Reviews

Dramatic Poetry: By Prof. Anniah Gowda. Macmillan & Co., Ltd. Madras-2. Price Rs: 50-00.

This book fills me with admiration for the author and the admiration is doubled by the fact that Prof. Anniah Gowda is a friend. The survey is wide-ranging from China to Peru (to be preciser, from Japan to Peru). The reading is amazing; it is Saintsburyan (perhaps, Saintsburyan should be replaced by Wellekian today). The survey is made lively by arresting statements like these:

One should be poised to appraise the unorthodox. (p. 353)

Browning is Donne sadly underdone. (p. 206)
In our ironical world, hostility quite as often argues a likeness as a dissimilarity.
Birds of the same feather fight together. (187)
Samson Agonistes, like old age itself is a bottomless well….is but a stupendous soliloquy by a single character, Milton himself (p. 133), etc.

In such a Gargantuan survey there will be, of course, statements one cannot approve of in toto:

1. On p. 11 and p. 15 the author laughs at Byron and the dilettantes of the 19th century that they did not know the meaning of mystery. Byron may laugh at us. In 12th century France mystery dealt with the life of Christ and miracle with the lives of the Saints. This Word is derived from mysterium which does refer to the doctrine. When these Miracles and Mysteries became popular in England, they were sponsored by the Guilds. Now arises the etymological confusion. The Guilds were called Mysteries because the handicraft went by the name of mystery derived from ministerium but confused with mysterium.

2. On p. 239 the author cites the Shakesperian aphorism: Lilies that fester ... and, I fear, explains it inaccurately. The line occurs in Sonnet 93. It cannot be called a Shakesperian aphorism because it occurs in Edward III. It is an aphorism which both made use of. The line means that the good who turn bad lire worse than the bad. It does not assist the author’s observation: If nothing can be better than a good poet, surely nothing can be worse than a bad one.

3. In many of the chapters there is no awareness of the new thinking on authors. For instance, take up Marlowe: (i) His mighty line is referred to but to mention the mighty line merely is to be mighty blind to the variety in Marlowe. (ii) Today Marlowe is not considered the apologist of the Titanism in Tamburlaine and others but the critic. He is not of the Devil’s party. (J. B. Steane makes all this very clear) (iii) If the author read C. S. Lewis’s brilliant British Academy Lecture on Hero and Leander, he won’t be making a lame statement that Venus and Adonis is superior to everything in that genre. Shakespeare’s poem reminds the critic of the voluminous folds of a female relative and if female spiders wrote love poetry it would be a poem like Hero and Leander.

4. Or consider the chapter on the Victorian Period which is usually brushed aside as an age of smugness and complacency. But there is rethinking today. It is said to be the second Renaissance more creative than the Elizabethan period.

And if in one chapter Moby Dick could be discussed, why is the Novel of the Victorin Period, the real poetry of the period (if we forget the genre idea), not discussed? There is the dramatic novel according to Edwin Muir’s classification in The Structure of the Noel, a minor classic of criticism today.

5. When one discusses the role of Falstaff in the play why is not F. L. Lucas’s observation that he is a magnificent irrelevance in Henry IV plays thought of? Why is Hilda Hulme’s suggestion that ‘a Table of Green fields’ instead of ‘Babbled of Green fields’ can be the uncorrupted text not considered? Her suggestion puts an end to the sentimental nonsense about Falstaff.

6. Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair is characterized as a burlesque. But it is, according to Ray L. Heffner, philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics and almost Shakesperian in its world view in that it says: Judge not. The Banbury bloods cannot and should not judge the Bartholomew birds because Banbury is no better than Batholomew in the goings on of life and moral indictment without an understanding of unregenerate flesh in others and in us is immoral. And if one judges the dramatic relevance of language, the amazing polysemy of Ben Jonson’s vocabulary in The Alchemist, for instance, (as elaborated by E. B. Partridge in The Broken Compass) working at the levels of religion, medicine, sex, business alchemy, warfare should have been availed of.

