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R. K. Narayan

K. Narayan, born as Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami in 1906, was one of the most refined Indian writers who wrote in English literature. He was famous for his fictional setting of a semi-urban South Indian town, Malgudi. 

Along with the other two significant writers, Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand, Narayan was the leading Indian writer who played a vital role in the development of early English literature.

The English novelist, Graham Greene was a mentor and close friend of Narayan and helped him remarkably in publishing the beginning four works of R. K. Narayan. 

These books included “The English Teacher”, the semi-autobiographical trilogy “Swami and Friends”, and “The Bachelor of Arts”. In the work “Swami and Friends”, Narayan’s most famous fictional setting of Malgudi was first introduced.

Narayan’s most striking feature of works is that he traces down the ordinary ways of everyday life of the people. This makes his works appealing to common people. Furthermore, he is often compared to the English writer and Nobel Prize laureate, William Faulkner because he also constructed an imaginary town in his works. 

Likewise, both of them explore the strength of ordinary life with humour and passion. In 1951, “The Financial Expert” was termed as the most original work of R.K. Narayan.

Furthermore, the style of short story writing of Narayan is likened to Guy de Maupassant, a French short story writer who was widely considered as the master of the form of short story genre. This comparison was made upon his capability to compress a narrative.

Narayan became the voice of Indian commoners in the western world. For instance, through his works, Narayan paved the way for Indian people to become accessible to the outside Western world. In this way, he familiarized the foreigners to feel the Indian sensibilities and cultural intricacies. 

He inevitably engaged the foreign readers in his threads of fiction by blending the deep strands of the Indian social system in it, thus providing the readers with a peep into the norms of Hindu traditional life.

R. K. Narayan’s Biography

The birth of R. K. Narayan took place on 10 th October 1906 in Madras, India that is today’s Chennai. He was the second son among eight children of a school headmaster, Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer . 

Narayan began his educational career while studying at his father’s school in childhood. However, due to his father’s frequent transfers from one place to another for his job, Narayan stayed with his maternal grandmother for a considerable part of his childhood. 

At that time, he had two companion pets, a monkey and a peacock.

The grandmother Parvati called him Kunjappa and this nickname clung to Narayan in family circles. She taught him various traditional subjects like Sanskrit, classical Indian music, arithmetic, and mythological studies. 

He was also a frequent reader that gave him vast knowledge. Also, from childhood, the family spoke English at home that provided him with a firm background for the future profession.

During this time, he changed different schools; C.R.C. High School, Lutheran Mission High School, and Christian College High School. At age twelve, Narayan joined the family when his father was sent to the Maharajah’s College High School in Mysore. 

In the school, Narayan luckily got a huge library to read from. Also, his father’s library and the family’s literary background helped him in increasing his love for reading and writing. Therefore, Narayan began to write along with reading.

After school, he applied for enrollment at Maharaja College of Mysore but failed the entrance test. Hence, he got another year to read and write at home and was subsequently enrolled in the college in 1926. However, he completed his bachelor’s degree within four years instead of three.

Later, he did not pursue his M.A. degree because a friend advised him that going for this degree will end his interest in English literature, therefore, he should focus on his area of interest.

During this period, R.K. Narayan took a job as a school teacher but left it in protest against the headmaster after some time. It was the time when Narayan realized his literary consciousness and decided to stay at home and begin formal writing.

Early Writing

When he quit his job as a schoolteacher, R.K. Narayan began to read and write more. The first publication of Narayan that appeared was a book review of the work Development of Maritime Laws of 17th-Century England . 

After this, he began to write short stories about local matters for English Papers. However, this career did not earn him much but he was unquestionably supported by his family for his choice of profession. 

They respected and supported his decision in every way.

First Novel

In 1930, Narayan’s first novel appeared, “Swami and Friends”. Although it was rejected by many publishers and ridiculed by his uncle, it did create the setting for Narayan’s literary career. 

For instance, it was the first work in which Narayan set his story in the fictive town of Malgudi.

Malgudi was a fictional semi-urban place that very aesthetically fabricated the social overview of the country. However, it neglected the colonial limitations upon the people. 

Also, this setup grew with different political variations in the process of gaining an independent India after British rule.

Local paper

In 1933, Narayan married Rajam, a 15-year-old girl, and joined a Madras based paper, The Justice, as a reporter. The paper worked for the rights of non-Brahmins. 

Being a Brahmin, Narayan’s work for the empowerment of non-Brahmins thrilled the publisher. He introduced him to many influential people and issues.

Publication of First Novel

Narayan had earlier sent a manuscript of “Swami and Friends” to his Oxford friend who showed it to Graham Greene. In turn, Greene published the book through his publisher in 1935. 

Although it earned good reviews, the book was unable to make good money. It included some instances from Narayan’s childhood also.

Narayan’s Rising Success

After the first book, Greene began to counsel Narayan about how to write to gain the attention of the English audience. He also advised him to shorten his name according to the demand of English readers.

In 1937, Narayan’s second novel “The Bachelor of Arts” was published which was also based on his college life experiences. It narrates the story of a shift from rebellious adolescent life to sophisticated adulthood. In 1938, Narayan published his third novel “The Dark Room”.

This novel portrays domestic differences between a man and a woman in a marital relationship. The male member is dominant and exercises oppression over his wife. 

The third work was also published by a different publishing platform. It was also printed with the help of Graham Greene.

Effect of Depression

In 1939, Narayan’s wife died of typhoid. This loss pushed him in great depression but he continued to write and this phase completely changed his life. 

Within some time, Narayan published “The English Teacher” in 1945 which was inspired by Narayan’s personal sense of loss and bewilderment. 

It is more autobiographical than any other work of Narayan.

Busy Career

Then he also wrote some other books like “Mr. Sampath” (1949) and “Waiting for Mahatma” (1955). Furthermore, Narayan composed an award-winning word “The Guide” in 1956. 

In 1961, another novel “The Man-Eater of Malgudi” appeared and the success of this book motivated Narayan to work for certain papers like “The Atlantic” and “The Hindu”.

Beginning of Mythological Career

A collection of short stories ‘Gods, Demons and Others’ was published in 1964. This was the first mythological work of Narayan. In 1967, he published a novel, “The Vendor of Sweets” which was inspired by his visit to America. 

He even wrote a tourism-based book “The Emerald Route” at the request of the Karnataka government. It was republished in 1980.

End of Career

Furthermore, in 1980, Narayan became a part of the Indian parliament and served in education for 6 years. From this time till death, he wrote abundantly. His final book was “Grandmother’s Tale”, a novella based upon Narayan’s childhood recollection of his grandmother’s tale about his great-grandmother. 

He died on 13 th May 2001, in Chennai hospital. Even in the hospital, he was thinking of writing a novel about a grandfather but death took him away.

R. K. Narayan’s Writing Style

Natural and unpretentious.

The writing style of R. K. Narayan is full of natural construction of humour and unpretentious motives. He takes the everyday life of an ordinary individual and develops it in a way relatable to the common readers. 

He reminds the audience of their immediate family relationships, neighbours, and their surroundings.

For example, in “The Financial Expert”, the common theme of love of money and its consequent evils are depicted. In the trend of rising materialism, yearning for financial stability was the problem of every household. 

These common life issues make Narayan’s works popular and universal among the Eastern and Western readers.

Compassionate Representations

Narayan is often likened to William Faulkner in his construction of stories. They both have a compassionate humanitarian spirit and represent in humorous style the vigour of common life. 

Also, they have the quality of juxtaposing individual perplexities with the demands of social surroundings.

In constructing his characters, Narayan creates the feeling of empathy between his readers and characters as they can feel the events happening to the characters. Therefore, there is a natural sensibility and oneness in his works. 

For example, “Swami and Friends” recounts the curious and adventurous nature of teenage schoolboys that is common to young boys.

Depiction of True Indian Society

R.K. Narayan depicts the staunch Indian society with its realities and intricacies in his works. He does not modify life according to the demands of a fictional narrative. In a simplistic tone and style, Narayan portrays the traditions and rituals of Indian social life and provides an insight into their values.

According to the poet and critic William Walsh, ‘ The religious sense of Indian myth is a part of Narayan’s grip of reality of his particular view of human life….. he embodies the pure spirit of Hinduism ’. For example, in “The Guide”, Narayan beautifully embodies the religious nature of Indian people. The protagonist Rosie, her mother, grandmother, and other ladies remained dancers at a young age for the local temple. They would become Devdasis (religious figures) in village prayers.

