REVIEWS
Letters by Srinivasa
Sastri edited by T. N. Jagadisan.
Asia Publishing House,
Epistolary
Composition is, by its very nature, conducive to sincerity of thought and
sentiment, and simplicity and naturalness in style, and consequently to direct
revelation of the personality of the writer. If the writer happens to be
endowed with an impressive and attractive personality, and a mastery of
expression in the language employed, and is concerned with important events, and
interesting situations and characters, the letter acquires literary quality.
The
Right Honourable V. S. Srinivasa Sastri was well
known, even in his early career as a teacher, for his consummate mastery of the
English language. He was an ardent patriot, who gave up his career as a
teacher, in which he had earned an enviable reputation and achieved a
remarkable success at a comparatively young age of 37, to join the Servants of
India Society, so that he might devote himself entirely to the service of his
country. By the sheer weight of his character and talents, he came to playa
prominent part in historic events, came into contact
with important men in high office or position in public life, and maintained
friendly relations with them. For over forty years, from 1905 in which he
applied for membership of the Servants of India Society, till almost his death
in 1946, he occupied an honoured and distinguished
position in the public life of his country.
So
when in 1944 his letters were first published in a volume, it was hailed as an
enrichment of our literature as well as our public life. No wonder; such a
distinguished scholar and discerning judge as Sri P. S. Sivaswami
Aiyar had declared “Mr. Sastri is our greatest letter-writer. I have had
letters from almost all of our great Indians. I don't think any other can write
a letter half as delightfully as Sastriar. There are
other orators; but he is our only letter-writer.”
As
the editor points out in his preface to the first edition, “A certain pure
engagingness, an effortless manner, an unmistakable glow of human warmth, a
keen and lofty intellectuality, and a charming
personality, excelling and revealed, in the creation of character, incident,
attitude and style,” constitute the uniform and distinguishing quality of the
letters and assure for the author an important place in Indo-Anglian literature as a master in the art
of letter-writing.
A
special feature of this volume of letters is the inclusion in it, in addition
to the letters of the author, of several others on received by him from his
correspondents. These serve not only to enable the reader to understand clearly
and appreciate adequately the letters of Sri Sastriar,
but also to render the situation, in which the letters were written,
dramatically vivid.
The
addition, in the second edition, of many new letters was relating to the Round
Table Conference in London, enhances the value of the publication considerably,
by contributing to provide for tragic the readers, almost an exhaustive account
of the parts played by the various illustrious participants, Indian and
British, of the historic Conference, in the discussions, and through them, in
the evolution of the political destiny of the country at a critical juncture.
The
letters of Mr. Sastri, published in this volume, are addressed to a wide
circle, the members of his family, friends, followers, men in high office and
important positions in public life, and therefore offer a wide variety in
content, attitude, tone and style. They cover a long period, almost the entire
public career, of the great patriot and statesman, extending over more than
forty years, beginning with his letter to Gokhale in 1905, seeking admission to
The Servants of India Society, and ending with the letter from his deathbed in
1946 to Mahatma Gandhi. Thus they provide an interesting study of the public
life of the country during the historic struggle for political freedom in the
first half of this century.
The
youngsters of the present generation who could not have enjoyed the pleasure
and privilege of listening to the eloquent speeches of the renowned
‘silver-tongued orator of the Empire’ should all feel grateful to the editor
for the compensation he has provided for them, in this publication of the
letters of the statesman, which, according to him, reveal the personality,
talent and character of the great man, more clearly and fully.
The
book is a classic, and is bound to occupy a prominent place in Indo-Anglian literature. It should prove a boon to students and
teachers of English language and literature at our Universities,
in particular, and to all interested in literature, politics and public
affairs, in general.
The
appendices giving the main events in Mr. Sastri’s
life, and select biographical notes on the personalities referred to in the
letters, should be both interesting and helpful to the readers.
The
printing and get-up of the book is very good as is usual with The Asia
Publishing House.
–M. S. K.
Dawn
of Wisdom by Swami Rajeswarananda.
Published by Ganesh & Co. (
The
book constitutes the second volume containing the editorials written by the
learned author as Chief Editor of the journal The Call Divine. The first
volume was entitled The Divine Awakener containing the editorials upto 1960. Dawn of Wisdom contains the editorials
written after 1960 in the above journal. Swami Rajeswarananda
has covered, in the present volume, a large number of subjects dealing with the
psycho-spiritual life of man. The author combines simplicity with lucidity thus
making difficult and abstruse subjects fundamentally fall in line with the
modern mystical trend in religious and philosophical thought. It is most
significant to note that modern man, who otherwise resents any mention of religion,
can be persuaded to respond sympathetically to religious experience through the
doorway of modern science and the investigations of modern psychology. Swami Rajeswarananda has used the doorway of psychology to give
his readers a glimpse of deep and profound religious experience.
