Raja Rao

Key facts

Born

8 November 1908, Hassan

Died

8 July 2006, Austin

State of birth

Hassan, Karnataka

Sector

Literature & writing

Profession

Indian-born English writer (1908–2006)

Gender

Male

Biography

Raja Rao was an Indian-American writer of English-language novels and short stories, whose works are deeply rooted in metaphysics. Rao has been described as a powerful writer and a scholar well versed in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian philosophies. The Serpent and the Rope (1960), a semi-autobiographical novel recounting a search for spiritual truth in Europe and India, established him as one of the finest Indian prose stylists and won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1963. For the entire body of his work, Rao was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1988. Rao's wide-ranging body of work, spanning a number of genres, is seen as a varied and significant contribution to Indian English literature, as well as to World literature as a whole.

Summary based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), reviewed by the RochakDuniya editorial team.

Timeline

1. 1908Born in Hassan
2. 1963Awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award
3. 1969Awarded the Padma Bhushan
4. 1988Awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature
5. 2006Dies in Austin
6. 2007Awarded the Padma Vibhushan in literature & education