Likewise, another character, Raju becomes a Sadhu (religious man) by accepting values of sacrifice, chastity, and lowliness. When he is released from prison, instead of going home, he goes to a temple and keeps fast for 11 days to please god.

Narayan’s works consist of meaningfully expressive dialogues in prose style with certain Tamil connotations to predict the nature of his characters. 

He was considered by many critics including Graham Greene as Indian Chekov. It is because of their similar writing styles in which they combine complex ideas of life in aesthetic simplicity. 

Also, the tragic events are weaved in a humorous and lighter tone. Moreover, Anthony West rated Narayan’s realistic style to that of Nikolai Gogol.

Short Stories Style

The short stories of R.K. Narayan are so full of life and captivating that it becomes difficult for the readers to get over them. His construction of the genre is compiling huge ideas into a few meaningful and expressive pages of writing. 

Sometimes, his story is less than 10 pages but it expresses a complex idea that many writers fail to clarify in bulky novels.

Narayan provides an insight into human nature and individual lives in his stories. Due to compression of complex ways of life in small works, Jhumpa Lahiri, the Pulitzer Prize winner, places him within the class of geniuses of short story O’ Henry, Flannery O’Connor, and Guy de Maupassant.

The compilations of short stories of R.K. Narayan include “A Horse and Two Goats and Other Stories”, “Gods, Demons, and Others”, “Under the Bunyan Tree and Other Stories”, “The Grandmother’s Tale and Selected Stories”, “Malgudi Days”, and “The World of Malgudi”.

Descriptive and Objective Style

The style of R.K. Narayan’s works tends toward descriptiveness and objectivity. It is less analytical and subjective. This detached view provides an objective eye for readers to see the work from an unbiased standpoint. 

This gives the narrative a realistic and genuine representation. His work has a unique capability to intertwine actions and characters through his attitude towards the ways of life.

Narayan raises ordinary events of life in such a way that they get settled in the minds of the audience providing them with an idea of how to tackle such circumstances. For example, “Talkative Man” (1986), and “The Guide” (1958) represent Narayan’s objective view of individual lives.

Themes in R. K. Narayan’s Writings

Narayan’s works cover life from small children’s pranks to grave matters of life. Also, he shows different sides of the same idea like misery and wealth, broken and strong relationships, religious orthodoxy and supernatural elements, etc. 

Likewise, there are people from every walk of life in Narayan’s works.

Misery and Suffering of Man

 As Narayan peeps into the everyday life of a common man, there are many instances where his characters exhibit the situation of misery and suffering in one form or the other as human life is full of troubles. This representation of misery is mixed with a feeling of sympathy for the common lot.

For example, the life of a pick-pocket in “Trail of the Green Blazer”, a gambler in “Wife’s Holiday”, a servant in “Leela’s Friend”, and a labourer in “Four Rupees” are presented with a sympathetic eye. 

He creates these characters in such a way that Narayan mixes his creative spirit with their sufferings and raises them to the level of aesthetic qualities of literature. 

Animal Sympathy

Narayan’s sympathy also goes with non-human creatures as he gives place to animals and birds in his works. Some of his works are based on animal imagery and provide insight into the animal world also. 

In his works, Narayan exhibits the intricacies of animal life and shows his understanding of their emotions in beautifully created stories.

The animal stories of R.K. Narayan include “Mute Companions”, “Chippy”, “Flavor of Coconut”, “At the Portal”, “Attila”, and “The Blind Dog”.

Children Innocence and Mischiefs

Some of Narayan’s stories also centre on the theme of children’s innocent mischiefs. These stories portray children doing innocent pranks and fights thus highlighting the inherent little humour that resides in the child’s psyche. 

Narayan portrays the humorous and interesting nature of kids doing funny actions. Also, the readers are familiarized with the appealing creative imagination of small children.

The stories that feature children characters are “Hero, “Dodu”, “Leela’s Friend”, “Father’s Help”, “A Shadow”, “The Regal”, “A Breach of Promise’, “Unbroken Doll’, and “Sweets for Angels” among others.

Unemployment Issues

Undoubtedly, Narayan peeps into almost every issue and every kind of idea related to common life. Therefore, some of his works deal with the issue of the growing unemployment and the problems related to it in the social setup. 

For example, “Mother and Son” is the story of increasing disturbance and despair in a domestic setting. Narayan shows the condition of an unemployed young man along with a vivid depiction of purely maternal feelings for him. 

This condition can be related to most of the modern men in the growing competitive world.

Also, “Man-Hunt” is about a young man desperately searching for a job for survival. However, the story turns into humour when the issue of misidentification of a missing person arises.

Achievements

Being a recognized writer, Narayan won various honours. In 1958, Narayan’s novel, “The Guide” won the Sahitya Akademi Award and after its film production, the Filmfare Award for the best story . 

Later, he earned the honorary Padma Bhushan in 1964. In 1980, the British Royal Society of Literature honoured Narayan with the AC Benson Medal . Also, many times, Narayan was nominated for the Nobel Prize that he unfortunately never won. 

He also won the honorary doctorate degrees from Delhi University, Mysore University, and the University of Leeds . Narayan became a member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament in 1989 for 6 years.

Works Of R. K. Narayan

• The Vendor of Sweets

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• R K Narayan Biography

Biography of R K Narayan

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (RK Narayan) was a well-known Indian writer famous for his set of work and writing in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was one of the leading and famous authors of early Indian literature written in English along with two others, Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.

Narayan's greatest achievement was to make India accessible to the outside world through his writing and powerful words in his literature. Narayan's biography is always centered on his friendship with Graham Greene. Because he was Narayan's mentor and close friend. He was actively involved in identifying and getting publishers for Narayan's first four books. 

In 1941, he founded his own publishing house and his works quickly found a permanent and favorite place in the bookshelves of almost all the Indian homes. When he was at the peak of his fame in his successful career, Narayan was then awarded a Padma Bhushan in 1964 and 36 years later, just a year before his death at 94, another prestigious Padma Vibhushan award in 2000. Narayan was critically ill and hospitalized with cardiovascular problems two weeks ago in Madras, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where he was born in 1906.

Early Life 

Narayan was born in 1906 in Madras (now renamed and known as Chennai, Tamil Nadu), British India into a normal Hindu family. He was one of eight children his parents have had and Narayan was second among the sons; his younger brother Ramachandran was an editor at Gemini Studios, and the youngest brother Laxman was a successful cartoonist. 

Narayan spent the early years of his life in Madras in the care of his grandmother and a maternal uncle and joined his parents mainly only during the vacations. At that time, India was still treated as the most important of the British empire, a colony held since 1857.

RK Narayan attended a number of schools than a usual student would as in Madras while living with his grandmother, in which the main school was the Lutheran Mission School in Purasawalkam, C.R.C. High School, and Christian College High School. Narayan was an ardent and passionate reader who grew up reading Dickens, Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Thomas Hardy.

After completing high school, Narayan failed the university entrance examination unfortunately but got to have lots of time to spend a year at home reading and writing; and then he successfully passed the final examination in 1926 and joined Maharaja College of Mysore.

RK Narayan was always found devoted and dedicated to reading whenever he got time.

Awards and Honors

Among the best works of RK Narayan among his 34 novels, The English Teacher (1945), Waiting for the Mahatma (1955), The Guide (1958), The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), and A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) were the best.

His novel The Guide (1958) won him the most prestigious National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, which was his country's highest honor. Narayan received many other awards and honors including the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma Vibhushan, and the Padma Bhushan, India's second and third highest civilian awards, and in 1994 the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honor of India's national academy of letters. He was also once nominated to the Rajya Sabha, which is the upper house of India's parliament.

To know more about RK Narayanan, log into Vedantu and find out what the experts have to say about this legend. His creations have made him an immortal figure in Indian literature that every booklover, irrespective of age, admires.

FAQs on R K Narayan Biography

1. Who is RK Narayan?

RK Narayan was one of the most important English-language Indian fiction authors. He is widely regarded as one of India's best novelists. He created a realistic and immersive experience for his audience by bringing small-town India to them.

2. When and Where Was RK Narayan Born?

RK Narayan was born on 10 October 1906 in Madras (Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India into an Iyer Vadama Brahmin family.

3. Which Was the First Book Published by RK Narayan?

Swami and Friends was RK Narayan's first book, published in 1930. The novel was based on several incidents from his own childhood and was semi-autobiographical. It is still one of the most recommended English readers in Indian schools.

