Book Review

BOOK REVIEWS

ENGLISH

Sir WiIliam Jones: Interpreter of India to the West: Prof. L.S.R. Krishna Sastry (Booklinks Corporation, 3-4-423/546, Narayanaguda, Hyderabad - 500 029; 1998; vii + 147 pages; Rs. 275)

Among the earliest foreign friends of India, William Jones was one who proved that colonisation had its own positive effects. It brought cultures close to one another and gifted a new enrichment. India, in particular, was a beneficiary. The sub­continent had a long and enviable civilisation which had run into the desert of dead habit by the eighteenth century. The roots were choked for want of air and space to breathe.

The coming of the English rulers inaugurated a new time for India. The nation was enslaved, and this was a matter for great regret. But there were also a few sincere officers who came to admire Indian literature and culture. These officers became the instruments to reveal to the wider world a portion of this treasure - house. The strivings of Sir William Jones in this regard are truly worthy of our salutation.

When Dr. Krishna Sastry took up William Jones for his doctoral dissertation in the sixties, Jones scholarship was still in its nonage. Yet he managed to present a very good summation of the work of Jones. Thus, even though Sir William Jones: Interpreter of India to the West is not the first book on the Indologist to be published, it remains a handy introduction for the lovers of good writing and sincere scholarship.

Born in 1746, Jones was a precocious child. He had his education at Harrow and at Oxford. He was called to the Bar in 1774. However, he had an enormous interest in world literatures and a quick ear for languages. Before long, he had published a French translation of a Persian biography of Nadir Shaw and came to be known as an expert in Oriental studies.

Jones married Anna Maria Shipley in 1783 and the same year he came to Calcutta as a judge in Bengal. For a whole decade he managed his full-time career while ceaselessly engaged in his literary endeavours. Indeed, he must have worked as titan. Within a year of his coming to India, he had established the Asiatic Society. He had constant interaction with pundits, Islamic scholars and experts in Hindu and Islamic law. He wrote poetry, delivered speeches, edited books and translated from Sanskrit and other languages. Jones passed away in 1794.

Dr. Krishna Sastry refers to Jones as “the first Englishman to’ respond poetically to the Indian setting”. There is an impressive amount of creative writing by Jones., but the poems are mostly initiative revealing Greek as well as Oriental inspirations.

Writing about the translation of Sakuntalam by Jones that made waves in the West, Dr. Sastry does not allow his genuine admiration to cloud his critical vision. Admitting that “translation is ideally impossible, and often wholly futile”, Dr. Sastry says that with all its faults, the translation turned out to be an epoch-­making event. Jones literally discovered Sakuntalam in a Bengali recession, first translated it into Latin and then turned to producing an English version.

Citing parallels of the translations by Arthur Ryder and Laurence Binyon, Dr. Sastry admits that Jones is often flat and prefers a very free rendering now and then. But the burning zeal of the pioneer carried the day. Jones has also given English versions of the Gita Govinda and Hitopadesa, Bhaja Govindam (Moha Mudgara), select Vedic hymns and the Isa despite innumerable handicaps:

“He had to depend upon the help of local pundits, and it is also likely that the texts he could secure were in certain respects different from the ‘received’ texts as we find them today, and this probably explains the divergences from the Sanskrit originals that have been noticed earlier. He must have also faced several other problems like reading the palm leaf manuscripts, discriminating between the literal and symbolic meaning of words, deciding upon the rights English equivalents for Sanskrit terms in the absence of standard dictionaries.”

The eleven annual lectures Jones delivered at the Asiatic Society are treasure­ troves of Oriental scholarship. He called upon the West not to condemn everything Eastern, for he could see that the Orient had much to offer in the fields of agriculture, chemistry, polity and jurisprudence as well. His admiration for Sanskrit was boundless:

“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either.”

He also posited affinities like Sufism, fire-worship and jurisprudence between Persia and India.

The innumerable essays of Jones found in the Asiatic Researches volumes cover religion, astronomy, literature, music, botany and even the game of chess. He spoke against the Western habit of dismissing Indian poetry as barbarous and himself used Indian myths as in ‘The Enchanted Fruit’. Dr. Sastry’s tribute to this great Oriental scholar who knew twenty ­eight languages is thus most welcome for Jones did inspire generations of poets, translators, linguists and critics: among them, Emerson, Byron, Tennyson, Fitzgerald and Melville. Dr. Parr said of Jones: “It was good for us that such a man was born”. We could add: It is good for us that such a clearly defined introduction to Jones is now in our hands as well.

