Raja Rao effectively uses narrative techniques in his novel Kanthapura. He employs a persona narrator, Achakka, an old woman in the village, to tell the story. This allows him to blend fact and myth from her perspective. As she narrates the events of the freedom movement, it takes on an epic, Puranic quality. Achakka's folksy, dramatic storytelling makes the readers feel like they are visualizing the events. Raja Rao varies the language, tone, and tempo based on the situation to keep the narrative engaging. He builds suspense and conveys large events through Achakka's vivid descriptions and use of imagery and epithets. Through Achakka's narr

1. BY

2. • Raja Rao was an Indian writer of English
language.
• He was born on 8 November, 1908 and died on
8 July 2006.
• Raja Rao is a novelist of philosophical
consciousness.
• Born in brahmin, he is aware of his brahminical
obligations.

3. • Raja Rao’s first novel Kanthapura was
published in 1938, mainly portrays the
freedom movement launched by Mahatma
Gandhi in the 1920s to liberate India from the
imperialistic hegemony of the British.
• The novelist sympathetically explores the
Gandhian values of loving one’s enemies,
non-violence and abolition of untouchability.

4. RAJA RAO’S USE OF NARRATIVE
TECHNIQUES IN KANTHAPURA
Raja rao’s Kanthapura is a triumph of narrative
art.
Straightforward and chronological-
the narration is straightforward and
chronological, there is no backward and
forward movement as we found in a stream
of conscious novel.

5.  Use of persona
Raja Rao makes effective use of persona
(imagined character) called Achakka. So it
means that the tale has not been narrated by
the novelist himself.
This device of narration followed by many
novelist like Joseph Conrad in Lord jim and
Kamala markandya also used but no one get
such success which Raja rao got.

6. The advantage of the choice of
persona
Fact and Myth
 Making Achakka the narrator enable Raja Rao
to mingle fact and myth. For the old woman
Jawaharlal is a Bharata to the Mahatma.
The mahatma who,she believes, will slay Ravana
so that Sita may be freed. For her Gandhi has
attained the status of God and Moorthy is
regarded as his avtar in Kanthapura. To her
Satyagraha has become a religious ceremony.

7. The manner of narration
• Achakka’s manner of telling the tale is
characteristically Indian.
• The telling of the story gives the whole affair
an ithihasik- at least a PURANIC dignity.
• There are rhythmic chains of proper names
like Rachanna and Chandranna and
Mandanna; Satamma and Rangamma and
Puttamma and Seethamma.
• There is nevertheless consummate art in all
this riot of artlessness.

8. Narration: Dramatic and Varied
• The narration is dramatic, it varies according
to the requirements of the action and the
situation.
• The language, the accent, the tone, the
tempo, constantly keep changing.
• The life on the coffee estate, the crucidities
and vulgarities of the Red-man, the sickness
that broke them and the violation of
women’s honor- all have been portrayed
most vividly to the last details of credibility

9. Use of suspense
• Suspense and anxiety of villagers to see
Moorthy when he released from jail have
been adequately conveyed.
“ And hearts began to beat and yet we saw no
Moorthy, and yet no Moorthy, and yet not a
hair of his head was seen……….”
The suspense is that if really Moorthy was
released then where he gone, so was it the
true news or just a rumour.

10. • Visualization
Achakka is garrulous and when she conveyed
large events she liberally picked up epithets
and images, so we should say we visualised
the way she narrated the picketing and
Satyagraha. Even the large numbers of
coolies who comes out of coffee estate is
conveyed through multiplicity of images and
epithets.

11. • Poetry
Sheer poetry comes out of the narrator’s lips.
She sung the song of coming of Kartik-
“ Kartik has come to Kanthapura…….with the
glow of lights and the unpressed footsteps of
the wandering Gods……
In such passage narrator becomes an inspired
poet.

12. Conclusion
In this way we can say that Raja Rao makes
effective use of narrative style. The act of
villagers are transformed into a Gandhian
epic instead of remaining merely a sthala
puran or regional novel.