Reviews

Asian Ideas of East and West (Tagore and His Critics in Japan, China and India): By Stephen N. Hay. Harvard University Press, Massachussetts. (Oxford University Press) Price: Rs. 90.

The Harvard East Asian Series has been publishing valuable books dealing with the problems facing the Eastern countries. This volume is the fortieth in the series and bears upon the Indian reactions to some of the intense matters pertaining to the culture and civilization of India, China, and Japan. The prodigious labours involved in the preparation of the present volume can be gauged from the voluminous Notes and the Bibliography appended in the end, which by themselves extend to a hundred odd pages.

The title of the book may give an impression that the book will be treating of the reactions generally generated in Asians regarding the impact of the West on the Eastern nations. Studying eighty-seven of the leading intellectuals belonging to India, China and Japan, the author has provided an analysis of the positions they had taken in relation to the pivotal ideas dwelt upon by the poet, Rabindranath Tagore, who was the only individual who had seriously thought of a pan-Asian unity. He is prominently dealt with by the author because of the fact that considerable insight into the workings of the minds of other leaders of thought in the three major countries of Asia is available through his messages delivered during his tours in those places and the reactions consequent upon them.

It is interesting to note that the barrier of language, especially of China and Japan, happened to cause the chief inability for the poet to comprehend exactly why they failed to respond to his call or understand his intentions. One of the leaflets contained an indictment even, when among other grounds of accusation, it commented thus: “If we are made for a spiritual world where we will find our rest, why should we fight to transform the world of the flesh?..To preach this doctrine is to preach inaction, passivity....Therefore we protest in the name of all the oppressed people, in the name of all the persecuted classes, against Tagore who works to enslave them still more by preaching to them patience and apathy”...(171). This is a sample of the type or harsh criticism which was launched against Tagore by his lectures in China.

In Japan, however much persons like Okakura had earlier created a favourable impression on Tagore by the anxiety in an equal measure expressed with regard to the necessity for forming an Asian front against the materialism of the West, slowly the atmosphere changed with the result the attitude became much more critical of Tagore’s persuasions for a peaceful co-existence among nations. If one of the leading periodicals had the temerity to comment as follows: “His sentences are like melodies, and contain many beautiful phrases and metaphors, but very few people can understand the meaning of his lecture”, we could easily make out how much indifferent they had grown towards him and his messages. Again another comment ran like this: “He is all poetry, and for his poetry we admire him, but we must not let him discourage us in the pursuit of science and wealth.” (121)

These examples of the unsympathetic attitude engendered by his lectures conclusively proved that his mission, so far as China and Japan were concerned, did not fructify in proportion to his expectations. If at all he made any progress with his ideas, what he accomplished was only a step towards an ideal concept of a world bound together in a similar striving for peace and harmony. Perhaps his contribution, assessed from this distance of time, would appear to be that he strove to exemplify in the present cataclysmically changing world a set-up of the ancient Hindu ideal of man’s destiny in identity with the Eternal Spirit or Self which dwells in all living beings. For he once explained to Albert Einstein, the great scientist, thus: “My religion is in the reconciliation of the Super-personal Man, the universal human spirit, in my own individual being.”(133)

Praiseworthy as may seem his objective in this world-embracing love of humanity, he was blind to some of the realities of the times when day by day nations were getting swallowed up in an aggressive grip of greed and hatred of each other.

The writer, while portraying Tagore without any personal bias or prejudice, has presented a picture which, apart from its refreshing objectivity, maintains a closely reasoned-out analysis of the how and why the poet failed to evoke a healthy response to his fervent appeals. The many progenitors of ideas who are brought into our ken here in an able survey of the Asian scene strike us as neither misanthropical nor deliberately attempting at instigation against Tagore. Only they are shown as expressive of the other side of the picture on every point raised by the poet.

