Reviews

[We shall be glad to review books in all Indian languages and in English, French and German. Books for Review should reach the office at least SIX WEEKS in advance of the day of publication of the Journal.]

ENGLISH

Ancient Monuments of Kashmir.-By Ram Chandra Kak. With a Foreword by Sir F. Younghusband and an Introduction by Professor A. Foucher. [Published by the India Society, London, 1933, Price 25 Sh. net.]

Kashmir, "the holiest of all the holy lands," the Rishibhumi or "the land of the sages," Saradapitha or "the eternally pure seat of the goddess Sarada," is renowned throughout the world for its beauty "for the girdle of snowy mountains which surround the lovely valley, for its rivers and lakes and for its moderate temperature." Visitors to Kashmir return with the impression that the place is indeed a "happy valley." They would welcome the present volume which is a very useful guide to the ancient monuments of this happy valley containing in 170 pages all the general information on the geography, history, architecture and archreology of Kashmir. Several valuable accounts have been published of the various monuments of Kashmir in journals of learned societies, Archeological Survey reports and other similar well known publications to which the general visitor has not ready access. The present volume supplies therefore in a handy and accessible form all the available information on the subject. It is refreshing to find that it has been designed particularly to suit the convenience of the visitor "who without desiring any great erudition, takes an intelligent interest in the subject of Archeology." The monuments are grouped not according to their age or style but in regard to their situation, so that the visitor may complete his inspection of the monuments in one area before be starts for another. While reading through the work we feel that we are pleasantly led as it were by the author "from temple to temple, from mosque to mosque, from Mughal garden to Mughal garden, round Srinagar, or up or down stream."

After detailing the various sources of Kashmir history, the author gives a cogent account of the political history of the country from about 270 B. C. to 1846 A. D. We get very interesting historical and topographical details from works of Kashmir writers. They are, to mention a few, the Nilamatapurana, the Mahatmyas of the various places of pilgrimage and Kalhana’s Rajatarangani composed in 1148-49 A. D. By far the greatest amount of our information regarding ancient and medieval Kashmir is supplied by Kalhana. An excellent translation of his work with an exhaustive introduction, numerous explanatory notes, and with a valuable monograph on the ancient geography, and coinage, etc., of Kashmir has been published by Sir Aurel Stein. Among other writers mention may be made of Kshemendra, Jonaraja, Bilhana, Mankha, Haidar Malik, Narayan Kaul, Hasan, Birbal Katsur, Mirza Haidar Doghlat, Firishta, Abul Fazl, Bernier, Foster, Moorcroft, Vigne, Hugel, Honigberger and Jacquemont.

The various monuments of Kashmir are conveniently grouped and discussed in three chapters (Chap. IV–VI) Srinagar is taken as the centre, and the first grouping relates to those monuments that are actually found in Srinagar and in its vicinity. Next come monuments above Srinagar. And lastly, monuments below Srinagar are described. In Chap. III, the author has given us a very valuable contribution on the subject of architectural styles arising from the description of the various Kashmirian monuments. No structural monuments can with certainty be said to belong to the pre-Christian era, the only monuments assignable to the Kushan times being the Buddhist structures at Harwan and Ushkar (pp, 105-111).

The early Buddhist religious monuments of Kashmir have practically the same plan, and probably the same elevation also as the contemporary Buddhist buildings of Gandhara. But there was difference in the materials used as also in the modes of decoration adopted, At Ushkar the abundance of local quarries ensured a plentiful supply of stone chips. At Harwan, the available building materials being round boulders and pebbles, the chip masonry of Ushkar was replaced by walls built of small pebbles (plate XVII), The pebble construction that we find at Harwan can be explained as follows: -

The Harwan masons seem to have realized early that a pebble wall built in mud, each pebble being not more than one or two inches in diameter, even though it was covered by a coat of plaster, was not a durable structure. To keep it standing for even a short period was not easy with-out care and constant repair, for every shower of rain was sure to peel off a part of the facing. They therefore adopted the practice of inserting large stones in the midst of pebbles, thereby giving it a somewhat more solid and certainly more picturesque appearance (Plate XIX). This style is designed as the "Diaper-pebble" style.

