The Serpent and the Rope

by Raja Rao

The Serpent and the Rope introduces to American readers India's greatest novelist. Reflecting the flavor and wholeness of the traditional Indian way of life, where fact and fable, philosophy and the matter-of-fact blend into one, this semi-autobiographical novel can be called timeless, just as India herself seems timeless and other-worldly by virtue of her unchanging rituals.

But the novel also portrays a very definite period of time, describing the full implications of the meeting of East and West on the most intimate plane through the story of Rama, an Indian, and Madeleine, a French girl, who meet at a French university shortly after World War II. Their marriage is the central theme of the book, and it is in telling the story of this marriage that Rama reveals, more deeply than most writers are able to suggest in their lifetime, the meaning of love. For these two people it becomes a question either of preserving their identities or of sacrificing an inherited background to make their marriage a success. Family ties on both sides do not help, and Rama's trip back to India for his father's illness forcibly reminds him of the underlying contrasts between India and Europe, and of a certain conflict between them and himself. While there he meets his friend Pratap's fiancée, Savithri, an event which is to bring many forgotten questions to the surface and to alter the whole perspective of his life. When Rama returns to France, he and Madeleine have to face their problems and find their own solutions.

To express his fundamental and universal message, Raja Rao has created a memorable style, a compound of the unhurried breath of the Eastern sense of time with a fresh and personal imagery. Together with the compelling story he unfolds, this provides for a remarkable new literary experience.

Genres: Fiction, Indian Literature, India, Novels

488 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Raja Rao (Kannada: ರಾಜ ರಾವ್) has long been recognised as "a major novelist of our age." His five earlier novels—Kanthapura (1932), The Serpent and the Rope (1960), The Cat and Shakespeare (1965), Comrade Kirillov (1976) and The Chessmaster and His Moves (1988)—and three collections of short stories—The Cow of the Barricades and Other Stories (1947), The Policeman and the Rose (1978) and On the Ganga Ghat (1989)—won wide and exceptional international acclaim.

Raja Rao was awarded the 1988 Neustadt International Prize for Literature which is given every two years to outstanding world writers. Earlier, The Serpent and the Rope won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award, India's highest literary honour. More recently, Raja Rao was elected a Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi.

Born in Mysore in 1909, Raja Rao went to Europe at the age of nineteen, researching in literature at the University of Montpellier and at the Sorbonne. He wrote and published his first stories in French and English. After living in France for a number of years, Raja Rao moved to the US where he taught at the University of Austin, Texas.

Notable work(s):
Kanthapura (1938)
The Serpent and the Rope (1960)

Notable award(s):
Sahitya Akademi Award (1964)
Padma Bhushan (1969)
Neustadt International Prize for Literature (1988)
Padma Vibhushan (2007)

Reviews

[Suraj Alva · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I found out about this novel and its writer, I was pissed. Because I had just NOW come to know of both.

The best few days of my life were spent in Aix-en-Provence, with a French girl. We walked around Aix and Marseilles talking philosophy, life etc. It was Before Sunrise except the dialogue was in French (she spoke no English and I had been studying in Paris), was over a period of three days, and no names were exchanged. So yeah. Oh! And I forgot to mention, I am Indian.

Among the scholarly papers I read, a lot has been said about the failed marriage Of Madeline and Rama: difference in cultures, viewpoints, temperaments blah blah. But nothing was mentioned about the two dead babies. I guess, given Mado's attachment to her first dead baby boy, it is not far fetched to say that by the second time, she couldn't bear seeing Rama's face as it reminded her of her loss.

Her interest in Buddhism and such is typical of someone grieving, of course. But then she actually goes nuts (and this is explained in the novel by her becoming more and more orthodox in her new faith): she loses interest in life and it's pleasures. And her body suffers, immensely. I think nowadays such is known as Major Depressive Disorder.

Why Savithri, besides the intellectual connection? Why Lakshmi for sex? I have lived in America (with interruptions) for 12 years and among all women, I consider Indian women to be the hottest. Why? Years of being exposed to Indian customs, media, culture. This is also highlighted in the novel, with the main character constantly fantasizing about all things Indian. So in a way, some of the scholarly criticisms hold weight.

