Adventures of King Vikrama, by Hansa Mehta. (Oxford University Press, Bombay.
Price Rs. 6.)
“TELL me a story”–is there a ,child that has not
asked so its grandmother, mother, or aunt before retiring to sleep for the
night, and as it listens to the colourful, exciting tales of old falls into a
blissful slumber? In the Adventures of King Vikrama, one recognises
one’s familiar friends of childhood–dreams which have enriched the individual
in the joy of his creative effort and the nation its granary of racial wisdom.
“King Bhoja consulted his astrologers once again to find an auspicious day for
him to mount the throne. At the appointed time, as he was about to mount, he
heard a voice cry, ‘Stop! Stop!’ The king hurriedly withdrew his foot and said,
‘Who speaks?’ We are so well acquainted with the beginning: the statuette
telling the story: intimate as the other refrain in the Arabian Nights
Entertainments–at this point Scheherazade saw the approach of dawn and said
she would continue her story on the following night.’ There’s such a delight in
the nostalgic harking-back. Mrs. Hansa Mehta has taken eight stories relating
to the adventures of King Vikrama or Vikramaditya (‘Sun of Power’) who reigned
in Ujjain, famous alike in legend and history; who defeated the Sakas and
established the Vikrama era in 58-57 B.C. Her version is based on the
translation of the eighteenth century Gujarati poet, Samalbhat. The tales are
written with poetic feeling, simply, and clearly; they have been elegantly
served as illustrator by Mr. Yagnesh Shukla. In Champak Library under ‘Fiction’
Adventures of King Vikrama is the best that the Oxford University Press
has so far issued.
MANJERI S. ISVARAN
Universities and their Problems, by SR. Dongerkerey (Hind Kitabs Limited, Bombay,
Price Rs. 6.)
THERE have been many books on Universities, but, to
my best knowledge, never this kind of book. A University Registrar ought to
know a good deal about a university though there is perhaps a good deal of it
which he cannot tell. He sees it from the inside, as a fly caught in the
mechanism may see a watch: That is, any Registrar. But when the Registrar is a
poet and a man of culture, his view can be all-round too. With great industry
with great patience, has Mr. Dongerkerey built up in this book both the canvas
and the frame given us the facts and the reference; Soberly, tactfully, in a
casually challenging manner, he has recalled for us all the old questions;
asked new ones; modestly indicated answers to a few.
To many of the questions raised by Mr.
Dongerkerey’s compendious volume, there is but one answer; but that answer,
though known, is not forthcoming. As in other spheres of our life, the solution
is found, but the problem remains. That is because ourselves are the problem.
Because we dare not look at ourselves, we never look at a problem full in the
face. Education, to us, is politics. Education is business. Education is power.
Education is humanitarianism. Education is a thousand other things. It is never
simply education. Being human, it is no wonder if it should get mixed up with
all these all-too-human matters. But, none the less, as Mr. Dongerkerey’s book
insinuates, that way madness lies.
The theoretical and historical portions of Mr.
Dongerkerey’s volume are both sound and comprehensive; yet not without as
valuable practical lessons for us, if read between the lines, as the more
ostensibly practical portion wishes to raise: the relation of a university to
Government; the place of examinations; the question of compulsory attendance;
the teacher’s remuneration; the importance of research and the stage at which
specialisation should begin; the value of a liberal education; the place of the
classical languages and of the Fine Arts; the need for reorienting all our
education; military training; the danger lurking in linguistic universities
etc.
As will be seen from this brief and very incomplete
catalogue, not all questions are easily answered, and many bristle with doubts
and perplexities which, given a saner outlook in education, Time alone must
dispel. We must, meanwhile, admire the courage with which the author of this
vertitable guide to Universities, has posed some of them. He may not have given
the final answer to all of them. But, thanks to the provoking and sometimes
provocative, illumination of this seemingly quiet book, those who follow, may.
A.M.
The Man-Eater of Rudraprayag, by Jim Corbett (Oxford University Press, Bombay.
Price Rs. 6.)
TAKING the book in my hand, I wondered what could
be its merits to deserve such fine printing and get-up by the Oxford University
Press. But a cursory glance through the first few pages sufficed to whet my
avidity to read more carefully the chapters contained herein. And what
interesting details gripping the reader’s imagination one gets here!
The entire volume deals with a wicked leopard which
did such havoc among the hill- folk of Rudraprayag and exacted a heavy toll of
more than a hundred and twenty human lives within the course of nearly eight
years. The way the interest in the narration is sustained by gradual stages of
preparation to the denouement, as if in a novel where a celebrated
burglar or murderer is traced by a detective, makes really one’s appetite for
blood-curdling situations grow intenser with the chapters.
Though one finds here bright and effective
descriptions of nature and human psychology interwoven with the graphic
accounts of the main theme of the hunt for the man eater, it cannot be said
that the climax where the leopard is finally vanquished has anything in it much
worthy or the earlier adventures. Rather one smells something of an
anti-climax, because the man-eater is simply shot down without the author of
the deed ever having fixed his aim on it or knowing the consequences of his
being aided by the adventitious factor called luck. Still could we grudge the
sportsman here the vividness of his experiences and the greater vividness of
his powers of expression in narrating those experiences, which may certainly
enlarge the knowledge of those who go out with a rifle in search of big game?
K. C.
Keechaka, by G. P. Rajaratnam (Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay. Re. 1-8 as.)
THIS is an attempt to salvage a play which the late
Mr. Kailasam might have written. The author has depended on the memory of a
close associate of the late playwright for the characterisation, the course of
the plot and for many vivid bits of dialogue. In all probability the late Mr.
