BOOK REVIEWS

 

SISTER R. S. SUBBALAKSHMI: Social Reformer and Educationist by Malathi Ramanathan (published by Suku­mar Damle, Lok Vangmaya Griha Ltd, Bhupesh Gupta Bha­van, 85, Sayani Road, Prabhadevi, Bombay - 25. 1989. Rs. 60)

 

            A ceremonial occasion as a centenary has a wider significance when it is celebrated for one like Sister Subba­lakshmi. She was the shining streak of dawn for the race of South Indian women huddled desperately in sheer dark­ness. The 18th and 19th centuries were truly Dark Ages for Indian women. Societal suppression had rendered them into mere child - bearing slaves who were expendable items of property in a male - dominated world. Sister Subbalakshmi came forward to light a candle and lead her sisters from darkness to light. Her story is a saga of sorrow, determination, hard work and sterling idealism. Monica Felton’s A Child Widow’s Story (1966) had given us brief glimpses of this remarkable inspirational figure. It is fortu­nate that Malathi Ramanathan has chosen to bring out a fully documented volume on the ministry of Sister Subba lakshmi.

 

            Fortunately for Malathi Sister Subbalakshmi maintained a personal diary with meticulous care from 1899 till 1948. She also wrote an autobiography. Born on 18tn August, 1886, as the eldest daughter of Visalakshi and Subramanya Aiyar. Subbalakshmi was a studious child. She won the first place in the whole of Chingleput District in the Public Examination of 1895. Two years later she became a widow within a few months of her marriage. The terror that held most of the Brahmin girls in its vice - like grip had cast its shadow on Subbalakshmi’s path. A child wi­dow. Life - long misery. Tonsured head. A bare diet. White dress. Slavery for ever in the dark recesses of one’s house.

 

            But the Time Spirit had rebelled at last. Subba­lakshmi’s father refused to bow to the seemingly inevitable destiny. With heroic calm he kept at bay the obscurantist sharks and helped his daughter gain a good education. Even as she proceeded to become the first woman to take the B. A., degree in the whole of Madras Presidency, her sensitive eye recorded all the harrowing sights around her. There was her own aunt, young Valambal, dressed in wi­dow’s weeds whose head had been tonsured in deference to the barbaric custom of those days. As Subbalakshmi travelled to her school daily in the jatka she saw (as she told Monica Felton).

 

            “The young widows who crept along the streets, their saris pulled tightly over their heads to hide their disfi­gurement, hardly daring to show themselves, yet unable to refuse to perform whatever domestic errand had brought them out into the glaring light of the day. Their saris were often torn dirty, their body emaciated by perpetual hunger. They were not perhaps the poorest of poor, since there were many people in the city who could not count on getting even one meal a day, but to Subbalakshmi so happily conscious of her own good fortune, they were the saddest sight of all”.

 

            When she became a graduate, she was flooded with tempting offers from Travancore, Mysore and Ceylon to help develop educational facilities for women in those states. But the sight of the sorrowing widows in her native city remained scorched in her memory and she was determined to work for them. Having obtained the licentiate in Teaching, Subbalakshmi took up a teaching post in the Presidency Teaching School and plunged into social work. Without slipping into needless exaggeration and purposeless sentimentalism, Malathi gives a dignified resume of the birth and growth of several institutions under the watchful eye of Subbalakshmi. Chief among them were the Widow’s Home, Sarada Ladies Union, Sarada Vidyalaya, Sri Vidva Kalanilayam and Vidya Mandir. Subbalakshmi’s activities spread to other cities as well. She began schools in Vai­galathur, Cuddalore and Madhuranthakam also. It must be remembered here that all this social service went hand in hand with the Sister’s heavy duties as a teacher in gove­rnment schools.

 

            Surely no one expected a smooth - sailing for Subbalakshmi and she was subjected to a variety of criti­cism for daring to give the young widows their freedom and a good chance to have a life of their own. But no­thing could dishearten Subbalakshmi. She not only gave the unfortunate girls a chance to live with dignity but helped them gain pride in the best of Tamil heritage. She encouraged her pupils to take Tamil as an optional subject and enjoy the splendorous literature. An old student, Mrs. Nallamuthu says: “It was our young Tamil teacher, Sister, who introduced the national Kummi and Kolattam (Tamil folk dances) and dramas and songs in our own language, and made these a part of our school enterta­inments”.

 

            Slowly but surely Subbalakshmi’s social revolution began showing concrete results. But how many horrible scenes and sights she had to endure! Malathi gives but a rare instance or two, but they ere enough to con­demn a whole race. As when the young widow Seetha­lakshmi died in the Home and the head of the body was tonsured to satisfy the dictates of a decadent society:

 

            “So, when the barber arrived, sister and the young widows, along with the dead girl’s mother, sat watching between tears as he set to work with his scissors and razor. The sight was one which they all hoped that they might some day forget, but which none of them ever could”. Monica Felton).

 

            There were also attempts by politicians to daub her work as parochial and that the Government was exte­nding help to a purely Brahmin organization, though it was being run with exemplary efficiency. As a result there was a considerable reduction in the quantum of financial grants. However, despite the propaganda of some intere­sted politicians, it was widely known that Subbalakshmi’s generous heart did not exclude any unfortunate woman on the basis of caste alone. In fact, the Sarada Vidyalaya started by her in 1927 had five Brahmins, six non-Brah­mins and one from the untouchable community as inmates.

 

            However, there were triumphs as well. And an unending generosity of understanding from the enlightened Indians and the Government. As when Valambal and Alan­karam boldly rescued the 12 year old Bhagyam from being married to an old man of fifty. Hundreds of young girls thus gained a good education and entered the teaching and medical professions leading to their economic inde­pendence.

 

            Though her social work was confined to the Madras Presidency, Subbalakshmi was associated with se­veral all - India associations and reform committees. She also travelled widely on lecture - tours. Malathi has done very well to give a crystallised summary of Subbalakshmi’s views on education from her speeches delivered as a Member of the Madras Legislative Council from 1952 to 1966. Subbalakshmi had tirelessly pleaded for a less academic and more realistic approach to education, and emphasised the need for religious and moral education. She was one of the earliest to plead for a substantial raise in teachers salaries. With great foresight she condemned the proposal for dividing the nation into linguistic states.

