REVIEWS
Contemporary Indian
Literature. Published by the Ministry of Education,
Government of India, on behalf of the Sahitya Akademi. New Delhi. Pp. 280.
Price Rs. 2-50.
This
publication is well calculated to contribute to the realisation of the main objective
of the Akademi, viz., to foster and co-ordinate literary activities in the
Indian languages. It provides an up-to-date survey of contemporary Indian
literature as a whole. One separate chapter is devoted to each of the fourteen
major languages of India and written by a well-known writer or critic in it.
The writer gives the background of the language, a brief history of its
literature and a survey of the present trends in it. The picture that emerges
from the entire survey reveals richness and manysidedness as well as the
fundamental unity of Indian literature and its persistent vitality through the
ages, leading us to hope for a bright future for it. The provision in the
scheme for a chapter on Sanskrit and another on English is highly significant and
explains the remarkable unity of outlook amidst the equally remarkable variety
in the writers of the different parts of our vast country using different
languages. All these languages and the literatures in them find their source
and inspiration in the classical literature in Sanskrit and aspirations for the
future from the common outlook achieved no less by contact with the modern
literature in English. Moreover, both these languages are here seen to be live
media of literary expression in India even at present.
A perusal of this volume should
encourage the writers in each of these languages to compete with the others in
a healthy spirit of emulation for contributing to the enrichment of the common
glory. For realising the fullest benefit possible from the publication, it
should be translated, and rendered available to the people, in all the regional
languages of the country.
Treatment of Landscape
in Eastern and Western Poetry by Dr. C. P. Ramaswamy
Aiyar. Published by the Director, Oriental Institute, Baroda. Pp. 50. Price Rs.
2-25.
This
publication of the University of Baroda comprises the Maharaja Sayaji Rao
Gaekwar Honorarium. Lectures for the year 1955-56, delivered by a great son of
India, distinguished as well for his cultural tastes and attainments as for
political sagacity and administrative ability.
The
survey includes, in its range, European as well as Indian literature; but no
regular comparison or contrast is here instituted between the Eastern and the
Western, as the title may lead one to expect. But, at the same time, the object
of the survey is declared, at the outset, to be not merely to illustrate the
varieties of treatment of landscape by different poets of the East and the
West, but to outline the psychology and philosophy that underlie such
treatment.
But
the connoisseur in the savant is so carried away by his obvious zest and
genuine enjoyment of good poetry that he feels obliged to conclude, though
perhaps partly in modesty, that in a breathless summary of an immense variety
of poetic endeavour and achievement, he had sought merely to convey the
impression which several poets in various countries have made on him, and his
personal reactions, with no attempt at detailed analysis or critical estimate.
This description of his own performance is perhaps fairly correct. But even so,
this survey of nature poetry including in its range the classical and modern
literatures of the East and the West by one of the finest flowers of the modern
Indian cultural renaissance is an achievement of rare distinction. It is bound
to prove of greater real value to students of literature than mere systematic
treatises on the subject by academic scholars, furnishing as it does a varied
series of attractive vignettes of nature with the comments thereon of a genuine
lover of poetry with well cultivated tastes and a wide range of interests.
In Ceylon’s Tea
Gardens by C. V. Velu Pillai with illustrations by
Manjusri. Published by Harrison Peiris, Talangama, Ceylon. Price
Rs. 2.
Here
are 20 pages of eminently readable English verse by an Indian. The author, we
are told in the note by Jag Mohan prefixed to the poems, is a Ceylon-Indian,
born and educated in Ceylon. Having entered trade union politics early in life,
he was denied the dubious advantages of a University education and a leisurely
life with books. But with all these apparent handicaps, his genuine and intense
sympathy with his subject enables him to achieve for his utterance a
commendable degree of poetic quality. The diction, rhythm and imagery as well
as the conception of the individual pictures, and the series of pictures as a
whole, reveal a genuine poetic impulse and temperament. In view of his obvious
sympathy and intense feelings, the restraint in evidence in the objective
presentation of the theme is also remarkable.
