REVIEWS
The Essential Unity of
all Religions by Dr. Bhagavan Das, (Theosophical Publishing
House, Adyar, Madras, 20.)
The
different religious traditions clothe the one reality in various images, and
their visions could embrace and fertilize each other, so as to give mankind a
many-sided perfection. What is needed ii a fellowship (and not a fusion) of
faiths. We need an outlook on life reverent to the eternal values and
responsive to temporal events.
Bharataratna
Dr. Bhagavandas, the distinguished scholar and philosopher, demonstrates this
thesis in his monumental work on the essential unity of all religions. Eleven
religions, viz., 1. Shintoism, 2. Taoism (or Laotsism), 3.
Confucianism, 4. Vedism (or Sanatana Dharma, commonly called Hinduism), 5.
Buddhism, 6. Jainism, 7. Sikhism, 8. Zoroastrianism, 9.
Judaism, 10. Christianity and 11. Islam are usually regarded as great, living,
and current at present. The book is evidently the result of a laborious study
of all these, and contemplation spread over a long period, and brings together
1150 parallel texts from the sacred books of these eleven living religions of
the world, in the original, with their English translations. All these texts
are arranged systematically in three parts: 1. the way of knowledge (Jnana), 2.
the way of devotion (Bhakti), 3. the way of works (Karma) which are also shown
to be common to all religions. The author succeeds in developing a taste in the
readers for discovering identities of thought in great records of the deepest
human experience in different languages. Without attaining such synthesis,
humanity cannot attain happiness here or elsewhere.
Dr.
Rajendra Prasad, the President of India, in his Foreword to this book, rightly
observes that the reason for the repetition of crusades, Jehads and individual
persecutions was that the people had not cared to study and understand the
fundamentals of different religions, and instead of appreciating their
essential unity, laid emphasis on the differences of form. Pursuit of wisdom
and practice of love are the basic assumptions of all living faiths. In the
words of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the scholar-philosopher, this book which points
out that there is a transcendent unity of religions, in spite of the apparent
empirical diversity, helps towards inter-religious
understanding.
Dr.
Bhagavan Das, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the origin and growth of
different religions, has made a notable contribution towards bringing people
together on the plane of mind and spirit. In the fitness of things, there is no
copyright in this book. The author feels, evidently that there can be no
originality in truth and there is only one eternal Truth for all to copy.
Herein he reminds us of Count Leo Tolstoy, who renounced copyright over his
books. This is a book that deserves to be read, re-read and digested inwardly.
A great book like this is like a great symphony which must be heard many times
before it can be really understood. The motto of live and let live, of
tolerance and of toleration, and above all, the Realisation of
unity in diversity, is reflected in every page of this book. When the mass man
becomes the moral man, a community of mind with universal loyalty is created
and it becomes possible to live up to this motto.
The
author strives his utmost to clear the mists of misunderstanding and give to
the world a friendly countenance and character calculated to dissolve the rigid
postures and frozen attitudes and unveil rich horizons of the human spirit.
Asoka in his 12th Edict proclaimed, “He who does reverence
to his own sect, while disparaging the sects of others, wholly from attachment
to his own, with intent to enhance the glory of his own sect, in reality,
by such conduct, inflicts the severest injury on his own sect. Concord
therefore is meritorious.” In this connection, altruistic ideals like Sarvesham
Santirbhavatu, Sarve Janah Sukhinobhavantu, Sarvadeva Namaskara, meaning
let there be all round peace and happiness, equal homage to all Gods, are
significant. The printing and get up leaves nothing to be desired. The book
deserves to be translated into the different languages of the world. It is a
great book that the Doctor has given to philosophers and pious men for reverent
study, as Rajaji aptly puts it in the course of his appreciation.
108 Kritis of Sri
Tyagaraja. With Text and Notation in Devanagari Script with
Gamaka Signs. By C. S. Ayyar, B. A. (With a Foreword by Musiri Subrahmanya
Iyer, Sangita Kalanidhi. Published by the Author at 46, Edward
Elliots Road, Madras 4. Price Rs. 10. Postage Extra.)
Great
poets and composers belong to the world and not to any geographically limited
area. It is a mistake to call Tyagaraja a Telugu composer and Rabindranath a
Bengali poet. And whatever the race or religion, and the language in which the
creative artists expressed themselves, they have sought Truth and their paths,
though different, have led them to One God. Tyagaraja’s in his musical
compositions is the supremest expression of the universal mind. Since there is
nothing like a universal script which everybody in the world could read,
Devanagari, known to many people in India, in. spite of the fact that the
country is linguistically broken up now, has been adopted by Mr. C. S. Ayyar
to present a hundred and eight kritis of Tyagaraja. The publication happily
coincided with the hundred and eighth year of the
musician-saint’s death. To the inestimable value of the Sanskrit script, Mr.