- Dr. Prema Nandakumar
Tiruchirapalli

“Muse Time”, P. Dhanavel; Poetcrit Publications, Maranda, (India); Rs. 50/-­

The poet is a University teacher at the School of Management, Pondichery and is a Ph.D. on A.R. Ammons.

This collection of short poems makes an interesting and delightful reading. The play of words and very often the use of a pun keeps the reader absorbed. For example, a poem like the

“Heart of Snow”
“My heart of Snow
-----------------------
-----------------------­
Melts ---------------
­leaving me heartless,
----------------------­

or the very first poem

“My Lord”
“When the day begins
my duty binds me
When the day ends
my beauty hounds me.”

There are also in this collection, poems of deviation as the poem “Durga” a hymn to the Divine Mother.

A simple poem, “The Same” conveys the wisdom of the Upanishads. But very unique are some poems like, “Depression”, “The Reader”, “Streaks”, “Stop for Life”, “Elements” and so on. The style reminds one of Shri. Harindranath Chattopadhyaya’s verse. “Culture of Vulture”, “Praise and Blame”, “Pursuit” have profound thought content.

“Muse Time” is a loveable book of small poems but not small in variety or quality, the book makes for a delightful reading. It can be possessed by everyone to relax, enjoy and think.

Miss. A. Satyavathi

TELUGU

BODHICHARYAVATARAM: (An Introduction to the Conduct which leads to Enlightenment); Sri Easwarawaka Ramalinga Reddy; Bodha Chaitanya, R.K. Sevashram, C.T.M. Road, Madanapalle, Chittoor Dt., A.P.

The work under review is an abridged version of Shanti Deva’s Sanskrit text. The uniqueness of the work brought before us in chaste and simple Telugu helps us in day to day life practically without what the translator humorously calls “Japan Meditation” (Japa in Meditation, Japa and Meditation!), the mechanical methods, as they tend to be ultimately, to attain enlightenment.

There are nine main Chapters and seven appendices concerning the various ways of awakening the mind and guarding the state of enlightenment. Interestingly one of the means of attaining enlightenment is confession of sins which reminds us of the Christian (Roman Catholic) practice. The difference lies in the confession being made not to an individual but to the Enlightened Ones. The confessor’s regret is that the sins have prevented him from progressing on the path of enlightenment.

The main Chapters comprise the discourse of Shantideva. Renouncing Kingship he became a monk but was not considered by the fellow-monks as being of any worth. He was called upon to deliver a discourse before a learned gathering by his fellows who wanted to make him an object of ridicule. Shanti Deva, however, with a prayer to his chosen deity was able to speak the highest wisdom with great ability.

One of the Appendices tell the remarkable story of Prakriti, which inspired the great dance-drama by Tagore. But the story, as told in the work, reveals the remarkable way in which the Buddha makes the young woman, who wants to marry his chief disciple Ananda, to renounce life and become a nun. The other Appendices like the Hridaya Sutra, the Heart Precept, show the way to the supreme wisdom as seen by the Buddha.

A brief review can by no means reveal the profundity of the work. The author has already brought out three books of stories related to Buddhism (Jataka Kathalu, Dhamma Pada Kathal, Yogakshema Gadhalui) and plans to bring out the great Milinda Prashna in Telugu. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the learned author for rendering the Buddhist classics into Telugu.

- K. B. Sitaramayya

Telugu Janapada Kavitvam; Kolar Jillah, Karnataka (Telugu Folk Poetry in the Kolar District in Karnataka). Dr. K. Sitaramam, Lalita Nivas, 405, Teacher’s Colony, Koramangala, Bangalore 560 034; Rs. 110/­

There was a time when Telugu language and literature flourished in the Kolar district. Thanks to the reorganisation of states according to linguistic regions Kolar became a part of Karnataka and Telugu is totally eclipsed by the “regional” language and there is not a single Telugu medium school in the whole district. But fortunately, the “folk” keep the language alive with their charming and vigorous lyrics (geyalu) of various types. Though as literature folk poetry cannot rise to the sublimities of elite poetry the collected lyrics have a beauty and grace of their own and are most valuable as the mirrors of the social life of the people and also help the historian to reconstruct the history of the region.

Dr. Sitaramam, working on the subject for his Ph.D. thesis under an able guide who has himself published a few books on Folklore both in Telugu and Kannada and who himself is keenly interested in the Telugu culture of the Kolar District, has toured the whole district street by street and tape-recorded the lyrics of the district, analysed them, studied them closely and commented on the linguistic, social and literary aspects of the lyrics. The scholar has done well in publishing the thesis eleven years after getting the degree: it is a valuable contribution to the study of folk lore and an eye-opener to the general reader as well as the specialist to the presence of Telugu culture in the district.

