KANNADA

Alida Mahaswamiyavaru–(A Biography of His Highness Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV)–By Mr. C. K. Venkataramiah, M.A., LL.B. Pages xxiii+587. Price Rs. 3-8-0.

His Highness Sri Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the late Maharaja of Mysore, was a great man as well as ruler. This account of His Highness’s life by Mr. Venkataramiah is a fitting tribute to the great life with which it deals. The author has achieved in it a quality worthy of the subject.

Krishnaraja Wodeyar lost his father while still a boy. He was brought up as a ruler and apparently grew up in the consciousness of a high responsibility. There should have been something in his nature which made for reserve, but the training and the sense of responsibility so intensified this tendency that none but a few who moved close to him could be said to have known him, in later years. Mr. Venkataramiah had the privilege of being admitted to a certain degree of intimacy in the last few years of the Maharaja’s life, and had thus an opportunity, in speaking to His Highness on subjects connected with Indian literature and culture, of seeing how beautiful Krishnaraja Wodeyar’s life had become. He conceived then the idea of writing this book and was encouraged in it by seniors who had felt that the Maharaja’s life should be written. Sir Mirza Ismail, friend of His Highness from his boyhood, and his Prime Minister at the time, was among these seniors and he and others helped Mr. Venkataramiah to collect information. It was the desire of His Highness’s admirers and in particular of the author, that the book should be submitted to His Highness, but to the sorrow of his subjects and numerous admirers beyond the State, Krishnaraja Wodeyar died much before his death could be feared and before this book could be published.

Mr. Venkataramiah expresses, in the preliminary note, his grief that his tribute to his patron and king could not be placed in his hands and that it has had to be posthumous. This is natural enough, but from another point of view it is just as well that the book should be recording a life that has closed. It is the lot of rulers to have their qualities praised and, when an author praises a ruler who is still in power, it is difficult for men to make out how much of the description is genuine and how much of it fake. That disadvantage for the greater part disappears when the person praised has left the stage. For another thing, the death of his hero has given to parts of Mr. Venkataramiah’s description a poignancy, and incidents, which it might not have been possible to record without some appearance of impropriety if the central figure were alive, now find place in the book with great fitness and complete the picture.

A very significant part of that picture comes out in the introductory chapter itself. His Highness was doing an inspection tour in his bullock tonga and it began to rain. The attendant asked for permission to open an umbrella and shelter him. His Highness would not allow it lest the bullocks should take fright. On another occasion His Highness noticed an old woman’s hut with half the thatch off, and when it began to rain in the night, felt how uncomfortable she should be and went to her hut and gave her some food and money. On a third occasion His Highness, while driving down the hills in his car, saw that a bullock cart coming from the other side was in danger as the bullocks took fright and got down from the car and helped the cartman with his own arms to hold the bullocks and save the cart. These are no doubt small incidents, but gain significance from the life in which they occurred. Men of wealth and position would fear that such action might derogate from their dignity. It would be gracious only in a king. Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV was such by birth and training and in actual fact, and these things became him. Incidents of his boyhood, recorded by Mr. Venkataramiah, show that the boy was indeed father of the man and that in earlier years, as in later, Krishnaraja Wodeyar consciously tried to be a big man. His destiny permitted him success in this endeavour. As a European private secretary of his, using a local idiom said of him, "His Highness could always be trusted to go four annas better than any one could expect". It is not exactly a respectful way of describing a ruler, but the fault of expression came from the European’s superiority complex. What concerns us is the substance of the statement. That was undoubtedly correct. Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV generally exceeded expectation.

It is quite conceivable that so good a man might not have the opportunity to make his mark as king. Fortune, however, favoured Krishnaraja Wodeyar in this respect and he ruled his State for thirty-eight years. It is a record for any Mysore ruler, and even elsewhere not many rulers can be named who have been vouchsafed this length of reign. Krishnaraja Wodeyar took the reins of administration from a mother who loved and cherished him and had held them for him as regent with singular ability. Aware of the high tradition he had to continue, he began his reign with the enthusiasm natural to youth but with discretion beyond his years. As time passed and prime minister after prime minister came, he presided over the administration with watchful eyes and zealous for progress. The administration of Mysore was not a bad one even in 1902. In 1940 it was one of the best the world could show. Many contributed to the achievement that this implied but the central and significant figure in it was the Maharaja. Not that he asked or ordered that this or that be done he apparently did not believe in a ruler himself ruling. His idea seems rather to have been that the ruler should be the sakshi, the overseeing presence. Men in power sometimes did or seemed to the world to be doing something the ruler should not have allowed. But the men in power themselves knew that they were not safe unless they were good. If they did not know it they came quite soon to learn it. Two shrewd eyes were watching and when it was a question of right and wrong they were hard and pitiless. If a man, all things taken together, was not worthy of his place he did not stay there longer than could he helped. So the administration progressed for thirty-eight years. Of the achievement of the period Mr. Venkataramiah has made an excellent record. No attempt will be made to make a summary of it in this short review. The sum of it should however be stated and it is this: the administration felt itself justified only by constant endeavour to promote the welfare of the people. The State was not an estate of the ruler, its main purpose being to yield him an income for seeking pleasure and maintaining pomp. It was the field on which a ruler served as the embodiment of the fortunes of the people. Men of note outside the State could say of the administration that it was a pattern to the world.

