Reviews

ENGLISH

A History of the Early Dynasties of Andhradesa–(C. 200–625 A.D.) by Bhavaraju Venkata Krishna Rao, M.A., B.L., p.p. 10+682; (Publishers: V. Ramaswami Sastrulu & Sons, Esplanade, Madras. Price, Rs. 15–0–0)

In this volume, Mr. Krishna Rao turns to the pageant of the past, as of he conjures it to life to fill the stage of human activity and aspiration. Herein lies the abiding contribution of this thesis–in the synthetic appraisement of the achievements of our fathers. The measure of success that the author has achieved is due not a little to his correlation of geographical, cultural, religious and literary facts with political and dynastic.

Mr. Krishna Rao begins his narrative with the Ikshvakus of old, the hod heirs to the imperialism of the earlier Satavahanas. The Andhra Empire of the Satavahanas left behind a noble cultural legacy, which succeeding epochs gratefully imbibed. Its impress may be detected even to the present day in the language of the people. It was no wonder that the generations which and immediately succeeded the Satakarnis should have been impregnated, in every tissue of their social and political fabric, with Andhra traditions.

It was a period of great intellectual and religious ferment. In the first instance, there was a Brahmanical revival. It also witnessed unprecedented activity in other directions, such as the reclamation of vast areas of forest and the immigration of Brahmanic settlers. Soon, however, Buddhism regained its ascendancy, and the period became the most glorious in the history of Buddhism in Andhradesa because of the “royal patronage it enjoyed under the aegis of the Ikshvaku dynasty.” Inscriptions refer to the various lofty and beautiful edifices of the Buddhist church that once adorned turn the great city of Vijayapuri and the celebrated hill, Sriparvata. Monks and nuns came from distant Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, China and the Eastern Archipelago and from other distant countries.

The author carefully examines al the available epigraphic, archeological and sculptural evidence to support his reconstruction of this vital lea period of Andhra history. A wealth of sociological formation is brought to the light, which gives us a glimpse into the sacred and secular life of those days. Monastic establishments were greatly patronised and scrupulously preserved. Gifts and endowments were made for their up-keep; and royal ladies seem conspicuous as donors.

It was a time when Andhra genius, was blossoming in a thousand directions. The Andhras “ventured early into the unknown regions beyond the Blue Sea” and through their cultural and colonial expansion created what might be described as “Greater Andhra”. It was not a mere physical expansion but a spiritual conquest, the expression of a great missionary   endeavour. “The colonial expansion of Andhradesa civilised the savage races of the countries and islands of the East and created in them a new thirst for culture, The colonials and foreign co-religionists were, therefore, eager to make a pilgrimage to the holy land where stood the sacred Sriparvata and pay homage to the relics of the Buddha enshrined in- the Mahachaitya.”

Nagarjunakonda, so called because of its connection with the renowned Acharya Nagarjuna, was regarded as one of the holiest of shrines by the Buddhist communities all over the world. Nagarjuna was a great philosopher whose sceptical and nihilistic thought necessitated the advent of Sankara at a later date. Yuvan Chwang visited the Buddhist establishments in Andhra in the early part of the 7th century A. D., and has left behind valuable information. From the inscriptions of Nagarjunakonda, Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta  which belong to the Ikshvaku period, the teeming life of the times is revealed to us and we learn of several schools of religious thought or Mahasamghikas which flourished in Andhradesa.

The glorious age of the Ikshvakus did not last for long. Within half a century after its rise, it fell before the rushing surge of Pallava valour. The Pallavas were staunch Brahmanas who had established themselves at Kanchi as “Supreme Lords of the South.” The Pallava King slew the last ofthe Ikshvakus. The Pallavas “continued the work commenced by the Imperial Andhras, Andhrabhrityas and the Sriparvatiyas, and established cultural affinity between the North and the South which brought about about a national unity that welded Aryavarta and Dakshinapatha lying between the Setu and the Narmada, into Bharatavarsha.”

The Ikshvakus fell, never to rise again, but the resounding echoes of their glory reverberate down the ages, and their life become renewed in the polity of the Cholas of a later day who appear to be their political descendants. The Ikshvaku Empire had split up into a number of petty kingdoms, each struggling in its turn for paramountcy. The Brihatphalayanas and after them, the Anandas filled the stage for a while. Brihatphalayanas seem to have had extensive maritime activity. The Anandas fell before the rise of the Salankayanas. When Samudra-Gupta threatened the political existence of the South, it was a confederacy under the aegis of the Salankayanas and the Pallavas which opposed him and foiled his ambitious design.