4. What is the difference between Biography and Autobiography?

A biography is often written on account of a person's whole life, which will be framed and written by someone else. On the other hand, an autobiography is also written on account of a person's life but will be written by that person himself from his own point of view. Vedantu's website has been designed to help you find both biographical and autobiographical information in many different formats through online libraries. You can refer to the material and learn about all the great people who have marked their names in history with the help of Vedantu at the comfort of your home.

5. What are the types of Biography?

There are four classic and informative types of biographies they are historical fiction, academic, fictional academic, and prophetic biography. A historical fiction type of biography is a creative account inspired by the events of a person’s life. Academic biographies are based on documented facts and noted accomplishments of a person’s life. A fictional academic biography often tries to combine the best and interesting elements of the fictional biography (entertainment with a strong theme and storyline) and the academic biography (with factual accuracy as well). And a prophetic biography begins with retelling the regular academic approach of considering all the known facts which have been already framed.

6. Why is reading a biography really important?

Biographies help us gain insight and deep knowledge into how successful people handle crises and solve complex problems in their times. They will gradually invite us into people's lives, allowing us to observe them as they battle with challenges and make important decisions at right time. This ultimately helps the reader to greater understanding and better decision making in their own lives. Not all individuals are the same everyone has their own experience and knowledge but biographies of great people who have achieved a lot can always guide you on the right path.

7. How do students benefit from reading biographies?

Biographies help students understand the history and life experiences through another person's perspective, which may encourage them to ask more questions and learn even more. Biographies often serve as a starting point for learning more about a passion at an early age which helps them in choosing their career. Basically, while reading a biography or an autobiography, you get to learn about what an individual has been through, and more often their life experiences at every stage. Since it is believed that human life and psychology are in similarity you can easily relate with those individuals and put yourself in their shoes to understand the experience better.

8. Does reading History help us in our daily life?

Knowing the past is extremely important for any society and human being to know what has happened in their past and which person has invented or created memorable and historic moments. Past gives us insights into our evolving behavior and basic character in matters of life, love, mutuality, war, diplomacy, and peace. It provides insights in-depth understanding into the processes and events of the past and interconnects them with our current life. History serves as a Warning to avoid any mistakes that have been done in the past and gives us a second chance to live our lives even better in our present.

R. K. Narayan Wiki, Age, Death, Wife, Family, Biography & More

R. K. Narayan (1966-2001) was an Indian writer and novelist. He was one of the renowned authors of the early Indian literature in English like Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand . He was also a short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, memoirist, and an editor. He mainly wrote fiction, non-fiction, and mythology. His first published work was a book review of the Development of Maritime Laws of 17th-Century England. His first novel was ‘Swami and Friends (1935), and his last work was Grandmother’s Tale (1923). His written works include themes like myths, tradition and modernity, ancient India, and women’s position in society. R. K. Narayan died on 13 May 2001.

Wiki/Biography

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami was born on Wednesday, 10 October 1906 ( age 94 years; at the time of death ) in Madras, British India (now, Chennai, India). While living with his grandmother, R. K. Narayan attended several schools in Madras like Lutheran Mission School in Purasawalkam, C.R.C. High School, and Christian College High School. After completing high school, Narayan could not pass the university entrance examination and spent a year at home reading and writing. In 1926, he successfully passed the examination and enrolled in the B.A. program in English at Maharaja College, Mysore. It took him four years to complete his bachelor’s degree. After his father’s death in 1937, he held a job as a school teacher for a short period of time. He was aware of the value of education and criticized the educational system that colonialism had put. In his novel ‘The English Teacher,’ he talks about the education system and stated,

This education has reduced us to a nation of morons; we were strangers to our own culture and camp followers of another culture, feeding on leavings and garbage . . . What about our own roots? . . . I am up against the system, the whole method and approach of a system of education which makes us morons, cultural morons, but efficient clerks for all your business and administration offices.”

R. K. Narayan belonged to a Tamil Brahmin family.

Parents & Siblings

His father was a school headmaster, and due to his frequent transfers in his job, R. K. Narayan was sent to his maternal grandmother, Parvati, who taught him arithmetic, mythology, and Sanskrit. His grandmother used to call him by the nickname Kunjappa. In 1937, R. K. Narayan’s father died. R. K. Narayan was the third child in a family of eight children. His youngest brother, Laxman, became a cartoonist, and Ramachandran, his younger brother, became an editor at Gemini Studios.

R. K. Narayan and his family

Wife & Children

During his visit to his sister’s house in Coimbatore, R. K. Narayan fell in love with a 15-year-old girl, Rajam. Narayan got married to her in 1934. In 1939, Rajam died of typhoid. R. K. Narayan and Rajam had a daughter named Hema.

R. K. Narayan with his wife

R. K. Narayan with his wife and daughter

R. K. Narayan with his daughter

Signature/Autograph

In 1934, R. K. Narayan became a reporter for a Madras-based paper, The Justice, which was dedicated to the rights of non-Brahmins. R. K. Narayan’s next novel was The Bachelor of Arts (1937). His third novel, The Dark Room (1938), was based on a theme of domestic disharmony. His perspective of seeing the world was unique. He once said in his book ‘The Guide”-

In a world where we are accustomed to rivalries over possession, authority, and borders, and people clashing over the issue, “Ours,” or “Mine, not yours,” it is rather strange to find two people debating whose the kingdom is not, and asserting: “Yours, not mine.”

In his book ‘Malgudi Days,’ R.K. Narayan wrote,

We are a flawed, weak species, he gently reminds us in these pages, focusing his attention, clearly and without sentiment, on those who will stoop low, those who will stop at nothing. What makes us care for such frequently pathetic characters is that they, like most of the rest of us, are strivers, driven by hopes for a slightly better life.”

• Swami and Friends (1935, Hamish Hamilton)
• The Bachelor of Arts (1937, Thomas Nelson)
• The Dark Room (1938, Eyre)
• The English Teacher (1945, Eyre)
• Mr. Sampath (1948, Eyre)
• The Financial Expert (1952, Methuen)
• Waiting for the Mahatma (1955, Methuen)
• The Guide (1958, Methuen)
• The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961, Viking)
• The Vendor of Sweets (1967, The Bodley Head)
• The Painter of Signs (1977, Heinemann)
• A Tiger for Malgudi (1983, Heinemann)
• Talkative Man (1986, Heinemann)
• The World of Nagaraj (1990, Heinemann)

Non Fiction Books

• Next Sunday (1960, Indian Thought Publications)
• My Dateless Diary (1960, Indian Thought Publications)
• My Days (1973, Viking)
• Reluctant Guru (1974, Orient Paperbacks)
• The Emerald Route (1980, Indian Thought Publications)
• A Writer’s Nightmare (1988, Penguin Books)
• A Story-Teller’s World (1989, Penguin Books)
• The Writerly Life (2001, Penguin Books India)

Mythology Books

• Gods, Demons and Others (1964, Viking)
• The Ramayana (1972, Chatto & Windus)

Short story collections

• Malgudi Days (1942, Indian Thought Publications)
• An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories (1947, Indian Thought Publications)
• Lawley Road and Other Stories (1956, Indian Thought Publications)
• A Horse and Two Goats (1970)
• Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories (1985)

• In 1960, R. K. Narayan won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his book The Guide (1958). Later, a film with the same name, starring Dev Anand and Waheeda Rahman, was made over this book for which R. K. Narayan received the Filmfare Award for the best story.
• In 1964, R. K. Narayan was awarded the Padma Bhushan during Republic Day.
• In 1980, he received the AC Benson Medal from the British Royal Society of Literature.
• In 1986, R. K. Narayan was honoured by Rajyotsava Prashasti from the Government of Karnataka.

R. K. Narayan with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

On 13 May 2001, he died of cardio-respiratory failure at the age of 94 in Chennai.

Facts/Trivia

• In 1982, R. K. Narayan was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Google celebrated R. K. Narayan’s 108th birthday with a doodle.

R. K. Narayan’s house (now a museum)

• In 1980, R. K. Narayan was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
• In 1986, an Indian television series, Malgudi Days, was aired on Doordarshan; it was filmed in both English (13 episodes) and Hindi (54 episodes). The television show was based on the 1943 short story collection with the same title by R. K. Narayan .
• His short stories are often compared to Gue de Maupassant and William Faulkner for using a fictional town, humour, and compassion to showcase ordinary life.
• R. K. Narayan’s mentor and friend Graham Greene was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books.
• Miss Malini (1947) was the only film for which R. K. Narayan wrote the story. Sampat (1952) is an Indian satirical film, which is based on R. K. Narayan’s novel Mr. Sampat (1949).
• This National Award-winning Kannada-language film Banker Margayya (1983), was based on the novel written by R. K. Narayan titled The Financial Expert (1952).

