Among the renowned Indian writers of his generation, Raja Rao is the only one who lived through the first six years of the twenty-first century, besides being the one who travelled the most widely. Indeed, the extensive cultural and philosophical cognizance informing his writing is the inevitable result of a trans-cultural lifetime experience.

Interestingly, it was by taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity during his teenage life at the end of the 1920s that the South Indian Brahmin embarked on quite an unusual journey for an Indian writer in English of his generation. Such an incident allowed him to live for extended stretches of time in several parts of Europe, first in France, then in England, and ultimately in Austin, (Texas, USA). In my view, Rao's first-hand experience and assimilation of the cultures of France, England and America are not only detectable in all of his works but contribute to the enrichment and stimulation of the intellectual experience of the literary scholar who scrutinises his writing.

Born on 8 November 1908, in Mysore, Raja Rao lost his mother at the early age of four. The resultant psychological trauma of loss will be constantly re-elaborated in his writings, especially in The Serpent and the Rope (1960) where the mother-figure stands pre-eminently.