Reviews

ENGLISH

Studies in Bengali Literature–By Kalipada Mukherjee, M.A., M.R.S.T. (Published by Arthur H. Stockwell, Ltd., 29, Ludgate Hill, E. C. 4. Price Rs. 2.)

Readers of Triveni must be familiar with the writings of Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee; and, in fact, the two essays (one on the Sea-Songs of C. R. Das and the other on the poetry of Kamini Roy) and the translation of Vidyapati’s ‘Atma Nivedan’ (Self-Dedication), which comprise this title volume called ‘Studies in Bengali Literature,’ were originally published in Triveni. Therefore, to praise the work of Mr. Mukherjee, in the review pages of Triveni, might read like self-praise. But modesty can be a vice when one’s work and one’s worth are of such importance that the world around should be taught, for that world’s own good, to appreciate a genuine mission in life. Mr. Mukherjee’s work in its aspect of "disseminating knowledge of Indian provincial literatures throughout India and abroad" is of so supreme a significance to the cultural renaissance in India that trivial considerations like modesty or the want of it ought not to prevent the offering of legitimate praise to a writer of Mr. Mukherjee’s excellence.

There are very clever men in India who are keen students of European literatures, who can write pages and pages of literary criticism regarding T. S. Eliot and Thomas Mann and Pirandello and Andre Gide, but who refuse to be interested in the literatures of their own mother-tongues. These very clever men invariably bemoan the wardness of Indian literatures: firstly, without attempting to understand Indian literatures, and secondly, without attempting to improve them. It is just these very clever men who are best fitted to give shape and direction to the literary movements in India, but they think themselves superior to India, and the consequent loss in achievement is no less theirs than India’s. It is all very well for a romantic young lady in India to fall in love with Clark Gable or John Barrymore; but, if the young lady is sensible enough to desire children of her own and a home of her own, it is wholly necessary that she should choose some one nearer home, whose services can be requisitioned more easily than the services of the gallants of Hollywood. On the other hand, too great an attachment towards alien men and alien movements spells sterility.

Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee is not less well informed about European literatures than most Indians. But he is intensely interested in the growth of Indian literatures–and, in particular, of the literature of his own mother-tongue, Bengali. And he brings to his criticism of Bengali writers all his knowledge of Western literatures and of the evolved methods of literary criticism in the West. Where, as in the present volume, not merely is the critic called upon to criticise literary works in the Bengali language, but is also first compelled to translate specimens of the Bengali poems that he is criticising, the work is rendered doubly difficult; but Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee succeeds remarkably in bringing out the spirit of the Bengali poems in the English renderings. Particularly successful is he in the translation of Vidyapati’s beautiful poem, ‘Atma Nivedan,’ which happens to be the third and the last of the Studies. Mr. Mukherjee does not attempt regular versification in English in the translation of this poem, and there is no doubt at all that the rules of English prosody, when they interfere with the translation into English of a poem in so foreign a language as Bengali, invariably result in a distortion of the original so as to suit the exigencies of rhyme and metre. Mr. Mukherjee has

however used rhyme and metre in the translation of some of the Sea-Songs of Das; and, while it cannot be said that the translations are not effective enough, I venture to say that the moment the translation of any poem in an Indian language is made in an orthodox English verse-form, the translation immediately invites comparison in the technique of versification with the best works of the best English poets, naturally to the detriment of the translated piece; and our genuine appreciation of the poetic substance of the original is somewhat dimmed by our want of appreciation of the technique of versification in the English translation. It is for this reason, and for no other, that Sri Aurobindo Ghose’s rendering of the thirty-sixth Sea-Song of Das is slightly more attractive than Mr. Mukherjee’s renderings, for the rendering of the thirty-sixth song is in rhythmic prose, untrammelled by rhyme and metre. Mrs. Jessie Duncan Westbrook’s translations into the orthodox sonnet-form of Mrs. Kamini Roy’s poems may read a little better than Mr. Mukherjee’s, but the feeling is there that even the translation of these poems should have been in rhythmic prose, so as to avoid the misdirection of the literary curiosity of readers from the poetic substance of the original to the versifying technique of the translation.

But all this is harping on what is comparatively a very minor matter. Mr. Mukherjee’s work in this volume, it has already been said, is of supreme significance to the literary renaissance in India. It is necessary for a cultural revival and for cultural self-reliance in India that each linguistic area in India should be aware of the literatures and the literary movements all the world over, but it is even more immediately necessary that the literary movements in each linguistic area should be made known to all the other linguistic areas in India. The best way of spreading such knowledge across the provinces is undoubtedly by publishing literary criticism in English, as in the present volume of Mr. Mukherjee. Mr. Mukherjee is right when he suggests in his Preface how deplorable it is that the outside world should know only of Tagore and even that in an incomplete manner, and should know little or nothing of other Bengali writers. It is likely to be felt by foreigners that Tagore is not merely the topmost but the only figure in Bengali literature, that Bengali literature is in fact Tagore–whereas the truth must be, and is, that Tagore is one of the products, undoubtedly the best, of the literary movements in Bengal, which have an ever-progressive history, and even Tagore cannot be properly understood except with a knowledge of the literary history of Bengal as the ground. Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee has this excellent historical perspective and he knows the thread that binds the Bengal of C. R. Das to the Bengal of Chaitanya. He says:

Sankaracharya in "The Club that Shatters All Error" conceived this world as an ocean, Bhavarnava; and, in similar ideas lies the germ of hundreds of popular Vaishnavite songs in Bengal which represent Hari or God as the Pilot of this shoreless and endless ocean-like world, and glorify him as Bhavakandari and Akulakandari Hari. The late Mr. C. R. Das, a very devout Vaishnava himself, was led to these ideas when he heard the divine music of the sea amidst the clash and clang of wave on wave, and this greatest of all musicians put him in mind of, and in communion with, the be-all and end-all of his existence, Krishna or Hari who is God the Absolute according to Hindu religious ideas.

And where, as in his criticism of the poetry of Mrs. Roy, it is the human perception and not the historical perspective which counts, Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee is equally effective in appraising "the revealed femininity" of Mrs. Roy’s exquisite poems. And there is considerable merit in his comparing Mrs. Roy with English poetesses like Mrs. Browning and Laurence Hope, for Mrs. Roy was undoubtedly greatly influenced by Mrs. Browning, sometimes even to the point of bare imitation.

A man like Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee is invaluable in our strivings to breathe new life into the literatures of all our Indian languages. More men like him, with brilliant critical acumen, should be forthcoming from each linguistic area to interpret in chaste English the literary histories and the literary movements of their own mother-tongues. Triveni has had the good fortune of being helped in this great cause by able men like him. Prof. V. K. Gokak who wrote an illuminating article on Bendre, the Kannada poet, and Mr. M. Chalapathi Rau who wrote a brilliant critique on the Telugu song-writer, Nanduri Subba Rao’s ‘Yenki Patalu’ are outstanding examples. Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee himself published in the Triveni an interpretative study of the late Sarat Chatterjee’s great novel, ‘Shesh Prashna,’ which could have been included in this volume with great advantage. If such service to modern Indian literatures is noble service, Mr. Kalipada Mukherjee has served the cause nobly in publishing these Studies. It is an excellent little volume, got up exceedingly well, and it widens one’s knowledge of Bengali literature, and should therefore be in the hands of every true lover of India.

BURRA V. SUBRAHMANYAM

New Indian Antiquary.–Vol. I nos. 1-4. Edited by S. M. Katre, M.A., Ph.D. (London) and P. K. Gode, M.A. (Publishers, the Karnatak Publishing House, Chira Bazar, Bombay 2, India.) Annual Subscription Rs. 12 (in India) or $ 8 or 25 sh. (foreign).

The ‘New Indian Antiquary’ is a monthly journal, started by some Western Indian scholars, recently in Bombay. The reasons that prompted the progenitors of the journal are explained in their Preface to the first number (April 1938) by the editors, Mr. S. M. Katre, M.A., Ph.D., and P. K. Gode, M.A.

After the cessation of the ‘Indian Antiquary’ some five years ago, there was no monthly journal available for the publication of research articles on all branches of Indology. No doubt, there are quarterly and other periodicals devoted to the publication of the results of Indological studies; they involve delay and keep the results of painstaking research from publication for months. Therefore, the new journal is started to facilitate quick publication of articles embodying the results of up-to-date investigations of scholars engaged in research work.

The editors undertake to publish articles on all subjects connected with Indology–a catalogue of which is given on the fly-leaf of every number of the journal–written in English, French or German. In the case of articles written in the last two languages, the contributors are expected to give a brief summary of the contents of their contributions in English. Although several scholars outside India devote themselves to Indological studies, their number is not certainly greater than the scholars of the country itself. A large number of Indian Indologists publish the results of their articles in scientific journals, in various Indian languages. It is curious that the editors, who are prepared to publish articles written in French and German, do not extend the same facilities for publication of research articles written in some of the important Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Canarese and Marathi. The need for the publication of such articles is, indeed, far greater than for the contributions made in European languages. A vast volume of useful Indological literature is published every month in all Indian languages. Not even an attempt is made, so far, in any of the journals devoted to Oriental research, in the different provinces of India, to give a bibliography of the Indological articles that appear in the Indian languages, in the periodicals of their respective provinces. Such being the case, many of the results arrived at and much of the fresh light thrown on various problems connected with Indological research by scholars who publish their papers in the periodical publications in their native languages, are unknown to scholars outside their own province until these results or papers appear in English. It will be a good beginning if theeditors of the journal under review publish research articles in the Indian languages with their contents explained briefly in English as in the case of the contributions in French and German.

