REVIEWS
ENGLISH
Immersion–by
Manjeri S. Isvaran (Published by S. Viswanathan, 11 Mcnichol Road, Chetput,
Madras) Price Rs. 2.
A
long-short story of great power and pathos, Immersion is Isvaran’s
latest contribution to Indo-Anglian literature. It opens on “a night of
peculiar charm...when nature is a little doubtful of her moods, doubtful which
way to plunge, into playfulness and gaiety or don the sable of tragedy.” But
time and opportunity conspire to make it highly tragic. A young middle-class
Hindu householder journeys to Benares with his wife for the ceremony of the
immersion of his father’s ashes in the holy Ganges. The situation is common
enough, for millions of devout Hindus have thus traveled and reverenced the
spirits of their ancestors. But the pot containing the ashes drops mysteriously
from the axle of the bullock cart to which it is tied, and while Akhileswaran
is away on a frantic search, the gay cartman–so we infer from later
developments–defiles Jagadambal. Akhileswaran returns with the pot, and in his
profound relief at its recovery, notices nothing beyond an accentuation of
reserve and a moodiness on her side. In the train journey to Benares,
Jagadambal after intense mental agony finally resolves to immolate herself:
thus only could atonement be made for a sin for which she was not responsible.
Till the end, her one anxiety is to keep from her adored husband the knowledge
of the happenings of that fateful night. To Akhileswaran, therefore, it is a
case of drowning by accident, at the moment of the immersion. But life is
bereft of all meaning, and he returns home with the family priest. At the
identical spot, the same cartman meets with death by accident; the bullocks shy
at sight of a ghost and he is thrown off.
Such, in bare outline, is the story which Isvaran, by his imaginative insight, has invested with the qualities of a minor epic. Jagadambal is sacred beyond words, and round her Isvaran has woven a picture of Indian womanhood,–gentle, loving, and highly sensitive– “her big, dark eyes veiled by long lashes, eyes through which the soul could only have looked at the beauty and the benignity of the world.” She certainly deserved to be happy, and why should she, of all persons, have been chosen for an intensely tragic end? But Fate is relentless, and its victims apparently have no choice.
In
his “flash backs” Isvaran gives beautiful vignettes of South Indian life–the
peaceful village home, the joint family, the acute but cynical priest. A lesser
artist would have indulged in prurient details of the central incident, and
evoked our disgust rather than pity. There is a fundamental purity is Isvaran’s
mental and emotional make-up which saves him from lapsing into indecency.
Isvaran’s
prose style is instinct with the quality of poetry. There is a wizardry of
words when he speaks of gardens “clamorous with jasmine and
rose,” or of the magic of youth “throwing the rainbow woof of yearnings Over
the warp of romance.” And his sense of pity for erring humanity is expressed
poignantly: “Alas! How thin is the division between the dream for the ideal
feminine and the blinding desire for the female flesh!” His descriptions of
nature, especially during the two nights of the cart journey in chapters One
and Fourteen, remind one of Hardy’s picture of Egdon Heath.
Isvaran’s
art takes a powerful turn with Immersion. This must be the prelude to
loftier achievement in creative writing, and the portrayal of life in its many
facets.
Milton’s ‘Paradise
Lost’–by Dr. M.V. Rama Sarma, M.A., Ph.D. (Published
by Atma Ram & Sons, Delhi. Pp. 80. Rs. 2–8–0.)
Part
of the author’s thesis for the Doctorate degree of the University of Wales and
a professedly oriental approach to the great English classic, the book is not
merely an interesting addition to the corpus of literary criticism in English
on Milton’s Paradise Lost but a progressive step in the process of the
inevitable evolution of a common outlook and standards of literary criticism
for the literatures of different nations.
To
every Indian student of English Literature, the Grand Style the high
seriousness of utterance, the lofty moral intention to “justify the ways
of God to man”, the deliberate choice of a theological theme for the epic
poem–have all a natural appeal, none of them causing any surprise or requiring
any justification. But the really remarkable gain to the appreciation of the
poem resulting from the oriental approach is mainly with regard to the
recognition of Santa Rasa as the, dominant aesthetic emotion of the
entire poem, and of Adam as the real hero, a Santa Vira, exhibiting
heroism not of the traditional but of a spiritual order, consisting of
self-knowledge, self-mastery, discrimination patient endurance, and
joyous, submission to the will of God acquired through suffering and repentance.
It will be too much to claim that these findings are original or quite new to
students of literary criticism on Milton’s Paradise Lost, but it cannot
be denied that they gain in clarity and definiteness immensely, when they are
seen to be the natural results of a fresh approach to the poem from the point
of view, and with the critical method and equipment, of an alien literature.