The architecture of Medieval Kashmir (600-1800 A. D.) comes for very detailed study at the hands of the author, the buildings being grouped into two classes, the Buddhist and the Brahmanical. There is everything in common between the two classes, in point of material, technique etc., but the religious needs of the Buddhists and the Hindus being essentially different it has wrought a wide difference in plan and elevation of the respective groups. The Buddhists with their long artistic tradition behind everything that they built struck to their old models, though they were not opposed to the use of better materials or of elaborate decoration. The material introduced was a beautiful grey limestone which was easy to carve and presented a smooth surface when properly dressed. By the middle of the 8th century we can say that the architectural use of limestone for religious buildings of Kashmir was general. The Hindu buildings which form the majority give room for the inference that the earlier examples were simple, and that art progressed step by step, up to a certain point, from the simple to the more elaborate. The influence of the Buddhist art of Gandhara on that of Kashmir was so great that it can be said that the two are practically identical. The needs of the Hindus and the Buddhists in the religious direction were almost the same; and though these religious needs of the Hindus did not necessitate their borrowing stupas and sangharamas from the Buddhists, such considerations did not prevent them from using to their own advantage the experience that the latter had gained in temple-construction. When the new religion is also of the soil, when the old and the new religions live in amity and when the modes of worship of both are almost the same, it becomes almost inevitable that the buildings of the new religion should follow the style of those of the older one. This happened twice in Kashmir, once when Buddhism slowly gave away to Hinduism, and again, when with the accession of Shah Mir (1338-41 A. D.), Islam supplanted Hinduism. On the latter occasion, the Muslims, like their co-religionists in India, borrowed the materials and the technique of the Hindu shrines, but unlike them, retained the form of the Hindu temple as far as it was compatible with their religious requirements. The discussion on medieval architecture is followed by an interesting account of Muslim architecture of the valley before the author starts on his guide of the various monuments of Kashmir.

The author's deep scholarship and wide experience both on account of the excellent training that he had had under Sir John Marshall and his position as Director of Archeology in Kashmir, the attractiveness of the Happy Valley itself, and lastly the creditable way in which the India Society have found it possible to publish it–all these happy factors have combined to enhance the value and the usefulness of the present publication which no student of Kashmirian architecture and art can do without.

T. N. RAMACHANDRAN, M.A.

Memories of Lenin.–By Nadezhda K. Krupskaya. Translated by E. Verney. [Martin Lawrence, London.]

This is not a biography of Lenin, though it presents intimate glimpses into the life, dreams, aspirations, plans and actions of this great Russian revolutionary and gives a profound understanding of his traits and character. It is not to be wondered at as the author is the wife and comrade of the character under study, who shared and suffered with Lenin the toils and fruits of his long-cherished vision–the vision of a free proletariat Russia.

The memories begin with the meeting of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Nadezhda K. Krupskaya in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) in 1893 and the forming of their first friendship. The narration of these reminiscences is more or less in the form of a diary, giving, careful details of dates, meeting places and of the personalities connected with the much-chequered career of Lenin. We get an insight into the formation and growth of several socialistic and democratic organisations in the country and the plots and counter-plots designed and attempted by these societies to throw off the Tsarist regime in Russia. Lenin's life has been one series of adventures from country to country, from city to city, as an exile, and in this book Comrade Krupskaya gives a detailed account of his doings and writings during this period. A tireless worker, a determined fighter, a born optimist, he never gave up hope even in moments of darkest despair.

We see him carrying on his plans, conferring with his comrades, conducting journals and writing articles, assisted by his wife and companion, the author of these memories, in Munich, in London, in Geneva, in Finland, wherever he was in exile. A strong character, a dominating will, a trained physical body and a powerful brain that can think, plan, scheme and decide, Lenin was an outstanding figure among his contemporary men. He suffered for his idealism; he worked hard and selflessly for his country's freedom, especially for the betterment of the peasants and the working classes, and he had the satisfaction of seeing his life-long ambitions being realised before he died.

The book reveals his many hidden characteristics, his love of literature and art, his erudition, his power to mass figures and facts to convince his opponents, his uncanny insight into the mass psychology, his hold on the helpless and voiceless millions of his countrymen and above all his one-pointedness in achieving his end. Lenin was not a mere agitator; he was a convinced Marxist at heart and devoted years of study and thinking to the problems of poverty, economics, politics, socialism and other subjects, and his writings and speeches are valuable contributions on those subjects.