Mr. Venkataramiah made a name for himself as a writer in Kannada years ago. He is one of the people who have contributed to the making of the new prose in the language. He has a flair for telling stories, narrating occurrences and eulogising the good wherever he finds it. It is not by accident that he has become the biographer of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. It is, however, a coincidence, felicitous as it is rare, that a writer of such gifts should have had so good a life to write about. Mr. Venkataramiah’s prose maintains high quality throughout the book. Businesslike over most of it, it takes on a colour from his emotion in places, which makes it fervent as poetry. Mr. Venkataramiah uses his rich store of Sanskrit words with discrimination, and forms his sentences and paragraphs with an art which he has learnt from English literature. He has thus developed a style, which is both beautiful and adequate to his purpose. He should be congratulated on the success he has achieved in this work. The book is a valuable addition to the list of fine things done in modern Kannada.

The printing and get-up of the book are excellent and the many illustrations are well selected and reproduced. The volume has a Foreword by Sir Mirza Ismail, who said that his master was an exception to the dictum that no man is a hero to his valet. It is with great fitness dedicated to His Highness the present Maharaja, Sri Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, in whose reign the people of Mysore expect to see the great tradition of his uncle and predecessor maintained and continued to still greater results.

M. V.

ENGLISH

Early Buddhist Jurisprudence (Theravada Vinaya Laws)–By Miss Durga N. Bhagavat, M.A. (Oriental Book Agency, Poona. Price not stated.)

The authoress is a pupil of the Rev. Fr. Heras, S. J., and the book is the revised edition of the thesis submitted by her for the Master’s Degree to the University of Bombay. The Vinaya Laws are the rules and regulations laid down for the practical guidance of the monks (bhikkus) and nuns (bhikkunis) that formed the members of the monastic institution of the Sangha founded by the Buddha. The Vinaya Laws dealt with by the authoress are the laws as known to the Theravada school, i.e., the Pali Canon of Ceylon. Dr. E. J. Thomas, the well-known Buddhist scholar, has written a Foreword, in which he welcomes this addition to the treatises based on the Pali Canon and hopes that it may induce other scholars to come forward to deal with the Vinaya Laws as known to other schools of Buddhism.

This little book starts with an Introduction in which the authoress justifies the use of the word Jurisprudence in connection with the Vinaya Laws, saying that the Sangha had almost acquired the dignity of a republican State and that there were instances which showed that the Vinaya Laws had the sanction of the ruling power. Then comes the first chapter which deals with the pre-Buddhistic history of asceticism in India. The second chapter contains an analysis of the 227 offences known to the Vinaya Laws and classifies them according to modern lines as offences against person, offences against property, and so on. The third chapter deals with the origin and nature of the Vinaya Laws and traces their origin to the traditions, the rules of the Brahmacharya and Yati institutions and other sources of pre-Buddhistic times. The fourth chapter continues the discussion and deals with the evolution of the Vinaya Laws and shows how they had to be changed from time to time. The fifth chapter deals with the agencies that promulgated the laws, viz., the Buddha, the Sangha, learned and elderly bhikkus, and the Vinayadharas (Doctors of the Law).

The sixth chapter deals chiefly with the legal procedure followed by the Sangha in the holding of trials and the various punishments meted out. The seventh chapter is entitled "Patimokkha and the Fortnightly Meetings". By Patimokkha is meant a short statement of all the rules of the Order which used to be recited at the fortnightly meetings. The eighth chapter is the most interesting in the book and is entitled "The Administration of the Vinaya in the Sangha". It gives us a peep into the nature of the life led by the members of the Sangha and their routine. The ninth and last chapter deals with the rules relating to the nuns. There are two illustrations attached to the book, an Index, and two maps, which enhance the usefulness of the book. A glossary of the Pali terms could also have been given.