There are other advantages too of
considerable importance. The last Books are found to be necessary for the
artistic wholeness of the poem and its structural symmetry. Satan’s character
is shown to fit appropriately into the theme and structure of the poem. The
arch-rebel is found to be neither a great hero held up for our admiration nor
the despicable toad of tradition, but a contrast and a warning to Adam and just
another interesting instance of the Divine Dispensation.
The
experiment reveals at the same time the futility of a too detailed application
of the critical nomenclature and methods of one literature to another. The
needless classification of the Mahabharata as an authentic epic as
contrasted with the literary epic of Milton’s Paradise Lost is an
instance of the consequences of such a procedure. Dr. Sarma finds himself
obliged to concede that, though authentic, the Indian epic possesses many of
the characteristics of the literary epic in theme, structure, characterization
and tone. The attempt to detect the principles of Bhakti, Jnana and Karma
so beautifully elucidated in the Gita (in the Mahabharata),
in the lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the enumeration of the
occasions for the evocation of all the other Rasas as subsidiary, are
other examples of the same kind. We trust that the thesis of Dr. Sarma will
provoke further thought on his subject as well as his method.
M.S.K.
Lilies in the Lake–Selected
Poems of Mahamahopadhyaya Kavi-sarva-bowma Sripada Krishnamurti Sastri.
Translated by R. M. Challa. (The original poems and the translations side by
side). (Publisher R. M. Challa, Bhimalapuram, W. Godavari Dt. Price Re. 1-4-0.)
Here
are renderings or a few poems of the grand old man of Telugu Letters, recently
selected by the Madras Government for the honour of the Telugu Laureateship.
Mr. Challa wishes thereby to introduce “a spark of Mr. Sastri’s poetic genius
to the wide world in its known language.”
‘There
can be no doubt that such attempts constitute a laudable contribution to
inter-provincial understanding and the cultural unification of the country
besides tending to raise the standards of literary achievement in the various
regional languages by providing opportunities for comparative study and
consequent objective criticism, and a wider outlook.
It
is really a formidable task to render into English verse of regular metrical
patterns, even with, occasional liberties, the mostly descriptive lyrics of Mr.
Sastri here selected as the ‘best translatable’; and the translator deserves to
be congratulated on his achievement. But, perhaps, he would have found free
verse a more suitable medium, more easy and at the same time more effective,
for bringing out the characteristic metrical features as well as the poetic
idiom and style of the original.
Mr.
Challa has done well in introducing the poet and his work in a neat little
Preface and in providing footnotes wherever necessary for explaining the sense
or the beauty of the original poem which could not be brought out in the
translation, particularly in cases of sustained pun or play upon words, (slesha)
in which the Laureate, as every poet of the old order, delights and excels.
M.S.K.
Athadu–Aame (He
and She) by Dr. Wuppala Lakshmana Rao, Published by Komarraju Vinayaka Rao,
Vijayawada, Pp.240; Rs.3)
Fiction
is in great demand but it is only short stories and translations
from other languages that one finds in large numbers in the literary output of
Andhra. Original works of fiction of any considerable length in
Telugu are indeed few. This literary effort of Sri Lakshmana Rao, original in
form as well as theme, is therefore a valuable contribution to Telugu
literature. The form–a series of extracts alternately from the dairies of a
husband and wife–has been exploited with remarkable success for the purposes of
characterisation and social criticism.
The
author evidently believes like the heroine of his novel, that art should serve
a social purpose and attempt to represent and interpret life and uplift and
guide humanity. The theme is the married life of an English educated young
woman (an M.A.) and an England-returned young man (a barrister), each of independent
views and of a strong determination to shape life deliberately brought together
and held together, in spite of their many differences, by genuine mutual love.
The story has therefore the interest of a social experiment to the reader.
The characters are
presented with admirable skill and the effects of the interaction of elemental
and inherited natural impulses with the influences of education and purposeful
planning, and of both with the currents and cross-currents of the social
environment, are traced with keen insight and rare imaginative power.
Incidentally
the author gives us his analysis of the social and political situation in the
country in the stirring years of the thirties, from the point of view of
sensitive and educated upper middle-class people. One cannot help noticing the
pronounced partiality of the author to the fair sex in endowing the heroine
with all the virtues of sensibility, moral alertness, a warm heart and an
aspiring soul, while helping on the poor husband all weaknesses and vices,
materialism, egotism, self-deception, compromising, sophistry and hypocrisy.
Still, Sastri remains a lovable character, redeemed by his genuine love and
respect for his chosen partner. There is little attempt to differentiate the
language and style of expression of the hero and the heroine even in their
diaries, where they are supposed to speak to themselves. It is also to be
regretted that almost every page should be disfigured by numerous errors and
absurdities in the words.
M.S.K.