him back from Yama, the God of Death.
3 Of the royal fold.
4 It may be useful to remind the reader that Savithri and Ananda was the name of an opera Wagner wanted to write, which later became the Parsifal.
5 The celibate, or he who has taken the vow of celibacy.
6 He who fasts.
Acknowledgements
The dignity and precision of Sanskrit are so difficult to convey in translation that I have taken the liberty of using all the well-known translations to make my own versions of the texts quoted. Chief among the translators I am indebted to are: Sir Monier-Williams, A. B. Keith, Max Müller, the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission, Dr A. K. Coomaraswamy and, of course, Sir John Woodroffe. Sir John Woodroffe’s translations are so authentic that almost never have I had to correct them.
The French version of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem on the Cathedral is by Professor Angelloz.
I have finally to thank the House of John Murray for the deep understanding they have shown of my book. The present text owes a great deal to their unfailing care and help.