 

            Subbalakshmi was also a writer. She translated the Gita into Tamil and published a commentary on the scripture. She saved from oblivion folk songs in Tamil like Valmiki Ramayana Pattu, Gnana Ramayana Kappal, Kusala­vakyam, Ananthan Kadu, Sri Parvathi Amman Sobhanam, Sri Lalithambal Sobhanam and Vedanta Pattu. Indeed. Subbalakshmi’s was a many - splendoured service for Indian life and letters.

 

            Reading Malathi’s book is a transformational expe­rience as if one had come face to face with a holy alter. Soft spoken, firm, intellectually brilliant, spiritually awake. But above everything else the Sister was an image of Karuna, a guardian - saviour of her unfortunate sisters. The British Government honoured her with the Kaiser-i-Hind Medal and the Indian Government gave her a Padmashri. But she was more precious than all these and was truly a Bharata Ratna. It certainly thrills one with prayerful awe to read the last sentence in Malathi’s book that Subbalakshmi pa­ssed away in 1969 on an Ekadeshi Day, considered the holiest for a pure Jeevatman to merge eternally with the Supreme.

 

Dr. PREMA NANDAKUMAR

 

The Radiant Spirit of Annie Besant

(A review article*)

(Reprinted from the Theosophist – August’91 by courtesy)

 

            ANNIE Besant’s titles to our gratitude and reverence are manifold. In her passionate quest for truth rebelling against dogmatic Christianity and leaving her clergyman hus­band, her fight for the free mind as a member of the National Secular Society along with Bradlaugh, her crusade for the emancipation of women, and her championship of the cause of the poor as a Fabian Socialist along with Bernard Shaw and Sydney Webb, she was a heroic pio­neer of social reform in conservative Victorian England.

 

            Essentially a pilgrim soul and a seeker, she underwent a great conversion on reading Blavatsky’s Secret Do­ctrine, C. R. N. Swamy’s lecture quotes her own memorable words in her autobiography on her response to the book:

 

            I was dazzled, blinded by the light in which dis­jointed facts, were seen as parts of a mighty whole and all my puzzles, riddles, problems, seemed to disappear ..... the light had been seen, and in that flash of illumination I knew that the weary search was over and the very Truth was found (1984, p. 310).

 

            Not only was India the cradle of wisdom; it was ‘in very truth the Holy Land’ whose call she could not but obey.

 

            From her forth - seventh year in 1894 when she made India her home to her end in 1933, she tirelessly laboured for its regeneration in every sphere, political, social, cultural and spiritual. Others no doubt, before and after her have turned to India in their search for a spiritual home. But she was absolutely unique in her whole - hearted dedica­tion to the country of her adoption. In her book, India: A Nation (1915), she writes with pride of her complete identification with it:

 

            For twenty - two years I have lived among Indians, not as a foreigner but as one of themselves. Hindu in all save the outer ceremonies for which my white skin disqualifies me, living in Indian fashion, feeling with Ind­ian feelings, one with Indians in heart, in hopes, in as­pirations, in labours for the country...... (p. x).

 

            When the wrath of the British Government came down upon her for her work in connection with the Home Rule Movement, and Lord Pentland offered her in 1917 the choice between safe conduct to England and imprison­ment in India for the duration of the war, she unhesitat­ingly chose the letter, telling the Governor that he was striking ‘the deadliest blow against the British Empire in India’ (Geoffrey West, Annie Besant, 1928, p. 151).

 

            Mrs. Besant’s work for the freedom of India from British rule, for the Central Hindu College, later Benares Hindu University, in her conviction that the regeneration of the country needed a new education rooted in the soil of its cultural heritage, for the recognition of the rights of women and the uplift of its backward classes is no doubt memorable. But the crown of her achievement lay in reha­bilitating its soul by revitalizing the ancient wisdom of its sages to suit its modern needs, upholding its light to the rest of the world mired in an inhuman materialism, and especially in developing the campus of the Theosophical Society at Adyar during her presidency into the beautiful and serene cosmopolitan ashram it has since become. For all this we owe her our undying gratitude.

 

It is in recognition of this duty to cherish her in­spiring memory that the Indian Section of the Society in its centenary year has rightly chosen to publish these twenty-four thoughtful lectures delivered in honour of Dr. Besant at its annual conventions between, 1952 and 1988. Some of them recall the vivifying magnetism, of her personality, and all of them cover a wide range of thought especially dwelling with moving anxiety on the causes of the crisis that mankind faces to day alike in India and outside, and reaffirming Dr. Beasant’s faith in the values of the ancient wisdom of India as the means to the regene­ration of man and his path to human brotherhood.

 

Those who knew her personally, heard her and watched her at work have nothing but superlative praise for her. Sri Prakasa speaking of her work for India and the Theosophical Society for forty years says: She burst upon us as a veritable beacon of light and as a compelling messenger of hope. (p. 30). The ‘two great and unforgettable personalities who, according to C. P. Ramaswami Aivar, ‘enabled India to remember herself, to recollect her past and work for her future were Dr. Annie Besant and Swami Vivekananda’ (p. 44). Others who knew her tell their fond reminiscences  L. K. Jha says:

 

The last occasion I saw her was when she came to deliver the Convocation Address at, Benares Hindu University in my undergraduate days. What a magnificent orator she was! .... What impressed me most about her were her qualities as a thinker. It was not learning, and scholarship that made her stand out as a towering personality in so many different fields; it was her capacity to think for herself and to remain free from the constraints of dogma. (pp. 83-4)

 

The eminent scholar of Sanskrit and Indian philo­sophy K. Balasubramania Iyer is grateful for her influence on him in his youth:

 

During my early days, I had the good fortune to come under the spell by that magnetic personality. I deve­loped an intense regard and admiration for her all consuming love for the people of India, her spiritual wisdom, her ­wonderful genius and magnificent oratory. Never will the memory fade of her angelic figure and magestic mien as she stood on the platform beneath the arching boughs of the banyan free, addressing a huge audience sitting spell-bound as the words of wisdom rolled from her lips in a vibrant voice with measured cadence. 