A journal of the kind of the ‘New Indian Antiquary’ is certainly a most desirable one; and the editors deserve congratulations for coming forward to satisfy the want.

The articles that have been published in the first two numbers, which exhibit much erudition and scientific acumen, foreshadow a brilliant future for the journal, provided that the editors are able to keep up the same high standard of excellence. The Publishers deserve to be complimented on the neat printing and the get-up of the journal.

The annual subscription is low in view of the fact that the journal includes plates, the preparation of which involves much expenditure.

We hope that the journal will receive the co-operation of scholars engaged in the research work, which co-operation it eminently deserves.

The first two numbers contain some interesting and valuable contributions: for instance, ‘The Buddhist Tantrik Literature of Bengal’ by S. K. De, ‘South India, Arabia and Africa’ by K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, ‘Notes on the Katha Upanishad’ by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, and ‘Sambhaji Angria’ by Surendranath Sen.

M. SOMASEKHARA SARMA

KANNADA

Sandhyaraga.–A novel by A. N. Krishnarao, Editor "Kannada Nudi." Bangalore. (Published by the Manohar Grantha Mala of Dharwar. Pages 1-204. Price Rs. 1-4-0.)

The intrusion, in the practice and perfection of art, of a selfish exclusiveness is a sure indication of its incipient decay, inasmuch as the presence of such an exclusiveness necessarily leads the artist to succumb to the lure of finality and to forget the call of the infinite. When an art lives and grows, its joy is "joy in widest commonalty spread." All true art is a straining of individuality into the infinite. So one feels when one finishes reading the latest novel of Mr. A. N. Krishnarao, "Sandhyaraga." It presents the picture of a youth Laxman, who possessed enough musical talent but is a failure at school, and who, when his father dies, has to depend along with his wife for his maintenance, upon his selfish and unresponsive elder brother, Ramu. Ramu who had all along been fairly successful both at school and in after-life has grown up in complacent mediocrity and has learned to care for none except his own vain self. This made life for all dependants upon him practically unbearable. Laxman’s wife, meek and submissive as she was, had to put up with every kind of humiliation and hardship, and one day during her pregnancy she succumbs to a fall and is no more. The passing away of his wife under the circumstances removes from Laxman’s life his only consolation and the last respository of his affections. Leaving home and hearth he wanders forlorn, his personal loss and the feeling of resignation giving to his art a strange poignancy. His music, riper day after day, wins recognition in spite of himself, and he could have rested. But a great concert comes. He begins a Raga which he had all his life persistently refused to sing and which bodied forth the hidden sadness of his heart at the loss of his dear wife. Ecstatic, he rises to the meridian of his art, and the pathetic song of his vanished love proves to be his swan song.

The type of story summarised above, with emphasis laid upon the tragic submission of an artist to a hostile reality, has been in vogue with writers from Mysore and Bangalore for some time past. But the story which Mr. A. N. Krishnarao presents here is presented with a vital difference. Mere clever grouping of incidents about one single male does not make any novel. The story and the characters must both be informed by truth and life. "Sandhyaraga" is a convincing example. From the beginning to the end the reader’s attention is fixed on Laxman, on his tenderness and sensitiveness, his willing submission and his meek endurance. The other circumstances in the story only afford a ground against which the artist appears in bold relief. His inward struggle, his forlorn wandering, his pathetic resignation after the loss of his beloved wife, vividly and truthfully represented as the story marches to its close–all contribute to making of Laxman a triumph of characterisation. Real and authentic in every particular, he leaves an indelible impression.

At the of this success in characterisation lies an effective use of contrast. Against the sensitive tenderness of Laxman, there is painted the unscrupulous selfishness of his elder brother. In addition to these two, the novel has a few other creations which remain long in our memory. The deeply affectionate Meenakshi, the mother, the no-less loving Savitri, the sister, and finally the tender and uncomplaining wife of Laxman are all creatures of flesh and blood. All these characters, real even in minuter detail, and their reaction to circumstances are vividly pictured by the author against the familiar ground of domestic life so that the impression which the story as a whole leaves upon the minds of the readers is as convincing and effective as any actual experience in real life may be.

The artist in the present novel easily suggests a comparison with the unforgettable Subbanna of Mr. Masti Venkatesh Iyengar. Generally there is similarity in tone and temper, but the keener observer cannot fail to notice that the tragic tale of Subbanna is more "fateful" than the present one, and Subbanna’s meek submission was a grand resignation to the power of the Fates themselves. Laxman in "Sandhyaraga" however strikes us as a plaything of circumstances with the result that his tragedy does not assume such elemental proportions as happens in the case of Subbanna.

Altogether "Sandhyaraga" goes deeper than most Kannada novels of today into the development of character by what it personally accepts from life’s experience and perhaps even more by what it rejects. Mr. A. N. Krishnarao deserves wide congratulations from every lover of fiction. The book has been excellently got up with an attractive cover design.

V. M. INAMDAR