Reviews

ENGLISH

Immersion–by Manjeri S. Isvaran (Published by S. Viswanathan, 11 Mcnichol Road, Chetput, Madras) Price Rs. 2.

A long-short story of great power and pathos, Immersion is Isvaran’s latest contribution to Indo-Anglian literature. It opens on “a night of peculiar charm...when nature is a little doubtful of her moods, doubtful which way to plunge, into playfulness and gaiety or don the sable of tragedy.” But time and opportunity conspire to make it highly tragic. A young middle-class Hindu householder journeys to Benares with his wife for the ceremony of the immersion of his father’s ashes in the holy Ganges. The situation is common enough, for millions of devout Hindus have thus traveled and reverenced the spirits of their ancestors. But the pot containing the ashes drops mysteriously from the axle of the bullock cart to which it is tied, and while Akhileswaran is away on a frantic search, the gay cartman–so we infer from later developments–defiles Jagadambal. Akhileswaran returns with the pot, and in his profound relief at its recovery, notices nothing beyond an accentuation of reserve and a moodiness on her side. In the train journey to Benares, Jagadambal after intense mental agony finally resolves to immolate herself: thus only could atonement be made for a sin for which she was not responsible. Till the end, her one anxiety is to keep from her adored husband the knowledge of the happenings of that fateful night. To Akhileswaran, therefore, it is a case of drowning by accident, at the moment of the immersion. But life is bereft of all meaning, and he returns home with the family priest. At the identical spot, the same cartman meets with death by accident; the bullocks shy at sight of a ghost and he is thrown off.

Such, in bare outline, is the story which Isvaran, by his imaginative insight, has invested with the qualities of a minor epic. Jagadambal is sacred beyond words, and round her Isvaran has woven a picture of Indian womanhood,–gentle, loving, and highly sensitive– “her big, dark eyes veiled by long lashes, eyes through which the soul could only have looked at the beauty and the benignity of the world.” She certainly deserved to be happy, and why should she, of all persons, have been chosen for an intensely tragic end? But Fate is relentless, and its victims apparently have no choice.

In his “flash s” Isvaran gives beautiful vignettes of South Indian life–the peaceful village home, the joint family, the acute but cynical priest. A lesser artist would have indulged in prurient details of the central incident, and evoked our disgust rather than pity. There is a fundamental purity is Isvaran’s mental and emotional make-up which saves him from lapsing into indecency.

Isvaran’s prose style is instinct with the quality of poetry. There is a wizardry of words when he speaks of gardens “clamorous with jasmine and rose,” or of the magic of youth “throwing the rainbow woof of yearnings Over the warp of romance.” And his sense of pity for erring humanity is expressed poignantly: “Alas! How thin is the division between the dream for the ideal feminine and the blinding desire for the female flesh!” His descriptions of nature, especially during the two nights of the cart journey in chapters One and Fourteen, remind one of Hardy’s picture of Egdon Heath.

Isvaran’s art takes a powerful turn with Immersion. This must be the prelude to loftier achievement in creative writing, and the portrayal of life in its many facets.

K. RAMAKOTISWARA RAU

Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’–by Dr. M.V. Rama Sarma, M.A., Ph.D. (Published by Atma Ram & Sons, Delhi. Pp. 80. Rs. 2–8–0.)

Part of the author’s thesis for the Doctorate degree of the University of Wales and a professedly oriental approach to the great English classic, the book is not merely an interesting addition to the corpus of literary criticism in English on Milton’s Paradise Lost but a progressive step in the process of the inevitable evolution of a common outlook and standards of literary criticism for the literatures of different nations.

To every Indian student of English Literature, the Grand Style the high seriousness of utterance, the lofty moral intention to “justify theways of God to man”, the deliberate choice of a theological theme for the epic poem–have all a natural appeal, none of them causing any surprise or requiring any justification. But the really remarkable gain to the appreciation of the poem resulting from the oriental approach is mainly with regard to the recognition of Santa Rasa as the, dominant aesthetic emotion of the entire poem, and of Adam as the real hero, a Santa Vira, exhibiting heroism not of the traditional but of a spiritual order, consisting of self-knowledge, self-mastery, discrimination patient endurance, and joyous, submission to the will of God acquired through suffering and repentance. It will be too much to claim that these findings are original or quite new to students of literary criticism on Milton’s Paradise Lost, but it cannot be denied that they gain in clarity and definiteness immensely, when they are seen to be the natural results of a fresh approach to the poem from the point of view, and with the critical method and equipment, of an alien literature. There are other advantages too  of considerable importance. The last Books are found to be necessary for the artistic wholeness of the poem and its structural symmetry. Satan’s character is shown to fit appropriately into the theme and structure of the poem. The arch-rebel is found to be neither a great hero held up for our admiration nor the despicable toad of tradition, but a contrast and a warning to Adam and just another interesting instance of the Divine Dispensation.