 

These tributes to Annie Besant give the reader a vivid idea of her charisma, and illustrate the impact of her personality on the intellectuals who came in contact with her. The lectures abundantly bring out the depth of her faith in India’s ancient wisdom as the supreme means of its own regeneration, and through it that of the world. Dr. Besant was devoted to two causes which were the motive springs of an that she said and did. One of them was her dream of world brotherhood, and the other was, her vision of a new India rooted in her traditional spirituality as the dawning light of the world. Several of these lecturers share a common anxiety as they ponder her deals and the human conditioh today. A timely publication, it has a relevance to our contemporary situation as the classification of the lectures under the following headings indi­cates: ‘The rule of India’, Man: His Problems and Role’, Philosophical Presentations’, and ‘The Modern Crisis’.

 

It is a tragic irony that while the world has shru­nk into a global village thanks to science and technology, the mind of man is still far from living up to this unity. As R. Venkataraman puts it succinctly.

 

Currencies are linked; commerce is an international activity; political events are interdependent. It is an old truism that poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity every where. And yet the concept that mankind must become one, community has not been accepted as a conscious or an urgent practical necessity.

 

Though the people of the world are becoming aware of the changes, their governments even in the demo­cratic countries do not represent their attitude. Venkataraman goes on to say, While man in the community as a social being is at least half civilized, the State as a collective entity is still primitive, essentially a huge beast of prey’. Further on:

 

The petrifying spectre of a war with the prospect of total annihilation of human beings on earth through nuclear and biological  devices and poison gases is staring us in our face. The capability that man has developed to destroy not only this but other planets of the universe thro­ugh star wars is no longer scientific fiction but a stark reality. (pp. 63-4)

 

Delivering the Besant lecture in 1964, B. Shiva. Rao said, ‘The atom bombs that were dropped on Japan in 1945 are mere toys in comparison with the weapons that have been forged since then’ (pp. 7-8). Since 1964 the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons has increased both in quantity and power at an, alarming rate. Indira Gandhi quotes Ein­stein’s words of warning: ‘Radioactive poisoning of the atmosphere and hence annihilation of any life on earth has been brought within the range of technical possibilities’. She adds, ‘Between a future and no future, the difference is the distance between two adjacent buttons, the right one and the wrong’ (p. 105). The menace that faces mankind is the refrain of most of these lectures. The need for the realization of Dr. Besant’s ideal of world brotherhood is as imperative and urgent as its possibility seems remote and uncertain.

 

If the world of her aspiration is thus more distant now than it was in her day, her vision of a new India awakening to its spiritual heritage to lead the world seems to be fading. As B. Shiva Rao says it was a hope that the two great thinkers of our time, Einstein and Bertrand Russell, shared with her long after her death:

 

Einstein, just before he died, asked, an Indian fri­end of mine whether it would not be possible for India to initiate a campaign in favour of complete disarmament: no other country he thought was as adequately equipped to assume the moral leadership of the world. More or less the same point was made to me when I went to see Ber­trand Russell in 1962 when he was 92. He said to me, ‘Is there no prospect of India undertaking a worldwide campaign for disarmament?’ (p. 11).

 

As irony would have it, India herself has joined the nuclear club in exploding an atomic device. Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds, and the Bible asks, ‘If the salt loses its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? ­In free India, the rich have become richer and the poor poorer. Achyut Patwardhan in his Besant lecture in 1987 says:      

 

In 1957 we had about twenty-five percent of our population below the poverty line. Today it is around forty percent. So now, more hungry people live in this land, and the expectation that after getting our political freedom we would be able to end poverty stands dismally unfulfilled (p.16).

 

The rule of law was a principle dear to Dr. Besant. Nittoor Srinivasa Rao laments ‘rowdy behaviour in the halls of legislatures has become chronic’, and its demoralizing effect on the ‘younger generation’ which looks on these members as ‘parliamentary paragons’ (p, 303). Mrs. Besant had immense faith in education and she emphasized the need to safeguard the freedom and autonomy of schools and colleges. The old Central Hindu College which she founded says Sri Prakasa, ‘stood as a star of blazing light in the surrounding darkness of the times’ (p. 38).

 

According to Achyut Patwardhan, ‘while quantitatively there has been some expansion of educational programmes, the quality of education has gone down.......The villain of the piece is our educational system’ (pp. 17-18). The vision of India’s high destiny that inspired Mrs. Besant is thus under a total eclipse. It is in this darkness that Mrs. Radha Burnier asks in her foreword the poignant question. ‘What can we do to reawaken the moral awareness and spiritual vigour of a people who appear to have touched the nadir of apathy and awareness?’

 

While these lectures bring home to the mind of the reader the contemporary crisis both in India and abroad, and stress its despair, there is at the same time much in them to encourage hope for positive thinking and action. The nine lectures included under the heading ‘Philosophi­cal Presentations’ offer us throughtful glimpses into diverse aspects of India’s heritage of thought, rooted in the intui­tive wisdom of her stages. In darker periods than the pre­sent that heritage has stood India in good stead through­out the vicissitudes of its long history, and like the trium­ph of Greek culture over Roman arms, its too has conqu­ered the nation’s conquerors. This ‘Other India’ as Sri Ram perceptively notes is still with us in the ‘atmosphere’ of the country and every lecture stresses its perennial in­herent power and vitality. While K. K. Shaw, I. K. Taimni, B. L. Atreya, Karan Singh and Rohit Mehta offer us insi­ghts into the teachings on Yoga, Karma, and Dharma in ancient classics and explain their undeniable timeless appeal, others point out how in our day the scientific thought of the West and Indian mystical experience are tending to come together in the harmony that the Mahatma letters prophesied, and for which Blavatsky campaigned in her defence of Theosophy against the materialistic science of her day. F. L. Kunz admirably sums up the main trend of modern science in the belief that ‘sensed cosmos as such, and man as a creature evolved in it, occur in wholly non-material reality which is unchanged by the comings and goings of such evolving systems’ (p. 215). C. R. N. Swamy quotes the nuclear physicist Niels Bohr according to whom the great extension of our experience in recent years has brought to light the insufficiency of our simple mechanical conceptions, and as a consequence, has shaken the foun­dation on which the customary interpretation of observation was based’. As Fritjot Capra says in his book, The Tao of Physics, in the experience of modern physics ‘the tra­ditional concepts of space and time, of isolated objects, and of cause and effect lose their meaning. Such an expe­rience is very similar to that of the eastern mystics’ (pp. 234-5).