On the whole, one could not have wished for a writer, steeped in Western ideologies, to have done anything better than what have been so carefully gleaned from original sources obtainable in those countries. Enormous attention has been paid to seek the aid of translators of material from the original sources in China, Japan, Bengal and Gujarat. The author has spared no pains in trying to make himself understood dispassionately by his readers.

The book, however well produced and could bid fair to be a monument of unstinting research and analysis, has become prohibitive by its price.
–K. CHANDRASEKHARAN

Concept of Perfection in the Teachings of Kant and the Gita by Balbir Singh Ganchwal. Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi- 7. Pages 11 plus 183. Price Rs. 18.

The learned author establishes in this book that Sri Krishna and Kant had identical views regarding the philosophy of moral religion. They both, according to the author, are of the view that not only the end but also the means thereto must be sanctioned and grounded in the law of one true self. The first chapter in a brief comparative study explains the concept of perfection according to Indian philosophy. Views in this regard of all schools of Indian philosophy are presented herein. The second chapter deals with a historical ground of the concept of perfection in Western thought. In the third chapter the author proves that the moral law of Kant is not, as some critics believe it to be, something mysterious or barren, but a positive law of action which we call truly ours. That all of us do as matter of fact act on this law, when reason is at its best, shows that it is a certain kind of philosophy of life patronised and practised only by those for whom a life of pure rationality attended by happiness born of it is the only goal worth aspiring after. And this is the message of the Gita. “If the Gita points to an ultimate state Brahma Nirvana or reaching the divine perfection capable of being attained by the active exercise of the law of essential self-hood, in no way different is the ultimate goal conceived by Kant the Godlike existence of the rational self, qualifying for ‘enjoyment’ or something like “bliss” characteristic of the supreme Being himself. It is this transcendent goal that forced Kant “to destroy reason in order to make room for faith. It is such a faith that equally pervades the temper of Gita.” The Gita’s concept of perfection forms the subject matter of the fourth chapter. In this the author poses a question “Does the Gita believe in the soul’s retaining of its individuality after the attainment of its goal?” He quotes the views of Dr. Radhakrishnan and Sri Aurobindo and finally expresses his opinion in the matter. A comparative study of the concept of perfection and way to perfection according to Kant and Gita form the theme of the subsequent four chapters. The author finally concludes that the “similarities between the two are so numerous and so close that no serious student can ignore them as mere accidental.” This is an invaluable book that should be read and owned for reference by every student of comparative philosophy.
–B. KUTUMBARAO

The Vision and Work of Sri Aurobindo by K. D. Sethna. Publishers: “Mother India”, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry-2. Pages 217. Price: Rs. 15.

This is a fine selection of about 22 articles from the writings of Sri Sethna who won the blessings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The first article “Sri Aurobindo and human evolution” in a nutshell sums up the main contributions of Sri Aurobindo as follows. “The realisation of the supermind’s significance and intention by a wide aware. Union with its Truth consciousness is Sri Aurobindo’s contribution to spiritual experience. The systematic detailed exposition of them is his contribution to philosophy. And the direct application of them to the problems of the individual and collective living in his Ashram at Pondicherry is his contribution to practical world work.”

In the article entitled “Free will and Sri Aurobindo’s Vision” it is stated that Sri Aurobindo’s Vision is “not inimical to the primary sine qua non for free will, and his pronouncement on the Universe’s utter dependence on God’s decree is not deterministic when taken in combination with his full outlook.” “What is essence” is a scholarly article devoted to a comparative study of the views–ontological and axiological–of Sri Aurobindo and Sri Sankara, deserves careful study. “The Supermind’s descent and the Mind of Light” is highly informative. Other articles mostly letters of the author to some thinkers are intended either to disarm the critics of Sri Aurobindo or to dispel their doubts.
–B. KUTUMBARAO

Modern Indian Poetry in English–An Anthology and a Credo Edited by Prof. P. Lal. Writers’ Worship, Calcutta-45. Pages 596. Price: Rs. 20.

