Collection Summary
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at
Austin
Rao, Raja, 1908-2006
Raja Rao
Papers
1956-2006
41 records storage cartons, 6 document boxes (43.52 linear feet), and 12
electronic files (1.5 MB)
The professional papers of Raja Rao,
essayist, novelist, and professor of philosophy. Materials include drafts of novels
and non-fiction works, essays, correspondence, and articles written by
others.
English and French
Manuscript Collection MS-3382
Acquisition:
Gift, 2015 (15-12-008-G); Gift, 2016 (16-04-019-G)
Access:
Open for research. Researchers must create an online Research Account and agree to
the Materials Use Policy before using archival materials. Part
or all of this collection is housed off-site and may require up to three
business days’ notice for access in the Ransom Center’s Reading and Viewing
Room. Please contact the Center before requesting this material:
reference@hrc.utexas.edu
To request access to electronic files, please email Reference.
Restrictions on Use:
Certain restrictions apply to the use of electronic files. Researchers must agree to
the Materials Use Policy for Electronic Files before accessing them. Original
computer disks and forensic disk images are restricted. Copying electronic files,
including screenshots and printouts, is not permitted.
Processed by:
Elizabeth Preston and Stephen Cooper, 2016
Born digital materials processed, arranged, and described by Chance Adams and Brenna
Edwards, 2015-2022.
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of professional materials relating to Raja Rao’s writing
career and his career as a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at
Austin. After his death and in the process of boxing his papers, Rao’s estate
created detailed descriptions of much of the material; these descriptions are
located in their corresponding boxes. The collection is roughly organized into four
series: Series I. Correspondence; Series II. Professional Papers; Series III. Works;
and Series IV. Works by Others. Series I contains both incoming and outgoing
correspondence. Series II is made up of class notes, books read and annotated by
Rao, and student papers. Access to student papers is restricted. Series III contains
of drafts of novels, monographs, essays, speeches, and interviews. Many of the
drafts have extensive annotations by Rao. Series IV contains published and
unpublished articles and papers by others. Rao divided the articles into papers from
the West and papers from India. Also included here are articles written by others
about Rao.
Note: This collection has not been fully processed and Ransom Center staff have
relied on the descriptions prepared by Rao’s estate that accompany the material. The
descriptions are included in the boxes to which they correspond. Not all boxes have
such descriptions. Loose items were foldered during initial processing, but not
organized, and the collection as a whole remains largely in the order in which it
arrived at the Ransom Center.
Additional Raja Rao materials at the Ransom Center are located in the Raja Rao
Collection.
A typewriter and a bed desk, both used by Rao, were transferred to the Ransom
Center’s Personal Effects collection.
Container List
Series I. Correspondence
1.1
Letters from C. D. Narasimhaiah
13.2
Letters from W. P. Lehmann
13.3-13.4
Important letters
14.1-14.16
General correspondence
15.1-15.8
Publisher correspondence
16.1-16.6
Incoming, general
17.1-17.10
Outgoing, general
Series II. Professional Papers
Awards, clippings, IDs, trips
21.1
Address book, memorial service, and awards
21.2-21.7
Awards, events, projects, and trips
21.8
Passports and IDs
Class plans
45.5
Plans for Into-European Studies Center
45.6
Class plans
20.1-20.10
Conferences
20.1-20.10
Box 12
Dictionaries, Sanskrit-English, Kannada-English
13.5
Digital media (CDs and DVDs)
18.1-18.7; 19.1-19.5; 24.7
Notes
24.6
Loose and unfiled pages from throughout the archive
Rao’s library (books read and annotated by Rao)
11.1
The History of Classical Sanskrit Literature
11.2
The Vishnu Purana
11.3
The Garland of Letters; Bhartrihari: Poems
11.4
A Brief History of Time; The Thirteen Principal
Upanishads
11.5
The Kadambari of Bana; The World of Vedic Life and
