Reviews

Literature and Literary Criticism, by M. G. Bhate, Senior Professor of English, Fergusson College, Poona. (Karnatak Publishing House, Bombay 4. Price Rs. 2-8.)

WE live now in the age of T. S. Eliot. Not only is he to be regarded as the greatest poet–he has been awarded the Nobel Crown–but also as the greatest critic, and therefore literary dictator of the age. It is natural that those who have been bred up on the standards and values of an earlier age are disappointed in reading Eliot. They seek in vain the old verbal melody, and the old clarity of expression. We need initiation to be able to comprehend Eliot. We had learnt a formula that a work which needs footnotes is for that reason worthless, but apparently today, all worthwhile writing may be enjoyed only by a select few. It was once our conviction that 17th century poetry as in Donne was overburdened with religion, as superficiality and complacency characterised the 18th century, and the 19th century ushered in a time when values were judiciously blended and poetry steered clear of the Syclla of religion and the Charybdis of thoughtlessness. Now overwhelming spirituality has taken possession of poetry, and the poet roams over unchartered oceans of thought, without the restraint derived from the need to make his wanderings intelligible to the reader. Prof. Bhate seems to write in imitation of the style of his adored masters: “….the main argument of this book, that literature stimulates the ‘whole soul of man into activity,’ that it embodies the total response of the human personality to life, a response, of course, on the contemplative plane–in an effort to see life steadily and see it whole.”

At the very beginning of the book, the author, differentiating between oral and written literature, refers obviously to the tendency of poets like Eliot: “It has also increased the danger of his resorting to a system of private word-symbols and becoming inaccessible to the common reader behind a cloud of obscurity.” In the chapter, Writer, Literature, and Reader, we read: “Ambiguity is central to the nature and function of literature, it is wrong-headed to demand mathematical exactness from the literary artist.”

A fresh formulation of the first principles of literature is naturally called for with every new movement making itself felt in the literary world. The need is all the greater when the new movement is perplexing. The present thesis fulfils such a need. Three stars have been visible in the firmament of criticism for some years now, T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, and F. R. Leavis. The present book collects the rays shed by these.

The subject of the book is no doubt developed for the most part on a basis to which nobody can take exception. But the too frequent quotation from Eliot and Richards creates an impression that the book is a piece of unabashed propaganda for the two dictators who have obtained possession of the literary kingdom. One wonders at the confidence of the author in ranking Richards with Aristotle and Eliot with Goethe.

The seventeen chapters in the book are like expanded paragraphs relating to the subject of the book. The six chapters hover about ‘criticism’ and state its principles, problems and functions. The different types of criticism are enumerated next and the extent to which criticism is creative is also explained. The next four chapters tell how language, life, and society stand in relation to literature. The concluding five chapters take up the time-honoured subjects connected with the functions of literature, in what proportions delight and instruction enter into them and to what extent it is the personal necessity of authors, or it is an imitation, or criticism of life.

The theme is well-sustained throughout in readable style, with useful and valuable citations from books and critics. The book may serve as a manual of constant reference to students at universities.

The book is well got up.

 

P. R. KRISHNASWAMI

Tom Munro Saheb, Governor of Madras: A Portrait, with a Selection of His Letters, by P. R. Krishnaswami. Foreword by His Excellency the Hon’ble Lt. General Sir Archibald Edward Nye, Governor of Madras. (Higginbothams, Madras, Price Rs. 4-8; cloth gilt Rs. 5.)

STUDENTS of Indian History repeat the reforms of Akbar or the causes for the decline of the Moghul Empire in India. Have their professors cared to teach them the lives of eminent personalities in Indian History, or have the students seen for themselves the existence of biographies revealing the traits of personalities responsible to build nations and empires, to lay rules and regulations?

We need not think that only a hero-worshipper could be an intelligent biographer. A critic who could appreciate the thoughts and actions of his subject,–to him the personalities that stirs his heart to sympathy starts speaking. The author of this book is a sympathetic critic who tries to establish some similarity between a famous imaginary character of Thackeray and Sir Thomas Munro, more a genuine Englishman than a British Indian administrator.

