REVIEWS

Thyagaraja: Saint and Singer–by S. Y. Krishnaswamy. Orient Longmans, 36-A, Mount Road, Madras-2. Pages 200. Price: Eight Rupees.

While it is impossible to think of the glory of carnatic music, without the contribution of Thyagaraja to this heritage, not many books on the great saint and singer are available in the English language. The present one under notice is a recent publication which combines easy readability with a shrewd understanding of the fundamentals of a difficult subject. The chapter relating to the varieties of Thyagaraja’s mystical experience is among the most refreshingly original in this well-written book. The classification of the musical compositions into Kritis, Kirtans, Pancharatnas and operas is also done with a good sense of discrimination. The reference, however, in more than one place to the poetic genius (‘The stuff of poetry’, ‘poetic imagination’ and the like) of Thyagaraja, seems to reveal a plausible interchange of the values between music and poetry. A great composer is not necessarily a great poet, though he is a genuine saint. Sabda Brahma is not the same as Nada Yogi. A very useful handbook for the general reader.

Risi and Growth of Congress (1832-1920)–by C. F. Andrews and Girija K. Mookerjee. Meenakshi Prakashan, Begum Bridge, Meerut. Pages 204. Price Rs. 20.

First published about three decades ago (on the eve of the Second World War), this authoritative work on the early history of the Congress, done by two eminent authors in collaboration, now appears in a second edition. In tracing the historical background for the inception of the Indian National Congress, Dr. Mookerjee (who had done much of the writing, while the general framework was approved by Andrews) goes back much earlier than the year 1885. He dwells at some length on the religious movements like Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj, and on other social and political forces that were at work during the half-century before the First Congress. The gradual evolution from petition making and affirmation of loyalty to the sovereign to the demand for constitutional reforms is traced with an eye for detail, typical of exacting scholarship. The account is brought up to the Nagpur Congress, at which Mahatma Gandhi’s resolution on non-co-operation was adopted, heralding a new era in the history of the Congress and in Indian politics. The appendices contain useful extracts, the Hunter Committee’s Report and Gandhiji’s speeches on Satyagraha. A handy reference book for the student of Indian political History, useful, if a trifle heavy going.

Makers of Indian Literature–Raja Rammohun Roy: by Saumyendranath Tagore; Ilango Adigal: by M. Varadarajan; Keshavsut: by Prabhakar Machwe; Lakshminath Bezboroa: by Hem Barua–all published by Sahitya Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi–1. Price: Rs. 2-50 each.

Whether there is in fact anything that can meaningfully be called Indian literature is apt to be doubted by those who stand to gain by the assiduous promotion of a negative self-sufficiency in each of the linguistic regions in matters literary and cultural. The worldly-wise advice of good old Polonius of “Neither a lender nor a borrower be” must sound anything but wise in the cultural context of India. There are few literatures which can claim to be altogether sui generis and fewer writers of significance in the modern world who owe nothing to literatures other than their own. Nor can the intelligent student of literature afford to ignore the spirit of the age, which leads to parallel developments in the literatures of the different Indian languages. To him the new series of concise monographs on the “Makers of Indian Literature” sponsored by Sahitya Akademi, is sure to come in handy in setting the perspective.

That Raja Rammohun Roy is the precursor and father of modern India is recognised by almost every educated Indian. But we learn with a pleasant surprise that he was also the author of one of the earliest grammars of the Bengali language and a translation of the Bhagavad Gita into that language. Informed tribute is paid to the synthetic genius of the Raja, who was the anthor of the earliest Bengali dhrupads (devotional songs) and the master of a vigorous polemical prose, in the excellent booklet on him by Saumyendranath Tagore.

It would be difficult to cull historical facts from the life of a poet who must have lived over a couple of thousand years ago. About Ilango Adigal, a lot could be learned from the three facts that he was a prince, that he became a monk and that he wrote the great poems Cilappadikaram and Manimegalai. Those twin classics of the Sangam age, along with Tirukkural and Kamba Ramayanam from the cherished treasure-house of ancient Tamil literature. After discussing the technical beauties of Cilappadikaram Dr. Varadarajan mentions the three great truths exemplified in the epic, viz.,: 1. Aram or the good of virtue will finally destroy the rulers who swerve from the path of righteousness; 2. that great men always adore a chaste woman and 3. that destiny is relentless in making a man suffer for his past deeds.