The experiment reveals at the same time the futility of a too detailed application of the critical nomenclature and methods of one literature to another. The needless classification of the Mahabharata as an authentic epic as contrasted with the literary epic of Milton’s Paradise Lost is an instance of the consequences of such a procedure. Dr. Sarma finds himself obliged to concede that, though authentic, the Indian epic possesses many of the characteristics of the literary epic in theme, structure, characterization and tone. The attempt to detect the principles of Bhakti, Jnana and Karma so beautifully elucidated in the Gita (in the Mahabharata),in the lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the enumeration of the occasions for the evocation of all the other Rasas as subsidiary, are other examples of the same kind. We trust that the thesis of Dr. Sarma will provoke further thought on his subject as well as his method.
M.S.K.

Lilies in the Lake–Selected Poems of Mahamahopadhyaya Kavi-sarva-bowma Sripada Krishnamurti Sastri. Translated by R. M. Challa. (The original poems and the translations side by side). (Publisher R. M. Challa, Bhimalapuram, W. Godavari Dt. Price Re. 1-4-0.)

Here are renderings or a few poems of the grand old man of Telugu Letters, recently selected by the Madras Government for the honour of the Telugu Laureateship. Mr. Challa wishes thereby to introduce “a spark of Mr. Sastri’s poetic genius to the wide world in its known language.”

‘There can be no doubt that such attempts constitute a laudable contribution to inter-provincial understanding and the cultural unification of the country besides tending to raise the standards of literary achievement in the various regional languages by providing opportunities for comparative study and consequent objective criticism, and a wider outlook.

It is really a formidable task to render into English verse of regular metrical patterns, even with, occasional liberties, the mostly descriptive lyrics of Mr. Sastri here selected as the ‘best translatable’; and the translator deserves to be congratulated on his achievement. But, perhaps, he would have found free verse a more suitable medium, more easy and at the same time more effective, for bringing out the characteristic metrical features as well as the poetic idiom and style of the original.

Mr. Challa has done well in introducing the poet and his work in a neat little Preface and in providing footnotes wherever necessary for explaining the sense or the beauty of the original poem which could not be brought out in the translation, particularly in cases of sustained pun or play upon words, (slesha) in which the Laureate, as every poet of the old order, delights and excels.
M.S.K.

TELUGU

Athadu–Aame (He and She) by Dr. Wuppala Lakshmana Rao, Published by Komarraju Vinayaka Rao, Vijayawada, Pp.240; Rs.3)

Fiction is in great demand but it is only short stories and translations from other languages that one finds in large numbers in the literary output of Andhra. Original works of fiction of any considerable length in Telugu are indeed few. This literary effort of Sri Lakshmana Rao, original in form as well as theme, is therefore a valuable contribution to Telugu literature. The form–a series of extracts alternately from the dairies of a husband and wife–has been exploited with remarkable success for the purposes of characterisation and social criticism.

The author evidently believes like the heroine of his novel, that art should serve a social purpose and attempt to represent and interpret life and uplift and guide humanity. The theme is the married life of an English educated young woman (an M.A.) and an England-returned young man (a barrister), each of independent views and of a strong determination to shape life deliberately brought together and held together, in spite of their many differences, by genuine mutual love. The story has therefore the interest of a social experiment to the reader.

The characters are presented with admirable skill and the effects of the interaction of elemental and inherited natural impulses with the influences of education and purposeful planning, and of both with the currents and cross-currents of the social environment, are traced with keen insight and rare imaginative power.

Incidentally the author gives us his analysis of the social and political situation in the country in the stirring years of the thirties, from the point of view of sensitive and educated upper middle-class people. One cannot help noticing the pronounced partiality of the author to the fair sex in endowing the heroine with all the virtues of sensibility, moral alertness, a warm heart and an aspiring soul, while helping on the poor husband all weaknesses and vices, materialism, egotism, self-deception, compromising, sophistry and hypocrisy. Still, Sastri remains a lovable character, redeemed by his genuine love and respect for his chosen partner. There is little attempt to differentiate the language and style of expression of the hero and the heroine even in their diaries, where they are supposed to speak to themselves. It is also to be regretted that almost every page should be disfigured by numerous errors and absurdities in the words.
M.S.K.