“THE
CLASSICAL AGE” 1
The
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan of
The
volume now before us is the third of the series. The first volume stretches
over the misty aeons from pre-history to the year 600 B.C. The second surveys the
next nine centuries closing about 320 A.D. The present volume is concerned with
the 430 years from 320 to 750 A.D. The last volume is expected to bring the
story to our own times.
The
title given to each volume seems intended to convey the distinctive note of the
period dealt with. Thus the first and the third volumes are characterized
respectively as of the Vedic and the Classical Age, the reference being
obviously to the literary milieu of their times, while the other eight
volumes are given names derived from the political happenings they describe–as
Imperial Kanouj, Struggle for Empire, Delhi Sultanate, Maratha Supremacy and so
on. Such a one-word summary of the peculiar ethos of an epoch of many
hundreds of years would undoubtedly be advantageous as well as attractive if it
could satisfy the tests of accuracy and adequacy. This should be easy enough if
history had run according to a plan. But the forces of a people’s life
flow like rain-water in a jungle, casual and capricious in the courses they take;
and it is not always possible for us to identify the channels and fix neat
little sign-boards by their sides. The volume before us illustrates how, from
the political point of view at least, a period of history may decline to be
packed into a single phrase. Not that our period was empty of political doings;
not that by any means. Those four centuries were as full of the bustle of kings
and the clangour of their armies as any other period. But the age defies
summary characterization. Let us look into the book before proceeding further.
Its
650 large pages are divided into as many as 24 chapters. In the first three
chapters, Dr. Majumdar traces the rise and ascendancy of the Guptas as an
imperial power, and in the next three their decline and fall in the middle of
the 6th century. While it lasted, the Gupta kingdom, was a mighty manifestation
of organizing ability and political judgement in this country. The Guptas drove
back the savage Huns, unified the country from the Eastern to the Western
frontiers of
Altogether,
we have, spread out here before us, a panorama as vast as the eye could manage
without tiring, and as varied in colour and contour as to hold the eye
interested. There can be no question as to the scholarly industry and the
judge-like carefulness in sifting and piecing together evidence, which have
gone into the work. Has the picture any mark of a mind upon it,–a glint of the
eye or a quiver of the lip? If a mere reader may hazard a remark, it looks as
though the writers here belong to what used to be called the scientific, as
distinguished from the literary school of historians. Historical writing is to
the ‘scientific’ school “the mutual conversation (as Trevelyan puts it) of
scholars with one another” rather than “the means of spreading far and wide,
throughout all the reading classes, a love and knowledge of history, an
elevated and critical patriotism and certain qualities of mind and heart.” The
antiquarian seems in our book to supersede the narrator. At every step the
story has its feet held up in a tangle of meticulous debate over a point of
chronology or of identity of person. The writer is having before his mind’s eye
the menacing figure of a critic or a rival rather than the innocent seeker of
entertainment and knowledge, awaiting the glow and warmth which the tale of the
exploits of a dear old ancestor can communicate to the heart. Not that fact
should go ignored or misinterpreted. Fact is certainly sacred. But so much need
not be made of the outward shape of a fact that its inward meaning escapes the
average reader. The conditional clause and the qualifying phrase may take up so
much of space in a statement that its positive significance may in effect be
reduced to nullity. Let us look at this portrait of Samudra-Gupta for a sample:
“The
vast empire of Samudra-Gupta must have been the result of numerous
military campaigns extending over many years. We have no specific or
detailed account of them.... Nevertheless when we recall the large number
of States acknowledging his authority, it is impossible not to feel profound
admiration for his military genius. The total extermination of the nine States
in
It
will be observed that there is no word of eulogy here without its diluting
counterpart. This toss-and-tumble style, beloved of the political journalist,
is hardly the style suited to the drawing of a picture meant to convince and
inspire. The ‘must-have-beens’ and the double negatives are fatal to the
purpose of creating certitude in the reader’s mind. When the door is so
ostentatiously opened for doubt, there can he no seat left for enthusiasm in
the house. History, if it should serve its purpose of stirring emotion,
instigating inquiry and directing thought, must first of all be exciting. Is it
impossible to be both truthful and warm-hearted, both factual and moving? Are
imagination and conscience necessarily enemies to each other? In reconciling
them is the art of the true historian. When he is in doubt about a date or a
document, or when a popular legend is at variance with a fact otherwise proved,
the course for him is not to let it clog the movement of the narrative, but to
assign the doubt and discussion to a footnote or an appendix and carry the
story forward according to his own judgement of probabilities. The flow of the
story must be swift, vivid, vibrant.