The Marathi poet Keshavsut and the Assamese writer Lakshminath Bezboroa were close contemporaries, born in the late sixties of the last century, though the former predeceased the latter by more than three decades. But Keshavsut has probably more in common with the Tamil poet Subramania Bharathi and Bezboroa with the Telugu writer and social reformer Veresalingam. Dr. Machwe, in his sympathetic study of the fore-runner of modern Marathi poets, traces all the formative influences on him and presents a vivid image of his personality through a number of useful translations. Prof. Hem Barua attempts a learned analysis of the many-sided contribution of the pioneer Assamese writer who was an essayist and satirist, as well as a patriotic poet and a social novelist.

–D. ANJANEYULU

Masters of Social Thought: by Dr. K. Losterial and Dr. A. K. Sinha. Published by Lakshminarayan Agarwal & Co., Agra. Price: Rs. 12-50.

The social and political philosophers in the book include the thinkers from Manu to Jawaharlal Nehru in the East and from Plato to Pope John XXIII in the West.

Manu was one of the greatest social thinker of ancient India. The basis of his social philosophy was Vedas. He laid the foundations of the Indian social structure through the formulation of precise ordinances. The general framework of the social structure laid down by him prevails even to this day with slight modifications. The supreme example is the caste system. Manu didn’t believe in the idea of equality before law. In his view, laws are not applicable uniformly to the members of all the different castes. For instance, where death sentence is given to a Shudra for committing a crime, the member of the highest caste goes scot-free with a light punishment. Laws however are most rigidly followed in cases where Shudras commit crimes. Manu wrote this 2,500 years ago and after examining the recent events in our country, one comes to the conclusion that our society has not yet emerged from the dirty, old shackles of caste hierarchy. It is rather unfortunate that the counterparts of Manu in the Western world during the same period, including Plato and Aristotle, supported the institution of “slavery” which is a negation of the fundamental principle of any society, viz., “Equality before Law.” Even a brilliant thinker like Kautilya, who gave the masterpiece “Arthasastra” to the world, considered slavery as necessary for the society. The only philosopher who considered man as ‘human’ is Confucius. His philosophy was profoundly humane.

The social and political philosophers of the middle ages were mostly concerned with the relationship of the State with the church and the loyalty of the individual to the church.

With the dawn of industrial era in the West radical ideas on the freedom of the individual, rule of law, were expressed by the social philosophers of the modern era. Herbert Spencer’s view that society changes from simplicity to complexity and from homogeneity to heterogeneity is a far-reaching idea. He was a staunch defender of individual freedom and the system of Laissez faire.

The paper on Angels Ginseppe Ronclli (Pope John the XXIII) is analytical and brilliant. Pope John said that the characteristic features of our times are (1) The working classes have gradually gained ground in economic and public affairs (2) Women have emancipated both with regard to work and public activities. (3) An entirely new pattern of social and political life has emerged coinciding with the end of colonialism. The conviction that all men are equal by reason of their natural dignity has been gradually accepted. Hence racial discrimination can in no way be accepted.

The essay on Jawaharlal Nehru portraying him as essentially a humanist and a leader of the nation who devoted his entire life for the welfare of his country is really good.

All the papers included in the book are on eminent social thinkers whose ideas would influence the ideas of the future generations. The book is useful for the students of sociology and political science as well as for the general reader.

Essays on Economics and its role: by E. K. Swamy. Published by Lakshminarayan Agarwal, Agra-3. Price Rs. 6.

This book is a collection of essays on different topics on Economics and Economic Policies. The topics included in the book range from Gandhian Economics to John Maynard Keynes and in between all topics like stock-exchange, economics of engineering etc., and these topics are not related to one another. The object of the book according to the publishers is to assist the students to study the various problems related to economics and to facilitate them for a further study in the field.

The essay on “Indian Economy since Independence” gives an analysis of the stresses and strains the Indian economy was subjected to since Independence. On the economic policies of the Government the author says “The greatest need of the hour is certainty in the Government in thinking and policy.” Economic plans by themselves will have no meaning unless, within the framework of such plans, the individual has the assurance of being able to plan his business and industrial activity with reasonable certainty. Stabilization of taxation policy and certainty regarding other pronouncements of the Government will be a great psychological factor in ensuring rapid economic development. The author however gives an optimistic note that in spite of handicaps, India has had an impressive record of economic development since Independence.

–V. RAMALINGA REDDY

Writers Workshop–A Miscellany of Creative Writing–Numbers Nineteen to twenty-five: Edited by P. Lal. Writers Workshop, 162/92, Lake Gardens, Calcutta-45. Price: Three Rupees each.