As remarked by Mr. C. H. S. Ward in his book Outlines of Buddhism (p.114), "there was no central authority, either individual or Church court, to enforce the law and maintain discipline." Further the highest penalty in the Vinaya is expulsion from the Sangha. It is therefore possible to overestimate the importance of the Vinaya Laws from the point of view of jurisprudence. But now-a-days jurisprudence easily widens out into the subjects of sociology and cultural anthropology. Miss Bhagavat’s little book is practically a compendium of the laws governing the ascetics of the Sangha. As stated by Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy in his Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism (p. 174) asceticism is an indispensable means of educating and ennobling a race in its early history. After attaining spiritual manhood, the race could dispense with the monastic discipline and reconcile spirituality with work in the world. This has been the case in India; and the present civilisation of India is based, according to Dr. Coomaraswamy, on the tapas of the days of the Upanishads and Gautama. Miss Bhagavat’s book, as throwing light on the life of the ascetics of the Sangha, is a contribution not merely to jurisprudence but to sociology and the history of civilisation.

T. BHUJANGA RAO

The Upakhyanamala–A Garland of Stories. (Condensed in the poets’ own words by Pandit A. M. Srinivasachariar. Translated by V. Narayanan, M.A., B.L. Foreword by Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar. Published by G. A. Natesan & Co. Pages xiv + 376. Price Rs. 1-4.)

This is an anthology of the more well-known episodes from the Epics and the Puranas, and includes the stories of Viswamitra, Sakuntala, Savitri, Yayati, Harischandra, thirteen stories in all, "intended to bring out in bold relief the noblest ideals of Indian womanhood–and to draw prominent attention to the time-honoured and basic Aryan virtues of courage, perseverance, charity and truthfulness". These episodes have served as the source of numerous dramas and other literary productions in Indian languages, and the eager student as much as the lay reader gets in this volume, in handy form, the original versions as they occur in the Indian epics and Puranas, together with a dependable English translation. Each extract is prefaced by a brief and informative introduction explaining the context of the story that follows. It is a useful publication.

K. S. G.

Economics of Khadi–By M. K. Gandhi; with a Foreword by Babu Rajendra Prasad. (Published by the Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad. Pages xxiii + 627. Price Rs.4;)

Though a compilation of over 200 articles written by Gandhiji (and Mahadev Desai), in Young India during several years, the book has a permanent interest in that it presents Khadi Economics (and Ethics) from various points of view, and sets forth the doctrine of Khadi in numerous articles written by way of reply to questions, friendly and hostile, lay and learned. While repetition is inevitable in a book of this kind, the reader will find interest in the way that Gandhiji has reacted at different times and under different conditions to the objections raised against Khadi. No impartial reader of this volume can complain with any show of reason that there is something mystic or occult about the persistence with which Gandhiji has preached the doctrine all these years. There is a wealth of statistical material, and plenty of sociological and economic argument and while the learned may still disagree as to the conclusions drawn or the interpretation to be put upon the facts given, there can be no reasonable ground for stating that Gandhiji or those who believe with him, are talking in the clouds and have no objective data to go upon. Babu Rajendra Prasad in his Introduction traces the history of the Khadi movement as it has developed in India, with valuable information on the attempt made to pay a living wage to spinners.

An exhaustive Index adds to the value of the book.

K. S. G.

Oxford Pamphlets on Indian Affairs: (1-2) The Cultural Problem, price as. 8; (3) Economic Background, price as. 8 (4) Indian States, price as; 4; (5) Democracy in India, price as. 4. (Published by the Indian Branch of the Oxford University Press.)

These pamphlets have been published with the object of providing "a background of information which can be relied upon when matters of fact are at stake and which would be entitled to serious consideration in matters of opinion" and are a supplement to the parent series of Oxford Pamphlets on World Affairs.

The pamphlets have secured the services of distinguished and competent persons to deal with the various subjects and they fulfil the claim that they provide a background of reliable information.

Pamphlet No.1, entitled "The Cultural Problem", is a symposium of contributions from such distinguished personalities as Dr. A. J. Appasami, Sir Abdul Khader, Sir R. P. Masani, Sir S. Radhakrishnan and Sir Jogendra Singh. Though the primary aim of these pamphlets is the presentation of facts, expressions of opinion are inevitable in dealing with subjects like those handled in these pamphlets. Indeed, the pamphlets would lose much of their value if the considered views of persons, who have devoted their life-time to such matters, are not found in their contributions. It is refreshing to find in these pamphlets that though the contributions represent various schools of thought, all of them emphasise the underlying cultural unity of this country and the need for counteracting fissiparous tendencies.