Let
us take note of a perplexity of another kind, Samudra Gupta was a poet and a
musician. We read that in one type of his gold coins the great emperor is
represented as stated cross-legged on a couch, playing on a vina which
rests on his knees. The royal figure on this unique type of coins was
undoubtedly drawn from real life and testifies to his inordinate love
for, and Skill in, music.” But why inordinate? The Oxford Dictionary
(1952) gives the words “immoderate, excessive, intemperate, disorderly” as the
meanings of “inordinate”. Is there any evidence of Samudra Gupta’s addiction to
the vina having led to the neglect or damage of his duties as king or
general or householder or member of society? This is an instance of imagination
peeping out awkwardly at a wrong place, because of the denial of admission to
it at so many places where it had a legitimate part to
play.
Why
is this period of
There
can be no doubt but that some of the very best of Sanskrit poets after Valmiki
and Vyasa lived in the course of the 400 years under consideration. Kalidasa of
about 450 A.D., Bhavabhuti of about 700, Harsha and Bana of about 600, Bharavi
and Magha of more or less the same period, are all poets held in both high and
lasting admiration; but they are not all of one type or species of excellence
or of comparable standards of merit. There is nothing to bind them together as
one group except the arbitrarily fixed period-ends. Kalidasa naturally has
received the largest amount of space in the book; but the study is made up of
cliches and colour-blotches like ‘brilliant luminary’, ‘greatest poet and dramatist’,
‘one of the best not only in Sanskrit literature, but in the literature of the
world’, ‘loving sympathy with nature’, ‘genius shone with brilliance’ and so
forth. Does the poetry reflect the life of the times? Was the life of the time
influenced by the poetry? Does the poet give us characters with a permanent and
universal appeal, characters great not only in loyalty to god Eros, but also in
responding to the other and less delectable calls of life? Has the poet any
definite attitude towards any problem of life or destiny? If amatory exploits
and. conventional rhetoric are all the chief merit of a literature, it could
hardly sustain the epithet ‘classical’. Bana and Magha at any rate would be
placed by a European critic among romantics and not among classicists.
Prof.
Srinivasa Iyengar’s essay on Tamil literature is a model of insightful
appreciation illuminatingly expressed. Whether counted as classical or not, the
heart’s outpourings of the Nayanmars and the Alvars can well be set by the side
of the poetry of the Old Testament. In the chapter on religion and philosophy,
we are shown that “the age of Gupta imperialism was marked by a revival of
Hinduism and the decline of both Jainism and Buddhism” (p. 404). Prof.
Mahadevan contributes a brief, but luminous exposition of the essentials of
Saivism.
Prof.
Ghoshal has characterized the age as one of “stagnation and decline in the
realm of political speculation” (P 341). ‘Static’ seems a more appropriate word
than ‘stagnant’. People had inherited long-established ideals of life and
conduct and had come to find happiness in walking by the light of tradition and
usage. Polity and law had by now settled on foundations which centuries of
experience had proved durable. The economic forces in operation were all those
of agriculture, and no mechanical and chemical invention had made its
appearance to disturb the old economy. Even the poets had come to think it good
to control their fancies and fabrications by the traditional concepts of
Dharma. The only ripple on the surface of the waters was that made by the
personal ambition of a king or his taste in the arts or his preference for any
religious faith. But he too put himself in the hands of a spiritual preceptor
who, in his turn, was an upholder of long-accepted scheme of things, so that
the whims and idiosyncracies of the king too were under inhibitions. It would
thus be reasonable to say that the age was one of happy status quo and
cheerful conformism.
To
say this is certainly not to belittle either the age or its chroniclers. We in
Of this we find convincing evidence in the volume before us. The Volume is a marvellous mine of material for a history for the common man. Every page bears witness to the conscientious care and diligence which the contributors brought to their task. The project is entitled to the warm-hearted support of the country; and its promoters may well be sure of a grateful welcome for their output.
I
should like to suggest, if I may, that in future volumes the maps may be larger
in size; that a list be given in Devanagari type of all proper names as a guide
to pronunciation; that a table of contemporaneity be added showing at a glance
which great men synchronised with whom in the several parts of India; and that
the chapter number be inserted in the title-line on each page for facility of
reference.
The
volume opens with a preface by Dr. Munshi. It is a bird’s-eye view interspersed
with philosophical comment. The volume is furnished with other subsidiary
matter such as bibliography, genealogical tables, index etc. With 4 maps and
105 illustrations, this volume of more than 800 pages is excellently got up
with strong binding and cover. The price of Rs. 35, however, raises the
question whether this history of India by Indians is for Indians.
1
Slightly extended version of a book-review broadcast from the Mysore Station of
All India Radio on July 26, 1954.