Kailasam would have written it in English. This Kannada version is an
improvisation and an effort to reconstruct and preserve the conception of the
deceased dramatist. Keechaka is idealised as a great hero who had renounced the
affairs of the Virata kingdom after he failed to win Droupadi in the
Swayamvara. He is piling up military triumphs and is tired of them. He is a master
of the art of Dance. Virata’s kingdom is described as open to all who seek to
settle in it and Keechaka is its protector and guardian of its larger-hearted
tradition. When he meets the disguised Droupadi, his old memories are kindled.
He is not a lustful monster as in the popular story. He meets Sairandhri
(Droupadi) in the garden and Bheema meets him in a wrestling encounter and
holds him in a death grip–in a scene which is painfully elaborate. Death comes
to Keechaka as a release from a life of frustration and infructuousness. The
traditional story is there and the end, but the characterisation, the sequence
of scenes and a great deal of the dialogue constitute a new approach to an old
theme and a spirit of bold and ingenious invention which generally marked the
late Mr. Kailasam’s treatment of our ancient epic themes and characters.
Sri G. P. Rajaratnam has invested his version with
a classic touch and dignity by adopting old Kannada diction and rhythm.
K.S.G.
Swatantra Bharatada Ashoka Chakradhwaja, by G. P. Rajaratnam (Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay. Price Re. 1-0-0).
THIS is a book telling us all about the National
Flag, the significance of its colours and the Wheel. The author has presented a
mass of antiquarian material bearing on the Asoka Chakra, and expounded its
significance with the aid of extracts from ancient Buddhist literature. The
extracts of stories from historical and legendary sources bearing on Asoka and
Lord Buddha make interesting reading, and relevant extracts from the writings and
speeches of Gandhiji and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru establish the continuity of
the inspiring Indian tradition of Dharma–the working out of which is the
significance of the symbolism of India’s National Flag. This is a book which
every patriotic Indian youth should read, to understand the rich heritage that
is sought to be embodied in our National Flag.
The book is well illustrated and very neatly got
up.
K.S.G.
Thayagaraja Kirtanalu, With a commentary by Sri Kalluri Virabhadra
Sastri. (Andhra Gana Kala Parishat, Rajamahendravaram. Pp. 754, Price, calico
bind Rs. 12 and ordinary Rs. 10.)
THYAGARAJA, the Bhakti yogin, lives even today in
his innumerable Kirtanas, compositions perfect in technique, mellow in tune,
and hallowed with divine melody, which attract the lay votary of music as well
as the classical artist. The members of the Madras Committee of the Andhra Gana
Kala Parishat, one of the many branches of the Gautami Vidya Pitham of
Rajamahendravaram, an institution set up to revive our ancient Vedic learning
and arts, have placed all those interested in the literature of music under a
deep debt of gratitude, by the excellent Telugu publication of his Kirtanas
with commentary by the learned Pandit, Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri. All the
Kirtanas of Thyagaraja so far available numbering nearly 700, are incorporated
in this work. This is thus a unique publication and a definite contribution to
the Telugu literature on music.
Thyagaraja’s is a household flame in South India.
He needs no special mention or introduction. With his birth a new epoch was
ushered into the history of the Karnatic music. It was in the hands of this
master-artist and gifted composer, Thyagaraja, the Telugu brahman
immigrant of Tiruvayyar (Tanjore district), that Karnatic music had
attained its perfection. His Kirtanas were, in fact, the literary expressions
of the emotions of his agitated heart in his secular life, which spontaneously
burst out in the form of concrete musical melodies in the course of pouring out
his heart and the offering of his self at the lotus feet of his supreme lord,
Sri Rama. Thus, each of his emotions and feelings worked out its own way and
expressed itself in enchanting music notes, and in the choicest words and
phrases, which at once appeal to the heart and evoke similar feelings in the
listener. Thyagaraja ennobled the Karnatic music by his innumerable Kirtanas
and seated it on a lofty pedestal, imparting to it a grandeur, all its own. He
was not only a Vaggeyakara but also a great religious teacher. As he was
proficient in the traditional Hindu lore, his Kirtanas exhibit an intimate
knowledge of the Ramayana and of the philosophy of the Upanishads and the
Bhagavadgita, and generally exhort the Hindu mind to extricate itself from
human frailties to attain salvation. The Andhra Gana Kala Parishat is fortunate
in securing the services of Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri, who is eminently
fitted for the work entrusted to him by reason of his profound scholarship and
mastery of the Puranic lore. Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri has not only given
the meanings of the words used in the Kirtanas but also has explained the
Kirtanas themselves in the light of the teachings of the Upanishads and the
Gita and with reference to the Ramayana. Hence, his commentary in Telugu
greatly helps the reader of these Kirtanas to know their full significance. It
is thus doubly useful to the musician and serves as a book of knowledge for the
general reader. A valuable biographical account of Thyagaraja from the pen of
Prof. Vissa Apparao, the editor of the series, and an elaborate introduction
dealing with the inter-relations between music and literature and with several
topics concerning the musical and literary aspects of the Kirtanas, written by
Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri, enhance the value of the work greatly. The
members of the Andhra Gana Kala Parishat and those of the Madras Committee have
to be congratulated for placing before the Andhra reading public such an
excellent edition of the Kirtanas of Thyagaraja. The Andhra Gana Kala Parishat
deserves every encouragement from the Telugu public. We await further important
publications in this series.