Pamphlet No.2, on the Economic Background, consists of contributions from Professors K. T. Shah and P. J. Thomas, Sri. J C. Kumarappa, Sir Datar Singh and Sir Jehangir Coyaji. While these contributors have dealt with the subject from the point of view of their special fields, each has outlined the directions in which he would wish the economic development of the country to be planned out. Both as regards the statement of facts and suggestions for planning this pamphlet is very valuable contribution to current literature considering its small compass.

Pamphlet No.4 on Indian States is written by Mr. K. M. Panikkar. The narration of facts is accurate enough. But the pamphlet is a thesis for the continuation of the States in their anomalous integrity. The author’s view that they provide a special opportunity for the development of Indian talent and that they are fitted to be the repository of Indian genius and culture, is hardly in conformity with facts. As regards the future position of the Indian States, which after all is the most important problem, the author says that it is outside the scope of the pamphlet. He leaves the impression that he is fighting shy of the conclusion forced by his own reasoning. As an example, his suggestion that small states should be pooled together for the better administration of those states leaves one asking why they should not merge themselves into a larger unit and form part of a province in the Federation of India. The amalgamation of the administration of these states into groups necessarily entrenches upon such sovereignty as the rulers may be said to possess. And if they are to be subordinate to the centralised control governing the group of states, it is un-understandable why they should not subordinate themselves to provincial control.

Pamphlet No.5, Dr. A. Appadorai deals with the problem of democracy in India, and indicates how it is possible to evolve a democratic Government without in any way injuring the interests of minorities.

These pamphlets form a valuable and authoritative contribution to literature on matters of current interest.

Oxford Pamphlets on World Affairs (Nos. 57-60). Oxford University Press.

Greece–By Stanley Casson. (Price 4d.)

This is another of those pamphlets which has a post-mortem flavour about it and a tragic reminder that neutrality is no haven for smaller nations in a totalitarian war which chooses its victims one by one. The pathetic fall of heroic Greece is told against a background of Greek achievements and culture of which Mr. Casson can speak with authority. That the Greeks forgot their fierce political rivalries and partisan feelings against the Metaxas regime in the face of a common danger and that smaller states however organised and patriotic have no chance of survival against the bigger bullies, has a pointed moral to this country where the prevailing fashion in politics is partisanship and vivisection.

Great Britain and China-By Sir John Pratt. (Price 4d.)

Sir John Pratt, whose long service in the Consular service of China entitles him to speak of Sino-British relations which had a tortuous and chequered course, tells in a simple narrative the story of the impact of the West on an ancient people and civilisation and the savage breach it made on the calm philosophic life of a people "cast in the same mould". We get glimpses of the process which reduced the "Celestial Empire which produced enough and needed nothing" into a market which brought in its train the "open door" "spheres of influence" and other festering wounds that helped to generate a strong nationalist movement in 1911 revolutionising the tone and tenor of Chinese life. Sir John’s attempt to explain ‘the policy of drift’ that characterised British relations with China since the commencement of the China Incident, though not very convincing, does not suppress the bitter feelings and suspicion aroused in China. Similarly, it is difficult to console oneself with the opinion of Sir John that the temporary closing of the Burma Road did not do much material harm to China.

Who Mussolini Is–By Ivor Thomas. (Price 4d.)

The journalist in Ivor Thomas answers the query raised by him sparing neither epithet nor ire. "A blacksmith’s son, the reviler of God and man……a man who has lived intellectually from hand to mouth……not at all original……nearly everything in his movement is borrowed, largely from D’Annunzio……who (Mussolini) acquired his hold on the Italian people by the guns of his illegal bodyguard, Army chiefs, secret Police and mass oratory……devoid, like Hitler, of a sense of humour, substituting an extremely coarse type of wit….etc," are some of the bold daubs in the portraiture. The book would have gained much in value had the author told us something of the historical and ideological background against which the formation of a Fascist dictatorship was reared and has endured as a Mussolinian show for nearly two decades.

War at Sea Today–By Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond. (Price 4d.)