Indian writing in English, of the original and uncommercial variety, be it creative or critical, is often driven to be on the defensive against the western-oriented snobbery on the one hand and a host of regional and linguistic parochialisms on the other. The mass-circulation of the English newspapers and the best-seller publishing houses have normally no use for it. It must, therefore, necessarily find a channel of expression in some of the little magazines in this country (and elsewhere if and when it is possible) which are seen to wage a perpetual battle for survival. If the Miscellany of the Writers Workshop is able to come out with no interruption during the last ten years or so, a lion’s share of the credit for this labour of love must go to the drive and determination, as well as the imagination and enterprise of Mr. P. Lal, who is lucky in his literary colleagues and intellectual friends. The last seven numbers of the publication (nineteen to twenty-five) bear eloquent witness to this.

The volumes, slim as they are, present an impressive variety of themes and forms of expression as also widely varying degrees of creative and critical talent. Lal himself, who started with a noted flair for experimenting with the modern poetic idiom for expressing contemporary sensibility, has revealed, through the years, a surprising familiarity with the Indian classical tradition represented by Sanskrit verse. One of the remarkable features of his translations from the Sanskrit classics is their flexibility. Here is a love lyric of Sriharsha Deva, which is rendered in simple colloquial English, comprised mostly of monosyllables, but it retains a strangely evocative quality:

A woman’s most loving when

She looks, pauses, and just

Lets her eyes speak; or when,

Held in a tight embrace, she

Whispers, “Let me go–you must.”

Then, most lovable and lovely. From this to the Pala court-poet, Yogesvara’s pretty piece of jugglery possibly with a well-worn imagery, but done with an obviously feline grace:

The cloud cat licks

with lightning tongue

moonlight milk

from the bowl of the sky.

The mordant wit and cynicism of a seasoned man of the world is effectively brought out (with familiar contemporary echoes in ‘foreign aid’) in the anonymous piece addressed “to His Majesty”:

Kingship’s complex, Your Majesty,

What I say is: Scratch a king and find a man.

Take this king, he’s wealthy; take that

(Your enemy for instance) –

he’s on the look out for foreign aid.

What I say is: Behind the winning smile is the grinning skull.

Kingship’s ambivalent, Your Majesty.

Some kings rule empires,

Others can’t keep their private parts down.

There is a lot of new verse, some of it by new writers in these seven numbers. Conventional poetic diction has long been discarded and rightly too in most cases. The new writers show promise in the manner in which they are able to fuse poetic experience and modern sensibility and probe the poetic element in what might at first sight, appear too commonplace, not to say unpoetic in many instances. Tilottama Rajan shows a surprising maturity in general and achieves such felicity as in:

We dwell in the marsh of our future

In the centre and read the hieratics of our past

In the dim glow of the phosphorescence from beneath.

The volumes are studded with the dry astringent wit of R. Parthasarathy, the humour and whimsicality of Suneeti Namjoshi and the enjoyable, smart-puppy sort of verbal acrobatics (as in his ‘Kanchenjunga’), among others. Margaret Chatterjee’s portfolio of well-turned verse (especially the neat little one on ‘Winter in Delhi’) is communicative enough for the traditional student of English poetry as well as the modernist. The dozen poems of Kamala Das include some beautiful ones like ‘The Suicide’ which has quite a few moving passages like:

I throw the bodies out,

I cannot stand their smell.

Only the souls may enter

The vortex of the sea.

Only the souls know how to sing

At the vortex of the sea.

….O sea, I am fed up

I want to be simple

I want to be loved

And

If love is not to be had,

I want to be dead

Besides verse, short story and criticism are well represented. The somewhat erratic and explosive paper on ‘English writing in India’ by Anita Seal, in which peevishness seems to pass for profundity is matched by more balanced essays in criticism as the well-documented assessment of Nissim Ezekiel’s poetry by Meena Belliappa and Rajiv Taranath.

–CHITRAGUPTA

Consciousness and Reality: by John B. Chethimattam. Published by Dharmaram College, Bangalore-29. Price: Rs. 10.

Father Chethimattam in the volume under review has broken new ground and has disclosed a fresh Indian approach to metaphysics. Metaphysics in India is described as atma-vidya and it is not a study of nature. The law and the prophet is to know the self. Indian philosophical thought is atman centric. It is characterised by inwardness. The central principle of all philosophical categories is consciousness and all the systems attempt to separate the self from other objects and exhort us to know the true nature of the self and not view it as one other object of the world. The Nyaya system distinguishes the self from all other categories and substances and looks upon the self as the focus of all attributes. The Sankhya and the Yoga ask us to discriminate between the purusha and prakriti and not mistake the qualities of one that of the other. Sankara goes a step further and declares that in essence all is atman and the appearance contrary to it is maya. The author has high-lighted the place and function of consciousness in Indian metaphysics. The real is what consciousness manifests. It is self-business and is the norm of all metaphysical principles. Moksha is nothing other than the realisation of the potential nature of our consciousness. The volume is a comprehensive account of the principle of consciousness in all its aspects as disclosed in Bhagavata, Gita, Vishnupurana, Ramanuja, Sankara and the Upanishads.