 

The world including India is no doubt passing th­rough a dark period of travail. Though from a limited po­int of view there is much cause for despair, still from the larger theosophical world - view it is a necessary phase of the pangs of a great rebirth. It is in this vision that the well - wishers of India and the world must seek for hope and constructive action as a tribute to the spirit of Dr. Besant. The book undoubtedly is a timely publication, and worthily serves the causes of world brotherhood and Indian spirituality dear to her great heart.

 

Dr. S. R. SWAMINATHAN

 

 

I ask no other epitaph on my tomb but

‘SHE TRIED TO FOLLOW TRUTH’.

Annie Besant

 

 

* IN HONOUR OF Dr. ANNIE BESANT – Lectures by Eminent Persons, 1952-88; published by the Indian Section, The Theosophical Society, Kamachha, Varanasi, 221010, India; 1990; pp. 339; Price: Card Cover: Rs. 96; £6.45; $ 12.55. Cloth: Rs. 190; £8.30; $ 16.25.

 

Dr. S. R. Swaminathan, Professor Emeritus of English, is a member of the American Section.

 

RELIGION IN VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE: by Konduri Sarojini Devi published by STERLING PUBLISHERS Pvt. Ltd., pp. 336, Price: Rs. 300/-.

 

Since Robert Sewell has discovered and proclaimed to the world the glories of the long FORGOTTEN EMPIRE OF VIJAYANAGARA scores of scholars….native as well as foreign…….have taken keen interest in different aspects of her history resulting in an enormous volume of literature of rendering it a NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN EMPIRE. RELIGION IN VIJAYANAGARA EMPIRE of Dr. Konduri Sarojini Devi is one of the latest additions to that literature. Religion is indeed a fascinating subject and it is all the more so in relation to Vijayanagara as it is belie­ved to have been founded with the pious objective of pro­tecting and promoting Hindu religion and culture, in the face of the iconoclastic fury of expanding Islam. The author says that the material of the book was originally submitted to the Delhi University which awarded her the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. She earnestly hopes and is confident that the book would “prove helpful to students and scholars of Vijayanagara History”.

 

The title of the book sounds very ambitious but a perusal of the sources noted in Chapter II and of the Bibliography would reveal that the author depended mainly on the Telugu works of the period and a few Sanskrit works. At several places the thesis appears to have been the summary of already published works on different religi­ous sects. The author would have done greater justice to the subject and would have produced a more comprehen­sive and valuable work if she has limited herself to the Andhra region of the empire.

 

The Book is divided into ten chapters: 1) Intro­duction 2) Sources 3) Saivism 4) Vaisnavism 5) Ma­dhva Vaisnavism 6) Jainism 7) Religious Toleration 8) Temple 9) Matha and 10) Popular cults and Practices.

 

In the Introduction the events leading to the foun­dation of Vijayanagara have been narrated in which the traditional accounts have been repeated. The entire Chapter smacks of the Hindu nationalist historiography of pre-inde­pendence days when political life in the country was viti­ated by Hindu-Muslim hatred and conflict encouraged by the colonial rulers. The tendency of such historiography is to magnify Muslim fanaticism and quote from contemporary Muslim chronicles which depicted the Sultans being deligh­ted in torturing and butchering the helpless Hindus and turn a blind eye to the passages in the same chronicles that go against their point of view. Dr. Sarojini Devi rightly depricates the account of PRAPANNAMRITAM about the conversion of Virupaksha Raya (p. 87) with the remark that religious people indulge in such writings to glorify the achievements of their own cults but she fails to apply the same yardstick to the Muslim writers of the age who gene­rally attributed to the Sultans what they (writers) expected of them but not what they (Sultans) actually did or achieved. Following the footsteps of the colonial rulers, these Hindu nationalist historians see nothing good in the Mus­lim rulers but only fanaticism, hatred and cruelty towards the Hindus. They cannot appreciate Ala-ud-din’s reply that he did not know what was written in the KORAN but knew what was good for his kingdom and his reply to the Muslim priest who accused him (Sultan) that he was not as cruel to the Hindus as he was expected to be; the wailing of Barani that even in the capital of an Islamic State the infidels took high-sounding titles like rai, rana and thakur, live in pomp and pleasure and employ Mus­lims as their servants (Fatawa-i-jahandori, pp. 46-48); the eclecticism of Muhammad bin Tughluk who made gifts to Hindu and Jain religious institutions and the statement of Nuniz that ‘the Hindus looked upon him as a saint” (Forgotten Empire. p. 1) This is not to deny that the Muslim conquerors were cruel to the Hindus and they plu­ndered and destroyed Hindu temples. Cruelties are inevitable in wars of conquest. Could the Hindu kings- Ajatasatru, Asoka, Kharavela, Satakarni, Prithviraj and Krishnadevaraya wage wars without indulging in death devastation and de­struction? I appeal to these historians to read-to mention a few-KOILOLUGU, Introduction to MANUCHARITRA and RAYAVACHAKAM to understand the Hindu ethics of war­fare and I am sure that you will dispose them off as

conventional poetic exaggerations. Our history tells us that the Hindu Kings too were not free from the sacrilege of plundering and desecrating temples. Besides religion, there were economic, social and military causes for the destruc­tion of temples by the Muslims, and our historians rarely care to investigate them. Muhammad bin Tughluk had to face many revolts of Muslim Sardars and simply because Harihara and Bukka were Hindus it is not reasonable to give there rising a religious colour. It is high time that the Hindu historians extricate themselves from the commu­nal trap laid by the colonial historians.

