The Myth-Rama-Sita-Ravana in Kanthapura

 

The Myth of Rama-Sita and Ravna in Kanthapura

 Ans. The novel Kanthapura really revolves around the myth of Rama-Sita and Ravana. The Ramayana was narrated by the great Sage Valmiki long ago. In the same way, there is a narrator, Achakka, in Kanthapura also, though not a great Sage, but the grandmother of the village Kanthapura.

She compares Gandhiji with lord Rama and India with Sita. Achakka, the narrator says that as Sita was overpowered by the chief of Evil, Ravana, so was the mother India overpowered by the British. The people of India had been made slaves by the British.

The miserable condition of the labourers working at the Skeffington Coffee Estate is the living example in miniature size. One can guess easily how the people of India were being treated under the foreign rule in India at that time. Lord Rama collected the ‘Vanara-sena’ (the army of the monkeys) and attacked Ravana, the king of Lanka (now SriLanka), defeated and killed him. Thus Sita was liberated by Rama from Ravana’s slavery.

Here in this novel, we have the same parallels of the events. The novelist, Raja Rao, projects Mahatma Gandhi to lead the people of India to fight against the  British rule in India. In Ramayana, it was Rama, who fought a decisive fight against Ravana. In Kanthapura, the novelist showed Gandhiji a mighty (powerful) hero to defeat the Evil forces to achieve freedom for mother India. He used his powerful weapons of ‘ahimsa, satyagraha and non-violence’.

The war between Rama and Ravana had resulted in the deaths of many people. Women were made widows, mothers lost their sons and sisters lost their brothers. Numerous people were injured. In the same way, the freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi resulted in the deaths of many people in Kanthapura and in the rest of the country as well. The people of Kanthapura were arrested, tortured, and lathi-charged by the police.

 

Moorthy as a follower of Gandhiji leads the struggle for freedom in Kanthapura. First, he had to struggle hard to unite the people of Kanthapura. He had to go from one door to the other to spread Gandhiji’s ideas among the people of Kanthapura. Rama had with him his mighty warriors like Lakshmana, Sugriva, and  Hanuman. In the same way, though at a very small scale, Moorthy also had his faithful friends with him. He formed the Congress Panchayat Committee with Pariah Ranganna, Range Gowda, and Seenu. Seenu did his selfless service to him as Veer Hanuman did to Lord Rama.

The people of Kanthapura fought against the British forces as Vanaras fought with the Ravana’s forces in Sri Lanka. Mahatma Gandhi’s trip to England has also been equalized to the one taken by Lord Rama to Sri Lanka to liberate Sita from Ravana’s control.

Gandhiji also went to England to attend the second Round Table Conference. Achakka said that Mahatma would go to the ‘Redman's country’ to get swaraj for the people of India. She gives more detail in the novel, that has parallels to the incidents that occurred in the Ramayana.

Thus, we may conclude that Kanathapura revolves around the myths of Rama-Sita and Ravana.

 

Literary Devices- Oxymoron-Figures of Speech-Poetic Devices

 

6. Oxymoron

In oxymoron, two apparently contradictory statements are yoked together to achieve the dramatic effect and some flavour in speech.

 Difference between Paradox and Oxymoron

In Oxymoron two words giving two opposite meanings/ideas are placed together to achieve flavour in speech or to produce a dramatic effect on it.

 

In Paradox mainly two statements contradictory to each other are placed together. Deep meaning is hidden somewhere in the paradox used by the poet or the writer.

 

There may be certain purposes in using paradoxical statements.

 

These may be used in day-to-day life to criticise an idea, to provoke new thought, to add a witty idea for creating fun and humour.

 Example:

Freedom is slavery. (Paradox)

Cruel kindness (Oxymoron)

More examples of Oxymoron:

 Great Depression                        Clearly confused

Pretty ugly                                    Living dead

Walking dead                               Virtual reality

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Literary Devices-Epigram-Figures of Speech-Poetic Devices

 5.Epigram: It is a pithy (condensed/full of meaning) remark made in a very clever and amusing way. It may be a short poem usually having a satirical tone.

  Read the following lines from William Blake’s ‘Auguries of Innocence’:

  “To see a world in a grain of sand,/And a heaven in a wildflower,

 Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,/And eternity in an hour.”

Some more brief epigrams, which are used as quotations:

 

“Candy /Is dandy,/But liquor/ Is  quicker” (Ogden Nash)

 “It comes once a year/But fades with fear.” (Harry Potter)

 “I can resist everything but temptation.” (Oscar Wild)

"It is better to light the candle than curse the darkness.” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

   “Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.” (Fran Lebowitz)

History of Epigrams

The Greeks had the tradition of using epigrams in fond memory of their loved ones. They did not use satire and humour in the epigram, so they were used like an elegy. The difference between these two is noticeable these days.

 Sometimes epigram might give the impression like that of a paradox.

For example: “I can resist everything but temptation.”

But, here it is a clever and amusing way of expressing an idea. At the first impression, it may look contradictory and absurd, but at the deeper level, it reveals a great meaning.