Contexts like the above can be cited and subjected to closer scrutiny but a review cannot go on and on. To proceed to graver matters, the book is said to be a philosophical enquiry into the nature of poetic drama in England, Ireland and the U. S. A. It is more an epic survey than a philosophical enquiry. It is a history of dramatic poetry. And as Watson points out in his Literary Critics, academichistoriography is simply extinct in England today except for some, brilliant attempts like The Allegory of Love. By philosophical enquiry one understands the kind of probing into the nature of these terms that one finds in, say, Eliot’s Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture on Poetry and Drama. Eliot quotes (from Othello):

Keep up your swords for the dew will rust them

and explains how it is a miracle of drama and magic of poetry. “Only poetry could do this but it is dramatic poetry.” This remark is infinite riches in a little room of philosophical enquiry. One rarely comes across this kind of discussion in the book. Chapman and Webster, Blake, Fielding and Wilde are the only authors cited in extenso.

The problem of genres remains. In a book on dramatic poetry Moby Dick and The Way of the World are brought in. Where does prose end and poetry begin? If dramatic poetry is illustrated by a prose play and a novel, there is no difference between a novel and a play, a prose play and a verse play. (It is relevant to note the title of chapter 30 in Literary Criticism of Wimsatt and Brooks: Fiction and Drama: The Gross Structure.) Is dramatic poetry, poetry found in drama or poetry which partaken of dramatic qualities. And what is drama?

To Shaw it is a problem, to Archer it is crisis, to Brunetiere it is assertion of the will, to Maeterlinck it is mist about the summit; drama is conflict, action, spectacle, multi-vision; to a Samskrit Alamkarika it is avastlza anukruti–imitationof a mental condition. If there are so many views about drama, what does dramatic poetry mean? How does a poetic drama differ from a dramatic poem? Does a play written in verse become a poetic play? Why doesAbercrombie say that a prose play is an adulterated form? Why does Browning, a master of dramatic monologue, fail as a dramatist? Perhaps, the talent for dramatic monologue is different from the talent for drama. One has to admit, of course, that some prose plays are more poetical than some plays in verse and the prose of some writers is more poetical than the poetry of some. Did not Byron laugh at Wordsworth?

Who, both by precept and example, shows
That prose is verse and verse is merely prose.

There is no essential difference between prose and poetry to Wordsworth. The real difference should be between the imaginative and the non-imaginative: the opposite of poetry is science. But science too is imaginative: the Relativity Theory is as imaginative as King Lear. For the sake of argument the non-distinction is defensible. But then Genology is at stake. A critical treatise becomes a critical hold-all. If there is no severe definition of a literary form and a severer application of it the term suffers from ‘ativyapti’(as the Sanskrit logicians say) over-comprehensiveness.

Nothing in this world can be a substitute for something else: saccharine is not a substitute for sugar.

I wish the epic sweep made references to Osborne and Pinter and Beckett and discussed how Waiting for Godot is not a play at all from one point of view and the highest type of play from another. How the T. V., the radio, the film put across dramatic poetry is also matter for critical discussion. John Russel Taylor explains this with regard to Shakespeare in Shakespeare: A Celebration.

Prof. Anniah Gowda’s book is an excellent addition to scholarship. Whether it is A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Dynasts, his scholarship is unwavering and adequate. The book will be of great help to all students of English Drama and Poetry and I am sure it will occupy its rightful place in all libraries.
–PROF. K. VISWANATHAM

The Call of the Upanishads: By Rohit Mehta. Published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay-7. Price: Rs. 15-00.