The actual writing of a book may not take much time, but its subject and scope take time to grow and settle in. Of course you don’t regard the story or characters separately, only as a totality if I may use that slightly pompous word.” [1] India Today

• In 1968, his book The Guide was adapted into a Broadway play and was staged at Hudson Theatre. He was not happy with the film Guide, and he wrote a column in Life magazine titled The Misguided Guide.
• BBC chose Swami and Friends, the first of trilogy of novels written by R. K. Narayan (1906–2001), as one of 100 novels That Shaped Our World.
• R. K. Narayan’s first income from writing was nine rupees and twelve annas.
• His first novel, ‘Swami and Friends,’ which he wrote in 1930, was rejected by several publishers.

References [+] [−]

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Biography of R. K. Narayan

R. K. Narayan, whose full name is Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan (originally, Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami), was born on October 10, 1906, in Madras (now known as Chennai), India. He is known as one of India's greatest English-language novelists, alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. His father was a provincial headmaster and he had many siblings. He spent part of his childhood under the care of his maternal grandmother, who taught him arithmetic, classical Indian music, mythology, and Sanskrit. Narayan did not particularly like school, but he did love reading English literature, including Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Arthur Conan Doyle. When he was 12 years old, he participated in a pro-independence march, for which he was reprimanded by his family. After initially failing the entrance exams, he entered university but decided against pursuing the Master of Arts, realizing that more schooling was not what he wanted. Instead, he took odd jobs such as writing for small journals and freelance literary work. Pieces he submitted to publishers in England were not accepted and he described the response as “cold, callous rejection slips, impersonal and mocking.”

Narayan’s breakthrough was with his first novel. Scholar Nandan Datta describes the process: “ Swami and Friends was completed and sent to publishers. It repeatedly returned. Narayan dispatched it yet another time and gave the return address as one of his friends in London. He wrote to the friend requesting the manuscript be tied to a brick and thrown into the Thames if it came back. It did. But the friend took it to his acquaintance Graham Greene, who was already an established author. Narayan received a telegram soon thereafter: ‘Novel taken. Graham Greene responsible.’” Narayan met Greene only once, in 1964, but the two of them corresponded for decades and became very close friends. It was at Greene’s advice that Narayan shortened his name.

In 1956, Narayan won a travel grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and said of his experience, “Finally I did break out of the triangular boundary of Madras, Mysore and Coimbatore and left for the United States, in October 1956.” He visited New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, and the Grand Canyon, and met Aldous Huxley, John Gunther, Greta Garbo, and more.

His first novel Swami and Friends (1935) and his second, The Bachelor of Arts (1937), are both set in Malgudi, a fictional town on the border between Mysore and Madras. Others set there include The Dark Room (1938), The English Teacher (1945), Mr. Sampath (1949), The Financial Expert (1952), The Guide (1958), The Man Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), The Painter of Signs (1977), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983), and Talkative Man (1986). He has also written five collections of short stories, including Malgudi Days , as well as multiple collections of essays, commentaries on the Indian epics, and a memoir, My Days .

Narayan was awarded the A.C. Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature in 1980. In 1981, he was made an Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Narayan died on May 13, 2001.

Study Guides on Works by R. K. Narayan

The guide r. k. narayan.

Published in 1958, The Guide is a novel by Indian author R.K. Narayan set in his fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. It follows the life of an Indian man, Raju, as he evolves throughout his life to become one of the most prominent holy men in...

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Malgudi Days R. K. Narayan

Malgudi Days is a short-story collection by Indian writer R. K. Narayan. The book was initially published in 1943 in India by Indian Thought Publications. It was republished internationally by Penguin Classics in 1982.

The book follows the lives...

The Painter of Signs R. K. Narayan

The Painter of Signs (1976) is a novel by celebrated Indian author R. K. Narayan. It describes a tumultuous romance between a sign painter and a political activist.

The novel tells the story of a man named Raman, a perfectionist sign painter. He...

R.K. Narayan: Short Stories R. K. Narayan

If R.K. Narayan was to go by his given name, then the cover would be an appealing hodge-podge of letters; born Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanswami in 1906, Narayan quickly became one of India's most internationally-revered writers and was at...

Swami and Friends R. K. Narayan

Swami and Friends is an Indian book written in English published in 1935. The work was the first novel ever published by the famous Indian author R. K. Narayan. Narayan's friend, Graham Greene, recommended his manuscript to a publisher, and it was...

The Vendor of Sweets R. K. Narayan

The Vendor of Sweets is a novel by critically acclaimed Indian author R.K. Narayan. Set in India during the 1960s, It follows the life of a vendor of sweetmeats named Jagan as he tries to navigate a difficult relationship with his son Mali.

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R.k. narayan – biography, writer, journalist.

4to40.com October 11, 2016 Biographies for Kids 6,577 Views

Nearly 70 years ago, India’s greatest living writer in English, took out a brand new exercise book and wrote in it: “It was Monday morning.”

With those four words, Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan (just R.K. Narayan to most) took off on a journey to that oddly populated fictional continent called Malgudi, with the young boy Swami and his eclectic mix of friends.

“The very first line I wrote was ‘It was Monday morning.’ And then I had an idea of a railway station, a very small railway station, a wayside station. You’ve seen the kind of thing, with a platform and trees and a stationmaster.

The railway station to which Swami goes to watch trains arrive and depart: that was the original idea with which I started ‘Swami and Friends’.

ut in the actual book it comes last, it comes at the end of the story,” wrote Narayan much later, remembering his first work. The writer turned 94 on Oct 6, 2000.

Despite the overwhelming success of his semi-autobiographical, self-mocking vignettes of small-town childhood in ‘Swami and Friends’, Narayan very nearly missed the call to fame and recognition.

“Deluged under rejection slips”, it was only the fortuitous arrival of his manuscript on well-known writer, Graham Greene’s desk, which made his entry into the “real world” possible.

Having read the manuscript, Graham Greene recommended it to publisher Hamish Hamilton who promptly agreed to publish it. Some seven decades later, Malgudi occupies an almost real space on the Indian map.

Seventeen novels and 300 short stories later, Narayan, continues to be one of India’s most prolific and most stylish writers in the English language. Some of his best known works are ‘The Bachelor of Arts’, ‘The Dark Room’, ‘The English Teacher’, ‘Mr Sampath’, ‘The Financial Expert’, ‘Waiting for the Mahatma’, ‘The Guide’, ‘The Man-eater of Malgudi’, ‘The Talkative Men’ and ‘Malgudi Days’.

But writing was not a profession to be entertained for a young man straight out of college. After graduation, Narayan worked as a teacher in a high school and as a journalist for a few years.

Yet, teaching proved to be an unsatisfying experience after which writing ‘Swami and Friends’ became part of a businesslike routine that the writer pursued with a serious face.

In India, Narayan’s books crowd the syllabuses of schools and colleges as novel after novel becomes ‘required reading’, though one of the most respected Indian literary awards, the Jnanpith award, has eluded him for an ironical reason. It is given to a writer in Indian languages and Narayan has chosen to write in English.

The writer won his first major Indian award when he won the Yatra Award, given every year for outstanding achievement by a writer from South Asia, in 1994.

The citation said, “Mr. Narayan has created with quiet honesty and moral seriousness, a unique fictional world out of the ordinary and daily lives of people in the small towns of the South. He is a master story-teller whose language is simple and unpretentious, whose wit is critical yet healing, whose characters are drawn with sharp precision and subtle irony and whose narratives have the lightness of touch which only the craftsman of the highest order can risk…”

The 1994 award is a long way from the first prize that Narayan won in 1930, in a short story competition organised by a magazine. When the editor asked him about his future plans, Narayan seems to have replied, “I hope to write till my fingers fall off.” Happily, 70 years later, neither have Narayan’s fingers fallen off, nor have ours grown tired of thumbing through his absurd caricatures and grotesqueries.

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In 1933, Narayan fell in love with Rajam, a 15-year-old girl he encountered in Coimbatore while on vacation with his sister.

R. K. Narayan Biography : Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami (RK Narayan) was a well-known Indian author renowned for his fictional South Indian community of Malgudi and his body of work. Along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao, he was one of the most prominent and well-known authors of early Indian literature composed in English.