Three men influenced his life according to Krupskaya, Marx, Engels and Chernyshevskyi. Tolstoy seems to have had no attraction for him at all. The book deals with his activities up to the period of 1907, and it will be interesting to have another volume from her pen dealing with his life just before the great revolution of 1917 February, after the revolution, and up to his death. Lenin's biographical volumes, both official and private, are increasing in number every year and this little book is certainly not the least of them all.

World Chaos.-By James McDoughal, F.R.S., (Kegan Paul, London.)

Originally an address delivered by this eminent scientist, and now elaborated and published in book form, this book is remarkable for its simplicity, directness and outspokenness. The problem dealt with within its pages, is one of the most intricate and baffling of world's problems; in fact the only most pressing problem before the statesmen and reformers of the world today, and the author deals with it in a manner at once original and challenging.

He attributes the present world chaos to the amazing progress made by physical science, resulting in mass production, cheapness of labour, "cut-throat" competition, colonisation and exploitation, and points out that corresponding progress has not been made in Social Science, which may have averted the present dreadful calamities. He discusses in detail and quotes authorities for his views; and the book is timely and valuable to help the politicians and economists of the world from their muddledom.

It is written in a vigorous style and with convincing force. He attacks the physical scientists, himself being one, with a candour and freedom rare among them. He tells the capitalists and imperialists of the world that they are responsible for the present chaos and muddle by taking advantage of the fruits of physical science and making use of them for their selfish ends. He warns the world of its impending destruction if it will not pay heed to the call of its better nature and change its intensely selfish and aggressive nationalistic policy of politics, economics, armaments, wars, and other self-destructive elements. He pleads for more humanism and less science in life. A truly prophetic book written by a humanitarian scientist, worthy of everyone's attention.

G. VENKATACHALAM

GUJARATI

Sorath ni Sandhya.-ByGunavantrai Acharya. [Printed at the Swadhin Printing Press, Ranpur, pp. 230, With a three-coloured picture. Price Re. 1-4].

Kathiawar (Sorath) whether looked at dawn or in the evening of its history, has always furnished instances of bravery, chivalry, and courage. The nine stories narrated in this volume, though they savour of romance, are founded on real incidents, and the skill of the writer lies in the ability with which he has clothed these incidents in the garb of romance. For this he has had recourse to a lively imagination, and vivid language both of which have elevated ordinary facts of life to higher planes of chivalry and romance. Unflagging interest of the reader, this is the writer's reward.

(1) Tutelan Bandhan.-By Piyush. [Published by the Gunasundari Karyalaya, Bombay, pp. 109, Price as. 8]

(2) Garib ni Grihalakshmi.- By the same author and published by the same company, pp. 386, Price Be. 1-8.

The first book is the second edition of a translation into Gujrati of Tagore's Broken Ties. It contains four stories and it need not be said that the work is well done because a second edition has been called for within a couple of years of its first appearance.

The second book is a translation of Gaban a well-known Hindi novel written by Sjt. Premchandji. It is greatly to be desired that the best works in any of the Indian vernaculars should be made available to the readers of other vernaculars, and that can best be done by intelligible translations such as would preserve the spirit and sense of the original. This has been done in this case.

KANNADA

Hosa-Huttu (The Renaissance): By Mr. A. N. Krishna Rao [V. G. T. General Agency, Balepet, Bangalore City. Price Re. One.]

The book of Mr. Krishna Raya is very timely. The Renaissance in India began some fifteen years ago and except for the short study of the Irish poet James H. Cousins, Renaissance in India, which appeared at the beginning of the movement, it has been very little studied, especially by those who are themselves plunged in it. We already know by his books, the objective attitude of Mr. Krishna Raya, his largeness of vision, his understanding of the evils of India as well as her virtues. And again, living in one of the most important among the intellectual centres of India, Bangalore, he can speak with authority about the contemporary movement.

Hosa-Huttu is a collection of sixteen essays published in various Indian journals and their titles themselves show the vastness of the subjects treated in the book: "Awakened India," "Our ancient Culture," "New tendencies in our Literature," "The awakening of Indian Womanhood," To speak frankly–in spite of the fact that his metallic language can express a great many things in a few lines–Mr. Krishna Raya very often touches only the fringe of the subjects and does not show the historical origin of the movement.

