The Meaning of India: Essays - Softcover

Rao, Raja

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143448609 ISBN 13: 9780143448600

Publisher: India Penguin Modern Classics, 2020

Synopsis

First published in 1996 when he was eighty-eight years old, this selection of nearly six decades of Raja Rao's non-fiction is an audacious contemplation on the deeper significance of India. A combination of fables, journeys, discussions and meditations, The Meaning of India advances the view that India is not just a geographical entity, or even a civilization-state. India is, above all, a metaphysic, a way of being and regarding the self and the world.
Drawing on a wide range of sources-including the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Gita, the Buddha, Sankara, Bhartrihari, Kalidasa, Dostoevsky, Valéry, Rilke, Mann and Mallarmé-as also meetings with Gandhi, Nehru, Forster and Malraux, Rao teases out the implications of Advaita or non-dualism, which he regards as India's unique contribution to the world.

About this title

About the Author

Raja Rao, a path-breaker of Indian writing in English, was born in Hassan, Mysore. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: India Penguin Modern Classics
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0143448609
• ISBN 13: 9780143448600
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256