 

Dr. Sarojini Devi endorses the view that Vijaya­nagara was the embodiment of Hindu national spirit (p 9). Sense of unity or oneness is the hallmark of nationalism and it was owefully lacking among the Hindu princes ei­ther before or after the foundation of Vijayanagara. The Velamas, the Nayaks, the Reddis, the Rayas and the Gajapatis constantly fought among themselves with least concern for their religion and culture. These rulers were inspired only by personal ambition and to attribute national spirit to any of them is anochronistic. The author is eloquent in praising the Rayas for their love and patronage of Hindu Dharma. (pp.17-19). Which religion else would they support? It is the bounden duty of every king, during that age, to uphold his own religion and therefore is no­thing exemplary in the attitude of the Rayas towards Hinduism.

 

According to inscriptional evidence, it was in A. D. 1347 that Harihara and Bukka visited Sringeri where they per­formed Vijayotsava. By that time, the brothers became fully confident of their strength and celebrated their victories over Ba­llala and the Sultan of Delhi. It was again in that year the shift­ing of capital from Anegondi was complete and in that spirit of victorious joy they should have named the city as Vijayanagara. Gangadevi composed her MADHURAVIJAYAM within 25 years of the foundation of Vijayanagara. She refers to the city only as Vijayapuri, which was the wealth of victory (Vijayanama vijayarjitasampadah rajadhani, I, 43; nagari vijayarjitaih, I, 50; virascjraya vijayapura madhya vatsit, 75). The kavya was about the conquest of Madurai from the Muslims by the Rayas and it was the proper occasion to express gratitude to all those who had helped in founding Vijayanagara as the bastion of Hindu religion.

 

Under Saivism, besides advaita, the author has dealt with Pasupata, Kalamukha, Aradhya, Virasaiva and Srikantha Sivagama systems. It is unfortunate that in a book publi­shed in 1990 what Yamuna and Ramanuja said about the Kalamukhas has been repeated. (p.51). Several scholars in­cluding R. G. Bhandarkar doubted whether Ramanuja con­fused Kalamukhas with Kapalikas. H. H. Handiqui, after a careful comparative study held that there is little difference between the Pasupatas and Kalamukhas. The former is an orthodox sect based upon LAKULISVARAGAMA which is the Sacred Text of the Kalamukhas also. Handiqui is polite in his remark that “These Kalamukha Pasupatas were not certainly identical with the Kalamukhas mentioned by Yamuna Muni and Ramanuja” (YASASTILAKA & INDIAN CUL1URE, p. 350). One of the recent writers, D. N. Lorenzen is of opinion that the Vaisnavite confusion about the Kalamukhas is deliberate. He is outspoken when he says “At the time of Yamuna and Ramanuja, the Kalamukhas were rapidly gaining popularity and even royal patronage in South India. The two Vaisnava priests may have purposely confused the two Saiva sects in order to discredit their more important rivals” (THE KAPALIKAS AND KALAMUKHAS, pp. 5-6). Andhra and Karnataka have yielded scores of Kalamukha inscriptions. The author should have compared their con­tents with the literary accounts of the Kapalikas which would have convinced her that the Vaisnavite descriptions of the Kalamukhas are unwarranted. She would have at­least considered whether the divines who indulged in grue­some practices would have been accepted as kulagurus by the Rayas who are at the same time blessed by the pon­tiffs of Sringeri Matha.

 

Again there is confusion about the relationship be­tween the Virasaiva and Aradhya systems. If all the five aradhyas are accepted as historical, the Aradhya system must have been very old. But it is generally agreed that Mallikarjuna Panditaradhya, a younger contemporary of Basava developed the Aradhya system as a compromise between devotionalism (bhakti) and Brahmanism which in fact is against Virasaivism of Basava. The Aradhya system, be­cause of its compromising nature became more popular, es­pecially among the Brahmin sections, both in Karnataka and Andhra. The statement of the author that the Aradhya system declined because of Basava and his teaching (p.54) needs therefore thorough verification.

 

The next two Chapters (4&5) dealing with Vaisna­vism of Ramanuja and Madhva respectively, are much more confusing and much less illuminating. Here also the Visistadvaita philosophy is mistaken for Srivaisnava religion. The Visistadvaita - Srivaisnava philosophy (7) is summarised without its social religious and intellectual background. The author seems to have an allergy for the word Srivai­snavism to which she prefers throughout the word Vaisna­vism, giving the wrong impression that it is a monolithic system. In the book one searches in vain for DIKSHA which is of great importance in Ramanuja’s Vaisnavism, consisting of five principles which have great social and religious significance. The term Srivaisnava is used twice (it does not find place in the Index) and Pancharatra once. The reader may be puzzled at the abrupt use of such ‘strange’ terms and may be curious to know their mean­ing and their relationship with Vaisnavism but there is precious little in the book to satisfy his curiosity. Again it is not strictly correct to say that Visistadvaitins broke up into Tengalai and Vadagalai sects and nowhere it is said that they are geographical (southern and northern respectively) terms. The investigation into the reasons for the schism would have been interesting. The Vaisnavism of the Alwars may be described as non-Vedic. Ramanuja made Srivaisnavism (he was not in fact its originator) pro-­Vedic by basing it on PRASTHANA TRAYA. Is the Vada­galai sect the logical culmination of the movement started by Ramanuja? Or is it the result of the influence of the Vedic School dominant at Vijayanagara? Such questions did not trouble the author.

 

In the other Chapter a summary of dvaita philoso­phy as expounded by Madhvacharya and his successors is given. No where we find the religious beliefs and practi­ces of the followers of Madhva. Nor is there an account of the differences between Ramanuja’s Vaisnavism and Ma­dhva’s Vaisnavism, which any keen student of religion wants to know.