Ayyar has added further: very tactfully he has introduced the extra letters of
Telugu by means of symbols.
The
crown and glory of Karnatic Music are its graces and quartertones. To notate a
composition completely, with all the gamakas and srutis, is an
impossible task. To a person well-versed in Karnatic
music, the graces and quarter-tones come spontaneously. The mere mention of the
name of the raga on the top of the kriti would
suffice for him. But, since the aim of the book under review, according to its
editor, is to “give Hindustani musicians in particular, and the world at large,
a clear grasp of the melodies themselves,” the use of some of the gamaka signs
(peculiar to violin–as the three violin plates show) is really a welcome
feature.
But
the gamaka ‘Andolika’, says the author in his Grammar of South Indian
Karnatic Music is “a word I have coined to mean a shorter Andola, that
is a gamaka within the same svara,” This is only Andolita, a
gamaka described by Sarangadeva; Aandolito laghuvegataha. And Andolika
is the name of a raga as well.
Tyagaraja’s
compositions are very pliable and offer great scope for modulations. His direct
disciples preserved in palm leaves the compositions taught to them. Even then
pieces attained slight variations in each disciple’s hand and hence the
versions such as the Walajapet paddhati, the Umayalpuram paddhati etc.
These direct disciples in their turn have taught many more of their own
students who were innumerable, so that at present one comes across a music
school in every street, Thus the compositions of Tyagaraja are so deviated from
the original that even the front-rank musicians, instead of trying to preserve
the authenticity of the piece show off their skill by polishing and
embellishing the kriti. This assuredly is not to its advantage.
To
record the pieces of great composers, the original tune of the composition has
got to be maintained. This Mr. Ayyar has competently done. His capacity to take
pains has been immense. While he hopes for a world-wide recognition of his
work, and legitimately too, one feels that 108 Kritis of Sri Tyagaraja would
have been complete if the author had given all the charanas for the
multi-charana pieces and a general annotation for each composition. But, all
the same, we are his debtors, for what he has given us; his is a noble
enterprise in the vast and difficult field of music.
Buddha Jayanti
Souvenir. (Published by the Buddha Jayanti Celebrations
Committee, Muktyala, Krishna Dt. Price Rs. 6)
Some
of the imperishable monuments in stone and lime, of unforgettable episodes from
the life of Lord Buddha, are recaptured here in photographs as well as graphic
descriptions from the pens of art-critics and scholars of Andhra Desa who have
made a fit occasion of the 2500th Parinirvana of the Buddha, to present
the world of art-lovers and students of history with a well-illustrated Buddha
Jayanti Souvenir volume.
Apart
from messages of persons of importance to mark the occasion, there is a good
number of valuable articles written specially for the occasion as well as
others reprinted from earlier existing writings of eminent men. One such
extract belonging to an earlier speech of Mahatma Gandhi, so long ago as 1925,
looks fitting enough to take the place of honour. Indeed, a sentence as the one
‘In my opinion Buddha lived Hinduism in his own life’, or the other one ‘I
found, Buddhism is nothing but Hinduism reduced to practice in terms of the
masses’ may go a great way to disabuse minds, in some quarters, of a belief in
a totally new religion founded by the Buddha.
The
essays gathered here range in their subject-matter from an ardent appreciation
of some of the wonderful friezes and bas-reliefs of sculptures in such
historical places as Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, Jagayyapeta, Ghantasala and
Bhattiprolu, to erudite discussions pertaining to some of the great masters and
teachers of Buddhism who made Andhra their centre of teaching. Thus Nagarjuna,
Aryasena, Dignaga and Bhavaviveka come in for short sketches of their lives and
messages to humanity. A scrutiny of Buddhistic art in historical perspective
has been made by P. R. Srinivasan in a brief survey, of pre-Buddhistic Art,
while P. R. Ramachandra Rao has dwelt on the influence of Andhra art on
subsequent styles in South India and the East. Somasekhara Sarma diverts us
with a dissertation upon the tooth of the Buddha which became the bone of
contention and the cause of strife among the prominent rulers of the times.