Especially in his essays on Contemporary Art and Literature, we would have liked very much to hear a little about the pscychological ground of the Renaissance which he seems to accept without any explanation. It would have been useful to indicate that the present Renaissance is the result of a formidable reaction to blind Europeanism. The Shelleys and the Swinburnes, not to say of the Watts and Burne Jones, had been for India of the end of the last century a marvel, an astonishing marvel. That poetry and that art seemed to them less formal and more living than her own art and poetry. To the Indian mind that had considered–much like the cathedral builders of Europe in the Middle ages–that the highest form of art was painting and fresco drawing of the temples, and had also lain luxuriantly in the flood of Kalidasa and the magnificent rhythm and fancy of Bharthribari, the Poetry of Europe–particularly English–was a flash of lightning, something so vivid and so new. It was not the glorious idea of a mass of mankind, but something living, personal, and above all simple. There was neither the tricks of metaphor nor of metre and said something not so remote and faccy-born, but something near and human. And this newness was so dazzling that our poets and artists simply drank it with eagerness–and produced the facile poetry of Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, or the expressionless Burne-Jones-like Indian-gods and goddesses of Ravi Varma. No doubt, respectful of the advice that Mrs. Naidu received from Sir Edmund Gosse asking her not to talk of the nightingales and the Church bells calling people to the Sunday service, she called the nightingale ‘Mina’ and the Church bells the ‘Muezzin.’ In fact she was never able to get into the depths of the Indian Soul–like, to a certain extent, what her brother Harindranath Chattopadhyaya has–and perhaps the English are right in calling her the greatest living poetess of the English language; but to the Indian she will always remain an outsider, though charming and fanciful, rich and rhythmical. The same applies to Ravi Varma. The poetry of Tagore itself–except for a few verses in the Gitanjali–seems to be, for Indians, in its aristocratic flow, its monotonous colouring, devoid of the real and profound mystic force.

The movement of reaction, in art began with the Bengal School of Art. And here again a historical ground would have considerably explained some of the points mentioned by Mr. Krishna Raya. In the past, India conquered by the Greeks and the Mohamedans have always benefited by the contact with the foreigners without losing her soul. The Gandharan movement, in the beginning of the Christian Era, took the fineness, the exactitude and the sense of proportion of the Greeks, without losing nothing of that sense of the Absolute, the idea of Nirvana so natural to the Indian soul. Similarly, during the heyday of the Moghul rule, the Hindu architecture, powerful and precise, was able to combine with the magnificence of Mussulman art and gave to India such remarkable works as the Fathepur Sikri of Akbar. To benefit of European art, it was necessary for India not to Europeanise herself, but to see through the ‘Third Eye.’ Hence, the Indian artist, taking from the frescoes of Ajanta and of Bagh, their grace and their sumptuousness, their delicate colouring and their immense ground, discovered their own souls–the Soul of India. Then, looking at European art with that newly acquired light, they were able to receive from it the complex subtleties of expression and the clarity of design. And as Mr. Krishna Raya rightly explains, they were able to keep the religious conception of the Indian soul, who expresses the Universal being, all-comprehensive and eternal. Venkatappa’s Ardhanarishvara shows the half-man half-woman each part accomplished with care and exactitude, and beyond that, express the primordial idea of the Complete Being, or again take the "designs of Kanu Desai, published in his Mahatma Gandhi Sketches; the realism of each movement, the influence of European art, does not exclude the immensity of the ground, which gives to the picture as a whole a Universal meaning which is purely Indian. In the same way, Nandalal Bose (Bengal) and Chugthai (Punjab), the great contemporary artists, have taken from Europe its clarity and realism, at the same time not forgetting the powerful symbolism of India.

In literature, as Mr. Krishna Raya says, the new movement began with the Gandhi movement of 1921-22.

H. K. RAJA RAO

 Tanjapura Andhranayakaraja Charitramu.-By Kuruganti Sitaramayya, M. A., Superintendent of the Tanjore Palace Library, [Published by the Andhra Patrica Press, in the Andhra Grandhamala series; Price Rs. 2/-; crown size,8 vo, pp. 412 including Indexes, and Appendices, etc.]

The chronicle of the Nayak kings of Tanjore is a brilliant chapter in the long-forgotten history of the emigration of the Andhras into the land of the Tamils, in the South. Early from the eighth century of the Christian era, there was migration to the South of the Telugu Brahmans, well learned in the Vedic lore and sastras, seeking patronage in the courts of the Pallava monarchs, who ruled an extensive empire, having Kanchipura as their capital. This fact is proved by the occurrence of the names of Telugu villages, mostly of the Kistna and Guntur districts, mentioned in one of the copper-plate inscriptions of Nandivarman II Pallavamalla.