Their greatest accomplishment of Narayan was making India accessible to the rest of the world through his writing and eloquent literature. The primary focus of Narayan’s biography is his friendship with Graham Greene. He was Narayan’s teacher and personal friend. He was instrumental in identifying and acquiring publishers for the first four books by Narayan.

R. K. Narayan Biography

Early years.

Narayan was born in 1906 to a typical Hindu family in Madras (now renamed and known as Chennai, Tamil Nadu), British India. He was the second son of his parents’ eight children; his younger brother Ramachandran was an editor at Gemini Studios, and his youngest brother Laxman was an accomplished cartoonist.

Narayan spent his formative years in Madras under the supervision of his grandmother and a maternal uncle, joining his parents primarily only during school breaks. During that period, India, a colony held by the British since 1857, was still regarded as the most significant part of the empire.

RK Narayan attended more schools than the average student in Madras while residing with his grandmother, with the Lutheran Mission School in Purasawalkam, C.R.C. High School, and Christian College High School serving as his primary schools. Narayan was an avid and enthusiastic reader who spent his childhood reading Dickens, Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Thomas Hardy.

After graduating from high school, Narayan failed the university entrance examination, but was able to spend a year at home reading and writing. In 1926, he passed the final examination and enrolled at Maharaja College of Mysore.

RK Narayan was always devoted to literature whenever he had the opportunity.

R K Narayan was a populist author. His writing style was straightforward, easily understood by all, and infused with a natural sense of humour. His writings would centre on common individuals and their mundane existence.

The celebrated author’s writing technique was such that readers could immediately relate to his works. Critics would consider Narayan to be the Indian Chekhov due to his writings’ simplicity, delicate beauty, and humour in tragic situations.

While some would compare Narayan’s writing style to that of William Faulkner because both of their works captured the hilarity and vitality of everyday life while displaying compassionate humanism, others would not.

Most of Narayan’s stories took place in and around the fictional town of Malgudi, which was first introduced in “Swami and Friends.” His fictional town represented reality, thereby evoking the humour and vitality of everyday life.

The narratives of Narayan emphasise social context and provide a sense of his characters’ commonplace lives. “Swami and Friends”, “The Bachelor of Arts”, “The English Teacher”, “The Financial Expert”, which is considered one of the most original works, “Guide”, the Sahitya Academy winner, “The Dark Room”, his evergreen collection of short stories “Malgudi Days”, “Mr Sampath, “Waiting for the Mahatma”, “Next Sunday”, “My Dateless Diary”, “The Man-Eater of Malgudi”, “Gods, Demons

Awards and Accolades

The English Teacher (1945), Waiting for the Mahatma (1955), The Guide (1958), The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961), The Vendor of Sweets (1967), and A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) were among the finest of RK Narayan’s 34 novels.

His 1958 novel The Guide earned him the most prestigious National Prize of the Indian Literary Academy, his nation’s highest award. In addition to the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan, India’s second and third highest civilian awards, and the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour of India’s national academy of letters, Narayan received numerous other awards and honours. Additionally, nominated for the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Indian parliament.

Personal Life

In 1933, Narayan fell in love with Rajam, a 15-year-old girl he encountered in Coimbatore while on vacation with his sister. Narayan began working as the first Brahmin Iyer for The Justice, a Madras-based newspaper dedicated to the rights of Non-Brahmins, which caused a sensation. The paper provided him with valuable contacts and a fresh perspective on the surrounding issues.

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RK Narayan Biography

RK Narayan was a famous Indian writer globally known for his fictional writings of Malgudi. He was born on the 10th of October,1906. In his long career, he published fourteen novels , over two hundred short stories, a memoir, two travel books, several essays, and two plays. He was among the first few Indians who started writing Indian literature in English.

He was awarded the AC Benson medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Sahitya Akademi Award , the Padma Bhushan , and the Padma Vibhusan , third and second of India’s highest civilian awards. Swami and Friends, The Guide, and The Vendor of Sweets are some of his most famous books.

In this article, we will look into the biography of RK Narayan. Let’s explore.

Table of Content

RK Narayan Life Overview

Rk narayan – birth, early life, education, rk narayan career.

• List of RK Narayan’s most famous books

RK Narayan Achievements

• RK Narayan – FAQs

RK Narayan was born on the Tamil 10th of October 1906 in a Tamil Brahmin family in his grandfather’s home in Madras (Now Chennai) during British Rule in India . His father is R.K. Krishnaswami Iyer who was the school headmaster and his mother Gyanamba l was a simple housewife. He spent his early years of life with his grandparents in Madras and he was very much inspired by his grandmother’s storytelling.

Every new day his grandmother tells him a new fictional story. He was one of the eight children and second among six sons, with two daughters in the family. He has spent a significant part of his childhood under the care of his maternal grandmother, who instilled in him a love for storytelling and traditional Hindu values. He moved to Mysore to live with his family when his father was transferred to Maharajah’s College High School.

He gained his higher education from the Maharaja’s College High School in Mysore. He faced a setback by failing the university entrance exam in 1925. When he failed an exam then he took a break from college during that time he developed a strong passion for reading, devouring works by renowned authors like Dickens, Wodehouse, Conan Doyle, and Hardy. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in 1930, taking a year longer than usual.

He started his career in the 1930s after finishing his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from the Maharaja’s College, Mysore . He was passionate about writing fiction, Narayan’s first published work in the 1930s was a  book review . It focused on the development of maritime laws in 17th-century England, showcasing his diverse interests.

•  He then turned to  short story writing , contributing to a local newspaper, “The Justice,” in Madras. This period allowed him to hone his writing skills and gain experience in storytelling.
• While writing short stories, Narayan also dedicated himself to his first novel,  “Swami and Friends” , completing it in 1930. He faced numerous rejections from publishers initially to publish his first Novel.
• Despite the initial setbacks with his novel, Narayan remained determined. He continued writing short stories and published a collection titled  “Malgudi Days” in 1943 . This book marked a turning point in his career and from that he became recognised as a novelist.

Establishing His Literary (1940s onwards)

• “The English Teacher” (1945):  The success of “Malgudi Days” opened doors for Narayan’s debut novel, “The English Teacher,” in 1945. This established him as a prominent literary figure and solidified his association with the fictional town of  Malgudi , the setting for many of his future works.

RK Narayan Literary Career

• Novels:  He authored numerous critically acclaimed novels, including “The Guide” (1958) and “The Vendor of Sweets” (1967), further solidifying his position as a major literary figure.
• Short Stories:  He didn’t limit himself only to novels but continued writing short stories, publishing diverse collections throughout his career.
• Publishing House:   In 1941, Narayan established his own publishing house,   “Indian Thought Publications” , contributing to the literary landscape beyond his writing.

List of RK Narayan’s Most Famous Books

The key Achievements throughout RK Narayan’s life are as follows : Created Malgudi:  He established the fictional town of  Malgudi  as a literary landmark, a setting for many of his stories that resonated with readers due to its universal themes and relatable characters.

• RK Narayan’s writing played a significant role in introducing Indian culture, experiences, and emotions to a wider international audience.
• He was recognized for his masterful storytelling abilities, weaving narratives that were both captivating and insightful.

Literary Recognition Achievements – Awards

• Sahitya Akademi Award (1958):  India’s highest literary honour for his novel “The Guide.”
• Padma Bhushan (1964):  Prestigious civilian award by the Indian government.One of India’s third-highest civilian awards.
• Padma Vibhushan (1980):  One of India’s second-highest civilian awards.
• AC Benson Medal (1980):  Awarded by the Royal Society of Literature, reflecting his international recognition.
• Nominations and Recognition:  He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on multiple occasions and received numerous other awards and accolades throughout his career.

Some Key Achievements of RK Narayan

• He founded “Indian Thought Publications” in 1941 and  Contributed to the literary landscape beyond his writing by establishing a publishing house.
• He Authored “ Reluctant Guru ” in 1975  a non-fiction book showcasing his observations and reflections on life.
• Several of his works, including “The Guide” and “Waiting for the Mahatma,” were adapted into successful films, further extending his reach to a wider audience.

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FAQs on RK Narayan

What is the short biography of rk narayan.

RK Narayan was born on 10 October 1906 and passed away in 2001. In his long career he published fourteen novels, over two hundred short stories, a memoir, two travel books, innumerable essays, and two plays. His first novel was Swami and Friends (1935).

Who was the famous character created by RK Narayan?