Incidentally,
here we have a vivid and detailed picture of the life of the Indian labourers
in the Tea Gardens of Ceylon, arresting pictures of
children, women, old men; on working-days, on holidays; in the morning, at
noon, and in the evening; all together presenting a fairly comprehensive and
interesting picture of their pathetic life in all its phases.
Upanishadic Stories
and their Significance by Swami Tattwananda published by Sri
Ramakrishna Advaita Ashrama, Kalady. Pp. 164. Price Rs. 2.
The
learned author points out in the introduction that the stories from the
Upanishads, some of which are presented in this volume, are not mere legends
but form part of the book of life and embody the teachings of the Rishis, and
proceeds to give a brief account of the place of the Upanishads among our
scriptures and their value to the student of Hindu sacred literature.
Each
of the 20 stories included in the volume is selected from one of the major
Upanishads and presented in a remarkably simple language with all the necessary
explanations of technical expressions and allusions, in elaborate footnotes;
and the significance of the important details, and the story as a whole, is
pointed out at every stage. Taken together, these stories will serve as an
excellent introduction to the essential truths of Hinduism, in a form
calculated to suit the tastes and temperament of the English educated youth in
the country, admittedly very much in need of moral instruction and spiritual
nourishment. The need is clear and urgent for more publications of this kind,
and in the regional languages as well, by the Ramakrishna Mission and other
agencies with the like objectives, for popularising and propagating the
precious jewels of our glorious cultural inheritance.
Kulachudamani Nigama. Editor
Arthur Avalon. With an introduction by Akshaya Kumara Maitra C. I. E. Published
by Ganesh & Co., Madras 17. Pages 8+31+59. Price Rs. 3.
Kulachudamani,
it is said, is one of the authoritative Tantric texts on Kadi mata and
Kulachara. The text under review, as the learned writer of the preface
expresses, is not exhaustive in any respect. It is in
the 7th and the last chapter that we come across some important details
pertaining to the worship, of the Goddess Mahisha Mardani, and this will be of
much use to the Sadhakas.
Sri
K. Ramamurty in his preface, ably establishes the truth that there is no
fundamental difference between the Kaulas and Samayins, and
the apparent difference is due only to different kinds of yogic experience.
The
introduction in English, covering over 31 pages, by Sri A. K. Maitra, is highly
valuable in that it gives a summary of the contents of the text, chapter by
chapter, compares those contents with these in other important Tantric Texts,
and above all includes in itself an English translation of Mahisha Mardani
Stotra with elucidative notes by the general editor. Thus this book will be of
use not only to the followers of Kulachara, but to all the students of Tantric
Philosophy as well.
1. Upanishatchandrika
1st
vol (Taittiriya) Rs. 2
8 0
2nd
vol (Isa, Kena, Katha) 2
0 0
3rd
vol (Prasna and Aitereya) 2 0 0
4th
vol (Mandukya) 3
0 0
5th
vol (Chandogya) 2
0 0
6th
vol (Brihadaranyaka) 4
0 0
2. Andhra Vedanta
Panchadasi with Kalyanamrita commentary in Telugu.
1
vol (Viveka Panchakam) Rs. 2
8 0
2
vol (Dipa Panchakam) 3
0 0
3
vol (Ananda Panchakam) 2
8 0
Author
Sri R. L. SOMAYAJI, B.A., B.L. Copies can be had from the
author, Lalitaramamu, Brundavanamu, Guntur.
Sri
Sankara’s Advaita Doctrine which reigns supreme in the realm of philosophy is
expounded at large in his commentaries on the Upanishads, Brahmasutras and the
Bhagavad Gita. But these commentaries are so oceanic in their nature that a
reader of ordinary intelligence cannot easily dive deep into them and pick up
the pearls hidden therein. This difficulty is experienced particularly by those
that do not have a knowledge of Samskrit. So an easy and authentic Telugu
translation of these commentaries is a long felt desideratum. Sri R. L.