Here is a monumental collection which brings out two salient facts: first Mr. Lal’s capabilities as a connoisseur and publisher of talent, and second, the amazing variety of gifted writers who transact English as an effective medium of expression. Though two hundred years of contact with a virile language produced in India steeped in poetic traditions, a hundred and odd poets, is not a surprise; the surprise would be, if it did not. It may be that only one per cent of the population participates in this contact, but, statistically speaking, it is a weighted sample, not a random one, as seen from the comparative authorship figures in English and other Indian languages, which Mr. Lal has tellingly garnered in his introductory essay. A singular service which this book provides is that the noteworthy works of less known poets have been brought into the right focus on a common canvas along with the few on which limelight had already fallen by virtue of time and talent.

It is not only a collection of poems, it is the statement of a credo. No less scintillating than the poems are the diverse answers from a group of brilliant and generally sober men and women who have taken the sane view that it is for each poet to find out his best medium of expression. As Mr. M. P. Bhaskaran puts it “Here (in India) writers who do not write in English spend a good deal of their time and energy attacking and villifying those who do.” It goes to the credit of Prof. Lal to have assembled an imposing array of arguments and angles of view, ed by a string of strikingly beautiful poems, which serve as concrete pillboxes against unreasonable volleys of fire. Anglo-Mania has many nuances as pointed out by one of the poets. “It is another kind of anglo-mania to think and believe that, unless you have English as your mother-tongue, you cannot use it for poetry, which I believe, is the highest form of expression. It is subconscious respect for a language, getting transmuted at its best as a reverence to those who had the fortune to have it as their mother-tongue, and, at its worst, as a manic-depressive feeling of one’s incapacity to transact effectively in that language.” (Page 314) No better summing up is necessary.

Most of the poems mustered in this anthology have class and calibre. The poems communicate effectively to the attentive reader. There is wit, vigour and imagination, and though they vary in merit, the one consoling feature is that no black sheep grazes the greens, no poem deserves to be condemned outright. In fact selections from the work of established authors whose better poems appear elsewhere, are not necessarily the best here. This is a great thing for an anthology like this, where not only the established names, but also budding writers have been given a chance to speak through their poems. There is power as well as potential. A few poets, however, have been represented by too few lines to enable us to form a judgment, not so much of the poem itself, but of the poet. This is perhaps the only defect in this anthology.

Master-strokes from seasoned hands are surely there. Dom Moraes, in “Being Married” (Page 357), or Gouri Deshpande in “Abhisarika” (Page 141), reach heights of perception. Ira De, in “The Hunt” (Page 121), M. P. Bhaskaran in “Command Performance” (Page 51), and Pritish Nandi in “Paean” (Page 377) attain depths of emotion with vivid flashes of image. And there is Kamala Das with an evocative beauty and subjective intensity in ‘An Introduction’ (Pages 104-105). One can appreciate the quiet beauty in the simplistic brilliance of Lila Dharmaraj’s “Pockets” (Page 153). the originality of conception and disciplined felicity of expression when Rabindranath Menon weaves “Dasavatara” (Page 318) out of myth and metaphor. Pritish Nandi who is represented by some good poems has also fathered some mystery creations (Pages 378-379), which, despite several sympathetic attempts, this author was not able to decipher. They may certainly be innovations and, I am not against them, but it would have helped communication and thus evoked appreciation, had they been accompanied by some kind of explanatory notes. G. V. Desan, creates a reasoned innovation with “No Reason, No Rhyme” (Page 128).