The character “Swami and friends ” created by R K Narayan that lived in the city of Malgudi. Swami and Friends is a novel that was published in the year 1935. The book was originally published in the English language.

What are the achievements of RK Narayan?

Having a successful career of almost sixty years got R.K. a series of awards and honours including the AC Benson medal from the Royal Society of Literature , the Padma Bhusan and the Padma Vibhusan , third and second of India’s highest civilian awards.

What is special about RK Narayan?

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, popularly known as R.K. Narayan, was an Indian writer globally known for his fictional writings of Malgudi. Also, R.K. Narayan was amongst the first few Indians who started writing Indian literature in English.

Which is RK Narayan’s first novel?

His first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), is an episodic narrative recounting the adventures of a group of schoolboys. That book and much of Narayan’s later works are set in the fictitious South Indian town of Malgudi.

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R. K. Narayan, India's Prolific Storyteller, Dies at 94

By Barbara Crossette

• May 14, 2001

R.K. Narayan, the literary chronicler of small-town life in South India and one of the first Indians writing in English to achieve international acclaim, died yesterday in Madras, India. He was 94.

Long before writers of the subcontinent broke free of the passions and ideologies of the independence movement and Partition, Mr. Narayan explored the value of village traditions and the lives of ordinary people. In the 1930's, he created a town in South India that he called Malgudi and populated it with characters who could be fussy, tricky, harmlessly rebellious or philosophical -- but who were always believable. Mr. Narayan would return again and again to Malgudi in many of his 34 novels and hundreds of short stories.

Although Mr. Narayan's writing may strike many foreign critics as dated today, his books accurately portray an India that hovers between the unchangingly rural and the newly industrial and that is still filled with individualistic, often eccentric personalities that recall his imagined universe.

Mr. Narayan's biographers, Susan Ram and N. Ram, have noted that Malgudi ''connects with a rural hinterland, and jungle and forest are never far away.'' They added: ''This town teems with life, abounds with color. To wander any street, peer through a window or push open a door is to encounter a character.''

As a fiction writer, Mr. Narayan preceded by more than half a century the current crop of Indian novelists writing in English about ordinary people living their ordinary, or sometimes extraordinary, lives.

Although he wrote exclusively in English to a relatively small audience in his homeland, Mr. Narayan did not deal, except obliquely, with the impact of Britain on India and the struggle for independence. V. S. Naipaul once observed that Mr. Narayan was interested not so much in the social changes that came to his archetypal Indian town as in ''the lesser life that goes on below: small men, small schemes, big talk, limited means: a life so circumscribed that it appears whole and unviolated, its smallness never a subject for wonder, though India itself is felt to be vast.''

In ''Gods, Demons and Others'' (1964), Mr. Narayan's retelling of stories from the Sanskrit religious epics ''The Mahabharata'' and ''The Ramayana'' and from Tamil epics, he explained his approach: ''It is personality alone that remains unchanging and makes sense in any age or idiom, whether the setting is 3000 B.C. or 2000 A.D.''

Mr. Narayan was 29 and had collected many rejection slips when his first book, ''Swami and Friends,'' was published, in Britain, in 1935. It was Graham Greene who managed to find a publisher after the book had been rejected half a dozen times. Greene said that ''Swami'' was ''closer to Chekhov than to any English writer, with the same underlying sense of beauty and sadness,'' and he admired Mr. Narayan so much that he went on to find publishers for his second and third novels, ''The Bachelor of Arts'' and ''The Dark Room.''

In addition to nearly three dozen novels and several short-story collections, Mr. Narayan published a memoir and countless essays during his rich literary life. He was never short of causes, especially the environment. While in his 80's, he took on the plight of Indian children and made them the subject of an unusual inaugural speech in India's upper house of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, to which he was named in 1985 for his cultural contributions to the country. Children, he said, no longer had time to play ''or look at birds and trees.''

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanaswami was born in Madras on Oct. 10, 1906, one of several children in a middle-class family. He shortened his long South Indian family name to Narayan in 1935 at the insistence of Graham Greene and his English publisher, Hamish Hamilton, according to the Rams. Mr. Narayan was a Tamil Brahmin, a member of arguably India's most intellectually gifted caste and of a community intensely devoted to education and the arts that has produced, in addition to writers, a number of renowned scientists.

Because his father was a headmaster in the government educational service who traveled frequently and his mother was a frail woman, he was largely brought up by his grandmother, who arranged lessons for him in Tamil and fascinated him with her Indian tales and poetry. His grandmother also had a steady stream of visitors who stopped in her backyard to have their horoscopes read and to receive advice about their love lives. His childhood days with his grandmother and her visitors provided the material for ''Swami and Friends.''

After his father was transferred to a school in another South Indian city, Mysore, Mr. Narayan studied at the Maharaja of Mysore's Collegiate High School. In 1930, he graduated from the maharaja's college, tried teaching for a short and unhappy spell and then plunged directly into writing full time, a profession almost unknown in India, then or now. His family was shocked but supportive.

''I chose to be writer,'' he later told a radio interviewer, ''mainly because it is the only career which guarantees absolute freedom to live as one pleases.''

''On a certain day in September, selected by my grandmother for its auspiciousness, I bought an exercise book and wrote the first line of a novel,'' Mr. Narayan remembered in his memoir ''My Days'' (1974). ''As I sat in a room nibbling my pen and wondering what to write, Malgudi with its little railroad station swam into view, all ready-made.''

He broke with family tradition to marry a woman he chose, rather than being drawn into an arranged marriage. His wife, Rajam, could not read English, the only language in which her husband could write, but she took a strong interest in his work. He and his wife had only five years together before she died of typhoid fever in 1939. Mr. Narayan never remarried, electing to bring up his daughter, Hema, by himself. Hema died of cancer in 1994. He is survived by a brother, the cartoonist R. K. Laxman, and two grandsons.

The death of his wife plunged him into a period of depression during which he became obsessed with trying to communicate with her through spiritual mediums. The experience was reflected his fourth Malgudi novel, ''The English Teacher.'' Among other books in the series were ''The Guide,'' ''The Financial Expert,'' ''The Man Eater of Malgudi,'' ''The Vendor of Sweets'' and ''The World of Nagaraj.''

''The Guide'' (1958) is particularly well regarded by critics. It concerns the rise, fall and rise again of Raju, a railway-station food vendor who becomes a tourist guide. Raju seduces the wife of a client, then quits his job to manage her career as a dancer. She becomes a star and he becomes prosperous until he is thrown into jail as a swindler. Eventually released, he searches for his true identity and finds it as a mahatma, or spiritual adviser, in a small town.

The painful search for ''true identity'' is a major theme of Mr. Narayan's work. In ''The Vendor of Sweets'' the merchant eventually rejects the world for a life of contemplation.

In the Narayan world, the streets are a never-ending theater ''and your neighbor's life is a fat novel, which you are sometimes invited to revise,'' Anatole Broyard wrote in his review of the story collection ''Malgudi Days.''

''Some of Mr. Narayan's best stories are benign satires,'' Mr. Broyard continued, ''like the one in which the town council decides to pull down the 20-foot metal statue of a former British governor. Research has exposed him as a tyrant, and the statue is offered free to anyone who will carry it away. After dynamiting it off its pedestal, an enterprising citizen has it pulled away by the temple elephant and 50 men. While trying to decide how best to liquidate it, he keeps it in his small house, where half of the statue sticks out into the street. Then it is discovered that the researchers were mistaken, the man commemorated by the statue was a veritable saint, and it must be re-erected.''

Over the years Mr. Narayan's books have been published in the United States by the Viking Press, by Farrar, Straus & Giroux's Noonday paperback imprint, by Michigan State University Press and by the University of Chicago Press. He liked to travel and visited Europe and the United States.

In his long, productive life, Mr. Narayan became his own publisher, a step he took when World War II cut him off from Britain. He also wrote occasionally for newspapers and magazines. His work earned him a number of Indian awards, including the Padma Bhushan, the country's highest prize. He was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and his papers and manuscripts have been given to Boston University and the University of Texas.

Mr. Narayan was once described by J. Anthony Lukas as looking ''a little like a highly intelligent bird.''

He was never much of a self-publicist. ''Everyone thinks he's a writer with a mission,'' Mr. Narayan once told N. Ram. ''Myself, absolutely not. I write only because I'm interested in a type of character, and I'm amused mostly by the seriousness with which each man takes himself.''

