THE
BEAUTIFUL AND THE
IN
VISWANATHA’S RAMAYANA
R. M. CHALLA
Eternal
values of endless beauty and bounty in human nature lead it in search of a
divine art.
The
realisation of a divine art is nothing
but the expression of self-perfecting
thought-processes of human
nature. Ever since man has learnt to reveal his inner beauty and truth and
goodness in painting or in
singing or in writing or in
speaking, he never ceased to move towards progressively greater and greater awareness of a higher power
that animates and actuates his constant
wish to better himself.
To translate it into rational terms, the concept of God is no more than the greatest conception of the greatest
conceivable thing. The sages and the savants have all along been able to conceive such an entity outside of their
mundane existence.
Thus
the secret of all artistic
creation is to achieve
something above and beyond the individual’s
material conditions, with a
sense of a non-dual communion with his
superior consciousness-call it the
Supreme Self or Soul or Spirit or what you will.
Valmiki is the first among the Indian poets to accomplish this sublimation: it cannot all be a
fairy tale that an unlettered robber turned into a saintly poet.
Similarly
Viswanatha, whom some of us see and know only as a ‘human being’, has that
divine quality in him which enables him
to write “the pure poetry that the poet creates outside of his personality.
Born, not
made
Vishwanatha, the creator of “Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu”,
has to be separated from the popular novelist
or the unpopular representative of the old brigade”, the famous singer
of lyrics and ballads or the notorious public speaker who seldom fails to ‘create
a scene.’
Only
once in a century do the poets that are “born and not made for the edification of their fellow beings. But it is not
always that the contemporary mind recognises the
rare, single shining light in its midst.
It
is the good fortune of Viswanatha and his readers that a whole nation was able
to find out his unique worth while he is still with us. And it is doubly
gratifying that such awards could single out the poet’s one undying, supreme
gift to his posterity–that the Jnan Pith has not
chosen to reward what is called ‘popular’, that is, his novels.
It
is further noteworthy that this new honour on the
national level will arouse a wider readership for the book–in the original by
the Andhras and in possible translations by non-Andhras.
Merits
For,
let it be said, with proper critical caution and confidence, that
in a sense Viswanatha has excelled every other writer and translator of the
story of Rama. The lyrical historicity of Valmiki,
the metaphysical plausibility of Vyasa (in Addhyatma Ramayana), the devotional fervour
of Tulasidas, the literary grace of Kambar, and the various other virtues in greater and lesser
other scribes who depicted the Dharma of Ramayana with Bhakti, are all proportionately
combined in Viswanatha’s masterwork, Not just that.
He actually proves himself a class apart, in that he alone could depict his
characters with a feeling for Rasa and Dhvani, the like
of which was merely hinted at in other works (including Valmiki’s)
but is not quite evident.
I
have made a tall claim for Viswanatha. So, lest I be mistaken for one of his ‘blind
followers’, let me remind the reader that every other occasion I had to comment
on the poets other works I had been uniformly critical of him. Even today I
should like to say that his prose gives me a pain in the neck and that his criticism
lacks balance. One has to make an exception of ‘Veyipadagalu’
because of its matchless contents–which the uneasy style cannot mar.
“Ramayana
Kalpavrikshamu “ has two
connotations, and in both there is simple significance.
One is that it provides all kinds of literary
nourishment for all kinds of readers. Here lie the bounty and the beauty of the
sort only a rishi can disclose in a Kaavya, The beautiful and a bountiful that are both latent
and apparent in the portrayal of every single great episode are there in sufficiently
large number to please at once the casual and the careful reader. The Ahalya Khandamu in Baala Kaanda, the Abhisheka Khandamu in Ayodhya Kaanda, the Sabari Khandamu in Aranya Kaanda, the Gajapushpi Khandamu in Kishkindha Kaanda, the Usha Khandamu in Sundara Kaanda and the Upasamharana Khandamu in the
final Yuddha Kaanda,
particularly offer a rich variety of descriptive suggestion, soul stirring characterisation, logical humanism, righteous loyalty,
dutiful service and touching sentiment–in such a way as to move the reader to
tears of joy or of sorrow according as the occasion demands.
Repaying a debt
The
other is that, for all his self-assurance and seeming vain-glory, Viswanatha is
a humble soul. In its idiomatic sense “Ramayanakalpa”
suggests something which nears but not equals the original. Also, in the
preface to Baala Kaanda, he
wants to repay his hereditary debt to the first poet Valmiki.
Albeit he wrote a Ramayana which cannot yet be called a translation, or
imitation of any former work on the theme, he had the good grace to use “Kalpa” in the other sense of “eeshat
oona” (a little less) than the Valmiki
Ramayana.
However,
in point of fact, Viswanatha’s Kaikeyi
alone can ensure him a place in the reader’s heart, which Valmiki
himself cannot occupy. Here was no heartless aunt, doting mother, selfish wife
and calculating woman who lent herself to be ill-advised by a servant. Here is
a character which has a centralised importance,
similar to that Rama himself. For, while Rama himself was unaware of his
mission of destroying the Rakshasas, Kaikeyi took it upon herself at the cost of her fair name,
to despatch him where his destiny was to lead him.
She sacrificed her love for him to the public good, even as we today have a Bangla mother who would not desist from strangling her own
child in her concern for the safety of a larger number of co-humans.
All
hail to Viswanatha who could make Ramayana live for
ever with live characters.