Lines of an intense impersonal beauty, of which Yeats spoke, stand out:

“On wet streets the lovers walked
Observed the wheel of evening
Turn on its spokes of rain” (P. 387)
(Parthasarathy in ‘Lovers’)

“There are days like fruits
Bitter to the core where worms
Reside, and nights that twist
Like iron in the smithy of dreams. (P. 113)
(Amaresh Dutta in ‘Winter’)
“Our mind fills out the empty canvases
Of stilled ships in the sea
Whose mariners are dead.” (P. 343)
(S. R. Mokashi Punekar in ‘Silencers’)
“A limp bed-spread, boiled and beaten to shreads
Has the stamp of service resurrected from the dead”
(Page 320)
(R. Rabindranath Menon in “The Night of Nightingales”)

It is admittedly difficult to make selections, particularly when there are so many good pieces to choose from. I have chosen at random. There are several more, which for considerations of space and time, I cannot quote. Reading these poems has been a rare treat. One thing I am sure, Indians writing in English need no longer feel shy or apologetic. Their poetry has come of age. I, no poet myself but a lover of good poetry, had ample reward and immense satisfaction at my effort in going through this book, and more than that, a surge of justifiable pride that so many compatriots have succeeded in exploding the parochial myth about imaginative Indians being unable to poesy in English.
–K. RAMUNNI MENON

Sri Chakra: By S. Shankaranarayanan. Dipti Publications, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry–2. Price: Rs. 10

The author of this brilliant book is known for his expository and interpretative works like the Devi Mahatmyam, Quintessence of Sri Vidya, etc., and has done great service in presenting an ancient tradition like the Shakti-worship in terms of modern understanding. His direct knowledge of the Vidya–in its doctrine and its practice–invest the treatment with a special appeal to those who are seriously drawn to it but are unable to separate the essentials from the plethora of non-essentials that has gathered around it down the ages.

All that one should know about Sri Chakra is covered exhaustively in the sixteen chapters of this book. Declaring that “Mantra, the name, and Yantra, the form, are the keys of Tantra, the act”, the author points out that just as the Mantra is the sound-body of the Deity, the Yantra is its form-pattern. The Yantra is also known as Chakra, the wheel representing constant movement; “It indicates the dynamics of the Divine and stands for a transmission of the Divine puissance.” The most celebrated and potent Yantra mentioned in the Tantra Shastra is the Sri Chakra, the eternal abode of Lalita, Mahatripurasundari, the Divine Mother. Pointing out that the worship of any deity can be conducted in Sri Chakra as this is the foundation, basis and continent of all the other Chakras, the author rightly says that “in no other Chakra one finds such a magnificent mapping of the cosmic magnetic fields, such a comprehensive coverage of the eternal verities.”

When the Supreme Shakti of her own will takes the form of the universe and looks at her own throb, then the Chakra comes into being. Explaining this perception of the Tantric Seers, the lucid chapter on the Emergence of Sri Chakra, the author shows how “Sri Chakra is a master plan of manifestation drawn by the divine Draughtsman on the board of the Infinite, a transcript of the Transcendent, a symbol-image of the supernal verities.” The central point in the Sri Chakra, the Bindu, is not a void, sunya; it contains in itself everything. And the triangle round the Bindu, the Trikona, represents the creation in its triple aspects, the triad, the tripura. Explaining in a chapter the three-fold and nine-fold division that plays an important role in the scheme of Sri Chakra, the author vividly portrays the nine Chakras that are in the Sri Chakra and explains how they constitute the one body of the Shiva couple, the two in one, Shiva-Shakti.

The later and the most satisfying chapters deal with the Sadhana proper, the fruitful method of worship of the great Yantra. The secret of Sadhana is to treat the Sri Chakra as no different from the Deity, the Mantra, the Guru and the Sadhaka. Separate chapters are devoted to each of these concepts. Here one finds a wealth of information, a lucid exposition of the rationale of the Tantric principles and practices, a sure guide to the unchartered paths in inner life. Here are explained the various manifestations of the Godhead, their unfailing actions, the potency of the Mantra, especially the significance of the secret doctrine of Sri Vidya, the rationale of the Matrkas, the guidance of the Gurumandala and the capacity of the human body to house the immortal God. Giving an exposition of the relevant portions of Bhavanopanishad, the author details the method of arriving at the identity of the body of the Sadhaka with Sri Chakra.