Because of an editing error, an obituary on Monday about the Indian writer R. K. Narayan misstated the number of his works and referred incorrectly to a survivor. Mr. Na rayan published 15 novels (not 34), and his output totaled more than 30 books, including collections of short stories taken from more than a hundred (not hundreds) that he was known to have written. His survivors include a grandson and a granddaughter, not two grandsons.

The obituary also gave a misspelled surname in some copies for a writer who once described Mr. Narayan as looking ''a little like a highly intelligent bird.'' The writer was J. Anthony Lukas, not Lucas.

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R.K. Narayan Biography and Works

Table of Contents

What is the famous work of R. K. Narayan?,What is the short story of R. K. Narayan?,What is the theme of R. K. Narayan?,What is the first work of R. K. Narayan?,What is the fact about R.K. Narayan?,What did R.K. Narayan’s father do?,What is an accident story by R.K. Narayan?,What is the philosophy of R.K. Narayan?,Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, widely known as R.K. Narayan, stands as one of the preeminent Indian writers in English during the 20th century. Born on October 10, 1906, in Madras (now Chennai), India, Narayan’s literary legacy is synonymous with his captivating portrayal of South Indian life, blending humor and poignancy. R.K. Narayan Biography and Works

Early Life:

R.K. Narayan was born into a Brahmin family in Madras, where his father, R. K. Narayanaswami, served as a school headmaster, and his mother, Gnanambal, embodied traditional values. Despite the conservative environment, Narayan’s parents fostered his early interest in literature, setting the stage for his later literary prowess.

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Narayan commenced his education at the Lutheran Mission School in Madras, where he was introduced to English literature. Later, he pursued higher education at Maharaja’s College in Mysore, where his passion for writing flourished. During this period, he began contributing short stories and articles to various local publications. R.K. Narayan Biography and Works

Emergence into Writing:

In 1930, Narayan’s literary journey took flight with the publication of a book review in “The Justice,” a Madras-based magazine. His initial works reflected simplicity and a profound understanding of human nature. The pivotal moment arrived in 1935 with the publication of his debut novel, “Swami and Friends,” introducing readers to the fictional town of Malgudi, a recurring setting in his future works. R.K. Narayan Biography and Works

Noteworthy Works:

• Swami and Friends (1935): Narayan’s debut novel explores the adventures of young Swaminathan and his friends, delving into the innocence and curiosity of childhood.
• The Bachelor of Arts (1937): This novel navigates the challenges faced by Chandran as he transitions from college to adulthood.
• The English Teacher (1945): Drawing from personal experiences, Narayan touches upon themes of love, loss, and spiritual awakening in this poignant novel.
• The Financial Expert (1952): A satirical commentary on the pursuit of wealth, this novel features Margayya manipulating the economic system for personal gain.
• The Guide (1958): Regarded as a masterpiece, “The Guide” follows the story of Raju, a tourist guide, exploring themes of love, spirituality, and self-discovery.
• Malgudi Days (1943): A collection of short stories capturing the essence of life in Malgudi, showcasing Narayan’s wit and keen observations.

Recognition and Awards:

R.K. Narayan’s literary contributions received widespread acclaim, earning him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 for “The Guide.” In recognition of his impact on Indian literature, he received the Padma Bhushan in 1964 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2000, two of India’s highest civilian honors.

Personal Life:

In 1934, Narayan married Rajam, with whom he had a daughter named Hema. Tragically, Rajam passed away in 1939. Despite facing personal and financial challenges, Narayan remained committed to his writing. In 1956, he married Rajam’s younger sister, Rajeswari, with whom he had another daughter, Aparna.

Later Years and Legacy:

In his later years, Narayan continued to write prolifically, with his works adapted into successful films and television series. Despite occasional criticism for not overtly addressing social issues, Narayan’s subtle and humorous commentary on Indian society resonates with readers worldwide.

R.K. Narayan passed away on May 13, 2001, leaving behind a literary legacy that transcends time. His writings, characterized by their timeless appeal, offer profound insights into the human condition and the intricacies of Indian society. Narayan’s ability to capture the essence of ordinary life with humor and compassion ensures that his works remain relevant and enjoyable for generations to come.

Major Works:

• Swami and Friends (1935): This debut novel introduces readers to the fictional town of Malgudi and follows the adventures of a young boy named Swaminathan and his group of friends. It explores the innocence and curiosity of childhood, setting the tone for Narayan’s later works.
• The Bachelor of Arts (1937): This novel delves into the challenges faced by the protagonist, Chandran, as he transitions from college life to adulthood. It addresses themes of identity, societal expectations, and personal growth.
• The English Teacher (1945): Inspired by personal experiences, this novel explores the themes of love, loss, and spiritual awakening. The protagonist, Krishna, undergoes a transformative journey after the death of his wife, highlighting Narayan’s ability to blend the mundane with the profound.
• The Financial Expert (1952): A satirical novel that follows the life of Margayya, a financial expert who manipulates the economic system for personal gain. The book provides a critical commentary on the pursuit of wealth and societal values. R.K. Narayan Biography and Works
• The Guide (1958): Considered one of Narayan’s masterpieces, this novel tells the story of Raju, a tourist guide, and explores themes of love, deception, and spiritual redemption. The narrative structure is notable for its non-linear and layered storytelling.
• Malgudi Days (1943): A collection of short stories set in the fictional town of Malgudi, each capturing the nuances of human relationships, societal norms, and everyday life. The stories showcase Narayan’s wit, humor, and keen observations.

Writing Style:

• Simplicity: Narayan’s writing is characterized by simplicity, making his works accessible to a wide audience. He eschews elaborate language in favor of a straightforward and unpretentious style, allowing readers to connect with his narratives on a personal level.
• Humor: A hallmark of Narayan’s writing is his subtle humor. He skillfully infuses wit and irony into his stories, often using humor to comment on societal norms and human behavior. This comedic touch adds depth and relatability to his works.
• Characterization: Narayan excels in creating memorable and authentic characters. His characters are often drawn from everyday life in small towns, and he endows them with distinct personalities and quirks. This attention to characterization contributes to the realism of his narratives.
• Regional Flavor: Narayan’s works vividly capture the essence of South Indian life and culture. Through detailed descriptions and cultural references, he brings the fictional town of Malgudi to life, making it a character in itself. This regional flavor adds authenticity and richness to his storytelling.
• Exploration of Human Nature: Narayan’s narratives delve into the complexities of human relationships and societal dynamics. His keen understanding of human nature allows him to create characters that resonate with readers, and he skillfully explores universal themes such as love, loss, and self-discovery.
• Subtle Social Commentary: While not overtly political, Narayan’s works offer subtle social commentary. He addresses societal norms, caste dynamics, and the impact of modernity on traditional values. His storytelling serves as a lens through which readers can reflect on broader social issues.

R.K. Narayan’s literary journey is a tapestry woven with simplicity, humor, and a profound understanding of human nature. Through the lens of Malgudi, his fictional town, Narayan painted a vivid portrait of South Indian life, capturing the nuances of everyday existence. From the innocence of childhood in “Swami and Friends” to the spiritual quest in “The Guide,” Narayan’s major works showcase a remarkable range of storytelling.

His writing style, marked by simplicity and subtle humor, made his works universally appealing. The characters he crafted, often drawn from the fabric of small-town life, came to life with authenticity and relatability. Narayan’s narratives, while deeply rooted in South Indian culture, transcended regional boundaries, earning him acclaim both in India and internationally. R.K. Narayan Biography and Works

As a literary luminary, Narayan received accolades, including the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Bhushan. His legacy endures, not only through his novels but also through the screen adaptations of his works. R.K. Narayan’s ability to blend the ordinary with the profound, coupled with his keen observations of human behavior, ensures his place as a timeless storyteller.What is the famous work of R. K. Narayan?,What is the short story of R. K. Narayan?,What is the theme of R. K. Narayan?,What is the first work of R. K. Narayan?,What is the fact about R.K. Narayan?,What did R.K. Narayan’s father do?,What is an accident story by R.K. Narayan?,What is the philosophy of R.K. Narayan?,

1. What is R.K. Narayan best known for?

R.K. Narayan is best known for his captivating portrayal of South Indian life in English literature. His major works, including “Swami and Friends,” “The Guide,” and “Malgudi Days,” showcase his keen observations, humor, and deep understanding of human nature.

2. What is the significance of Malgudi in R.K. Narayan’s works?

Malgudi, a fictional town created by R.K. Narayan, serves as the backdrop for many of his novels and short stories. It symbolizes a microcosm of Indian society, allowing Narayan to explore diverse themes such as human relationships, societal norms, and the impact of modernity on traditional values.

