The Beautiful and the Bountiful in Viswanatha's Ramayana

THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE BOUNTIFUL
IN VISWANATHA’S RAMAYANA

Eternal values of endless beauty and bounty in human nature lead it in search of a divine art.

The realisation of a divine art is nothing but the expression of self-perfecting thought-processes of human nature. Ever since man has learnt to reveal his inner beauty and truth and goodness in painting or in singing or in writing or in speaking, he never ceased to move towards progressively greater and greater awareness of a higher power that animates and actuates his constant wish to better himself.

To translate it into rational terms, the concept of God is no more than the greatest conception of the greatest conceivable thing. The sages and the savants have all along been able to conceive such an entity outside of their mundane existence.

Thus the secret of all artistic creation is to achieve something above and beyond the individual’s material conditions, with a sense of a non-dual communion with his superior consciousness-call it the Supreme Self or Soul or Spirit or what you will.

Valmiki is the first among the Indian poets to accomplish this sublimation: it cannot all be a fairy tale that an unlettered robber turned into a saintly poet.

Similarly Viswanatha, whom some of us see and know only as a ‘human being’, has that divine quality in him which enables him to write “the pure poetry that the poet creates outside of his personality.

Born, not made

Vishwanatha, the creator of “Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu”, has to be separated from the popular novelist or the unpopular representative of the old brigade”, the famous singer of lyrics and ballads or the notorious public speaker who seldom fails to ‘create a scene.’

Only once in a century do the poets that are “born and not made for the edification of their fellow beings. But it is not always that the contemporary mind recognises the rare, single shining light in its midst.

It is the good fortune of Viswanatha and his readers that a whole nation was able to find out his unique worth while he is still with us. And it is doubly gratifying that such awards could single out the poet’s one undying, supreme gift to his posterity–that the Jnan Pith has not chosen to reward what is called ‘popular’, that is, his novels.

It is further noteworthy that this new honour on the national level will arouse a wider readership for the book–in the original by the Andhras and in possible translations by non-Andhras.

Merits

For, let it be said, with proper critical caution and confidence, that in a sense Viswanatha has excelled every other writer and translator of the story of Rama. The lyrical historicity of Valmiki, the metaphysical plausibility of Vyasa (in Addhyatma Ramayana), the devotional fervour of Tulasidas, the literary grace of Kambar, and the various other virtues in greater and lesser other scribes who depicted the Dharma of Ramayana with Bhakti, are all proportionately combined in Viswanatha’s masterwork, Not just that. He actually proves himself a class apart, in that he alone could depict his characters with a feeling for Rasa and Dhvani, the like of which was merely hinted at in other works (including Valmiki’s) but is not quite evident.

I have made a tall claim for Viswanatha. So, lest I be mistaken for one of his ‘blind followers’, let me remind the reader that every other occasion I had to comment on the poets other works I had been uniformly critical of him. Even today I should like to say that his prose gives me a pain in the neck and that his criticism lacks balance. One has to make an exception of ‘Veyipadagalu’ because of its matchless contents–which the uneasy style cannot mar.

“Ramayana Kalpavrikshamu “ has two connotations, and in both there is simple significance.

One is that it provides all kinds of literary nourishment for all kinds of readers. Here lie the bounty and the beauty of the sort only a rishi can disclose in a Kaavya, The beautiful and a bountiful that are both latent and apparent in the portrayal of every single great episode are there in sufficiently large number to please at once the casual and the careful reader. The Ahalya Khandamu in Baala Kaanda, the Abhisheka Khandamu in Ayodhya Kaanda, the Sabari Khandamu in Aranya Kaanda, the Gajapushpi Khandamu in Kishkindha Kaanda, the Usha Khandamu in Sundara Kaanda and the Upasamharana Khandamu in the final Yuddha Kaanda, particularly offer a rich variety of descriptive suggestion, soul stirring characterisation, logical humanism, righteous loyalty, dutiful service and touching sentiment–in such a way as to move the reader to tears of joy or of sorrow according as the occasion demands.

Repaying a debt

The other is that, for all his self-assurance and seeming vain-glory, Viswanatha is a humble soul. In its idiomatic sense “Ramayana­kalpa” suggests something which nears but not equals the original. Also, in the preface to Baala Kaanda, he wants to repay his hereditary debt to the first poet Valmiki. Albeit he wrote a Ramayana which cannot yet be called a translation, or imitation of any former work on the theme, he had the good grace to use “Kalpa” in the other sense of “eeshat oona” (a little less) than the Valmiki Ramayana.

However, in point of fact, Viswanatha’s Kaikeyi alone can ensure him a place in the reader’s heart, which Valmiki himself cannot occupy. Here was no heartless aunt, doting mother, selfish wife and calculating woman who lent herself to be ill-advised by a servant. Here is a character which has a centralised importance, similar to that Rama himself. For, while Rama himself was unaware of his mission of destroying the Rakshasas, Kaikeyi took it upon herself at the cost of her fair name, to despatch him where his destiny was to lead him. She sacrificed her love for him to the public good, even as we today have a Bangla mother who would not desist from strangling her own child in her concern for the safety of a larger number of co-humans.

All hail to Viswanatha who could make Ramayana live for ever with live characters.