The period of Salankayana supremacy synchronised with the golden age of the Imperial Guptas of the North and of the Kadambas of Vaijayanti. “Under the Salankayanas the kingdom of Vengi, with its fine seaboard and two great rivers, flowing almost from West to East, enjoyed great volume of sea-borne trade.” These monarchs appear to have been very liberal and tolerant. Although themselves Parama-bhagavatas and followers of Vedic Brahmanism, they extended their patronage to Buddhism. No wonder the Salankayana king was extolled as Vividha-dharma-pradhanasya. Tradition makes the Salankayanas extend their patronage to the Buddhist clergy at Kanchipura and elsewhere; and it is even suggested that they were responsible for the spread of Buddhism into Burma.

Under the Vishnukundins, the entire Andhra land was once again brought under a single sceptre, and old glories were revived. Madhavavarman, the Great, claimed to be the “Chakravartin of Dakshmapata” and sustained his claim by the performance of Rajasuya, Purushamedha, Sarvamedha, and eleven Asvamedha sacrifices. Ever since the fall of the Ikshvakus, the Andhra land had known no peace; but now for the first time, a long spell of prosperity gave an impetus to the creative instincts of the race which marked a revival of Andhra culture and glory. Under the aegis of Imperial dynasty a new style of sculpture and architecture found expression. The new style has been called the Pallava; but it has to be correctly called the Vishnukundin. The beautiful cave temples of Undavalli, Mugalrajapuram and Vijayavada (Bezwada) are sublime art creations and may be attributed to this period. The new style evidently became popular and the Pallavas only copied it later. “The glory of the Vishnukundin dynasty and all that it had contributed to the prosperity and fame of Andhradesa and Andhras was quickly forgotten in the splendour of the Chalukya sovereignty that followed and lasted for six long centuries.

Thus the historian leads the reader from one cultural epoch to another, focussing attention upon those forces and influences which, in their impact, necessitated a new shuffling and shaping of the social fabric. Homage is paid to conventional historiography only in that all facts are fitted up into a dynastic or political framework. But the historian, with a rare intuitive understanding, emancipates himself from its thraldom, and, instead of becoming a valet of princes, becomes the historian of life and civilisation. Culture-contact, culture-conflict, crisis and ultimate reconciliation–that is the dialectic and yet synthetic process the historian discerns in the march of ages. This makes this undertaking of Mr. Krishna Rao most conspicuous and confers on it an abiding value. That part of it which is rigorously faithful to the canons of orthodox historiography does much to obscure its value. If a second edition of this work should be called for, the axe may be most ruthlessly employed. But the work in itself, in other respects, constitutes a radical and welcome departure.

– (Prof.) Pratapagiri Ramamurti

Gandhism Reconsidered–Prof. M. L. Dantwala. (Padma Publications Ltd., Bombay.) –Price Re. I–0–0.

This is a very brief but brilliant study of Gadhism in its economic implications. Prof. Dantwala must be deemed an acquisition to the growing (but, at the moment, not articulate) band of expository advocates of Gandhian ideology. He has an intimate and thorough appreciation of Western economic trends, a firm grip of first principles and an exhilarating sense of national pride. But his appeal is throughout to the most exacting tests of scientific economics.

Gandhism has too often been muddled with what has been tendentiously dubbed the ‘bullock-cart’ type of society. There is this much of truth in the charge, that Gandhiji seeks to, place the bullock (a living thing) in front of the cart which is as dead as the nails riveting it. Gandhiji is the greatest exponent of living values; and the peculiar mark of his greatness is that he sees them with a steady vision in an age when the machine has made a shameful conquest of man. The simple life of Confucius, Buddha and Christ was an obvious choice in days when there was no alternative to it. To hold fast to it amidst modern distractions is nothing short of heroism.

Prof. Dantwala’s exposition of trusteeship vs. socialism is particularly illuminating; and his interpretation of Gandhism as an attempt to narrow boundaries which artificially separate men is a felicitous way of bringing out Gandhiji’s preoccupation with men, not so much in the mass but rather as individuals. Finally, the cult of non-violence is explained in terms of international politics, and a practical method of applying it is indicated, once the economics of peoples is rationalised.

Prof. Dantwala writes with delightful ease and an instinct for the right or incisive word. Such quiet mastery leads us to hope for great things from him.

P. M.

Post-War Construction by D. Pant, B. Com. Ph.D. (Dublin). Kitab-Mahal, Allahabad. Price Rs. 2–8–0.

This book contains ten chapters dealing with many of the ideas very much in the air. Almost everybody has been familiarised with what has been portentously called reconstruction after the present War. Dr. Pant has been a diligent student of current thought; he has done a good deal of reporting in this book. But the prevailing impression is one of haziness. There is a persistent mix-up of what is practicable, what should be done, and what is being actually done. Ii is not surprising that he should distribute bouquets and brick-bats with indiscriminate impartiality all round. One infers that he is opposed to Gandhism; but he is not over enthusiastic about the methods of the Government either.