3. How would you describe R.K. Narayan’s writing style?

R.K. Narayan’s writing style is characterized by simplicity, humor, and a deep understanding of human nature. He uses colloquial language and subtle humor to make his works accessible to a broad audience. His storytelling is marked by authenticity, and he excels in creating memorable characters.

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All R.K. Narayan Books List and Short Stories

No library is said to be complete without the R.K. Narayan books placed in it. He was one of the greatest novelists of all times. All books written by R.K. Narayan gives the reflection of the life of a common man and his day to day experiences.

R.K. Narayan’s writing style of books was often compared with Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner. Since both of their works brought out the humor and energy of ordinary life. R.K. Narayan books have the simplicity in them, they somehow relate to the cultural and heritage of the country. All of his books have received great response from the readers around the world.

In this article, I have compiled the complete list of books written by R.K. Narayan. Also, R.K. Narayan Short Stories are included in the list of his works. You will get the details of each book written by R.K. Narayan and where to buy them.

R.K. Narayan Books List and Short Stories

The complete list of RK Narayan books is divided into four categories named as Novels, Short Stories, Mythology and Short Story Collections.

R.K. Narayan Fiction Books

1. swami and friends.

‘Swami and Friends’ book is written by R.K. Narayan in 1935. The Story is about a boy named Swami and his friends, Rajam and Mani. Swami, the main character of the book is full of adventure. He and his two friends enjoy every bit of the school’s life. The stories are set in a fictional town called Malgudi, on the banks of the river Sarayu. If you are looking forward to having a good memory of your school days, then you must read this book.

2. The Bachelor of Arts

Next book of R.K. Narayan book list is The Bachelor of Arts. It is about a normal guy who is studying in the last years of college and is to enter the life of an independent adult. Chandran, the main character of the book completed his college life and have no plans for the future. This book is the description of his middle-class life and its ambitions during the British Raj.

3. The Dark Room

This work of literature was first published in Great Britain in 1938. This book is based on the feministic issue. It will remind you of your childhood days in the village.

The main story of the book revolves around the problems between the husband and wife, which is very much common in India. Through this book by R.K. Narayan, you will be introduced to the beautiful traditional culture of Indian Society.

4. The English Teacher

R. K. Narayan wrote The English Teacher in 1945. This book is the third and the final part in the series, come before in order by Swami and friends and The Bachelor of Arts.

This book is about an English professor Krishnan who lives in the small town of Malgudi, married with Sushila. Soon after the marriage, both of them blessed with a daughter.

The story takes a shocking turn when his wife Sushila died out of sudden due to typhoid, leaving behind Krishnan and her daughter alone. R.K. Narayan beautifully captures the dual role of Krishnan as a father and a mother.

5. Mr. Sampath

Another fantastic book on the RK Narayan books list is Mr. Sampath which was written in 1949. This book presents the live picture of Indian social lives with male mental agony for the struggle to achieve creativeness in life.

6. The Financial Expert

This book is ‘must have’ to your Indian Literature Collection from the RK Narayan books list. The book is about the ups and downs of the life of a common man who is very well versed with the rules of Finance.

If you want to dig deep into the life of a finance expert, then this read can be your mode of entertainment.

7. Waiting for the Mahatma

The book is about a girl named Bharati who has a deep affection towards Mahatma Gandhi. She took Mahatma Gandhi as her mentor, guardian, and her spiritual master. A guy named ‘Sriram’ loved the ideology of Bharati. The novel revolves around ‘Sriram’ and his love towards Bharati.

8. The Guide

The Guide is a book written in English by Indian Author R.K. Narayan in 1958.

The story of the book is about a village boy named Raju, whose work is to sell Tea on a Railway Platform and who later becomes a part-time guide. One day a girl named Rosie enters his life and the story changes dramatically.

This is a must-read for the lovers of Fictional Books and one of the most popular books written by RK Narayan.

9. The Man-Eater of Malgudi

The story of Man-Eater of Malgudi revolves around the life of an Indian printer named Nataraj who lives in a huge ancestral house in Malgudi, a fictional town in south India.

The story with its pleasant twists features the metamorphosis of a quiet, spineless man (Nataraj) to rise up against his “friend” Vasu.

10. The Vendor of Sweets

The main character of the book is Jagan and his son Mali. The Story of the book revolves around the generation gap between the father and the son. In his early days, Jagan loses his wife Ambika because of his belief in natural cures.

The father and the son differences are very well depicted in this masterpiece book written by RK Narayan.

11. The Painter of Signs

The Painter of Signs book by RK Narayan is the story of Raman, a young painter of signboards, a professional bachelor who is skilled in the art of designing of signboards. His excellence in his work gave him the chance to do business with the well-reputed people of Malgudi and his work made him quite famous in the village of Malgudi.

12. A Tiger for Malgudi

This is one of the magical works of R.K. Narayan in which the tiger himself narrated the story about his thoughts, insight, and feelings. The story depicts the miserable life of the animals in the Circus.

13. Talkative Man

It is a novel by R. K. Narayan first published in 1986The Story is about a young Freelance Journalist trying to establish a reputation, known as Talkative Man(TM) and came in contact with a mysterious man called DR. Rann and his adventures of life.

14. The World of Nagaraj

It is another humorous novel by RK Narayan is set in the imaginary town of Malgudi is the tale of Nagaraj, a contentedly aimless man whose only “mission” in life is to write a great treatise on the Sanskrit scholar Narada.

15. Grandmother’s Tale

The book is about Narayan’s great grandmother who is forced to travel far and wide in search of her husband, as narrated to him by his grandmother.

16. My Days

My days is a memoir written by RK Narayan published in the year 1974. It is an autobiography of the master storyteller in which RK Narayan himself writes about the intricacies of his life. He used to live with his grandmother in Chennai in his childhood days, later on, he did is college from Mysore.

He beautifully describes his days of ups and down and the anecdotes of his family. This book is intriguing to the readers as the author narrates wittingly the story of his life.

17. A Writer’s Nightmare

This book is a collection of essays which are written and compiled by RK Narayan. He picked up the essays on different topics like caste system, love, bridegrooms, mathematics, coffee and many more. The best part of the book is that all these essays are written in the time span of thirty years.

It is a delight to read the changing times and how the world lost its innocence. This book is the perfect pick for knowing the real essence of India through these essays.

R.K. Narayan Non-Fiction Books

• Next Sunday (1960, Indian Thought Publications) • My Dateless Diary (1960, Indian Thought Publications) • Reluctant Guru (1974, Orient Paperbacks) • The Emerald Route (1980, Indian Thought Publications) • A Story-Teller’s World (1989, Penguin Books) • The Writerly Life (2002, Penguin Books India) • Mysore (1944, second edition, Indian Thought Publications)

R.K. Narayan Mythology Books

• Gods, Demons, and Others (1964, Viking) • The Ramayana (1973, Chatto & Windus) • The Mahabharata (1978, Heinemann)

R.K. Narayan Short Stories Collection

• Malgudi Days (1942, Indian Thought Publications) • An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories (1947, Indian Thought Publications) • Lawley Road and Other Stories (1956, Indian Thought Publications) • A Horse and Two Goats (1970) • Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories (1985) • The Grandmother’s Tale and Selected Stories (1994, Viking)

Final thoughts

Well, that was the closing of the list of books written by R.K. Narayan. But I believe, R.K. Narayan books will continue to give us all an idea of cultural India. No matter what critics and his haters say about him, R.K. Narayan has made a mark in Indian Publishing Industry.

So, towards the end, I can promise one thing, this RK Narayan books list will definitely add up to your reading list. If you have anything to share about R.K. Narayan Books, please feel free to drop your valuable words in comments.

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in 12th one you have written A Tiger of Malgudi and in novel written A TIGER FOR MALGUDI so which one is correct A Tiger of Malgudi or A TIGER FOR MALGUDI

Thanks for pointing out, It must have been a typo.

You have missed one book named Indian Thought.

Very useful for students in English literature & also very interesting to read these types of short stories by RK Narayan

love your novels

Where is the short story called “The Antidote”?

Mr. sampath from the list is one of my favorite. My father asked told me to read this amazing work by Rk Narayan. I am ooking foward to read more from the Rk Narayan books list.

Amazing collection of all the Rk narayan books list in one article. Recently i saw his malgudi days tv serial and its mesmerizing . Rk narayan is truly a legend. Rk narayan books list is a must read for all the people who get to know the feeling of ancient india.

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