Somayaji an eminent lawyer, a great Samskrit scholar and above all a close
disciple of H. H. Jagadguru Sri Kalyanananda Bharathi Swami, has taken upon
himself the holy task of meeting this want, and has remarkably succeeded in it.
In these translations, the original upanishad is given in Samskrit, and a lucid
Telugu translation of that text is added on to it. This is followed by an
exhaustive Telugu commentary, which contains not only a gist of Sri Sankara’s
Bhashya, but also some important and elucidative points found in some
commentaries thereon. A conspectus of the contents of the Bhashya, given at the
beginning of each Upanishad, enhances the value of the book. These volumes are
an invaluable boon to those Telugu readers, who for want of sufficient
knowledge of Samskrit, are not able either to read or to understand the
original texts, and commentaries thereon, and hence feel disappointed in their
pursuit of philosophical studies.
Andhra Vedanta Panchadasi
A
student can afford to be ignorant of Sri Sankara's Bhashyas, and yet claim for
himself a sufficient acquaintance with the fundamentals of the Advaita
Philosophy if he has studied Vedanta Panchadasi. A student
might have spent months together in studying Sri Sankara’s Bhashyas; but he is
sure to feel diffident to claim for himself a thorough grasp of the subject, if
he has not studied the ‘Vedanta Panchadasi’ which can rightly be called a
‘manual of Advaita Vedanta’. The already existing Ramakrishna commentary in
Samskrit upon this text and the Telugu translation thereof, it is felt, are
neither exhaustive nor easily intelligible. Hence the need of a fresh Samskrit
commentary and a Telugu translation. Sri R. L. Somayaji had already published
an original, exhaustive and easily understandable Samskrit commentary, and won
laurels from the Samskrit scholars. The volumes under review are intended for
the non-Samskrit-knowing Telugu public. Herein we have the original sloka in
Samskrit, with a word to word meaning in Telugu. Then follows an exhaustive
Telugu commentary explaining the idea of the sloka in detail, with quotations
from the Upanishads wherever necessary. The first 55 pages are devoted to a
synopsis of the complete text, and this is of immense help to all the readers.
It needs no saying that these three volumes richly deserve to be treasured by
all Andhras that desire to have a clear idea of the Advaita Philosophy taught
by Sri Sankara and Vidyaranya.
Sri Siva Sankara Kritulu:
Collected lyrical and dramatic poems of Sri Tallavajjula
Siva Sankara Sastri. Published in 2 volumes together comprising over 800 pages,
by his son Sri Krittivasa Thirthulu in commemoration of his Shashtipurthi,
under the auspices of The Sahiti Samiti, Repalle. (Price Vol. I Rs. 7 and
Vol. II Rs. 6.)
Sri
Siva Sankara Sastry has earned for himself a respected place in the history of
Telugu literature. He is one of the pioneers that led, in the early stages, the
literary renaissance in Andhra. Through his own prolific literary output, and
even more, through the literary magazine Sahiti, which he edited with
commendable ability and zeal for a number of years, he inspired, encouraged and
influenced his contemporary poets, some of whom later rose to be stars of the
first magnitude on the literary firmament of modern Andhra. The volume, variety
and quality of his own poetical output, exhibited in the publications under
review, should reveal to the younger generation of these days, the tendencies
in theme, poetic form, style, versification and diction which characterised the
movement of which he was one of the prominent leaders.
Apart
from the historical value to the regular student of literature, these volumes
afford to the general reader a very entertaining and enlightening reading
material in verse, of considerable volume, variety and literary quality.
Vanivilasa Vanamalika:
Tekumalla, Rangasayi. Pp. 450. Price Rs. 9-6-0. Published by the–Government
Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras.
Rangasayi,
the author of this encyclopaedic work in Telugu verse, was a contemporary of
Pushpagiri Timmana who lived in the latter half of the 18th century. The poet
herein has covered a vast range of useful topics both mundane and spiritual,
called from Vedic, Puranic, and Sastric literatures in Samskrit, and couched
them in chaste and fluent epic style, so that the reader can peruse and digest
the essence of all valuable knowledge given in Samskrit literature. We strongly
recommend this book to all libraries.