A book of great topical interest revealing the kaleidoscopic changes that have occurred in naval warfare since the last war and the stupendous problems that are faced by the Allied naval strategy against heavy odds. The author rightly bemoans the great waste of effort that has resulted in the tardy recognition of the naval air arm, the lack of unity of command and direction and the absence of full co-operation needed between naval and air units. The author reminds us that mathematical equality is not strategical equality, nor does it furnish equality of security against an enemy who could remain in port and wear out our fleet by harassing it with torpedo attacks. The author opines that the naval blockade against Germany has not worked well, that she has replenished herself well with the products of the countries she has occupied and warns that a continent is not quickly exhausted.

K. B.

The Philosophy of the Beautiful–By Prof. P. N. Srinivasachari. (Copies can be had from R. C. Srinivasa Raghavan, Sri Krishna Library, Chitrakulam Square, Mylapore, Madras. Price Rs. 1-8.)

This work of Prof. Srinivasachari is a weighty contribution to the subject and comprises of five lectures delivered by him under the auspices of the University of Madras in 1933. The first three chapters contain a learned survey of the views of leading thinkers of the West and of India; from Aristotle and Plato to Kant, Hegel and Bradley, and from the Upanishadic seers to Sankara and Ramanuja, with a critical evaluation of the theories and standards of aesthetic criticisms adopted. The process leads the author to the conclusion that the method adopted by the Western thinkers in regard to the physical conception of beauty is itself arbitrary and confessedly sceptical and that the averaging of reactions is not the proper method of accounting for beauty. The Crocean view that Art is infra-intellectual on the ground that it is an expression of intuition, and as such lower to history or philosophy, is contradicted and is attributed to his misconception as to the nature and function of intuition, which is supra-intellectual. The fundamental fallacy of the view could be exposed more tellingly by instancing a work of art like Shelley’s "Ode to the West Wind" or that magnificent South Indian bronze image of Nataraja which is the conception of an eternal energy as the reality behind appearance, which intuition apprehended in a trice while science arrived at it through patient research. The biological view, which sees in beauty a seed-bed for the survival of the species, and the phallic and Freudian view coloured by the aberrations of sex, which totally ignores the mystic aspect as a transmuting spiritual force, receive a much-needed correction at the hands of the learned author. The empathy theory, much in vogue, is held up as unsatisfactory as it does not take us beyond the ego. Kant’s contribution is acknowledged as significant but as negative and anemic since it tends to destroy the sensitivity for life. Against this background the author’s general conclusion is that beauty is a quality of the subject (how could this be, when "beauty does not arise from the subject of a work of art, but from the necessity felt of representing that subject" as pointed out by Millet or, as Dr. Coomaraswamy holds, that it does not exist apart from the artist himself and the rasika? and is autonomous as truth and goodness. "Just as there is a logic of pure knowledge and an ethic of pure will, there is an aesthetic of pure feeling." That "the highest beauty can be best criticised by experiencing first in ourselves and then trying to interpret its effect on ourselves to others, so that they also share the experience" does not appear to be so safe and valid a method as the author holds it to be. Then, again, his view that the abandonment of the criterion that distinguishes the beautiful from the ugly leads to a collapse of all discrimination and apprehension and appreciation of reality is a little panicky.

The Hegelian view that art is a lower revelation of reality, since the absolute can be grasped only by philosophic thought, is opposed to Indian thought which, as pointed out by the author, with its synthetic genius, has resolved the antagonisms existing in Western thought between realism and idealism, romanticism and classicism. To the Hindu, Art is the symbolic expression Reality and that Reality is essentially beautiful and blissful. This is not a mere intellectual speculation but a verified and verifiable one. "The absolute of Hindu philosophy, which is the Sat without a second, is Iswara, the Moral Ruler of the Universe and Bhuvanasundara, Anandamaya. Vedantic aesthetics transmutes vishayaraga into paramatmaraga. The Western thinkers quoted by the Professor are mostly philosophers and rarely do they reach the exalted level and clear perception of Hindu thinkers on aesthetics. But if the professor had turned his attention to seers like St. Thomas Aquinas who said that "the being of all things derives from the Divine beauty", or artists like Goethe who sang that "He who perceives it (Beauty) is from himself set free", or to Ludwig Tieck who said that "Beauty is the unique ray of the celestial brightness", he would have found that the West too in spite of its metaphysical pre-possessions has tried to comprehend the real nature of, Beauty and in the sense of Vedantic thought.

The Hindu view of the Beautiful has been well presented in the last two chapters and should prove of help to balance the many lopsided theories of the West. To lovers of the aesthetics this work is invaluable.

K. B. IYER.

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