The approach to reality from consciousness point of view stands in vivid contrast to study of reality from the rational metaphysics. The conclusions of the study are set forth clearly and neatly in pages 241-249. In short the volume is a valuable contribution to the study of Indian metaphysics. There is a useful select bibliography at the end of the book.

Introduction to Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutras: by Clara M. Codd. The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras-20. Price: Rs. 5.

Clara M. Codd’s translation of Patanjaii’s Yoga-Sutras first appeared in the American Theosophist for some time. On the advice and insistence of some friends the author has agreed to publish it in the present book form. It covers the first two books of the classic. Books III and IV are covered in some 10 pages (144-155) in the form of hints. The Yoga system is a complex of psycho-somatic technique and it is outlined by the sage Patanjali for enabling man to realise his true and unique nature as consciousness principle. A type of fundamental ignorance has involved man in the meshes of pakriti with which man identifies himself, which in its train entails all sorrow and suffering. Yoga is the method of disentangling from the meshes of prakriti. There are a number of English translations and the present one is an easy one and is highly readable. The training prescribed in Yogas with its eight steps is accepted by all the systems of Indian Philosophy. The commentary is influenced by the theosophic view which identifies the message of the Sutras with teaching of the Masters of wisdom of the trans-Himalayan school. The author seeks the assistance of H. P. Blavatsky’s books in his presentation and translation. The author’s intention is to start us on the study and this purpose is well served. The notable omission is the text of the Sutras and their presence would have enabled us to judge the translation.

Yoga and Psycho-analysis: by Dr. Kumar Pal. Published by Bhagavan Das Memorial Trust, New Delhi-l4. Price: Rs. 8.

Dr. Kumar Pal’s book is a comparative study of Yoga and modern Psycho-analysis. The book is a very ambitious presentation of too many aspects and too many details. One is lost in its quotations. The book is divided into five chapters and each chapter is full of information drawn from Eastern and Western writers of repute and distinction. Chapter II is a marvel of the author’s plenty. He explains as many as a dozen Yogas and their nature, besides the eight steps of Yoga of Patanjali. Comparison is instituted between the Indian theories of mind and European theories of the same. We get a clear account of all the aspects of Freud, Adler and Jung’s contributions to Psycho-analysis. Chapter IV is a detailed account of mortal dynamics and questions connected with dreams are discussed fully. The technique of escape mechanics are described; e.g., Sublimation, displacement, fixation, regression and repression, etc. Chapter V sums up the conclusions of the author. Dr. Kumar is not unaware of the differences between the two schools. He lists the glaring contrasts and important differences between the two in a series of points, some 13 in number. The similarities are also listed under eight heads. There is a useful glossary of technical terms at the end of the book. A book of less than 200 pages is marred by long ugly corriganda of 4 pages which should have been avoided by a careful proof-reading.

Thesis of Pre-classical Sankhya: by Dr. K. B. Ramakrishna Rao, Prasaranga, University of Mysore. Price: Rs. 25.

Dr. Rao’s substantial volume is the presentation of his learned doctorate thesis submitted to the Mysore University. In the first part of the thesis the classical Sankhya as expounded in Isvara Krishna’s Karikas is explained. The author feels that “the Sankhya lost its ground not because it did not have the support of the traditions either Vedic or non-Vedic –but because of its extreme nationalism” (P. 432). In the second part, under the title of reconstruction Dr. Rao examines the use of the three principles prakriti, purusha and Isvara in Vedic and non-Vedic systems. The study is objective and attested by valid evidence from scriptures. The thesis is historical and critical. Our author wants us not to conceive the Sankhya as a ready made and unaltered thought-system that has come down to us in its atheistic form, unalloyed through the ages. He also affirms that it is a great blunder to regard its atheistic character as also true of its historical past. The book is a sustained effort to prove his thesis. Even those who find it difficult to agree with the conclusion, will not grudge him a keen and philosophic mind. There is a good Bibliography and a useful index and an avoidable errata. There is no doubt that the volume is a useful contribution in English on the study of Sankhya, the oldest Indian philosophical system.

–P. NAGARAJA RAO

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