The chapter on outer worship gives the rationale of Navavaranapuja and describes worship through Lalita Sahasranama on full-moon nights while the chapter on Inner Worship deals with Manasapuja and the worship in the subtle centres Anahata and Sahasrara, the heart and the head centres according to samaya method. The culminating chapter on Meditations describes the various meditations prescribed by the Tantra on Sri Chakra. “Then one meditates on Sri Chakra as the form-pattern emerged out of one’s own Light.”

The ten art plates of the Sri Chakra are extremely helpful in understanding the significance of the Yantra.
–M. P. PANDIT

Brahmavidyaarahasyavivritih by Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati. Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya, Holenarsipur. Hassan Dt. Mysore State. Price Rs. 2.

This is a welcome publication from the versatile pen of Sri Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati whose successful efforts to present the Adwaita Vedanta in the correct perspective are too well-known. The subject taken for study here is the eighth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad which deals with the worship in the space of the heart, dahaarakasa. As the heart is the seat of the Divine, the book is fittingly called an exposition which aims at unravelling the secret of Brahmic knowledge, Brahmavidyaarahasyavivritih.

The Brahman which has no specifications is spoken of in positive terms as well as in negative terms. It is qualified by adjuncts at times, and at times is said to be devoid of all associating factors. The former is for the purpose of meditating on the Brahman while the latter is for directly knowing it.

This particular chapter of the Chandogya deals both with the Saguna and Nirguna aspects of Brahman to suit different levels of aspirants, adhikaaribheda. All this is clearly brought out in the commentary of Swamiji, couched in lucid luminous Sanskrit.

A masterly summary of the subject-matter of the relevant Chandogya chapter given at the end enhances the value of the book.
–S. SHANKARNARAYANAN

Society and Culture in Medieval India (1206-1556) By Dr. A. Rashid. Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta.

In this handy volume, Dr. Rashid attempts a portrayal of the society and culture of Sultanate period. Even at the outset, it can be said that the author has tapped in full measure the Islamic sources, and has drawn a vivid picture of the medieval society in North India.

The Sultanate period has been interpreted by Indian scholars as a dark period where justice and fairplay were conspicuously absent. Dr. Rashid in the course of his narrative tries to correct this viewpoint. In the first chapter, the author points out that though the Muslim aristocracy were not highly educated or accomplished, “they realised the value of culture and education and extended their patronage to men of poetry and learning” (P. 15). In a similar fashion in another occasion, he adduces evidence to show that the majority section of the population were not “relegated to an inferior position without any civil rights in the land of their birth.” (P. 223) Chapters on social customs, manners and etiquette are as interesting as they are enlightening. The chapter on the Sufis contains explanations to such practices of Muslims like the Piri Muridi system. The concluding section of the book contains an exhaustive bibliography.
–DR. K. SUNDARAM

Vedantic Way of Living by Swami Bhoomananda. Published by Narayanasarma Tapovanam, Post: Paralam, via Cheru, Trichur District (Kerala). 1970. Price: Rs. 4.

