Heritage of Karnataka: By Prof. R. S. Mugali M.A.B.T., published by The Satyasodhana Publishing House, Fort, Bangalore City, 1946; Crown Oct. xiv + 232; price Rs.4.
The book is a brief and scholarly survey of the
essentials of the history and culture of Karnataka for the last two thousand
years and deserves the careful study of all.
In the first section Prof. Mugali deals with the history of ancient Karnataka as it was during the pre-christian centuries. He has carefully examined all the sources, which yield valuable bits of information on the subject.
Prof. Mugali has not laid much stress on the pre-Dravidian elements of Hindu Culture which later on merged themselves into the Dravidian and Aryan cultures. India had already been colonised by two cultures when the Dravidians came on the scene from somewhere near the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. One of them is the Negrito race and culture, survivals of which are said to be found in the hill-tribes of the Irulas and the Kurumbas of Karnataka and elsewhere in and outside India. They had nothing much to contribute to the later Indian culture as they belonged to a very primitive civilization. The other culture which has made a substantial contribution to both the Dravidic and Aryan cultures is that of the Austro-Asiatic peoples who had their colonies in eastern India and along the east coast of the Deccan. The existence of the jungle-tribe of sabaras in Andhra Desa even today is an evidence in support of this point. They appear not to have been cattle-breed, they had no use for milk, but they were probably the first people to tame the elephant and to domesticate the fowl.
It is not unlikely that the expansion of the
Dravidian speeches in the South has happened over a substratum of Austric
tongues, particularly along the east coast of India. In Telugu there is a large
percentage of words which have no cognates in the other Dravidian languages and
cannot be derived from Aryan sources. Some of them may be Austric. Such words
are apparently rare in Kannada and Tamil. Nevertheless a systematic
investigation into the place-names of Karnataka and Andhra will yield valuable
results and may reveal more Austric elements than we now know.
The cultural heritage of the later
Kannada-Dravidian before he came into contact with the Aryan was rich and
varied and also of a composite variety being a blend of the Austric and
proto-Dravidian cultures. When the Aryans came to India (about 1500 B.C.) they
found the country well-organised with city-civilizations in the Indus valley
and Austric hamlets in the Gangetic plains. It took several centuries for the
Aryans to fight and conquer the Dasas or Dasyus, as they probably
called their Dravidian and Austric foes, and colonize the vast land of
Aryavarta. By about 800 B.C. the Dravidians had been pushed down to South India
and the Austrics into the hills and forests of Bengal and Assam. It was at
about this period that linguistic groups began to crystalise out of the
proto-Dravidian speech. Telugu was the first, in the opinion of all Dravidian
scholars, to form itself into a separate entity. In course of time Tamil and
Kannada became separate dialects and began their independent existence.
The second section of this work dealing with the
culture of Karnataka during historical times is the more fascinating part and
affords delightful reading. It is fully documented with the labours of earlier
scholars in the field. The history of the several dynasties of kings who ruled
over Karnataka and built empires is brief and suggestive. Administration,
social organisation, architecture and sculpture, music, literature, painting,
dancing, education, religions and sects and other such cultural elements have
come in for their due share of evaluation at the hands of the learned author.
All along this interesting survey Prof. Mugali never loses sight of his chief
objective–that of picking out cultural elements which from his analysis appear
to him to be peculiar or unique to Karnataka and as such form a contribution to
Indian culture. Such matters are highly controversial and are worthy of better
study. For example: unless one undertakes a thorough study of ancient works in
Sanskrit on architecture, sculpture and iconography it is impossible to state
with any definiteness, if a particular style or mode belongs to Karnataka or
not. To rely on the statements of Western critics of Indian Art will only be
one-sided. The difficulties here are many and self-complacency must be avoided
at all costs in the interests of historical truth.
The part that Karnataka has played in the cultural
history of India is mainly that of fostering and preserving that culture during
those times when its very existence was threatened by alien invasions. Even
here it would be fair to concede that other peoples of the south have played a
considerable part in a spirit of co-operation. Prof. Mugali’s survey has
suffered to a little extent from his eagerness to pick out cultural elements
which are purely Karnatic in nature. Granting, for argument’s sake, that such
elements do belong to Karnataka, it would be wrong to call them contributions
to Indian culture when they have not spread beyond the boundaries of Karnataka
and become the property of all India. At best they form only regional
peculiarities and every province in India has such things in abundance. They
have not much value, for culture is, to a large extent, the quality of the mind
and spirit of man.
Finally, the question, “What is Karnataka Culture?”
still remains. Those who doubt its existence are dubbed as ‘doubting Thomases’
by the author. The view that Karnataka culture is another form of Vedic culture
is unsound and the view that all that existed or exists in Karnataka is solely
the Product of the physical, mental and spiritual adventures of the Kannadigas
is equally untenable. It is a conglomerate of several cultures, as has been
shown above. It is an aspect, a provincial expression of a larger Indian
culture which also is blend of the very same cultures. In this sense the
contention that there is such a thing as Karnataka culture may be conceded.
Into the great and eternal symphony of Indian culture every province has poured
for its melodious song. It is a great thing if no province has marred the
melody by any discordant tune.
