Reviews

[We shall be glad to review books in all In1ian 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

The Library Movement: – Published by the Madras Library Association, Price. Rs. 2. –

The Madras Library Association, which came to birth in the wake of the All-India Library Conference held at Madras in December 1927, has published this collection of essays "with the two-fold object", as the Preface informs the reader, "of promulgating the essential ideas of the movement and of stirring thought so as to lead to the creation of suitable methods and machinery". The first of these objects has been richly fulfilled by the publication, and so too, the second so far as the stirring of thought is concerned. The essays cover a wide range and present many arresting propositions. The root difficulty of the Library Movement is the colossal illiteracy of the Indian population. The fighting of this illiteracy is one of the greatest problems of the movement in India. But how is the thing to be done? Mr. S. R. Ranganathan, the Librarian of the Madras University, suggests on the model of Soviet Russia the creation of local library committees to arrange for teaching the alphabet to the adults in night-schools. Mr. T. R. Venkatarama Sastri would have the vast body of our educated unemployed supply the man-power and energy required for working the movement with success in the rural areas. Mr. S. V. Ramamurty throws out the fascinating idea that young men just out of college should, before applying themselves to the problems of economic livelihood, embark on a life of temporary Sanyasinhood for a definite period–say six months, and with a small bundle of clothes, wander in a prescribed area telling the people the substance of what they had learnt. These suggestions are of importance as stressing the imperative necessity for a programme of removing mass illiteracy which the libraries ought to take up forthwith as a preliminary and preparation for further development. But the movement cannot afford to wait till the fruition of this activity, and must make use of all available expedients to storm the citadel of understanding of the very illiterate. Public lectures, songs, cinema shows and exhibitions, are some of the methods that occur to the mind in this context, but we require above all, as the writer of one of the essays observes, "a band of modern Bhagavathars imbued with the latest knowledge, carrying from place to place serious instruction as well as delight to the adult population". The problem of reaching even the literate few is beset with considerable difficulty. As Dr. Rabindranath Tagore observes in the essay which holds the place of honour in the publication, discriminate rejection is the very soul of excellence in the contents of a Library, and almost one of the very first possibilities of an intelligent library organisation is to solve the problem of choice of books for the libraries under its control. Sir P .S. Sivaswami Aiyer invites the Library Association, through a committee, to prepare suitable lists of books for the libraries to be started in different centres. There is also much sound sense in the suggestion of Mr. N. Raghunathan of The Hindu that the lists to be drawn up may advantageously consist of say, "the hundred best books" to form the indispensable nucleus of every rural library. One great handicap of the Library Movement in India, even in the matter of serving literates, is the lack of suitable books in the vernaculars. In England and America, the libraries are said to be the bone of the publishers’ business and hence necessarily the main ultimate support of authors, and the spread of libraries in any vernacular area of the Presidency is bound inevitably to stimulate the growth of vernacular literature in that area. But still, it would be wasting precious time to wait till books are produced in the vernacular languages. The Library Movement ought to be linked with circles of cultured and public-spirited men who shall make it their business to help in the work of adult education by conveying the knowledge of Europe to the masses of India through periodical vernacular pamphlets to be carried to the very homes of the people. The Library Association has rendered a public service by publishing this symposium of essays compelling public attention to one of the great movements of the day, vitally fruitful of national upliftment. There is, however, a considerable amount of repetition in the various essays brought together and published by the Association. The interest of the Library Movement stands in no way to be advanced by a score or so of writers repeating the same observations as to the importance of the movement, each in words of his own within the compass of the same publication. It should be the aim of the Association in its future publications to exclude purposeless repetitions of this kind by judicious editing, so as to render the publication a live medium for the proper organisation and expansion of the Library Movement in the Madras Presidency.

S. R.

Malabar and its Folk: –By T. K. GOPALA PANIKKAR, (Published by G. A. Natesen & Co.) Madras–Price Rs. 2.

The third edition of this well-known book has been brought out by Messrs. G. A. Natesan & Co, revised and enlarged. The book was published in 1900 with an introduction by F. W. Kellet, who spoke highly of the author and his work.