By an unfortunate misconception, Vedanta, its study and its pursuit are thought to relate to old age and to the hereafter with no relevance to life here and now. The distinctiveness of the Hindi pattern of life is that, from start to finish, it is permeated by a view underscored by an awareness of verities of eternal significance for every stage of life. If, to work, to feel and to know are the marks of human life, it is relevant to ask how exactly should these functions be utilised to live to purpose. That is exactly what Vedanta tells us. This has been elaborated by the Swami in the discourses that he delivered and which his pious following has put down in print in this book. His audience were lay people who were eager to learn the truths of Hindu religion and philosophy. The Swami takes them in hand and leads them step by step from the physical, chemical and biological views of life with which they are all familiar to the nature of self-knowledge and Moksha through the Karma, Bhakti, Jnana and Dhyana Yogas all which he expounds in the most scientific manner. In his exposition he quotes copiously from the classical Vedantic works, particularly the Upanishads, the Gita and the Yoga Sutras and also from Sankara and from that storehouse of universal Vedanta, the Srimad Bhagavta. It is pertinent to remember the Swami’s warning that the Upadesa of a guru must necessarily start and sustain Vedantavichara. In these days when the dictum ‘achaaryavaan purushoveda’ is made to give place to ‘Kosavaan purushoveda’, when the library has banished the teacher, it is but proper that the Swami should have concluded his discourses on the spiritual quest, by saying: “The contact with a divine teacher and his constant tuition alone will reveal to them their weakness and mistakes. The benefit and care which the seekers receive at the hands of the spiritual teacher is something unique, mystic and inevitable. The gap you feel in the absence of a true teacher cannot be filled at all.”

Perusing the book, one is attracted by the clarity of the exposition and the natural sequence of ideas. The elements of Karma Yoga, the different forms of Bhakti, the relevance of Karma and Bhakti to Jnana and, finally, the nature of Dhyanasamadhi and the steps leading to it are brought out in a convincing manner. The book can be heartily recommended as a valuable vade mecum of Vedanta. The Brahma Vidya Abhyasakas of Madras deserve gratitude for making what they heard available in print for many who did not hear the Swami.
–HARA HARI

Binodini by Rabindranath Tagore. Translated into English by Krishna Kripalani. Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Price: Rs. 6.

Bengal has produced some excellent novelists. While Bankim and Sarat are among the most popular authors, quite a few of Tagore’s novels and short stories continue to command attention and appreciation.

First published in 1902 this book in Bengali bore the title Chokher Bali. The title Binodini in the English translation has a justification, if, indeed, a justification is necessary, in the fact that “in the first synopsis of the story jotted by the author in his notebook the title originally conceived and given by him was Binodini.”

The story in a nutshell: Rajalakshmi, a well-to-do widow dotes on her only son Mahendra who grows up a pampered, self-centred man. He is infatuated with his beautiful wife, Asha, and neglects his studies and his mother. Binodini, a young, beautiful and accomplished widow happens to enter this family (which is not entirely new to her) through fortuitous circumstances. Bihari, a highly principled young man and a childhood friend of Mahendra, visits the family regularly. The normal and cordial relations eventually become intimate paving the way for tension and misunderstandings. Bihari is estranged. Binodini and Mahendra elope but she spurns his love and thus saves his family from utter ruin. She makes advances to the stoic and stone-like Bihari but when he relents she withdraws and is supremely satisfied with his sympathy. “Her tragedy is a lasting shame to the Hindu conscience.”

“Binodini,” cast on a contemporary social canvas, can probably be said to be the first truly modern novel in Indian literature–with such “gentle and calm irony” and with such frank sympathy for the “kinship between love and sex.”

Translations have their own shortcomings, however eminent the translator be. The vitamins are inevitably destroyed in the process, as Tagore himself once said. However, Krishna Kripalani has done a remarkable job of the translation and even some of the utterly indigenous and un-English idioms look almost English. Some more care should have been bestowed on printing.
–K. V. SATYANARAYANA

Whom God Protects: By Promode Kumar Chatterji. Translated from Bengali by Kalyan Chaudhuri. Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Price: Rs. 4.

This is a remarkable biography of an Avadhuta, known as Kuda and Panchoo in his early days and as Arka, or Avadhuta, in his later days after he took to a spiritual life, as gathered by the author from the Avadhuta himself. Kuda was a foundling abandoned as a baby and picked up by a pious merchant, Brindavan Saha, from the river bank at Navdvipa. The story is entrancing and sometimes stranger than fiction–how the boy of six got lost in a jatra, was seduced by Kapali who wanted to offer him as a sacrifice, the miraculous escape of the boy, his studies and yoga practices at Benares and Brindavan, his wanderings in Nepal and Tibet, etc. The story ends about the time of the first world war and throws light on the little known under-world of spiritual aspirants and their strange experiences. Claiming to be an authentic record, it is as enthralling as a book of fiction.