Munro’s letters reveal the man that he was; and Mr. P. R. Krishnaswami’s knowledge of English literature and British Indian history has sought the sources of inspiration for a novelist like Thackeray, and found in a personality as that of Munro’s the birth and fulfilment of an immortal imaginary character–Colonel Newcome. Mr. Krishnaswami writes a simple prose that makes his critical approach easy and our reading interesting.

 

M. S. GOPALAKRISHNAN

SANSKRIT

Ananda Ranga Vijaya Champu of Srinivasa Kavi, Edited with a Critical Introduction, Notes and a Sanskrit Commentary of his own by V. Raghavan, M.A., PH.D., University of Madras. With a Foreword by His Excellency C. F. Baron, Governor of French India. (To be had of the Editor or B. G. Paul Co., G.T., Madras. Price Rs. 4.)

DR. V. RAGHAVAN has done a solid service to the cause of Sanskrit and historical studies by bringing to light the valuable text of the historical work called Ananda Ranga Vijaya Champu by Srinivasa Kavi. The work deals with the life and work of Ananda Ranga Pillai, a distinguished statesman of the Tamil country, who played a conspicuous part in the early period of Anglo-French struggle for domination in South India.

In the extant Sanskrit literature we do not come across many historical Kavyas, for the Sanskrit poets rarely deviate from the beaten track of choosing their subject-matter from the well-known Itihasas and Puranas. It is a welcome departure that Srinivasa Kavi has made in selecting the biography of a historical figure in the person of his patron as a fit theme of his poetry. The hero served the French company in India and by sheer strength of character and ability came to occupy the Position of Dubashee and personal adviser of Dupliex, Governor of French Settlements in India from 1741 to 1754 A.D. To the students of history, he is more familiarly known as the author of a private diary, a unique work of its kind among the sources of South Indian history, and the present work adds welcome items of information to Ananda Ranga’s diary. In the feud between Nazir Jung and his nephew Mussaffar Jung for the Viceroyalty of the Deccan, the French took up the cause of the latter, and the diplomatic talent of Ananda Ranga who was at the helm of all the French affairs, is said to have brought about the murder of Nazir Jung, and raised the prestige of the French power in India. Ananda Ranga was an important man of his time, of immense wealth and power. He represented the living ideals of a Hindu merchant prince, enjoying artha, and kama, without detriment to dharma. He was a learned man and a lover of music and dancing; and poets, musicians, and scholars alike found in him a munificent patron. Endowed as he was with several gifts, it is no wonder that poets vied with each other in singing his glory. The most prominent feature of his character was his steadfast devotion and loyalty to the French cause; but unfortunately he saw even during his life time that the French power was like a tottering tree on the bank of a corroding river.

The author of the work seems to be a native of Tiruvannamalai from his invocation of the deity of that holy place. Judged from the standard of pandits, he passes for a poet of Worth. He writes with ease, handling the different metres with skill. At times, he yields himself to puns and long-drawn sentences,–more or less a common feature of the Champu Kavyas. He was a master of astrology which probably endeared him to Ananda Ranga who is depicted as having consulted stars too often.

In a learned introduction, the editor has given a critical account of the official work of the hero, his wealth, the habit of keeping diary in his family; his learning and patronage, his predilection for astrology, his religion–all throwing interesting sidelights on the strength and weakness of his character. In the summary of contents given by the editor, the reader is treated to a wealth of historical notes, corrections, criticisms, and suggestions and the copious references here enable him to go direct to the sources dealing with the subject. The chronological table showing the important historical events, the genealogical table tracing the descent of the family from the mythical Govinda down to his living posterity and various other auxiliaries like the map and the photographs, go to make the edition an ideal one. In view of the increasing recognition of the Sanskrit language as the lingua franca of the literary class of India, the editor could have written his introduction also in Sanskrit. The publication of this important work, we hope, will be an earnest of still more similar works to be discovered and brought to light by the assiduous editor.

G. HARIHARA SASTRI