In
dealing with the subject of religion and spirituality, Swamiji
has drawn the attention of his readers to the Problems of the Human
Mind. Speaking about the Mind, the learned author says:
“Time,
space, and causation form the very moods of the mind. For without time, no
thought of anything is possible, without space, no conception of anything is
possible, and without causation no consideration of anything is possible….These
three are the ultimate categories to which all the phenomena of the world can
be reduced….Yet they are not of an objective existence, but are merely the
subjective forms of the intellect. In other words, they exist only in the mind,
making up its structure and covering up all the outer phenomena.”
The
above passage indicates the limitations of the thought-process. Thought always
moves between two points. Time and Space are the two points of the mind–and
causation is indeed the movement between these two points. Time and Space are
not two different things. They are a pair always found together. To postulate
the one, is to bring into existence the other, for, thought is unable to
function except in the field of duality. And so, non-dual experience can
never be comprehended by a thought-process, however subtle it may be. Since all
true spiritual experiences are non-dual in nature they can be known only in the
transcending of the thought-process. This has been the main teaching of Sri Ramana Maharshi, and Swami Rajeswarananda has expounded the teaching of the Maharshi in a very simple and yet clear manner. It is
interesting to note how the approach of Vedanta is becoming more and more
acceptable to the scientifically trained intellect of today. It was Aldous Huxley who said that Vedanta is the only scientific
religion which can be acceptable to modern man. The present
book a simple exposition of the profound doctrines of Hindu Vedanta. As
the author says:
“The
real aspirant after Truth has to express an intuition of the Infinite to go
beyond the positive and negative features of relativity. The absolute is beyond
the boundaries of relativity. All experiences with an experiencer
and experienced are inevitably relative, perishing and passing.
“Relativity
is only an experience between an apparent pair of opposites such as pain and
pleasure, life and death, etc. And as such, knowledge is one of a pair, and the
other is ignorance in the field of relativity. They both either live or die
together, and one without the other does not exist.
“The
aspirant has to go beyond the so-called pairs of opposites, the dual throng of
life.”
One
can go on quoting passage after passage from this illuminating book calling our
attention to the Dawn of Wisdom even in the midst of the spiritual darkness
that surrounds us.
Messrs
Ganesh &
–ROHIT MEHTA
Rasikan Kathaigal (A
collection of short-stories) by N. Raghunathan.
If
creative literature should depend, to a large extent, upon a growing intimacy
with life, these stories of
The
first of these stories transports us from day-dreaming into a world of bare
realism. The unbridgeable hiatus between status on the one hand and social
inferiority on the other, cannot be better brought home than in the way a
luscious jack-fruit decides the fates of two little boys of tender age, who
having been what they were, felt unable to draw the line demarcating the haves
from the have-nots, at any rate so far as their instincts led them to taste the
fruit. If proud adversity also can occasionally retaliate at insolence offered
for no reason, it only justifies the episode where a woman of no consequence
was cut to the quick by the grudgingly delivered jack-fruit by one whom she had
no reason to respect, especially after what had taken place, painfully
reminding her of her lower rank in society.
The
last story in the volume treats of a good-for-nothing son-in-law whose term
of smug, comfortable existence in his father-in-law’s residence is brought to a
sudden close through his own folly of over-staying there. His natural
disinclination for employing himself in any work of usefulness makes the denoument all the more deplorable when the hero receives
the rude shock of his life from a menial (a bullock cart driver) of his
father-in-law’s household, irreverently handling him, to his utter
discomfiture.
In
between these two, there are eight other stories of varying lengths, most of which
convey to us graphically all the disconcerting situations life abounds in, for
those who cannot but share such experiences, with no small personal sacrifices,
in a very rapidly-changing world. Two of them, the one concerning an actor of
the street-drama and the other a peasant, respecting time-honoured
traditions of loyalty to masters, and to the soil which rewarded him for honest
labour, preserve for us in no ordinary degree some of
the highlights of racy narration and analysis of human character in all its
intricacies. The suspense, maintained to the last, in the story of the artist’s
wife, till the revelation of her identity, proves without doubt the deftness
and power of it sustaining interest in a story, not commonly found in many
writers, whose vain purpose is to provide surprises at every turn in order to
rivet the readers entire attention on their capacity to hold them in their
grip. The other story of the farmer easily makes the reader throw back his
imagination to bygone times, when plenty and different values influenced our
rural economy, now, alas, never to return. The contrast of the present, painted
by the author, is convincing enough to demonstrate what a heritage of
simplicity and ordered life we have lost, with our new-born ideas and regular
plans for progress.
As
limited number of stories in this volume by no means sets any limit to our
enjoyment of the three hundred odd pages in this collection. Indeed, apart from
the naturalness and ineffable endearment, for the simple life and inexpensive
entertainments of the village so well described in the narration, a golden
thread of fulfilment and faith in a way of life, that
is no longer possible, runs through an otherwise definitely realistic
portrayal. Very engaging no doubt are some of the snatches of dialogue with a
touch of irrepressible humour and peculiarity of Tanjorean dialect which prove of absorbing interest in
chosen contexts.