The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo–Part Ten. By Sri Nolini Kanta Gupta. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Price: Rs. 5.

The author is among the earliest associates of Sri Aurobindo and among his authentic exponents. In this compilation are brought together brief essays, notes and comments written by him from time to time on spiritual topics, on education, on ‘Savitri’, the great poem of the Master, etc., shedding light on the writings of Sri Aurobindo. The author points out that in order to understand the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is ‘to enter into the atmosphere of the world’ that they have created with their words, to feel the vibrations that the words emanate–“the words are not mere sounds, dead syllables, they are living entities, symbols of consciousness–luminous–they shed light all along.”
–K. S. G.

SANSKRIT

Adbhutadootam by Jaggu Vakula Bhushanam. Available from the author, Jaggu Alwar Iyengar, 2721, IV Cross Road, Malleswaram, Bangalore–3. Price Rs. 4-75.

Adbhutadootam ‘Marvellous Messenger,’ is a composition of the poet Jaggu Vakula Bhushanam. Answering to the definition of a mahakavya, it is a poem cast in fifteen cantos in chaste Sanskrit verses. It deals with the role of Krishna, as the marvellous messenger of goodwill and peace between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. As regards the story, there is not much deviation from the original in Mahabharata; but the characterisation is different. Krishna is not depicted here as an astute statesman, a deliberate diplomat. He is the all-knowing God who knows beforehand the futility of his mission, but yet undertakes it as an act to be gone through, kartavyam karma. Divine, no doubt, but very much human in approach, Krishna’s easy accessibility, saulabhya, and kind-heartedness, sauharda, are well brought out.

It is a delight to read the Sanskrit, unencumbered with long compounds. One senses not the poet, but true poetry in the verses cast in classical moulds. The whole composition has an atmosphere around it–the atmosphere of the ancient masters.
–M. P. PANDIT

TELUGU

Sahiti Sugatuni Swagatam by Tirumala Ramachandra. Visalandhra Publishing House, Vijayawada-2. Price: Rs. 7.

It is a collection of literary essays on a variety of literary topics from the scholarly pen of Tirumala Ramachandra. They reveal the wide range of his study remarkable for its depth as well as width. It is not stentorian in tone devoid of poetic sensibility. The approach is creative though the method is critical.
–Dr. C. N. SASTRI

Anuseelina by V. Mandeswara Rao. Suruchi Prachuranalu, Eluru. Price: Rs. 4.

This booklet seeks to present within the brief span of 130 pages the vast subject of literary criticism and its relation to creative talent. The exposition is easy, interesting and at the same time perceptive. Without ignoring the respective claims of the critic and the creative artist, the author points out their interdependence. The book is written in simple and flowing style which does not daunt the general reader if even he seeks to make acquaintance with critical principles and literary values.
–Dr. C. N. SASTRI

Sahitya Prayojanam by Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao. Visalandhra Publishing House, Vijayawada-2. Price: Rs. 3-50.

This is another collection of essays presented on the sixtieth birthday of the famous author, Kodavatiganti. His approach to literature is more pragmatic than aesthetic. He adjudges literary art by its social content and purpose than by its innate architectonic value. Though he does not wear blinkers to artistic excellence, Sri Kodavatiganti is primarily concerned with the socio-economic aspects of literature. His keen intellect is not equally perceptive of emotional overtones as of logical ramifications. So we find in his pronouncements more of the qualities of a wit than the attributes of a sensitive literary spirit. After all, literature cannot be ordered one way or the other. It takes all sorts to make the literary world a fascinating reflection of our world which is so various, so beautiful, so new.
–DR. C. N. SASTRI