The reason why this section has been included towards the end of this book rather than in the beginning finds its logical explanation in the separate existence of both Kanthapura and Comrade Kirillov from the rest of Rao's novels. Prior to the meeting with his guru Sri Atmananda in 1943, Raja Rao had already published several short stories in Bombay, Paris, New York and London, together with his first novel Kanthapura. His subsequent novel Comrade Kirillov however, was not published as the writer's second work as it should have been. It went to press much later in 1965, the same year of the publication of The Cat and Shakespeare in New York. It was published in French translation “by sheer accident,” (Niranjan, ‘An Interview with Raja Rao’: 22) while its original English version appeared in New Delhi only eleven years afterwards, in 1976.

Interestingly, Rao has always been keen to point out that “Comrade Kirillov was an earlier thing” (Niranjan, ‘An Interview with Raja Rao’: 22). Hence as M.K. Naik remarked first (1972: 142) it can be assumed that the novel was indeed written earlier than 1965.