The book is not a history of Malabar; but only a record of men and things, manners and customs, as they are. The author evinces a great capacity accurately and vividly to describe. He has touched in detail on almost everything of Malabar. There are many who have written about Malabar, Marco Polo, Barbora, Strange, Thackeray, Buchanan, Wigram and Logan and a few others who were all students in varying degrees of the ethnology of Malabar. But none equals Mr. Panikkar, who is a child of the soil, in the story of the customs and manners of the country. To have a clear idea of Malabar without going over there, to know about the Nayar Tarawad, the Marumakkathayam law, the Malayali traditions and superstitions and the Malabar drama called Kathakali, the festivals of Onam, Vishu and Tiruvathira, the serpent-worship, the Namboothiris, to understand these with ease and charm there is not a better medium than the book under review.

Mr. Hamid Ali's short essay on ‘Moplas’ is an addition to the book. I know he has taken considerable pains to study his subject. But I disagree with him on two points:

1. The derivation of the word Mopla from ‘Maha’ meaning ‘great’ and ‘Pilla’ signifying the ‘honorific title’ used among the Nayars of Travancore, he says, seems to be the most reasonable one.

This is a knotty point; as yet there is no evidence to decide one way or the other. There is no use of conjecture.

2. Mr. Hamid Ali says that "Tippu (if at all he did convert) always aimed at the high-class Hindus". I ask for evidence. I find there is nil. On page 275, speaking of the Moplas of North Malabar, he refers to the Marumakkathayam as an ‘archaic institution’, If by ‘archaic’ he means ‘obsolete’ or ‘out of date', he is wrong. Perhaps he means ‘ancient’.

Mr. V. K. John's essay entitled ‘the land system of Malabar’ is another addition. The author of the book, Mr. Panikkar himself, has in the opening chapter made out a case for tenancy reform and his prayers today are granted in the recent passing of the Malabar Tenancy Bill in our local Legislature. Mr. John looks an industrious student of land tenures and his plea for agrarian reconstruction becomes the modern student of land problems. But is there not some danger, I ask, that "the most scientific, the most effective and the most simple system" should be "to make the cultivator the owner of the property, to combine the functions of both in one and the same person"? It is a matter of controversy. Mr. John has got a theory of which it is now useless to discuss. Before closing the review, I would suggest to the publishers that their next edition of the book will shine better if properly illustrated. A chapter on architecture would be an additional charm.

P. NARAYANA KURUP.

Indian Christians: – G. A. Natesan & Co., Madras. Price Rs. 3.

The latest publication of Messrs. G. A. Natesan & Co. is undoubtedly a valuable addition to our Memoir literature. It is even something more. In as much as it records the achievements of Christian celebrities who were sons of the soil and who played no inconsiderable part in the building up of the nation, it is a useful contribution to the history of Modern India. A perusal of this handy volume which is, by the way, neatly got up, amply illustrated, and priced Rupees three, leaves an indelible impression on the minds of those whose patriotism transcends communal, credal, and religious differences. No dispassionate student of history can ignore and no true lover of the motherland can forget, the contribution of Christian India to the national evolution which is as solid as it is silent. On reading the book it becomes evident that there is no sphere of public activity in which our Christian brethren have not left an enduring record of service. As poets, educationists, publicists, reformers, and Ministers of the Church in India, they have not only distinguished themselves in their individual capacity but also advanced the common interests of all the communities. The book is worth the perusal of all youngmen, if only for the especial reason that it makes them realise that Modern India is the handiwork of the united labours of the sister communities. It is hoped that the book will have the wide circulation it deserves. To Messrs. Natesan & Co., the public owe their heart-felt thanks for combining so harmoniously, business with patriotism and maintaining the best traditions of a publishing house.

I. D.

Mangalore, a Historical sketch:- By GEORGE M. MORAES. [With a preface by the Rev. H. Heras, S. J. M.A., Professor of Indian History and Director of the Indian Historical Research Institute, St. Xavier's College, Bombay. Published by J. J. Rego at the Codialbail Press, Mangalore, 1927. Crown 8vo pp. 94.]

