R Raja Rao was born Hassan, in the state of Mysore in south India, into a well-known Brahman family. He was educated at Muslim schools. After taking a degree from Madras University, he left India for Europe, where he remained for a decade. Rao studied at the universities of Montpellier and the Sorbonne, doing research in Christian theology and history. In 1931 he married a French academic, Camille Mouly. Later he depicted the breakdown of their marriage in The Serpent and the Rope. For his first stories Rao published in French and English. During 1931-32 he contributed four articles written in Kannada to Jaya Karnataka, an influential journal.
When his marriage disintegrated in 1939, Rao returned to India and began his first period of residence in an ashram. During WW II, he travelled widely in India searching for his spiritual heritage and in 1942 he was active in an underground movement against the British. During these years he edited the literary magazine Tomorrow.
Rao's involvement in the nationalist movement is reflected in his first two books. The novel Kanthapura (1938) was an account of the non-violent resistance against the British seen from the perspective of s small South Indian village. In the style and structure of the Indian vernacular tales, a talkative old woman tells how a village community obtains from daily life, with its millennia-old worship of the local deity, the strength for non-violent resistance to the British Raj. The work was highly praised by E.M. Forster. Rao returned to the theme of Gandhi in the story collection The Cow of the Barricades (1947).
After the war, Rao spent much of his time in France and travelling throughout the world. He visited America in 1950 and later spent more time living in an ashram. In 1965 he married an actress, Kathrine Jones. From 1965 to 1983 Rio lectured on Indian philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin. In 1988 he received the Nested International Prize for Literature.
When his marriage disintegrated in 1939, Rao returned to India and began his first period of residence in an ashram. During WW II, he travelled widely in India searching for his spiritual heritage and in 1942 he was active in an underground movement against the British. During these years he edited the literary magazine Tomorrow.
Rao's involvement in the nationalist movement is reflected in his first two books. The novel Kanthapura (1938) was an account of the non-violent resistance against the British seen from the perspective of s small South Indian village. In the style and structure of the Indian vernacular tales, a talkative old woman tells how a village community obtains from daily life, with its millennia-old worship of the local deity, the strength for non-violent resistance to the British Raj. The work was highly praised by E.M. Forster. Rao returned to the theme of Gandhi in the story collection The Cow of the Barricades (1947).
After the war, Rao spent much of his time in France and travelling throughout the world. He visited America in 1950 and later spent more time living in an ashram. In 1965 he married an actress, Kathrine Jones. From 1965 to 1983 Rio lectured on Indian philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin. In 1988 he received the Nested International Prize for Literature.
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