“The scholar has analysed the lyrics under heads like Life of labour, love, humour, women’s lyrics, children’s lyrics etc. Like all folk lyrics, those collected here are impersonal. The individual composer identifies himself with the group ­consciousness: it becomes poetry by the people, of the people and for the people. Therefore, there is no deep thinking. Even the so-called “philosophy is more felt than thought of. Behind the so-called superstitious beliefs there is a sense of the supernatural to which the un­-intellectuals have always an access. Though true “spiritual” experience it not seen, there is deep piety and simple trust in the Maker seen with different forms and names. As common in all folk poetry people are frank and there is no attempt at elegance and nicety in expression.

We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Sitaramam for his “labour of love” if we could speak of product of love as labour.

- K. B. Sitaramayya

Surabhi, Pedda Bala Siksha (400 pages); Buddiga Subbarayan; Educational Products of India, Hyderabad; Rs. 49.99

This book is an improved and comprehensive version of Pedda Bala Siksha with which Telugu people are conversant. It is a minor encyclopedia containing highly useful information of cultural importance suitable to all levels of learners in Telugu. As a source of information and a tool of education, it is a perennial fountain. This substantial volume is an indispensable guide to all those who believe in the concept of self­ instruction and continuing education.

Easy methods of learning, common errors in Telugu, relevant things about our epics and classics including ‘Satakas’, glimpses of children’s literature, inspiring stories which point a moral, characters in Puranas, memorable verses, illuminating sentences, patriotic songs of great poets (ancient and modern), literary features including Thyagaraja’s “Kritis”, folk songs, Mangala haratis, ‘Yenki’ songs etc. Essential facts of modern science and technology, astronomy, space science, zoology, United Nations, World History, History of Andhra Pradesh in a nutshell ­these are some of the prominent things in this General Education Treatise.

Although Sri Subbarayan is well-known as an expert in Children’s Literature, he has not only lived up to his reputation, but excelled himself in producing this book. The get-up is very attractive and eye-catching.

The book is a ‘must’ for all Telugu people and deserves to be onthe shelves of all libraries.

- I. V. Chalapati Rao

C  P Brown Bi-centenary Celebrations Souvenir, 1990; J. Hanumat Sastry, Secretary, C.P. Brown Memorial Trust, Cuddapah, pp. 121+; Rs. 100/-

The Brown Memorial Trust, Cuddapah, has been doing commendable service to the Telugu literature and culture in trying to spotlight the invaluable services rendered by C. P. Brown, who though a Civil servant, as he was then in the service of the East India Company, was won over by the richness and beauty of the Telugu language and literature and became proficient in it. The Telugus owe it to him mainly for the restoration of innumerable palm-leaf works of eminent authors, notably Vemana. Brown maintained a ‘College’ of pundits, paying them monthly salaries from out of his own funds, collected rare and unpublished palm-leaf manuscripts, collated and compared them and printed and published the proper versions as arrived at by his team of scholars. It is no exaggeration to say that many of the classical works in Telugu language would have been destroyed by termites and the ravages of time, had it not been for his tireless striving. Though he was transferred to other places, his base for this literary pursuit continued in Cuddapah, in the building acquired by him for this purpose. Brown’s Telugu lexicon is still one of the standard works of reference today.

It is to the credit of committed persons like Janamaddi Hanumatsastry the Secretary of the C. P. Brown Memorial Trust and his colleagues in the Town that efforts over the past few decades to ensure a tribute to the memory of the great soul that loved Telugu with all his heart was realised and was set up right at the place where his ‘College’ once stood over a century by acquiring and building a Memorial and library to cherish his memory. This special issue brought out on the occasion of his bi-centenary celebrations held at Cuddapah on14th and 15th November 98, speaks eloquently of the untiring efforts of the members of the Trust in realising the dream, not only theirs, but of everyone who loved the Telugu language and culture. It chronicles the donors, the men who made the realisation of the dream possible, and contains pictorial and historical account of several events from its inauguration in 1995. It is to the credit of successive District Collectors and other Officials, who were wholeheartedly involved in this great effort as also from the non-official elite of the town and leading lights of the political field. Though it is due to the collective efforts of all these mentioned above and others that this stupendous task was achieved, it is but proper to remember thankfully the one man who entirely devoted his energies and time for this noble purpose ­Janamaddi - who recently was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the Telugu University - Hanumat Sastry and gave a direction to all the efforts. They even got prepared a portrait of C. P. Brown in the absence of any authentic one. Kudos to Dr. Janamaddi, may his tribe increase!

With several contributions from various scholars on topics of great literary and historic interest, this book will undoubtedly be an invaluable addition to any library and enrich the minds of lovers of literature.

–Vemaraju Namsimha Rao