 

In Chapter 7 the author rightly says that inspite of several Crusades against it, Jainism found a stronghold in Karnataka. Srivaisnavites too started persecuting the Jains and Bukkaraya intervened and brought about an under­standing between them. The author says that the eclecti­cism of syadvada, the closeness between the Jaina and Hindu practices and the changed situation in Vijayanagara enabled the Jains to spread their religion. Infact, the ecle­cticism of syadvada is as old as Jainism itself and the Jains came very close to the Hindus by adopting many of their practices including caste system as early as the 9th - 10th centuries.

 

The author has devoted a section on Islam in the Chapter on “Religious Toleration”, and has attributed to the spread of Islam to the tolerance of the Rayas which may be accepted with much reservation. South India came into contact with Islam as early as the 7th century and from the beginning of the 13th century. Sufi saints entered the Deccan and established their Kankhas at different places. Muslims entered the economic life also and Mosques and Masjids came up even at places like Warangal (KRIDABHIRAMAM).

 

Chapters 8 and 9 give an account of the religious institutions – Temple and Matha. The former Chapter gives the lists of (1) taxes that flow into temples (2) temple servants (3) constituents of worship and (4) temple festi­vals. The most interesting paragraph in the chapter is the one which notes the undue taxation of temple lands by state officers and stealing of temple properties by priests, which events may reflect the veneration in which the lea­rned section of people held the temple (pp. 212 - 213).

 

Another point of interest is the appointment of Vedic scho­lars in temples. Originally, Vedic scholars disliked temple cul­ture and held the temple priest in contempt.

 

Chapter 7 on “Religious Toleration” is claimed as the high light of the book reflecting the ‘catholicity and eclecticism of the rulers’ and constitutes a ‘brilliant chapter in the history of secularism’. Secularism is a much mis­understood concept in our country and one of the glaring examples of such misunderstanding is its use here. Secu­larism is not mere religious tolerance or equal rights to all religions. It is separation of church from state; a rational attitude not to bring religion into public life and to under­stand and solve national problems without recourse to re­ligious sentiments. Spending of huge sums of state income on raising religious edifices, encouraging among people re­ligious practices, patronage and propagation by rulers of one religion or other and change from one religion to the other (from Virupaksha to Venkateswara) do not constitute either secularism or catholicity or eclecticism.

 

The view that the religious tolerance of the Rayas was more due to the exigencies of the situation in which Vijayanagara was rejected with the statement that the Bah­mani kingdom too was in a similar situation but still the Sultans were intolerant. But one should remember that the Bahmani kingdom was an Islamic State with a population, the bulk of which was Hindu and that would explain the difference between the attitudes of the Sultans and the Rayas.

 

The tolerance of the Rayas is generally explained with particular reference to the policies of Bukkaraya I, Devaraya II and Krishnaraya. None can deny that the aim of Bukkaraya was to maintain peace in his kingdom and unity in his people so that he could consolidate the infant Vijayanagara and successfully meet the Bahmani aggression. He had to conciliate therefore all the powerful religious institutions in his kingdom. Though a Kalamukha by faith, Bukkaraya paid respects to the Pontiff of Sringeri and brought about an agreement between the quarrelling Vaisnavites and Jains. But in contrast, Bukkaraya’s minis­ter, Madhavamantri, entitled Vedasastrapratistapaka granted an agrahara to the pontiffs of Sringeri who are described as arahanta matotsedakas (destroyers of Jainism). Interest­ingly, the discovery jinasasanas has been reported from the premises of the Sringeri Matha. (VIJAYANAGARA - THE CITY & EMPIRE - NEW CURRENTS OF RESEARCH). It needs no explanation that the king was political as the pontiff was religious.

 

The Muslim chroniclers inform us that Devaraya II invited Muslim military officers to train his own army, es­pecially the archers and the cavalry. The Rayas in general made it a policy to invite the disgruntled Bahmani officers to their court and as results the Turakavada developed in the city and the Muslim population increased in the king­dom. It was therefore the responsibility of the Raya to make the life of Muslim invitees comfortable in his king­dom.

 

The argument that Krishnaraya’s title Yavanarajyasthapanacarya reflects his spirit of tolerance is as good as, saying that the helped the Portuguese against Ahmad Shah out of patriotism. Both the acts of the Raya were purely political lacking in states-man like foresight. The restoration of the deposed Bahmani Sultan who had already become a puppet in the hands of his powerful nobles was only to throw an apple of discord among the nobles, each one of whom tried to get control of him, so that Vijayanagara could occupy the strong position an arbiter in the politics of Deccan. This policy initiated by Krishnaraya was carried to its logical extent proved disastrous to the empire on the battle field of Rakasigandi.

 

The event of Santalingaiah is also cited in support of Krishnaraya’s policy of religious tolerance. Santalingaiah was a Virasaiva leader of Srisailam who was reported to have persecuted the Jains. Krishnaraya sent Gani Timma­nayudu with an army against Lingaiah who was killed in a military action. In a similar situation, Bikkaraya brou­ght about an agreement between the Vaisnavites and the Jains who lived in peace thereafter. The difference betwe­en the policies of Bukkaraya and Krishnaraya was largely due to the political situations of the respective times. Dur­ing Bukkaraya’s time Vijayanagara was weak and the Bah­mani kingdom was aggressive. By the time of Krishnaraya, the Bahmani kingdom broke up into five warring Sul­tanates and the Raya was confident of his own might. Further Santalingaiah was not merely a religious leader. He built forts, maintained armies and took royal titles (SRISAI­LAM KAIFIAT) and thus developed into a state within a state, which a powerful king like Krishnadevaraya could least tolerate.

 

The style of the book is quite readable but such words like Ahobilam (for Ahobalam) and Venkata Chalapati (for Venkataachalapati) are jarring. The printing and get­up of the book are neat

 

The price Rs. 300/- is however too heavy for the book.

 

B. S. L. HANUMANTHA RAO

 

PINNI CHALAA MANCHDI: (TELUGU) An anthology of ten short stories: Crown size, pp. 303, Cost Rs. 35/ ­Author: Pullabhatla Venkateswarlu, M. A., B. Ed., Khammam-4 (Telangana) 1990.