Though sometime after, the incursions, to the South, of the Andhra powers, under the able commanders and kings of the Telugu Choda and Kakateeya dynasties, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, have given a fresh lease of life to the emigration activity of the Telugus, it had not taken a concrete shape, in the formation of regular, Andhra colonies, until the time of the second, third and fourth dynasties of Vijayanagar, when the Telugu arms were carried, not only to the southern extremity of the Indian Peninsula, but on, even into Ceylon, comprising Jaffna, the kings of which, became the tributaires of, the Nayak kings of Tanjore.

The rule of the Tanjore Nayak dynasty, which comprised only four members, viz., Chinachevvappa, his son Atchyutappa, his grandson Raghunatha and his great grandson Vijaya Raghava, extented for only one and a half centuries, from A. D. 1535 to 1676.

Mr. K. Sitaramayya, the author of the work under review, has given us in this volume, in a course of six lectures, delivered in December 1931, under the auspices of the Andhra University, a complete history of the Nayak kings of Tanjore, the literary sources of which was able to study in the Tanjore palace library.

The only work we had on this subject, hither to, in Telugu is the "Tanjavuri Andhra Rajula charitram" published long ago by Mr. V. Prabhakara Sastry, which is, strictly speaking, a paper on the subject, from the Mackenzee collection, to which was appended a good introduction from the able open of the publisher. Even in English, there is no separate work dealing with this subject. As such, we deem this work a welcome addition to the literature on this object and we congratulate the author on its production.

Though the author has taken much pains the book contains some palpable mistakes as regards some facts and dates, and his theories are not all sound. What is more regrettable is that the author relies on the Taylor’s and Mackenzee Manuscripts, accepting them as authoritative. The author quotes very many passages and that too indiscriminately.

A few of the mistakes may be pointed out here: as stated by the author,

(1) Veerachola’s son was not Kulottunga (p.29). In fact he was the son of Raja Rajanarendra of the Eastern Chalukya dynasty.

(2) Brihadeeswaralaya was built not by Veerachola but by Raja Raja. Hence it has the other name of Raja Rajeswaram or Rajeswaram temple.

(3) Malik Kafur never ruled the South, making Mahura his capital. The reference, he gives for substantiating his statement is wrong. It is not the Early History of India" but the "Oxford History of India." Even in that work, it is not stated that Malik Kafur lived at Madura and ruled the south (p. 39).

(4) Who was this Ganapati, who was driven out by Saluva Narasimha? (p. 51). Perhaps it should be Gajapaty.

(5) It is not correct to say that Krishnadevaraya had no sons at all. He had sons but they died. (P. 53).

(6) The author’s statement that the Nayakship of Madura was founded even prior to that of Tanjore, is, in our opinion. incorrect. The evidence supplied by the chronicles is quite contrary to that supplied by the inscriptions.

(7) Saluva Gundanarasimha’s rule came to an end even before 1497 A. D. So he was not alive in A.D. 1505 (p. 68) and the reference given namely Ep coll. No. 318 of 1919, supplies the date Saka 1406 or A.D. 1484 but not 1505 A.D. and the references, given to pages of the Aravidu dynasty of Vijayanagar, have no bearing to the statement, made in the text. In these pages, there is no reference to Nagamanayaka.

(8) Though the first year of the rule of Chinachevvappa, as the Nayak king of Tanjore, cannot yet be determined, the epigraphical evidence shows that he ruled till A. D. 1580 but not till 1561 A. D. as stated by the author (p. 108.)

(9) On the evidence of the letters of the Jesuit missionaries and inscriptions, it is to be concluded that Achyutappa Nayak’s reign extended from 1561 A. D. to not later than 1599. A. D. (p. 133).

(10) In the battle of Vallaprakara, Atchyutappa Nayaka sided Veerappa, the Nayak king of Madura and not Venkatapatiraya, the Emperor of Vijayanagar. In fact Atchyutappa’s armies were routed. In this connection, whatever was written by the author is incorrect.

After all, it is not the political relations between the powers concerned, the order of succession, or the wars that were waged, which are valuable for us. As such, we cannot but think that the author would have done well to add a separate chapter on the achievements of the Andhra Nayak kings of Tanjore, the legacy they left to succeeding generations and their contribution to the enrichment of the life and culture of the South.

M. SOMASEKHARA. SARMA.