This little book is the second of the research studies organized by the Rev. Heras who is now recognized as one of the most prominent of the scholars engaged in Indian historical research. It is the work of one of his students trained in the meticulously accurate method of his. The booklet contains eleven chapters besides an excellent list of bibliographical references, published and unpublished. The unpublished documents are a valuable set of 16 extracts (one of which alone is in English) from the Government Archives of Panjim and the Diocesan Archives of Mylapore. They are published as appendices and cover 18 pages (pp. 72-90). The early history of Mangalore, the Portuguese enterprises, the wars of Venkatappa Nayaka, the account of Pietro Della Valle, and the fortunes of the city under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan are dealt with in the first seven chapters. The subsequent chapters give short and interesting accounts of the relations of Mangalore with the outside world in the 18th century and the history of the Kanara Christians before and after the troublous times of Tipu. The booklet is a model historical thesis though in an unpretentious and Plebian exterior.

Trilochana-Pallava and Karikala Chola :- By N. VENKATA RAMARAYYA M.A., Ph.D. [V. Ramaswamy Sastrulu & Sons, 1929. pp. 120, Royal 8-vo.]

This book is a valuable publication which is likely to be highly useful to those engaged in South Indian historical research. It is well-known that Karikala Chola figures not only in Tamil literature as the builder of the embankment of the Kaveri, but in inscriptions as the originator of the Telugu-Chola dynasty which played an important part in the history of South India from the 7th century to the 12th. Epigraphists are acquainted with the movements, friendly and hostile, of the chiefs of the Telugu-Chola line. It is also equally well-known that there is a legendary figure among the Pallavas, the celebrated Mukunti Kaduvetti. The author, relying on the basis of the inscription on the one hand and the numerous Mss. available in the Mackenzie collections, argues that Mukunti Kaduvetti and Karikala Chola were contemporaries and that Karikala Chola met him in battle and wrested from him the lands now forming the Ceded Districts. The author is to be congratulated on the large mass of literary materials, Tamil and Telugu, which he has utilised. The appendices are full of analytical data and are a good guide to those who desire to dive into the original authorities upon which the author depends. Pamphlets like these, small monographs on the other doubtful and enigmatic historical figures, are absolutely necessary; and we hope that the author will place the commendable capacity for research he has shown in this volume at the disposal of the unexplored fields of South Indian History. It is not possible to agree with all the views stated here; but the method and the spirit of the investigation are what are exactly needed in the present day.

V. R.

MARATHI

Vidhawa-Kumari:- A novel. (published by the Mahilavijay Granthamala; Khatao Bhuwan, Girgaum, Bombay. Rs. 2)

Few books have succeeded in focusing the attention of the public in Maharashtra, as some of the publications of this enterprising firm have done, to the existence of the social evils in the land. As the name denotes, the book is an autobiography of a virgin widow; and it has been told with a poignancy and sincerity which makes the book very fascinating reading. Born in the village of Chiplon, a girl is married in her 11th year to an old man of 52, who is working at Bombay and whom the girl never saw, except perforce on the day of the wedding. She finds to her sorrow and amazement that on her arrival at her husband's house, she is supposed to be a step-mother to a lady who is thrice her age. The story goes on in a delightful rambling way telling us a hundred intimate details of the Maharashtra home and we get a very clear glimpse of the family life of Gopaban. Suddenly the husband dies and the girl hecomes a widow. The story then proceeds telling the hideous sufferings of the young widow and finally her emancipation.

A theme common enough but told with consummate skill and astuteness. The author makes a passionate plea for the resuscitation of the kumkuma, the putting in of the auspicious mark on the forehead, as the right of every woman and the death of the husband may not affect this custom.

In short, a very thought-provoking fine story.

R. L. RAU.

TELUGU

Ippudu :- By MR. BH. KAMESWARA RAO, Rajamundry, (Price As. 8.)

Here is a nicely got-up edition of three plays by Mr. Bh. Kameswara Rao, reprinted from the Bharathi in which they were originally published. Readers of the Bharathi are familiar with the writings of Mr. Kameswara Rao who is known to be a successful humorist. We understand the present work to be the first installment of collected plays by Mr. Kameswara Rao, and no doubt, the plays included herein do credit to the author's claim to a high standard of achievement. There are passages in these plays capable of producing remarkable effects both theatrically and otherwise. In places, the dialogues seem to be irrelevant but on the whole they are humorous and entertaining. In the first play, a nickname given to a person largely determines the action of the play. In the next, and more so in the last, there are subtle expositions of some of the characteristics of the Telugu people. This appears to be the author's main aim and he has effectively employed his humour for this purpose.

SRI SRI.