‘Buddhism after the Buddha’, ‘Buddhism absorbed in Hinduism’, and ‘Prakrit
Inscriptions in Andhra’ throw sufficient light on research made by scholars so
far in the respective fields.
Some
of the picture’s included here, of sculpture from China, both in stone and
lacquered wood, are remarkable specimens of expressive art under the influence
of a great art tradition which blossomed forth with the Buddhistic revival in
countries far away from the homeland of Buddhism itself.
We
feel that souvenirs as the one under review are the true indications of a wide
culture and love of art, so much inborn as well as cherished in a sacred land,
and by followers of a religion which tolerated every other true progenitor of
culture and spiritual outlook.
On Art by
Nandalal Bose (Kalakshetra Publications, Adyar, Madras-20, India. first Edition
1956. Price Rs. 10)
‘Art
is creation. It is not an imitation of nature. The dynamic urge and the
deathless energy that are in nature are active, too, in the artist’s own
nature; imitation therefore has no purpose or meaning.’
Perhaps,
the above passage sums up succinctly the entire basis of Indian Art. Those who
are yet uneducated in the values of Indian Art, because of a certain lack of
optical illusion in it which they are familiar with in Western representations,
bound up as they are with rules of perspective, may find here enough material
to make them conscious of a vast region till now concealed from their view. Let
us then listen to what a Master-painter of our times has to say on one of the
most vital of factors necessary for art-appreciation:
‘...one
should remember that a picture is not a vision solely visible to our eyes.’
‘To
our mind’s eye the distant may be as good as the near and a nearby object grown
quite small or totally lost in a loss of emphasis or attention. There are no
fixed standards of measurement for the mind and distances are only relative,
that is, related to its moods. An Oriental artist either knows this or has this
knowledge at the back of his mind. He, therefore, denies that a break of our
eye-habit or an over-stepping of the rules of natural perspective must
necessarily spoil rhythm and beauty in his creations. The mind is the artist
and not the eye. It is the mind that looks at and responds to the created
beauty.’
These
and more vital aspects pertaining to the philosophy of art are discussed in the
pages of this very handsomely got up volume of the Kalakshetra Publications.
The author of this monograph, famous as no doubt he is for his art-creations,
is no less brilliant and clear while dealing with topics intimately connected
with art and art-appreciation.
Eleven
chapters in all, each bearing a title that itself is suggestive of the
significant contents, are supplying the initiated, and the uninitiated as well,
with sufficient information to enable them profit much by a careful study of
and reflection upon them. We are sure to feel that art is long and time alone
is short. Indeed but for our absorbed wooing of arts we could never attain
anywhere near them. No matter what we are, let us try to become better. Let us
reckon that the loss of a sense of beauty not only cuts off a large measure of
emotional uplift but leads to an impairment of physical and mental health.
Teacher and Friend: Being
Volume I of Jesus Christ–Teacher and Lord by Anjilvel V. Matthew, M.
Ed., Ph. D. (Bombay Tract and Book Society, Bombay 8. Price One Dollar or Rs.5)
Dr.
Anjilvel V. Matthew’s Teacher and Friend which forms the first volume of
Jesus Christ–Teacher and Lord provides very absorbing reading for its
qualities of intelligent precision and clarity. Dr. Matthew, devout Christian,
is a reputed name in the field of education, his specialist study consisting in
his application of up-to-date advanced psychological analysis to an
understanding of Christianity. Conceived and presented as a Book of Devotions,
the volume carries 365 Meditations, one for each day of the year–all based on
the teachings of Jesus, “his recorded words.” The ground covered is extensive;
every human problem, every aspect of human life has been touched upon with an
admirable relevancy. The scheme for daily studies in the Gospels, to supplement
the prayer, given under each section, shows the thoroughness with which the
work has been done. Here opens out a domain of spiritual light and opulence; a
prayer a day can well be an aid for any kind of readjustment in adult life, and
for the vital development of young lives toward faith, hope, and charity.
Painted Tigers–Stories
by Manjeri S. Isvaran (Copies can be had from P. Mahadevan, Book-seller, Madras
4. Pp. 134. Rs. 3.)
Sri
Isvaran is an outstanding writer of South India, with an assured place among
the foremost of the Indo-Anglian writers of the time. This volume of short
stories in English should therefore need no introduction or commendation to the
readers of Triveni. The distinguishing features and recognsied excellences
of the author’s work are all in evidence in this publication,–seriousness and
sincerity, psychological analysis, poetic form and symbolism, powerful
imagination, and a rare felicity of expression.