Beyond a number of unexceptionable general statements, we have been unable to form a clear picture of what the learned Doctor’s panacea for our ills really amounts to. English is very faulty and even jejune in places. The useof ‘shall’ and ‘will’ is particularly jarring. But we believe that he means well, and is really an enthusiastic student of affairs. Only he fails to put it across.
P. M.

Two Lectures on an Aesthetic of Literature–by B. S. Mardhekar. Publishers: Karnatak Publishing House, Bombay. Price 1–4–0.

Out of the somewhat depressing welter of our Indian writing upon aesthetics, with its miraculous dullness and its appalling vapidity, Mr. Mardhekar emerges with a conspicuousness that is comforting. Susceptibility, clairvoyance, immediacy of response, are all his; he is the friend of any talent that is fine and strange and frank enough to incur the dislike of the mighty army of Aristotle. He is innocent of prepossessions. His critical theory: A-B-C-D-E, is inexplicably uneven as if the writer were perpetually playing on the boundary line that divides sanity of thought from intellectual chaos. There is method in the madness, but it is a method of intangible ideas. Nevertheless, These lectures show that Mr. Mardhekar has evolved a criticism of literature that makes for intellectual cultivation although it is of a Bohemian rather than an academic kind.
K. K. K.

Look on Undaunted–Poems by P. R. Kaikini, New Book Company, Bombay–Price Rs. 2.

‘Look on Undaunted’ is the sixth volume of poetry published by the Mr. Kaikini. In spite of the Lawrencian cult of the ennoblement of the flesh here and there, that has influenced him considerably, he is still a believer in the perfection of Man as a powerful weapon to forge perfection out of the ruggedness and the chaos of this world.
‘Impressionism’ of which Mr. Kaikini is an ardent student often suffers from this vital defect. The thread that connects the images of various emotions into a consistent whole even in the best specimen of its kind is too intangible to be apprehended and, in consequence, the picture presented is glaringly sketchy and obtrusive, These lines the ‘Nocturne’:

“The correct number found A 45           C block            a knock” etc.
despite whatever poetry that may be imagined in or rhythm attributed to them is a prosaic statement of fact. Mere imitation of Edith Sitwell or T. S. Eliot without realising the formless forms of theirs, whether they are appropriate vehicles of tender emotions, will not make poetic that which is unpoetic.

Mr. Kaikini is not enamoured of the ‘white civilization’ that has ushered in “The bloody chapter of new mans war-grim history.”

He is therefore quite abreast of his times in preaching universal peace to mankind by the ‘purging’ of  “the treacherous night of its dreadful bombs.”

There are beautiful lines of poetry, filigree-like in tenderness and grace, such as the following: –

(a)   “A moon flower sere
I follow you, O fair one.
As the koel follows the warming spring

Ever an ever.
Through the arch of amber-colored torches
Lalita, darling mine.”

(b)   “On the swift heels of twilight
The furious wind hisses about darkly
Spreading its angelic wings.”

(c) “Across dreamy dawn shades of laughing hills” 

The renderings of the folk-songs from the Konkini, have a delightful simplicity and sweetness.
P. S.

Blood of Stones; Poems by Harindranath Chattopadhyaya. Padma Publications Ltd., Bombay. Price Rs. 1-4-0.

This pamphlet-verse covering in all 20pages comprises of only three poems: ‘Blood of Stones’, a wreath of honour laid at the graves of the Indians fallen in the battle against the Fascists; ‘Onthe Pavement of Calcutta’ a gruesome picture of the hunger-stricken in Bengal; ‘Thou shalt not Pass’ an inveterate challenge and warning toJapan that she shall not conquer India, as India has grown antifascist. The last poem is the most remarkable of all. It is verily a tirade in the manner of war-propaganda against the Japanese nation forthe various commissions and omissions on their part which have landed them in the vortexof the present War. It is nopleasant surprise tonotethat Mr. Harindranath has climbed down from the ethereally pure heights of melodic wisdom, which have been his, tothe sordid levels of a propaganda poem.
P. S.

KANNADA

Kensington Park–by Sri K. Gopalakrishna Rao. Publishers: Manohara Grantha Prakasana Samiti, Dharwar. Price 1-4-0.

The bookis miscellaneous in character and includes essays, poems and a shortplay. Though the modes of writing are thus varied, their ground remains the same throughout, viz., the Kensington Park in Bangalore. The author has succeeded well in his task of introducing the Park to readers through a descriptive essay. There are two sketches, which are really stories. One of them deals with a simple coolie, a self-made man with a notable character and with labour-strikes and lock-outs. The other deals with the life of a poorEnglish girl, who is forsaken by her parents, relatives and false lover. The reader’s interest is well sustained and the author has given us a workof fine artistry. The other essay (Full Moon in the Park) is equally good forits imagination and thought.

