‘THE TRIPLE STREAM’

By K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAU

The celebration of the Silver Jubilee of Triveni in Bangalore and the publication of the Silver Jubilee Number from Masulipatam, mark the end of an important chapter in the history of the Journal. They mark, too, the beginning of yet another chapter of striving and of achievement. But the initiative must now pass to younger men.

Between December 1927 when Triveni first saw the light of day at ‘Malabari House’, Madras, and November 1954 when she held high festival in the Hall of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat at Bangalore–named after the great Rajarshi of Modern India, Sri Sri Krishna Rajendra Wadiyar–I passed from youth to middle age, and from middle age into the distinguished company of old men. An esteemed elder, Sri Navaratna Rama Rao, welcomed me into that goodly band, for I had earned the right to be with them by reaching my sixty-first birthday!

I am tired, but happy. I feel like exclaiming, “I have done my job; now let Thy servant rest.” But rest is not abstention from all work. It means work done without the element of compulsion and the tyranny of the time-schedule. When body and mind are overpowered by a sense of exhaustion, one must relax and seek refreshment of the spirit, through contact with the best minds of all ages–through study and contemplation. Out of that study might emerge something of value to oneself and to those around him. Life in my little home-town, in the old familiar surroundings, is without the strain that comes of hurry and the invasion of multifarious engagements. I am deeply thankful for this opportunity to recoup lost health, and to watch the progress of Triveni in the coming years.

I rejoice that it has been given to me to devote the best part of my life to the cause of Indian Culture, and to secure the friendly co-operation of poets and artists, thinkers and publicists in different parts of the country. I have sometimes been asked why I ever launched Triveni, and what I sought to achieve through this means. It is considered bad ‘form’ to quote oneself, but I must recall what I wrote in Triveni, in September 1928, some months after the inauguration of the Journal:

“Triveni, as several friends of the Editor are aware, was started last December, immediately after he left the Jatheeya Kalasala, Masulipatam, under very painful circumstances. He was in search of some work that would fill the gaping void in his life, caused by his separation from the dear institution he had prized above aught else. Triveni is, therefore, an emotional necessity of his being–an object on which he wishes to lavish all his love…..In his effort to make Triveni a worthy exponent of the Indian Renaissance, he feels sure that all lovers of culture will extend their co-operation in unstinted measure. It is the Editor’s firm conviction that, like all earnest endeavours, Triveni is ultimately the Lord’s work, and He, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, will vouchsafe to the Editor, an humble and frail individual, the requisite strength, physical and moral, to carry on his self-imposed but inexpressibly joyous task.

“Triveni seeks to interpret the Renaissance movement as reflected in the various linguistic units of India. The Editor is an Andhra, and in close touch with literary and art movements in Andhradesa. But he is anxious to publish detailed accounts of similar movements in other parts of India…..He makes an earnest appeal to scholars in other linguistic areas to write about the literary and art movements with which they are familiar. Translations of poems in different Indian languages into English free-verse will be particularly welcome. Triveni will thus lay the foundations for that inter-provincial harmony and goodwill which is the prelude to a federation of Indian cultures. The Editor learns with pleasure that in Maharashtra there is a group of young poets who have banded themselves into the Ravi Kiran Mandal, and that there are similar groups in Karnataka and Utkal. He will deem it a privilege to publish all about these rising poets and their valuable contribution to the Indian Renaissance.”

That was a beautiful dream; and Triveni became my Dream-Child. She shed Light on my Path. Today she is as real to me as little Giridhar Gopal was to Mirabai or the sprightly lad Sri Ramachandra was to Saint Tyagaraja. Life holds no greater joy than this.

Triveni has been the means of winning for me the love and regard of friends who consider themselves members of the Triveni family. There are several whom I could name, but the greatest of them all is Sri Masti Venkatesa Iyengar, the head of the Bangalore branch of this fellowship of kindred souls. To him, I am grateful beyond words.

During this quarter of a century and more, I have worked with the members of the Advisory Board, the Associate Editors, the contributors, and men and women of goodwill everywhere. In dedicating this Silver Jubilee Number

to the beloved memory of

Sri C. JINARAJADASA

I have in mind all those who loved Triveni and blessed her, and are now watching over her from the Great Beyond.

May Triveni flood the land with Love, Wisdom, and Power!

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