In
the title story of this volume and in another ‘Mango Lane’, he seems to surpass
himself in all his characteristic features, and his art reaches a very high
level of excellence. He presents vivid and realistic pictures of obscure and
out-of-the-way aspects of Indian life and manners. The glimpses of Indian life
presented here should prove particularly attractive to foreigners keen on
understanding the basic facts of our national life and character.
M. S. K.
A Critique of the Five
Year Plans by Prof. M. B. Lal, till recently Professor of
Politics in the Hindu University. (Published by Janatantric Samajvadi Mandal,
Banaras).
This
is the first effort of Prof. Lal after resigning his job and joining the P. S.
Party as an active worker. When a professor turns into a professional
politician, his works cannot be brushed aside as mere political propaganda.
Prof. Lal catalogues a number of drawbacks of the two Five Year Plans, and it
is interesting that he quotes toe Plans themselves in support of his viewpoint.
It deserves to be read by all, planners as well as students, not with a view to
merely criticising the Plans, but to understand the direction in which
improvements should be sought in future.
Parliamentary
Democracy; Report of the First All-India Seminar. (Published
by the Indian Bureau of Parliamentary Studies, 16, Golf Link Road, New Delhi.
Price Rs. 2/8.)
It
may well be said of the present day Indians, politicians as well as laymen,
that they had made a Constitution and forgot about it completely. A democratic
Constitution lives by criticism, otherwise either it perishes or turns into an
instrument of dictatorship. It is in the light of the danger that we should
specially welcome such studies in the working of our parliamentary democracy as
the one sponsored by the Indian Bureau of Parliamentary Studies. What is now
published is the Report of the First Seminar held in February, 1956 Though much
of it deserves to be deleted, and seems to have been included more for show
than for scholarship, there are a few contributions which deserve our special
study, as they give an insight into the actual working of our system. Mention
should specially be made of those of P. Kodanda Rao, M. N. Kaul, N. C.
Chatterjee, and V. B. Gandhi. The Report deserves to be read by all
well-wishers of Indian Democracy.
Mahamahopadhya Tata
Subbaraya Sastry Mahodaya by Sri Karna Vira Nageswara Rao. (Copies can be had
from the Author, Vetapalem P. O. Bapatla Taluk, Andhra Pradesh. Pages 34. Price
As. 12)
The
author, in this brochure, describes in brief, the life and achievements of the
late M. M. T. Subbaraya Sastry, a renowned Samskrit scholar, an unrivalled
dialecticism and, above all, an able teacher who taught intricate subjects with
ease and clarity. He handed on his torch to many of his pupils who are now spread
throughout the Andhra country. This book is written in such a simple and chaste
Samskrit prose that any person even with a smattering of Samskrit can easily
understand it. We commend the author for the felicity of expression that is his
and eagerly await his other publications.
B. K. R.
Sasikala by
Adivi Bapiraju. (Copies can be had from Venkatrama & Co., Vijayawada. Pages
6 plus 114 Price Re. 1)
The
author of this pleasing collection of lyrics was both a poet and a painter of
high rank; and herein, the ‘artist’ in the author is seen pining for the sacred
union with his divine sweet-heart, the Goddess of Art and Beauty. To her he
gives a name ‘Sasikala’ and a local habitation in between the Sun and the Moon
who, he says, are her parents. The path of the clouds is her lovely face and
the moving clouds are her curling hair. Twinkling stars form her eyes and the
dawn is her rosy lip. For her he yearns from his childhood, prays and searches
for her, and at long last be has a fleeting viswn of her bewitching form. She
is not only his sweetheart, but also a yogini whom he approaches with
the utmost care and reverence. He places his flowers of worship, not on her
feet but on the threshold of her temple, in order to avoid annoyance
to her. He sings of her within himself but not aloud, lest he should disturb
her silence. She is again a Goddess to him, whom he worships with
the garlands of his looks and the incense of his breathings, within the temple
of his own heart. At last she comes down, embraces him, soars high up into
regions unknown, makes him divine and now their souls become one. Art is his
and he is Art. This, in short, is the substance of the lyrics.
All
these enchanting lyrics embody worthy feeling and sincerity of utterance. The
chiselled language and remarkable imagery are characterised not only by beauty
but also by propriety. As many of these lyrics were already set to music and
sung by the author himself over AIR, the editors might have indicated the Ragas
of all the lyrics herein, lightening thereby the job of the songsters also.
We wish a wide circulation to this book.
B. K. R.