 

Shri Pullabhatla Venkateswarlu is a veteran short story writer. This anthology of short stories is published as a mark of his fifty years of literary life. Each story has its own structure and conveys its own message. It attracts the reader and makes him read it completely at a stretch. The writer chisels the ocean of life and distributes the product to the readers. All the characters in each story are ful1 of life and vigour. The reader lives with them and finally identifies himself with these characters. One or two stories out of the ten are worthy of translation into other languages. Lovers of short stories should not miss this anthology.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

KRAASDU CEKKU (An anthology of 14 stories) Crown size, pp. 328; Cost Rs. 36/- 1988. Author: Pullabhatla Venkateswarlu, M. A., B. Ed., KHAMMAM - 4.

 

As already introduced Shri Pullabhatla Venkateswarlu is a popular talented story writer in Telugu. He is a keen observer of life from varied outlooks. Each plot of the story is different from the other. The characters stand as symbo­ls of equality, fraternity, freedom, purity, honesty and other elevated human qualities, which are adored by the writer.

 

All the stories in this volume are narrated in first person. This is really a very difficult achievement. By reading all these stories one would be astonished W esti­mate the depth and width of Shri Pullabhatla’s life experien­ce. Since he himself is a multilinguist, why not he trans­-create some of his best stories into Hindi, Urdu and English and add name and fame to the art of Telugu story writing, which has completed hundred years?

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

SRI RAMA VACHANAMLU - A Telugu Prose Classic. Edited by Kapilavai Linga Murthy. 1/4 demmi, pp. 20+XXVI Price Rs. 12/- Vani Prachuranalu - Nagar Kurnool, Mahabub­nagar District.

 

Sri Kapilavai Linga Murthy edited and authored many books. He is an ardent devotee, a religionist and a scholar and critic.

 

The present work contains 91 prose musings on Lord Sri Rama. The manuscript was discovered by Linga Murthy in a house of his village. The name of the author of the script was not found. Mr. Murthy edited the manuscript and published it for which he deserves thanks.

 

Prose musings is a separate branch of literature. The Sriranga Gadya and ‘Vaikuntha Gadya’ of Sri Ramanuja­charya are very popular in Sanskrit. In Telugu, Simhagiri Vacanamulu and Venkateswara Vacanamulu are master pieces. These devotional prose pieces adopt a particular style. Some of them are also sung.

 

Each piece of the prose is independent by itself containing anecdotes of the great epic Ramayana. These prose - pieces end with an invocation of the Lord Rama thus “Jaya rama raama, raama rackshasa Viraama”. This is called ‘makuta’ - a special feature of Telugu Sataka. This work may also be considered as a prose - sataka as it resembles the Prakrit sataka on the Lord Buddha, in prose.

 

In some pieces, the style is very much exalted with long Sanskrit compounds. Some pieces are in pure Telugu (acca Telugu). The variety of style adds beauty to the work.

 

Devotees of the Lord Srirama, should not miss to read these musings.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

PAALLAMUUR ZILLA DEEVAALAYAALU: (A bird’s Eye­-view of temples of Mahaboobnagar District) Author: Sri Kapilavai Linga Murthy, 1/4 demmi, pp. 382. Price: Rs. 100/- ­Copies can be had from the author, Vidya Nagar Colony, Nagar Kurnool.

 

Shri Linga Murthy’s present work is a kind of guide to the religious people who go on pilgrimage from temple to temple. It is also a local history in a way. The author took lot of pains to gather the history of the temples and publish it as a bookwith attractive titles and photos.

 

Once our temples are not only the abodes of parti­cular deities, but also cultural centers, public schools and libraries. Now they have become places of malpractices. People should grow wise and restore them to their original status. Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam should spend part of its income in this direction.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

RAJYANGA BADDHANGA GOVERNARLU: Translated by Dr. Innaiah. English Original: Governors under the consti­tution. A lecture by Justice P. Jaganmohan Reddy. Publi­shed by The Telugu University, Hyderabad-4. 1/4 demmi, pp. 57. Price Rs. 7-50.

 

This book deals with the powers and responsi­bilities of Governors right from the British rule, till now. It also supplies full information of some Governors of different states, their behaviour. Those who are not well versed in English may go through this booklet and attain up-to-date information of the role of Governors. It should have been more useful if the book is divided into some sub-headings. The translator can take that much of freedom. If not men­tioned in the book, the reader feels that this is the origi­nal writing of Dr. Innaiah.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

VISWANATHA ARTHIKA VYAVASTHA: A dissertation by Dr. K. V. N. Raghavan 1/4 demmi, pp. 55, Price: Rs. 15/- 1990. Amrita Publications, 5-8-149, Krishanpura. Hanuma­konda-1.

 

This dissertation is a supplement to the thesis of Dr. Raghavan on Dr. Viswanatha Satyanarayana’s magnum opus novel “Veyi Padagalu - its contemparanity and Univer­sality”. Intense research is taking place on Dr. Viswanatha, at Kakatiya University.

 

Though Viswanatha lived in a city physically, his heart was in his village, Nandamur. He loved cultivation and village life. He stated his view point in some context clearly like this “If I can read between the lines of my writings, I want the type of Government which now peo­ple are having in Russia, but I want at the same time not to do away with the meta - physics, the mysticism and the spirituality”.

 

The researcher, with a deep study of Dr. Viswanatha’s writings, expounded the economic outlook of Dr. Viswanatha, a multi dimensional personality.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

SRI BHAASHYA SAARAMU: Author: Sriman K. S Ramanuja­charya, M.A., Principal. Veda Samskrita Kalashala, NELLORE. 1/4 demmi, pp. XX + 179, Price Rs. 20/-.

 

Veda Vyasa’s Brahma Sutras were commented by the three prophets of the three sects of Hinduism. Ramanuja’s commentary is known as Shri Bhaashya. Sri man K. S. Ramanujaacharya, an erudite scholar of Sanskrit, rendered into lucid Telugu, the Shri Bhaashya. The book would be very useful to the students of Vaishnavism.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

GOODAA DEEVII GRANTHA MAALA: Musunoor - Krishna Dt. has published the following books.