We congratulate Prof. Mugali on the excellence of
his work and the devotion, the earnestness, the anxiety to be dispassionate and
accurate which have gone into the texture of his thought and writing are
admirable.
D. L. Narasimhachar.
“Do Not Go Down, O Sun”: By J. Vijayatunga,
Publishers, Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay; Price Rs. 5.
Written since 1924–in Colombo, Bengal, London and
New York–the poems in this volume sing of diverse moods of one whose sincerity
rings true on every page: no pose, no fog, no fumbling. It spite of occasional
pensiveness and disillusionment, there is a mood of optimism to which the poet
holds on as the title “Do Not Go Down, O Sun!”, indicates.
“Suffer them that are patched
To come to me for such as they will find their
seams matched
In me.”
Sayeth the Lord God in one of the Poems! Sensitive
and kindly, this “eastern Mark Twain,” as one of the reviewers has called him,
though ‘patched’ and footsore can still call on man
“Be thrilled and thrilled, be silent and silent,
pray
Remember that behind all your chromium casements,
A single flower petal can make your heart throb,
And the bleat of a forlorn lamb and the look of a
cradled child.”
K.S.G.
Voiceless India: By Gertrude Emerson Sen, Indian Publishers, Benares; Price Rs. 7-8.
It is embarrassing to attempt a revaluation of a
book which writers of such exalted rank as Tagore and Pearl Buck commend with
rapture and gratitude. One can only welcome this Indian edition and reaffirm
the outstanding Excellencies of the study. What renders this survey of rural
India so fascinating is the deep effort at truth that it embodies and the
profound spirit of sympathy it displays on almost every page. The writer stayed
in a typical Indian village and lived closely with its men and women acquiring
thereby an insight at once keenly human and rigorously objective. She was
worked out in this book a representation of that most baffling and at the same
time the most fundamental part of India. The account is full and vivid and
relates itself to all the major aspects of rural India. It sparkles with lively
portraits. There is a certain delicacy of humour and sweetness of understanding
even in the exposure of things unpleasant and superstitious. What is brought
home to the reader with great imaginative force is the necessity for work in
our villages for emancipating our masses from exploitation, poverty and
ignorance. What runs as an under-current throughout is the recognition of the
elements of beauty and strength in the inarticulate lives of our millions,
which, enlightened reconstruction should conserve with zeal and revitalize with
all the resources of the nation. The republication is opportune and is to be
welcomed as it restates so well the central issue of our national life.
S. S. Raghavachar.
Thought Waves: By Sri Gopalakrishna Adiga. Publishers: Prabhat Sahitya, Malleswaram.
Crown 1/8 size, 82 pages, Price Re.1.
This fine collection of poems by the young and
promising poet Gopal krishna Adiga has come out with an apt and appreciative
introduction by the well-known elderly poet Mr. Bendre. In his introduction Mr.
Bendre has spoken warmly about the madly good qualities of thought and
expression of Sri Adiga, with which one readily agrees. A fine collection.
A.K.P.
Krittike Cluster of Stars: By Sri K.V. Puttappa, Publishers, The Kavyalaya,
Mysore. Crown 1/8th size, 88 pages, paper bound, Price Rs. 1-4-0, Calico bound Price Rs. 2-4-0.
This book is a collection of 75 sonnets in Kannada
by Mr. Puttappa. The Sonnet in Kannada, though of late origin, may be said to
have acquired a finished form to which the blank verse cannot yet lay claim, in
spite of many attempts in that direction. Mr. Puttappa is a master of form
among modern Kannada writers, and has truly acclimatized the sonnet form, as
the present work bears out fully. The subject matter of the sonnets is varied
and ranges from nature description to socialism. Mr. Puttappa’s vigorous
phrasing is seen to good advantage.
Those Drawings and Other Poems: By Sri Raghava, Publishers: The Satya Sodhana
Publishing House. Crown 1/8th size, 64 pages, Price As. 10.
There are six narrative poems in this book. One of
them “Dora” is a translation from Tennyson, another is a historical piece and
the rest are imaginary themes.
The book has answered to some extent the need for
narrative verse in modern Kannada. Mr. Raghava has a simple and natural style
best suited for narrative poems. We hope the author will give us these in
greater variety and quantity.
Kavitanjali: (Three Poems of Sri Aurobindo rendered into Sanskrit–by T. V. Kapali
Sastry, with the original). Sri Aurobindo library, 369, Esplanade, Madras;
Price Re.1.
The Translator has accomplished a most difficult
task admirably. During the process of re-wreathing the original ideas into a
garland of Sanskrit phrases, many changes are unavoidable; some of the flowers
are lost, and the color scheme gets changed occasionally. The Poem “Who” is
rendered so well, that the English verse might be taken to be a translation of
what had always been in Sanskrit! In other poems, where the texture of thought
is Western, the translator has had to resort to paraphrasing, and to a certain
amount of elaboration. It is a tribute as much to the translator’s scholarship
as to his devotion and his deep understanding of the Master that the Sanskrit
verses rise to classic sublimity in several places.