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Javni
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About the author
Raja Rao
29 books59 followersRaja 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)
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)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 20, 2020
The storyline centres round an untainted widow, Javni -- a woman with expansive forehead that is representative of her pain. She is a splitting role-model of poverty-stricken, helpless destitution.
Born to an underprivileged stock, Javni was fittingly married to a kind washerman from Malkad -- a charming and devoted husband who loved her profoundly, often cooking when his wife fell ill. Her bliss was ephemeral though, as her husband died of snake bite. Thereafter, adversity followed her as night follows day.
Her elder brother-in-law was imprisoned for reasons indefinite and the younger one with his concubine made her life despondent. They played a coarse game with her by hurling expletives right and left and connoting her as a filthy widow. Despite being heaped with abhorrence and persecution of all sorts she refused to exterminate herself for Goddess Talakamma would be livid with her if she committed suicide.
Her vulnerable dearth and brutal destiny came alive when the elder sister-in-law one day became very ill-mouthed. Forced to flee her house, she put at her brother's, where too, she received a raw deal. Every single day she was emotionally tortured and awakened with the words, "Donkey's wife" or 'Prostitute'.
Engaged as a maid in the Revenue Inspector's house, her circumstance saw betterment of sorts. Although Sita, the wife of the Revenue inspector did not permit her to eat with her, as Javni low-born, Sita’s brother Ramappa loved her and wished to be adopted by her. In all fairness to Sita, she too loved Javni and was cheerful in her company. Javni was paid barely one rupee a month and was commonly referred to as a ‘monkey’.
The presence of Sita’s brother helps to amalgamate the plot and advance the story.
Ramappa, a city-bred and forward-thinking man, was compassionate to Javni. His forbearing empathy melted Javni.
One day Ramappa requested her to recount her tale. Javni, though initially flabbergasted, began coursing through the history of her life's yellow pages. It is through her flashback-narration that we get to understand the plot, for the most part.
Ramappa ushered in affable drops of rain on the discoloured pages of her daily life.
Though she was the vulnerable prey to destiny, she showed immense esteem to Talakamma, the Goddess.
The differences between the two fundamental characters -- Sita and Javni are comparatively evident.
Sita is a well-born, devout house-wife. A Brahmin by caste, she is endearing and maternal. She never forgets that she is the mistress of the house. She is proud of her brother, an idol of the village.
Sita bears several assorted and mystifying character traits. Sita finds a sort of reprieve in the company of Javni, who she considers a sort of elder sister or mother. At the same time, she loathes Javni for her caste and also looks down upon her for her class. Sita takes Javni as blasphemous and at the same time gives her enough food to eat and takes care of her. She passes her loneliness with her when the revenue inspector goes out and stays out of the house for days. She is fond of he and at the same time, argues with her brother about Javni and like a true believer of class division never agrees with her brother that Javni should be treated at par with them. Sometimes she is unkind to Javni. She does not allow Javni to protest and at the same time loves to hear stories from Javni and realises that her brother may not have an attack of magic which prevails all around the village. So we can say that she is vigilant and cautious and in the same vein, proud of her Vedantic knowledge.
On the other hand Javni is uneducated and a prey to supreme squalor. She is proud of her husband as he washes the clothes of the Maharaja. Her hardships overawe her since the death of her husband. She never censures anybody for her doom. Poverty has been unable to rob her of her sense of propriety. She does not know what class division is. She knows that she is of low-caste and she should have deference for the higher caste. She has not become a mistress or concubine. She is a woman of the purest degree, a mother. At any cost, all through the narrative, Javni is a paragon of decorum and self-esteem. She is Raja Rao’s incarnation of an ideal woman, unlike Sita who has everything but sordidly lacks in humanity.
This yarn is one of the most pristine and poignant accounts of India that one could ever read.
Born to an underprivileged stock, Javni was fittingly married to a kind washerman from Malkad -- a charming and devoted husband who loved her profoundly, often cooking when his wife fell ill. Her bliss was ephemeral though, as her husband died of snake bite. Thereafter, adversity followed her as night follows day.
Her elder brother-in-law was imprisoned for reasons indefinite and the younger one with his concubine made her life despondent. They played a coarse game with her by hurling expletives right and left and connoting her as a filthy widow. Despite being heaped with abhorrence and persecution of all sorts she refused to exterminate herself for Goddess Talakamma would be livid with her if she committed suicide.
Her vulnerable dearth and brutal destiny came alive when the elder sister-in-law one day became very ill-mouthed. Forced to flee her house, she put at her brother's, where too, she received a raw deal. Every single day she was emotionally tortured and awakened with the words, "Donkey's wife" or 'Prostitute'.
Engaged as a maid in the Revenue Inspector's house, her circumstance saw betterment of sorts. Although Sita, the wife of the Revenue inspector did not permit her to eat with her, as Javni low-born, Sita’s brother Ramappa loved her and wished to be adopted by her. In all fairness to Sita, she too loved Javni and was cheerful in her company. Javni was paid barely one rupee a month and was commonly referred to as a ‘monkey’.
The presence of Sita’s brother helps to amalgamate the plot and advance the story.
Ramappa, a city-bred and forward-thinking man, was compassionate to Javni. His forbearing empathy melted Javni.
One day Ramappa requested her to recount her tale. Javni, though initially flabbergasted, began coursing through the history of her life's yellow pages. It is through her flashback-narration that we get to understand the plot, for the most part.
Ramappa ushered in affable drops of rain on the discoloured pages of her daily life.
Though she was the vulnerable prey to destiny, she showed immense esteem to Talakamma, the Goddess.
The differences between the two fundamental characters -- Sita and Javni are comparatively evident.
Sita is a well-born, devout house-wife. A Brahmin by caste, she is endearing and maternal. She never forgets that she is the mistress of the house. She is proud of her brother, an idol of the village.
Sita bears several assorted and mystifying character traits. Sita finds a sort of reprieve in the company of Javni, who she considers a sort of elder sister or mother. At the same time, she loathes Javni for her caste and also looks down upon her for her class. Sita takes Javni as blasphemous and at the same time gives her enough food to eat and takes care of her. She passes her loneliness with her when the revenue inspector goes out and stays out of the house for days. She is fond of he and at the same time, argues with her brother about Javni and like a true believer of class division never agrees with her brother that Javni should be treated at par with them. Sometimes she is unkind to Javni. She does not allow Javni to protest and at the same time loves to hear stories from Javni and realises that her brother may not have an attack of magic which prevails all around the village. So we can say that she is vigilant and cautious and in the same vein, proud of her Vedantic knowledge.
On the other hand Javni is uneducated and a prey to supreme squalor. She is proud of her husband as he washes the clothes of the Maharaja. Her hardships overawe her since the death of her husband. She never censures anybody for her doom. Poverty has been unable to rob her of her sense of propriety. She does not know what class division is. She knows that she is of low-caste and she should have deference for the higher caste. She has not become a mistress or concubine. She is a woman of the purest degree, a mother. At any cost, all through the narrative, Javni is a paragon of decorum and self-esteem. She is Raja Rao’s incarnation of an ideal woman, unlike Sita who has everything but sordidly lacks in humanity.
This yarn is one of the most pristine and poignant accounts of India that one could ever read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review