Culture
11.6
Sparks from the Vedic Fire; Banja Govindam; Wave of
Bliss
11.7
Bhartṛhari
11.8
Vāc; Chance and Necessity
11.9
Gaudapāda; Mallarme; The Figure of Beatrice
Series III. Works
40.4
Author’s notes, glossaries, introductions, and
prefaces
26.3
Autobiographical essays
24.8
The Buddhist Collection
24.4-24.5
The Cat and Shakespeare
The Cat, a play
25.1-25.3
English drafts
25.4-25.7
French drafts
25.8
Incomplete French draft
25.9
Complete French version
The Chessmaster and His Moves
30.1-30.5
Drafts with corrections
30.6
Original text with notes
30.7
Notes
31.1-31.11
Drafts
32.1-32.5
Draft
32.6
Letter to Malraux
32.7
Manuscript first page
33.1-33.4
Drafts
35.1-35.7
Typescript draft with corrections, photocopy
42.5
Comrade Kirillov
Daughter of the Mountain
36.1-36.7
Draft with corrections, photocopy
37.1-37.7
Typescript draft with corrections
37.8-37.11
Typescript draft with corrections
38.1-38.10
Typescript draft with corrections, photocopy
Essays
42.1
World culture and politics
42.2-42.3
People
42.4
Gandhi
44.1-44.4
General
45.1
Longer typed essays
45.2
Shorter handwritten essays
45.3
Longer handwritten essays
26.1
America
The Ganges and Her Sisters
28.2
Harsha and Kailash Devi, unused stories
28.3
Handwritten draft
28.4-28.5
Typescript draft
28.6
Notes and papers
The Great Indian Way
39.1
Drafts of sections with notes
39.2
Missing pages and notes
39.3-39.4
Typescript drafts with corrections
39.5
Original working draft
40.1-40.3
Complete original manuscript
41.1
The Indian Way of Life, typescript drafts with
corrections
42.6
Interviews
The Meaning of India
23.1
Contents of the compilation
23.2-23.5
Works included in The Meaning of India
23.6
Look, the Universe is Burning, draft
23.7
Wisdom and Power: a Marriage of Necessity
23.8
Mahatma Gandhi: Saint or Politician
23.9
The Ultimate Word
34.1-34.3
Letter to Father, drafts
34.4-34.7
Myrobalan in the Palm of the Hand, third volume of The
Chessmaster and His Moves Trilogy, unpublished original typescript
draft
On The Ganga Ghat
22.1-22.7
Drafts
22.8
Notes
45.4
Poetry
Published books
Box 47
Letters: Raja Rao and Kathleen Paine (photocopy); The
Chessmaster and His Moves; The Meaning of India; Kanthapura
(English, Italian, and German versions); The Cat and Shakespeare
(French and English versions); Collection Stories; Song of Woman
(Kannada version); The Great Indian Way; The Story of the True Cow;
On the Ganga Ghat (Italian version)
The Railway Line
24.1-24.2
Original draft with corrections
24.3
Corrections
Saints and Sage
41.5
Edited transcript of lectures
41.6
Typescript draft
41.7
Rough transcript of lectures
41.8
Handwritten chapters
The Serpent and the Rope
29.1
Notes and essays
29.2-29.4
Drafts with corrections
29.5
Draft
Short stories
43.1
India: A Fable
43.2
The Train to Trivandrum
43.3
Varanasi
43.4
The Policeman and the Rose
43.5
A Nest of Singing Birds
43.6
Divali Comes to Ramu
43.7
The Moon in Lucknow
43.8
Sound Goes Toward Silence
43.9
The Song of Love
43.10
Roi or Rome
43.11
The Bombay Story
43.12
Divali Come to Ramu-alternate
43.13
Jal Khusraujee Pothanwala
43.14
The Mad Monk
43.15
The Premiere of Shakunthala
43.16-43.17
Admiral de Argenlieu
43.18
Early short stories
27.1-27.5
Song of Woman
41.3
Son of a Barren Woman
44.5, 46.1-46.4
Speeches
28.1
Stories for Paul
41.2
The Story of the True Cow
41.4
Unnamed last novel
26.2
Voyage to Man
46.5
Writings in French (essays, articles, lectures, and
speeches)
Series IV. Works by others
2.1-2.6, 3.1-3.9, 41.-4.8, 5.1-5.7, 6.1-6.5,
7.1-7.7
Papers from the West (includes copies, typescripts, published and
unpublished works, fiction, and academic articles)
8.1-8.9, 9.1-9.10
Papers from the India (includes copies, typescripts, published
and unpublished works, fiction, and academic articles)
10.1-10.10
Articles about Rao
1706022G_001
Photographs. 3 electronic files: JPG, undated
1603007G_001
Tributes. 6 electronic files: Microsoft Word, Pages, August
2006-February 2016
1603007G_001
Word as Mantra: The Art of Raja
Rao symposium, University of Texas, March 1997. 3 electronic
files: Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, August 2007-October 2013
Barcode Index
- 1--059188000146199
- 2--059188000146229
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