 

  1. MANI TRAYI: 1/8 Crown Translation of three works into Telugu.
  2. SRI BHAGAVAT GITAAMRITAM: (Second Shataka) Sanskrit commentary by Srimad Vara Muniindrulu. Telugu Commentary by Sriman K. S. Ramamyacharya. 1/4 demmi pp. 196, Price Rs. 20/-
  3. SRI GOODAASTAVAM with Sourabha Vyakhya,      1/4 demmi pp. 132, Author: K. V. R. Narasimhacharyulu and brothers. Price: Rs. 20/-

 

Goda Granthamala has published more than one hundred books on Vaishnava cult. The above three are re­cent publications. The proprietor of these publications is Sri man K. T. L. Narasimhacharya, a retired Telugu Pandit of Krishna Zilla Parishat.

 

Sriman Acharya is a dynamic person. He is not a rich man. He knows intimately all the scholars who have specialised particular works on Vaishnavism. He gives assign­ments to them. After getting some financial assistance from people or T. T. D. he publishes works as specified above. He goes from door to door and presents the publications. In this way, motivated by God, Sriman Acharya has to his credit one hundred publications. He deserves all praise for the Yoeman service he has been rendering to Vaishnavism. All these publications are not books of an hour. They are books of all time.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

RAHASTANTRI: A collection of poems of Vegunti Mohan Prasad during the period 1970 - 1990. Publishers: Friends and Folks. March 1991. 1/4 demmi IV + 74 + VI, Price Rs. 40/- (Ordinary) Rs. 100/- (Library Edition).

 

One must have love of endurance to comprehend the poetry of Mohan Prasad (Mo) since the poetic conventions employed are deep rooted in national and internatio­nal cultures, in spite of some clues the poet supplies at the end of every poem, through some explanatory notes. Some pieces reflect the boyhood reminscences of the poet. Wonderful images can be discovered in every poem. Read and read with open mind. Every reading will reveal new experiences. Patience is essential.

 

Anyhow, ‘Mo’ is not a poet for all people. He is fully aware of the people’s remarks on his poetry. He is neither disappointed nor dejected. On the other hand he is progressively increasing rigidity and ambiguity in his poem. The world is wide and the time is infinite as started by the Sanskrit poet - Bhavabhuti. So with ‘Mo’.

 

As long as the poet is fully aware of the secrete of his poetry it is the duty of the ‘Sahridaya’, to explore them and enjoy.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

PRAKRITI - PURUSHUDU : 1/8 crown pp. XXVI + 32. Author: Utla Kondaiah Kavi, Price Rs. 5/- Publisher: Pin­gali Katuri Sahitya Pitham, 1990. Hyderabad-27.

 

In 1937, the poet was shown a picture drawn by the artist Pramod Kumar Chatterji. He carried that impression with him for a long time. In 1987 that impression took a poetic form i.e. the present poem. There are more than one hundred verses. The narration is quite fluent and ima­ginative. The expressions of the poet indicate his due cul­ture which he fortunately received from the great soul, Mutnuri Krishna Rao. The poet most appropriately dedicated this poem to his teacher, Krishna Rao.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

VAANA VACCE VARADA VACCE: (An anthology of poems) 1/8 crown 36 + 50 Author: Utla Kondaiah, Publishers: Pingali Katuti Sahitya Pitham, HYDERABAD.

 

In this small anthology of poems it would be inte­resting to read poems it would be interesting to read poems on a bug and a cycle and also poems on Christ, Lord Venkateswara and Sri Satya Sai Baba. The poet declares with certain pride that he was the student of the renouned poet Katuri Venkateswara Rao and the well-known editor of Krishna Patrika, Sri Mutnuri Krishna Rao.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

PUTTU MACCA: A collection of poems, poet: Khadar Mohiyuddin, 1991. Price Rs. 10/- For Copies: Tripuraneni Srinivas. 40-5/6-10 Israel pet, Bandar Road, Vijayawada-10.

 

All the poems reveal the poet’s emotional imagina­tion aspiring for a new spotless world, where no difference is dreamt between man and man and where the poor man is treated on par with the kink. Only free and fearless minds can read and enjoy these poems.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

SRI DAKSHAA RAAMA BHIIMEESWARA MAHIMA: Author; Dr. Nandula Gopala Krishna Murthy, Telugu post graduate Department, Government College, Rajahmundry. 1/4 demmi. V + 60 pp, Price Rs. 10/-.

 

Unlike other ancient Telugu poets, Srinatha’s perso­nality was extrovert. He toured the entire Andhra Pradesh and also parts of Karnataka. When he hallowed the court of Veerabhadra Reddi of Rajahmundry he had the opportu­nity of enjoying the beauties of the East Godavari, the holy land of Pancaa Raamaas. While translating the ‘Bhimeswara Purana’ the poet extensively describes the holy places, temples and the people there of all classes with great enthusiasm. He also translates the most difficult purana i.e. Kasi Khanda. In these two puranas we find Vyasa expelled from Kasi for having cursed the local gods, Vyasa on the affectionate suggestion of the Mother Parvati comes to South India, particularly to Baksharama. In the character of Vyasa, Srinatha describes the ‘Kana Siima’, He draws a number of word pictures with fine, inspiring imagination. Here we find a kind of national integration - ‘a term often heard now’.

 

Dr. Murthy, an ardent student of Srinatha, centring on the place Daksharama, gives the essence of the two Puranas in prose, quoting fine verses from both Telugu and Sanskrit works. His aim is to create new taste and interest in student lore towards ancient Telugu poetry which is neglected now. If any student happens to read this book, he would be tempted to take up Srinatha’s two works. If that happens, the ambition of Dr. Murthy is ful­filled. But it should not be left to students choice. Books of this type should be prescribed as prose texts to degree classes, for compulsory study.

 

Dr. B. PURUSHOTHAM

 

Back