The novel is not a breeze. It takes effort but I promise it's worth it. The pure poetry of the prose will make you stop breathing for a few seconds. Besides, love, marriage and India, the novel also illustrates the nature of the individual, of death and so on.

[Prashanth Bhat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Serpent and rope - raja rao

ಭಾರತೀಯ ತತ್ವಶಾಸ್ತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಗ್ಗ ಮತ್ತು ಹಾವಿನ ಉಲ್ಲೇಖವಿದೆ. ಇದನ್ನೇ ಮೂಲವಾಗಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು ರಾಮ ಎಂಬ ಸ್ವವಿಮರ್ಶೆಯ ಪಾತ್ರದ ಮೂಲಕ ಭಾರತದ, ಫ್ರಾನ್ಸ್‌ನ ಘನತೆಯುಳ್ಳ ,ಬೌದ್ಧಿಕವಾಗಿ ಮೇಲ್ಮಟ್ಟದ ಚರ್ಚೆಗಳುಳ್ಳ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ ಇದು.
ರಾಮನಿಗೆ ತನ್ನ ಬೇರುಗಳಿರುವ ಭಾರತದ ಕುರಿತು ಗೌರವವಿದೆ.ತಾನೊಬ್ಬ ಬ್ರಾಹ್ಮಣ ಎಂಬ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯೂ. ಆದರೆ ಅವನಿಗೆ ಫ್ರಾನ್ಸ್‌ನಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬಳೊಡನೆ ಮದುವೆ ಆಗಿದೆ. ಅವರಿಬ್ಬರ ಪ್ರೇಮಕ್ಕೆ ಹುಟ್ಟಿದ ಮಗು ತೀರಿಕೊಂಡಿದೆ. ಅದನ್ನವಳು ಭಾರತೀಯ ಹೆಸರಾದ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಎಂದೂ, ಇವನು ಪಿಯರೆ ಎಂದೂ ಕರೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ತನ್ನ ತಂದೆಯ ಅಪ್ ಕರ್ಮಕ್ಕೆ ಭಾರತಕ್ಕೆ ಬರುವ ರಾಮ ಬನಾರಸ್‌ನ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾರುಹೋಗುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಅವನಿಗೆ ತಾನು ಹುಡುಕುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಪ್ರೀತಿಯು, ತನ್ನ ಮತ್ತು ಎಲ್ಲರ ಮೂಲಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಯಾದ ಯಾರು ಎಂಬುದು ತಿಳಿಯಿತೆ ಎಂಬುದು ವಿಸ್ತೃತ ಚರ್ಚೆಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಕಾದಂಬರಿಯ ಮುಂದಿನ ಕಥಾಭಾಗ.

ಮೊದಲನೆಯದಾಗಿ ರಾಜಾ ರಾವ್ ಅವರು ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆಯುವಾಗ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡ ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ ಮೆಚ್ಚುವಂತಹದ್ದು. ಅವರು ಚಿಕ್ಕಮ್ಮನನ್ನು 'ಲಿಟಲ್ ಮದರ್' ಎಂದೇ ಬರೆಯುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಬಳಸುವ ಪದಗಳ ನಡುವೆ ಕನ್ನಡತನ ಸಹಜವಾಗೇ ಬರುತ್ತದೆ.‌ಇದನ್ನು ಓದುವಾಗ ಆಂಗ್ಲ ಕಾದಂಬರಿಗಿಂತ ಇಲ್ಲೇ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮೈಸೂರು ಹಾಸನ ಸೀಮೆಯ ಕತೆಯಂತೆ ಭಾಸವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.
ಎರಡನೆಯದಾಗಿ ರಾಜಾ ರಾವ್ ಇತರ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಆಂಗ್ಲ ಲೇಖಕರ ಹಾಗೆ ಬೈಯ್ದು ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧರಾಗುವ ಕೆಳಮಟ್ಟದ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಬರೆಯಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಅವರ ಕಾದಂಬರಿ ಓದುವಾಗ ನಮ್ಮ ಪರಂಪರೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.
ಮೂರನೆಯದಾಗಿ ಇಡೀ ಕಾದಂಬರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ‌ ಮೇಲ್ಮಟ್ಟದ ಚರ್ಚೆಗಳು ಸಹಜವಾಗೇ ಬಂದಿದೆ.