Raghunathan’s
stories have certainly a place in modern Tamil fiction. Fortunately for him, he
belongs to no particular group of writers so as to attract attention for extra
praise or condemnation from friendly or opposite camps. In his case, his rare
gifts for penmanship in English have not in the least robbed him of his inborn
talents to express himself in his own familiar mother tongue. When every day we
greet a fresh star swimming into our ken with no great claim either to
originality or equipment in literary studies, we extend our welcome to a
disciplined writer of Raghunathan’s long record of
close and deep knowledge of three great literatures, to the field of fiction in
Tamil, already teeming with numerous aspirants to both recognition and awards.
–K.
CHANDRASEKHARAN
Andhra
Yakshagana Vangmaya Charitra
(A History of Telugu Yakshaganas)
by Dr. S. V. Joga Rao.
Pages 875. Price Rs. 10. Published by The Andhra
University, Waltair.
This is a thesis by the author for his Ph. D. Degree of the Andhra University. This is also the first comprehensive work dealing with Telugu Yakshaganas, wherein we have a harmonious blending of music, dance and literature, and which, unlike some other forms of literature, was once a source of amusement both to the poor and rich, literate and illiterate, and peasant and prince alike in olden days, though it has now fallen into oblivion.
This
massive volume of 900 pages is divided into two parts. In the first part the
learned author traces the origin and meaning of the word Yaksha
from ancient Sanskrit and Telugu works, and then enters into a discussion of
the origin of the Yakshaganas. He establishes with
convincing arguments that the word Yakshas has
relationship with the word Jekkulu in Telugu and Ekkadigolu in Kannada, and that the origin of the Yakshaganas can be traced back to the 12th century A. D. He
refutes with powerful arguments the old theories of Kuravanji
or Bommalata, that it is identical with Harikatha and of the same origin as the Kathakali
dance of Kerala, though he agrees that there are some similarities between
these and the Yakshaganas, and some of them must have
either been influenced by these Yakshaganas or
influenced them.
Then
Yakshaganas of Andhra, Tanjore,
Telangana and Kannada, their distinguishing
characteristics, and methods of presentation are dealt with in detail.
Kuchipudi Bhagavata Kalapamu and Bhagavata Mela of Melattur also are found
described in their context. Then the traditional characters like Sunkari Kondadu, Singi, Singaau and others with
their leading traits are described. Variety of Yakshaganas
according to the nature of their subject matter, distinguishing characteristics
of Yakshaganas with their place and importance in
literature, are thoroughly dealt with. The Anubandhas,
or appendices, five in number, are of immense value to the student of
literature in that they describe in detail with definitions and illustrations.
The
second part is devoted to the literary history of Yakshagana works and their
authors from their earliest beginnings to the present day. In all 465 authors
and 802 works, both extant and extinct, published and unpublished, are
found dealt with in detail, as far as possible.
This
volume, obviously the result of hard labour and
critical study of several manuscripts and published works in Sanskrit, Telugu,
English, Kannada and Tamil, which leaves nothing important un-touched, is a
most valuable addition to Telugu literature. We congratulate the author on his
masterly treatment of the subject and we commend this volume to the Telugu
public and all libraries.
–B. KUTUMBA RAO
Rashtrapati
Radhahrishnan–a collection of
essays–edited by Narla Venkateswara Rao. Adarsa Grantha Mandali, Vijayawada.
The
election of Dr. Radhakrishnan to the presidentship of the Indian Republic was hailed the world
over as Plato’s dream come true. The ancient Greek philosopher looked forward
to the day when philosophers would become kings and kings philosophers; But he
might not have imagined that a Sovereign Democratic Republic would ever vote a
philosopher of world stature to its presidentship.
The point that Radhakrishnan’s political ideals are
more broad-based and more advanced than those of Plato, or any other
philosopher for that matter, is effectively made out by the editor in his
detailed and well-written preface to this compilation which is a reprint of
articles originally published in the special number of “The Andhra Jyoti” celebrating the assumption of office by the new
President. Radhakrishnan’s flair for exposition, and
genius for reconciliation, the magic web of his eloquence, the gift of vivid
phrase and the happy expression as a writer, and his enviable mastery of the
English language, are succintly described before the
editor, an avowed agnostic, sums him up as a democrat for with Socialist
leanings, as a humanist who uses the philosopher’s idiom for the promotion of
human welfare. Dr. K. Satchidanandamurti surveys the
progress of his thought by a rapid reference to all his works uptodate. His role as a philosopher, commentator and
idealist is discussed by Messrs. M. V. N. Swami, I. S. R. L. Narayanamurti and K. Venkateswarlu
respectively. The article contributed by the present writer views him as a
bridge-builder, between the East and the West, between the ancient and the
modern, between philosophy and politics and between Man and Man.
–D. ANJANEYULU