The short play brings in the tender feelings of children and the thoughts ofa pair of lovers belonging to the lower classes. The play suffers from too many songs and dull movement. Of the three poems, one thrills with patriotic feelings and makes an impression.
G. V.

Shivana Solu–(A short play) by “Amaravani”–Publishers: Kavya Kala Sangha, Bangalore City. Price 0-12-0.

This is a short play describing Parvati’s conquest of love over Shiva. Shiva, who burnt the God of Love into ashes in a fit of anger, himself falls in love, paradoxically enough, with Parvati.

Parvati is the major character of the play. She goes through a severe ordeal enduring all kinds of hardships in order to fulfill her ambition. She stands always for the welfare of humanity and the world at large. She sympathises with the misfortune of Rati who loses her husband on this occasion. The author has successfully brought out the greatness of Parvati throughout the play and interprets Shiva’s boon to Parvati as the Lord’s defeat itself.

The play is written in blank verse and reflects a modern outlook as the title itself would indicate. In spite of this modernism there is a profuse use of old and worn-out similes such as abound in the worksof ancient authors. The language is on the whole simple and provides interesting reading.
G. V.

Sree Basavannanavara Amritavani–bySri A. N. Krishna Rao–Publishers: Karnataka Sahitya Mandira, Dharwar. Price Rs. 2–4–0.

The book contains a sketch of Basaveswara’s life and his sayings arranged under different heads. The legends that have grown round the saint’s life are critically assessed and the main incidents have been presented, as far as possible, on the basis ofhis own sayings, which constitute a great treasure ofKannada Literature and have imparted a new vigour tothe language.

The collection of quotations from the works of other poets, shows how Basaveswara soon became personality love and revered by one and all.
G.V.

Haridasa Sahitya–by Keertanacharya Belur Kesavadas, published by Hari Mandira, Vani Vilas Mohalla, Mysore. Price Rs. 3–0–0.

Sri Belur Kesava Das, who has already published biographical studies of the Karnatak Vaishnava saints, attempts in this book a critical estimate of the literature of the Vaishnava saints, the Haridasas of Karnatak. The book brings together information handed down by tradition on the works of these saints. The author writes with evident enthusiasm on the contribution of these saints to the evolution of South Indian music, and of their philosophy oflife, and a colourful account of their songs as literature. The book makes interesting reading and may be consulted with profit by all those who are interested in the songs of the Vaishnava mystics of Karnatak.
–K

Sudra Tapasvi (The Outcaste Ascetic) by K. V. Puttappa, M.A.,–Published by Mysore Kavyalaya, Mysore.

Mr. Puttappa has chosen the theme of this short play from the story of Shambhuka, the outcaste ascetic, who was slain by Sri Ramachandra, which occurs in the Uttara Kanda of the Ramayana. This story is particularly abhorrent to the sense of equality of a modern thinker and humanitarian. The author considers the episode an interpolation by an inferior mind. While this may be conceded, one should like to say that the selection of this particular theme for his short play is not altogether a happy one for a writer of Mr. Puttappa’s abilities.

The author shows admirable command in the handling of blank verse. Although the metre of the lines is sometimes elusive, the rhythm keeps up with the thought of the lines. Mr. Puttappa has invented a new kind of dramatic metre, which justifies itself by the effect it produces.

Doniya Binada and Kavi–(The Merriment of the Boat, and the Poet) by Mr. P. T. Narasimhachar, M.A.,–Published by Mysore Kavyalaya, Mysore.

These are two song-plays. The first one, (the Merriment of the Boat,) describes how a young man who had lost all hopes in life was saved from drowning himself by a young lady. Hope returned to him, with love and beauty.

The second play deals with Nature and a poet who are friends loving each other’s company. The poet spends long hours of contemplation in the midst of Nature who reveals her secrets to him. But the poet’s wife is constantly fretting and fuming over her husband’s unworthliness. The author describes with sympathy the feelings of his wife and shows reverence to the life of the poet.

Mr. Narasimhachar is a true Nature-poet whose perception of Nature is a happy blend of poetry and philosophy.

Sharada Yamini (The Moonlit Autumnal Night) by P. T. Narasimhachar, M.A.,–Published  by Mysore Kayyalaya, Mysore.

The nature poems in this collection which reveal the poet’s perceptive and imaginative powers are Particularly good. It is a valuable contribution to contemporary Kannada literature.
A. K. P.

Primers and Reader, and thirty booklets–Publishedby the Mysore State Literacy Council, Mysore (Prices 0-1-0 and 0-1-6).

One of the main problems of adult education is to guard against people lapsing into illiteracy after they have been rendered literate. The Mysore State Literacy Council has therefore rendered signal service in publishing these books containing stories and general knowledge by competent, writers in a simple, straightforward style. We trust that this work will be kept up in ever-growing measure.                                                                          
K.