ಸರ್ಪಂಟ್ ಆಂಡ್ ರೋಪ್ ನೀವೇನು ಹುಡುಕುತ್ತಿರೋ‌ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಉತ್ತರವಲ್ಲ. ಅದು ಆ ಪಯಣ ಕೈಗೊಂಡ ಒಬ್ಬರ ಅನುಭವ. ತುಂಬಾ ಹಳೆಯ ಕಾದಂಬರಿಯಾದ ಕಾರಣ ಕೆಲಕಡೆ ಈಗ ಓದುವಾಗ ಕಲ್ಪನಾಗಮ್ಯವಾಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದಷ್ಟೇ ದೂರು.

[Vaijayanthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was prescribed for B.A., and was read as a text book at that time. Now, I am not able to trace this book to read again and this has been out of print since 1986.

[Bish Chic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging piece of literature.
I found his storytelling enthralling. However at certain parts of the book he is so elitist and annoying...
and its compelling how he uses his status to justify his at times pompous behavior.

[Sachin · Rating 1 out of 5]

An overdose of the Vedanta and glorification of the past. Found it difficult to digest it and above all it was boring!

[Anip Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I closed The Serpent and the Rope with two lingering emotions: melancholy and intellectual exhilaration. Few novels have left me feeling so quietly unsettled while simultaneously expanding the way I think.

To call this a love story would be to mistake the serpent for the rope. Raja Rao uses love, marriage, memory, and separation to pursue a much older question: the search for the Self. Beneath every relationship in the novel lies a deeper inquiry into desire, attachment, and liberation. The emotional journey is inseparable from the metaphysical one.

What stayed with me most, however, was not a particular scene or philosophical argument but the prose itself. Raja Rao writes with a cadence that invites contemplation rather than consumption. This is not a book to be read quickly. It asks you to slow down, reread, pause, and occasionally sit with a paragraph before moving on. The language evokes feelings that often escape explanation, and that is perhaps its greatest achievement.

It is undeniably a dense novel. While the journey was deeply rewarding, I occasionally found the French and broader European references difficult to penetrate. Yet even those moments of opacity seemed part of the novel’s larger dialogue between civilizations and ways of knowing.

This is not a novel for readers looking for plot-driven momentum or easy emotional resolution. It is for those drawn to Vedanta, to the idea of India not merely as a nation but as a metaphysical landscape, and to literature that treats philosophy not as exposition but as lived experience.

Some books tell a story. Others alter the quality of your silence after you’ve finished reading. The Serpent and the Rope belongs firmly to the latter.

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to rate. There are some powerful sparks of beauty at places while at other times it is full of elitism and narcissm of its protagonist (it doesn't help that other people around him seem to pamper him for being a man, rich, Brahmin or Indian). Both good and bad of the are born out of the fact this novel reads like a personal fantasy of the novelist (in the sense Nabokov called novels fantasies of novelist).

There are some beautiful mythical tales in there too and lots, too much, of philosphising which, to me at least, is too mystical to be sensible. I like mystic poetry but in prose it reads like thoughts of a confused thinker. Madeline, protagonist's suffers through depression (which soon turn into physical health problems as well) but no one around her seem to think it right that she should get help since she makes everyone see her suffering through foggy lens of Budhism (After all what is suffering of Earthly body?). Thats the problem with so much religious mysticism - you lose touch with reality.

Europeans in the novel also seem to see India through oriental bias and the fact that protagonist keeps reminding everyone he is Brahmin doesn't help their bias either. Too many of these Europeans are obsessed about Indian religions which they don't seem to absorb. Its interesting people always try to understand religions exotic to them, when their own religion is more of a habit to them.

[Nayan Sarma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretentious

[Emil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nauseatingly sexist.

[Ankit Ramteke · Rating 1 out of 5]

Verbal diarrhea straight out of a Brahmin's mouth who thinks of himself as highest on the earth and is eager to unload his brahmin's burden on all of us- the primitive minds. And to think that this novel won Sahitya Academy Award is enough to make one realize how Indian readers are enthralled with everything Brahmanical.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Indulging piece of work, altho all that intellectual wankery couldn't save a holy benares of his own personal life.

[Prathyush · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad