Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Reviews

ENGLISH

The Legacy of India. –Edited by G. T. Garratt. (Oxford University Press –10sh. net.)

This is a volume of essays by different writers on different aspects of India’s contribution to the world’s civilisation. The writers include eminent men like Professor H. G. Rawlinson, Dr. F. W. Thomas, Mr. Codrington, Professor Poussin, Professor Das Gupta, Sir Abdul Qadir, Sir S. Radhakrishnan and Mr. Garratt himself. The volume also contains a very valuable Introduction by Lord Zetland, not less valuable in that it deviates a little from the title of the volume and deals mainly with Britain's contribution to the civilisation of India and not with India’s cultural contribution to the world.

Being a collection of essays by various authors, the volume naturally lacks cohesion and unity, but it could have been a less ill-co-ordinated achievement, if care had been taken to avoid overlapping of subject matter in the different essays. The overlapping is particularly to be found in the following four essays: ‘Philosophy’ by Professor Das Gupta, ‘Caste and the Structure of Society’ by Mr. Masani, ‘Buddhism’ by Professor Poussin, and ‘Hinduism’ by Professor Radhakrishnan. The difficulty is, no doubt, inherent in the subjects themselves because they are so intertwined and inter-dependent in the very processes of history, and the lack of co-ordination cannot certainly be put down as a defect of the individual writers. But the fact remains that the overlapping of subject-matter could have been avoided to a greater extent.

The volume attempts to be both informative and critical. Some of the essays suffer in having to be both simultaneously. Particularly unfortunate in this manner is Mr. Masani’s essay on Caste. He fails to draw a distinction, which should have been very clearly drawn, between the original four-fold division and the later system which created thousands of castes out of "subsequent differences of religion, occupation, language, and locality, and the increasing fusion of one sect with another"–a system which, by the way, owed its existence more to want of railways and easy transport, want of a powerful centralised government and want of wider economic thought than to the inspiration of the original four-fold caste system itself. In a sense, the later system owed its growth and perfection more to the diligence of Census officers than to the genius of the Hindu peoples. Without a clear distinction being drawn between the origin of the Brahmins or Sudras as a caste on the one hand, and on the other the origins, say, of the Advaitins or Vaishnavites as a sub-caste, of the Velanadu or Kulin Brahmins as a sub-caste, and of the potters or goldsmiths as a sub-caste, it serves no purpose to maintain, as Mr. Masani maintains, that caste is not inconsistent with democracy" and that "Communism and Fascism both recognise certain features of the caste system.’ This, further, is ignoring the most fundamental feature of the caste system today in India, namely, that caste is determined by birth. And any hopes for the continuance of the caste system come ill from one who can offer no valid cultural or economic reason why the system should continue to exist in the modern world. It is one thing to say that the caste system will not die so easily. It is altogether different to plead that it should not die.

The purely informative essays like Professor Rawlinson’s ‘India in European Literature and Thought,’ and Mr. Codrington’s ‘Indian Art and Archaeology’ are admirably written. And if Mr. Strangways’ essay on ‘Music’ and Mr. Clark’s essay on ‘Science’ are too technical and therefore of little interest to the common reader, they have none the less an important place in the volume. Mr. Poussin’s essay on ‘Buddhism’ is very learned, and reads like an essay on archaic history contributed to an Encyclopaedia. But the spirit of Buddha is still alive in India, and Hindus are still emotionally interested in Buddhism. Mr. Poussin’s essay is, however, not as interesting as it is learned. Professor Das Gupta’s essay on ‘Philosophy’ is not less scholarly, and portions of it are far too abstrusely written for the general reader, but he succeeds in making the essay very interesting:

"That philosophy should not remain merely a theoretic science, but should mould our entire personality and should drive us through the hard struggles of moral and spiritual life on the outward path of self-realization, and should ultimately bring us again to the level of other men and make us share the common duties of social life in a perfect form and bind us with ties of sympathy and love all humanity–this is the final wisdom of Indian thought."

Sir S. Radhakrishnan’s article on ‘Hinduism’ is like all his writings a very precise and lucid exposition of the subject, which enters into the eternal spirit of Hinduism unperturbed by the popular vulgarisations of the day. He writes, as only he can write, that

"Hinduism grows, in the proper sense of the word, not by accretion, but like an organism, undergoing from time to time transformation as a whole. It has carried within it much of its early possessions. It has cast aside a good deal, and often it has found treasures which it made its own. It took what it could whence it could, though it adhered to its original vision. The more it changes the more it remains the same thing."

Apart from Hindu philosophy and the future of the caste system, the two problems which confront intelligent readers of this volume are what may roughly be called the problems of Indo-Muslim culture and Indo-British civilisation. Lord Zetland raises both the problems at once in his Introduction when he says:

"There must be, one would suppose, some more fundamental explanation of the almost complete absence of the f kind of cultural synthesis that might be expected from the close contact over a considerable period of time of two civilisations such as those of the British and of the Hindus. Can it be said, in fact, that it is in the case of the British only that such a fusion has not taken place? Is there, for example, a distinctive Hindu-Muslim civilisation?"

Lord Zetland realises that the Muslims have been longer in India than the British and that they settled down in India whereas the British are merely exploiting and packing home. "But, broadly speaking," he says "Muslims and Hindus remain to this day peoples apart, with their own distinctive religions, languages, literatures and social systems." In trying to discover an explanation for this state of affairs, Lord Zetland discovers the caste system which "not only stands in the way of any admixture of blood with that of other peoples, but renders intimate social intercourse impossible." Lord Zetland forgets in the first place that there can be no problem of admixture of blood between the Hindus and Musliins of India as long as "of the eighty odd million Muslims, who today form a quarter of the population, the great majority are descended from Hindu stock, and retain certain characteristics common to Indians as a whole." If what is meant to be said is that inter-marriage is not possible between Hindus and Muslims, it may be reminded that inter-marriage is not possible, as things are, even between one Hindu caste and another. And, in the second place, Lord Zetland forgets that the average Englishman is himself not less unwilling than the Hindu that there should be any admixture of blood between the Hindus and the English, or even that there should be ‘intimate social intercourse.’ The caste system comes in very conveniently for a curse, but Lord Zetland is very mistaken when he tries to put on the same plane of impossibility a synthesis between the cultures of Hindus and Muslims and a synthesis between the Cultures of Indians and Englishmen. He is right when he says that "the effect of English political tradition as a force moulding the mind of modern India is profound," and ‘purity and efficiency of administration,’ ‘equality of all men in the eye of the law,’ and ‘ideals of liberty’ mean something indeed as the contribution of Britain to life in India–but the sphere of Culture is different from the sphere of Politics and Economics. Culture has geographical boundaries; political and economic thought have none. And in the sphere of culture there has been, and there can further be, a profound synthesis of what is Muslim and what is Hindu, but a cultural synthesis between England and India is not so likely. Mr. Briggs in his ‘Muslim Architecture in India is anxious to analyse Mogul architecture into its elements and decide what part is Muslim and what part is Hindu in conception, but he is not equally anxious to study the effect in terms of beauty of that combination or synthesis. Sir Abdul Qadir, on the other hand, in his exceedingly well-written essay on the ‘Cultural influences of Islam’ sees in "the creation of a new indigenous language, called Urdu, which was a mixture of Persian and Hindi, and which has become, in course of time, the commonly used language in India," and "which now boasts of a fairly varied and wide literature, which may be claimed as a common heritage by both Hindus and Muslims, and is gaining every day in importance and strength," a perfect synthesis at a point between Hindu and Muslim cultures, the like of which synthesis Mr. Garratt rightly cannot find in studying ‘Indo-British Civilisation.’ In dealing with Indian writers in the English language Mr. Garratt sadly confesses that "possibly English is not a good medium for expressing Indian thought," and this confession is a measure of the comparative impossibility of unifying the cultures of Englishmen and Indians. Sir Abdul Qadir also lays stress on Indian music as having effected a cultural synthesis between Hindu and Muslim at another point. He quotes Mr. Jafar who wrote:

"Indian music, like other fine arts, proved a new channel of intercourse between the Hindus and Mussalmans…….In the domain of music it became distinctly perceptible how the two communities were borrowing from each other the precious share they possessed in the art, and thereby enriching each other."

Such a synthesis between Indian music and English music is inconceivable, whatever the orchestras of Dr. Pandyan and Prof. Sambamurti in South India may mean.

Not merely in music and in literature, but in art and architecture too a cultural synthesis between Hindu and Muslim is visible–and to neglect all these facts, and to imagine that Englishmen and Muslims are quite similarly placed with respect to the Hindus, and to blame the caste system for making all cultural synthesis impossible between British and Indian, is simply choosing to be blind. English literature may stimulate Indian literatures as Ibsen stimulated the English drama in the nineties of the last century, and Britain may bring science and material civilisation to India as the Romans gave Roman roads to the ancient Britons, but culturally Indians and Englishmen live in two different worlds, and to say the same thing about Hindus and Muslims would be a gross mistaking of the real position.

Mr. Ghosh’s essay on ‘Vernacular Literatures’ is based on very insufficient material, and as Mr. Panikkar points out in a thought-provoking review of this very volume in the July issue of The Asiatic Review. "There is hardly anything in his essay which shows an appreciation of the modern developments in Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu and Malayalam." Says further Mr. Panikkar. "For too long a time European scholars have been inclined to look upon India south of the Vindhyas as an unnecessary projection which interferes with their generalisations." We commend this last remark of his to future historians of India’s cultural legacy.

BURRA V. SUBRAHMANYAM

Art and Meditation.–By Anagarika B. Govinda. (The Allahabad Law Journal Press, Allahabad, Price Rs. 2.)

These are short essays by Anagarika B. Govinda, a German Buddhist monk, who exhibited his paintings at the Roerich Centre of Art and Culture in Allahabad. His abstract paintings, being his meditation pictures, formed the main attraction at the Allahabad Exhibition. As his technique was novel and his conception of abstract art in its relationship to meditation aroused the interest of the public, he has in these essays tried to explain both, giving reproductions of his paintings in black and white with colour hints and adding a few poems to explain the message of the paintings.

As for his technique, he must have come under the influence of Cezanne who influenced art in Europe at the beginning of this century. The present artist thinks that Nature’s fundamental shapes can be reduced to a progressive scale of geometrical forms thus:- (1) the cube and its complementary, the pyramid; (2) the cylinder and its complementary, the cone; and (3) the sphere and its complementary, the spheric cone. Similarly, in regard to colours, he finds a progressive scale, viz. (1) Red and its complementary Green; (2) Blue and its complementary Orange; (3) Yellow and its complementary Violet. As there must be a correspondence between forms and colours, he thinks that physical forms and forces can be symbolised or shown by cubes and pyramids in red and green, and that mental forces and spiritual forms can be similarly symbolised by the other sets of geometrical forms and colours.

But what distinguishes this artist is, not so much his technique, as his conception of abstract art. His approach towards art is that of religious meditation according to that form of Mahayana Buddhism known as Zen Buddhism. In that system the meditation is on some riddle-like parodoxes suggested by the teacher called Koans, till the pupil attains Satori, that is, a sudden revelation of Reality through a flash of intuition. To the present artist objects in Nature are so many Koans; and through religious meditation he seeks to understand their significance and message and then reveal in form and colour the essentials of the message.

Religion and Art are merely different forms of the same activity, the former proceeding inwards and the latter outwards. As the approach of the present artist has been through religious meditation, the result has been creative art of a very high kind. Every object in Nature may be said to be a point in the Divine Consciousness. When the mind of the artist is pure and transparent through meditation, that is, when he attains what is called Samyama in Yoga or Satori in Zen Buddhism, he is in tune with the Divine Life and becomes a seer with a vision of God’s Thought in the objects round him; and then, finding no words suitable to describe his vision, he attempts to describe the essentials of his vision in form and colour. In Indian art, it has always been considered that to see the Reality behind an object, in spite of forms and appearances, is true art. Vatsayana in his Kama Sutras says that a knowledge of Reality behind forms and appearances (Roopa Bhedah) is the foremost Anga or qualification for all true art. In explaining this, Havell says: "The artist through a process of severe mental discipline is taught to discriminate the essentials in forms and appearances, and to see clearly with his mind’s eye before he takes up brush or chisel." This conception and method are identical with the present artist’s conception and method of art. In fact Havell’s words almost summarise the exposition of the conception of art contained in the series of short chapters in the present book which are grouped in two sections, viz. (1) The psychological and cultural ground of meditation and art; and (2) Experiences of meditation and their expression in painting and poetry.

T. BHUJANGA RAO

Mystic India.–By Mrs. Sass Brunner and Miss Elizabeth Brunner. (Printed and Published in Japan, Price Rs. 8.–Apply to The New Book Company, Hornby Road, Fort, Bombay).

It is two years since the two Hungarian artists. Mrs. and Miss Brunner, left India for China and Japan. During their five years stay in India, they held several successful exhibitions of their paintings which endeared them to India and her people. They did not come out to this country, as most European artists do, to make money or even to carve out a name for themselves.

India, for them, was not a happy ground for exploitation but a cradle-land of arts and religions, to be adored, to be understood. They had the necessary qualifications: a purity of life, a catholicity of outlook and an ascetic temperament. They adopted India as their spiritual home and lived and moved as one of her children.

They reacted to the bewildering life about them in this country with the frankness, simplicity and wonder of a child. This direct spontaneous sympathy and child-like wonder brought them nearer to the heart of things in India and to contact the true spirit and soul of India.

India did not mystify them nor was she a puzzle and a problem that she is to many savants, philosophers and travelers. Not that these two artists were blind to India’s faults or uncritical of the many obvious disadvantages, shortcomings, vices and vulgarities that one comes across in one’s daily life, but that they ever tried to rise above their environments, to take a larger view of things, to get in tune with the Reality that is India and to identify themselves with all that is best in this ancient land. No wonder they succeeded so remarkably where thousand others failed!

In that spirit they traveled, sketched and painted some of the finest sights and scenes, men and monuments of India,–which they gave to the world in the shape of public exhibitions, and now in a beautifully produced book of pictures under the attractive title of Mystic India.

Mystic India is not an album of life and scenes in India but a pictorial interpretation of India’s heart and mind. It is a magnificent tribute to an ancient country from modern Europe. It is a counterblast to Miss Mayo’s picturesque perjuries. It is India as seen by sensitive souls and as felt by great hearts. It is an offering to the Goddess of Beauty from, two of her devoted worshippers.

Mrs. and Miss Brunner painted several hundreds of pictures, both big and small, during their fairly long stay in this country. They painted some of India’s greatest sons and daughters, some of her most beautiful temples and images, and her gorgeous, multi-coloured life.

In this book they have reproduced select examples of their art with an admirable discretion and taste. There are eighty beautiful illustrations, including five colour plates and fifteen photographs.

The book is divided into two parts, the first devoted to the art of Mrs. Brunner and the second to that of her gifted daughter. Some of the pictures in the book are the symbolical studies of Mrs. Brunner titled ‘The Four Aspects of the Moon.’ ‘Light of the Night,’ ‘Gleanings of Purity’ and ‘Power of Cohesion.’

These are works of creative imagination, the result of deep and profound thinking and meditation, and are suggestive of some inner experience of life or of some aspect of Cosmic Truth. She is at her best in such studies.

In their originals, which the reviewer had the privilege of seeing in the company of the artist and listening to her explanations, you see something of the wonder and beauty of colour-and-farm-worlds unseen by ordinary vision.

Her greatest masterpiece, in the opinion of the reviewer, is the head study of the Lord Buddha in monochrome. It is a powerful portrait of a Superman who triumphed over the bonds of life and death, sorrow and suffering, karma and rebirth. The serene majestic face, full of wisdom and compassion, shines with a light that is not of this world. The book is worth possessing just for that one picture.

Her Jain ‘Thirthankaras,’ though copies of old sculptures, reveal the same beauty and strength of the old masters. Gandhi and Tagore are presented in their characteristic moods and manners, and the coloured plates of the ‘Himalaya,’ ‘Buddha in Meditation,’ ‘Nirvana’ and ‘The Goldmohur Tree’ indicate the glory of her rich transparent colours.

Miss Brunner’s contribution is equally rich and varied. There are her favourite portraits of Tagore, Gandhi, Krishnamurti, Mrs. Naidu as well as the delightful sketches of some of India’s beautiful daughters. Her paintings have all the warmth and colour of her soul, and even in these poor reproductions you get a glimpse of her throbbing heart.

Both the artists have contributed prefaces which tell us of their dreams and aspirations and their joy and love of India. The explanatory notes by Mrs. Broenniman and Prof. Langley are interesting and instructive, and the appreciations of their art by critics in India and Japan add to the interest and value of the book.

The book has too many introductions. Tagore’s short message is more than enough for a Foreword. The printing and get-up are of a high order, done in the best style of the Japanese, and the cream and gold cover is exceedingly attractive.

This volume of 130 pages is indeed a fine production of the printer’s art, and we heartily recommend it to one and all, to artists and laymen, to schools and libraries, to Indians and Europeans.

G. VENKATACHALAM

KANNADA

The Mysore University English–Kannada Dictionary, Part I (A to Billow). (Printed by the Superintendent at the Government Press, Bangalore, 1936. Chief Editor and Chairman of the Editorial Committee: Mr. B. Venkatanaranappa, M.A., pp. 96.)

It is nearly half a century ago that Kittel produced his monumental Kannada-English dictionary and placed the rich stores of Kannada language and literature at the disposal of one and all that knew English and had any interest in Kannada. But the complementary work of throwing open the rich fields of learning locked up in the English language to the enquiring millions of the Kannada country was not seriously considered till nearly a decade ago. This is not so very surprising, considering that Telugu has not got even a comprehensive and satisfactory Telugu dictionary, not to speak of an English-Telugu dictionary. A work like this is therefore particularly noteworthy as setting up a model for other people to follow.

The editorial work is in the hands of an expert committee fairly representative of the world of scholars in the University and outside. In selecting words and phrases, the committee have strictly followed the Concise Oxford Dictionary, although they have departed from this work in the matter of grouping words under single headings. The Concise English Dictionary by Charles Annandale seems to have been generally followed in this respect. Almost all the authoritative dictionaries in Indian languages have been consulted in finding suitable equivalents to the English words, and in matters of doubt Webster’s International Dictionary and the Shorter Oxford Dictionary have been resorted to. A few basic Vernacular terms adopted are controversial and the same may be stated in general about scientific and technical terms. The word Archaeology, for example, is defined as prachina-vastu-sastra although such a definition takes away the fundamental significance of that science from Man and his activity and emphasises on the inanimate objects that formed his environment and in many cases the result of his creation. Again, Physics is defined–contrary to the usual practice–as Bhauta-vijnana while Geology is referred to as Bhu-vijnana and not Bhauma-vijnana as consistent with the previous term. It would have been far wiser to have adopted the customary words and phrases in such cases, since they have at least the authority of long established usage, if not any intrinsic merit.

It is impossible, of course, to offer anything like a satisfactory explanation of English words by any number of carefully chosen equivalents without citing sentences embodying these words and phrases. Such a method is indeed ideal, but far beyond the scope of a modest undertaking like the present one.

The first part which is now under review carries the work as far as the word ‘Billow,’ and it is estimated that the whole dictionary will be completed in 12 such parts of 96 pages each. It is earnestly hoped that this splendid work will be completed before long.

DR. P. SREENIVASACHAR

Nadumaneyalli.–By N. K. Kulkarni, B.A. (Prema Publishing House, Dharwar. Vol. XIII. No. IV. Price As. 6.)

One of the most hopeful auguries of the present day is the increasing part that college students are taking in the development of Kannada literature. The volume before us is an illustration of this fact. It is a fine collection of eight one-act plays by Mr. N. K. Kulkarni and is the fourth publication of the monthly series which are being brought out by the young and enterprising student-editor, Mr. S. K. Kulkarni, B.A. Mr. N. K. Kulkarni is already known to the Kannada public by his play ‘Election’–a comedy flavoured with delicate irony depicting the election passions and humours of the College Gymkhana. His talent for characterisation and easy dialogue have been much appreciated by well-known critics.

Nadumaneyalli contains examples of many different types of work. Belaku is a study in fantasy in which the truth that "we reap what we sow" in this world and not in the next, is conveyed with remarkable dramatic skill. Bar-Room is a vivid picture of the present plight of the briefless pleaders. It is a farce and is full of action and healthy excitement Nadumaneyalli –which gives the title to the collection–is also a delightful farce which treats about the emancipation of women from the bondage of kitchen mentality and their triumphal entry into the drawing-room. Its lively wit and ingenuity make it delightful reading. In Mulanakshatra we have an illustration of the playwright’s uncanny psychological insight into the hearts and minds of people. Harischandrana Punarjanma is a tragedy. The legendary Harischandra–according to one version–is said to have sold his wife for the sake of Truth. This dire necessity is forced upon the modern Harischandras by the pinch of poverty. There is accurate observation and convincing realism in the play, but the dramatist has not completely succeeded in inducing an intensely tragic atmosphere. Kivimatu depicts the domestic chaos that results from the biting tendencies of the wives of two brothers, with a keenness of perception that is really astonishing. Salagarti and Prayaschit, though adaptations, reveal the author’s originality.

This volume is sure to prove delectable to all lovers of literature and we wish the young author a brilliant literary career which he has so well begun.

T. REUBEN

TELUGU

A History of the Telugu Language.–By Dr. C. Narayana Rao, M.A., L.T., Ph. D., Anantapur. (In two volumes. 1750 pages. Andhra University Series, No. 18. Price Rs. 6/- each.)

About a quarter of a century , at the time of the inauguration of the Telugu Academy, it was proclaimed by its originators, with what was more than a faith with them, that the Telugu language, unlike the English tongue, was static and had all along, down from the days of Nannaya, remained unchanged. But thanks to the efforts of the sponsors of the Modern Telugu Movement and their followers–like the author of this work–who endeavoured to bring home to the public the ever-changing nature of their mother-tongue, the fact that the Telugu language, both spoken and written, has a history came to be universally recognised, with the result that the History of the Telugu Language was prescribed by the Universities for their examinations, and the Andhra University thought it fit to publish an authoritative account of it.

The author of this book, who has been working on the subject and teaching the same to University classes for about twenty years, has gone in detail into the several aspects of it. His work is not of the nature of a text-book merely embodying the findings of other scholars, or placing before the readers the different theories and viewpoints current in the field with nothing fresh to add, but it is an original work based on investigations conducted by himself and on the vast store of material supplied by his Guru, Rao Saheb G. V. Ramamurti Pantulu Garu, the pioneer worker in linguistics in the Andhra Desa.

While all the earlier and contemporary philologists maintained that the Dravidian languages are independent of Sanskrit and sought to affiliate this group to the Semitic, Munda or some other family of tongues, Dr. Narayana Rao has attempted to make out a case for the Sanskritic connection and Prakritic origin of the Dravidian languages. He says that, prior to the Aryan expansion into the Gangetic plain, there came into India in two main groups–one alongside the foot of the Himalayan range and the other in a southerly direction into the Deccan–a large body of people from the ‘Pisacha country’ (west of the Hindukush mountains) and occupied certain territories in the Aryavarta and the entire country south of the Vindhyas, that the language of the Paisachis was a branch of the Iranian group of tongues, that the origin of the Pali and the other Prakrits may have been due to the influence of the Paisachi on the Sanskrit language. and that all the modern Indian languages were each the result of the admixture of the local form of Paisachi with the Prakrit or Prakrits current in that area (p. 547-560). He does not therefore agree with the view held by Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterji that the Dravidic influence was responsible for the formation of the Prakrits, that the Non-Aryan element in the North Indian Vernaculars is Dravidian–which fact accounts for the analogies between the languages of North India and those of the South.

Basing his inquiries on this line of thought Dr. Narayana Rao has drawn parallels between the Dravidian languages, chiefly Telugu, on the one hand, and Sanskrit, Prakrits and the modern languages of North India on the other, in respect of sounds, roots, prefixes, suffixes, auxiliaries, vocabulary, Sandhi, formation of compounds and other grammatical forms. The Telugu vocabulary taken up for comparison is not of the earliest available period but that given in Sabdaratnakaram. The author, who has made a special study of the language of the pre-Nannaya and the Nannaya periods, would have perhaps done well to compare that language with such of the Prakrit or Paisachi languages which he considers to have been the Prakritis of the Telugu tongue, thereby bringing the forms of the Prakritis and the Vikritis nearer to enable the establishment of their mutual relationship beyond doubt. Such a course is expected to be conducive to the filling up of the missing links and the building up of a connected history, provided the Prakritic origin is tenable.

The first volume or part 1 contains six chapters. The first chapter, which is introductory, deals with questions such as the extent of the Telugu country, the number of people speaking Telugu and its different dialects, the language of the early Andhra kings, the relation between the Dravidian and the Indo-European families of languages and the place occupied by Telugu in the Dravidian group of tongues. The second chapter deals with the relationship between Telugu and the Sanskrit and Prakrit languages in respect of root material, prefixes, suffixes and auxiliaries, while the third one is a study of the script and phonology of the Telugu language. The fourth chapter is on Sandhi. The changes which words undergo in combination in the different languages–Sanskrit, Prakrits, Tamil, Malayalam, Canarese and Telugu are given in succession. The fifth chapter deals with Vocabulary. The extent of Tatsama and Desya elements are shown separately. Lists of loan words adopted from other languages such as Hindustani, Arabic, Persian, English, Portuguese, etc. are also given. There are three appendices to this chapter embodying the author’s study of (i) the Mariners’ cant, (ii) place names in Anantapur District, and (iii) extent of Desya element in the Telugu classics. The sixth chapter deals with compounds in Sanskrit, Prakrits and Telugu.

While thus the first volume or part 1 deals with the sounds, script and word material, the second volume deals in part 2 (chapters VII to X) with the grammar of the language–gender, number, case, pronoun and verb, and in part 3 (chapters XI and XII) with the three periods of the Telugu language–the pre-Nannaya, the Nannaya and the post-Nannaya periods. The 11th chapter which is on the pre-Nannaya and Nannaya periods has three appendices on (i) the determination of the correct text of Garudorakhyanam with the aid of nearly a hundred manuscripts, (ii) the comparison of the language of Nannaya’s Mahabharata with that of contemporary inscriptions in order to show that at that time the language of letters approximated to the language of life, and (iii) the exposition of Andhra Sabda Chintamani.

Long lists of words culled out topically–mostly from Sabdaratnakaram–words containing the Arthanuswara and the Sakatarepha, loan words, native words and Desya roots–have occupied hundreds of pages of this book; and some entire works, which deserve to be published as separate books, such as ‘Language of the 11th century’ which the author presented as a thesis for his Ph. D. degree, and the commentary on Andhra Sabda Chintamani have been incorporated wholesale; and, as a result of these, place had to be denied to several important topics like dialectal study and semantics. While dealing with the comparative study of languages on such matters as the formation of compounds, gender and case, the author has written out long Prakaranas in Sanskrit and Prakrit grammar. These instances only show the ambition of the author to present a vast fund of useful information to students of linguistics.

Dr. Narayana Rao has absolutely no excuse for writing this book in the so-called Grandhika style. The subject-matter of the book, which both directly and indirectly inculcates the use of the living vernacular, does not warrant the employment of this antiquated diction. The University which has published Mr. K. Kondiah’s Viswarupamu written in the current language, could not have objected to the use of the same style in the present book. The author whose views about the propriety and usefulness of using Grandhik language in modern books are well-known to the public, has shown in this book that he is not true to himself. Besides, there is no justification for his clothing the material supplied by his Guru in this hotch-potch language which he strongly disapproves.

The printing and get-up of the volumes though not unsatisfactory leave room for considerable improvement. The paper used is not of the same variety throughout; the thick antique type kravadis used in great primer body look frightening. The volumes are not free from printer’s devils. The second volume has no list of contents.

This book is certainly a worthy addition to the Andhra University Series. The public should be thankful to the author for having made available to them the results of his researches conducted with thoroughness and patient labour on a wide variety of subjects pertaining to the history of language, and to the Andhra University for having undertaken its publication. The public should be grateful to the late Maharajah of Bobbili whose munificent endowment has enabled the publication of this and a number of other books which contribute to the advancement of Sanskrit and Telugu learning.

T. V. R.

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