It is accepted by all thinking persons the world over that the Upanishads of India are the unsullied sources of some of the profoundest thoughts to lead man towards a higher destiny. In this volume which is a very valuable addition to the studies on the Upanishads, the author has clearly stated in his introduction what exactly is the main contribution of the scripture to the upliftment of the human soul. For he says: “In the Upanishads one sees the truth of the statement that it is not the conclusion that matters–what matters is the process by which the conclusion is arrived at. The Upanishads are not concerned with the conclusions of thought–they are concerned with the process of thinking. The teachers of the Upanishads have never deviated from the strict rules of logic–but with logical clarity they have shown how logic is limited in its scope. While they have pointed to the realms beyond the mind, they have not even derided the role of logic and reason. To utilise reason in order to show the inadequacy of reason–this is a difficult undertaking–but the teachers of the Upanishads have displayed a remarkable mastery over the technique of transcending the mind with the help of the mind.”

The above passage is enough to induce in the reader an avidity to further get himself absorbed in following the reflections and comments of the author on a study of the eleven Upanishads dealt with here under very suggestive captions. The principal ten Upanishads, as also the Svetasvatara Upanishad, given in the concluding chapter, have been carefully analysed without omitting any of the significant passages which have already been commented upon by various thinkers here and outside. Still the author’s personal stamp, born of his own experience and related to our own times in their relevance, will enable the reader to acknowledge with satisfaction the stimulating discussion of his in these pages. To single out any particular aspect of the discussion as of an original kind of contribution to the thought explained, may not be of much special gain to the reader. Yet, we can certainly point out the robust optimism which characterises the statements and discussions generating in their turn a feeling of an unfailing guide which the Upanishads have been offering mankind, faced as they are with a crisis in civilization.
–K. CHANDRASRKHARAN

Gandhi: Essential Writings: Selected and Edited by V. V. Ramanamurti. Published by the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi. Price: Rs. 25-00.

In the numerous publications of Gandhiji’s writings, an earnest student of Gandhian literature may find it always difficult to have full satisfaction without finishing the entire volume of his writings. The Government of India has been already at a monumental project of publishing all the available Gandhian writings in 70 volumes of which more than half the number has seen the light of day already. Hence it may look superfluous if any other attempt of much less size containing writings of the Mahatma were to be planned. However, the Gandhi Peace Foundation has wisely undertaken to select some of the more important of them and present them in a single volume for an immediate source of help to a student who wishes to comprehend within a short time the philosophy behind most of Gandhiji’s actions and principles.

The volume under review is the result of the good selection made by the Editor who has plunged into the forest of the Mahatma’s writings and emerged with some of them which according to him preserves the kernel of his thoughts. Thus we have here in ten sections, analysed and presented, the ullbelievably clear and relevant answers that the Mahatma had given, without failing in courtesy, to the innumerable questions asked of him about everyone of his original thoughts and springs of action.

For a rational human being there will be no place in all these writings to discover any flaw in the reasoning of that saint in politics. To a saturating point one will be able to follow the mind of one of world”s most inconceivable human personality; who was working day and night for the cause of humanity, not only of India but of the whole world. True to our ancient Vedantic principles, his love embraced all living creatures on earth and his suffering for others easily exceeded that of the great apostles of every religion.
–K. CHANDRASEkHARAN

Seventy Seven: By R. Rabindranath Menon: Published by Writers Workshop, 162/92 Lake Gardens, Calcutta-45. Price: Deluxe Edition Rs 50-00. Ordinary Edition Rs. 10-00.

What will you call a collection of poems? Poems? More Poems? A String of Pearls? There are many names you can peel off from memory. But hardly any as original in concept, concise to the point, as “Seventy Seven,” the title given to a group of 77 poems on diverse topics painting a wide and varied canvas of life. To designate a book by the number of poems it holds is a novel break-off from the ornate as well as the humdrum. It is also a reflection of the direct method used by the poet who has a scientific and technical ground in presenting his artistic pen-pictures of superior word-craft, synchronising imagery and sense-filled sensitivity.

Poetry, as Wordsworth puts it and Eliot quotes with some approval, is emotion recollected in tranquility. In “Seventy Seven”, we come across a variety of emotions distilled in the brilliance of thought. Except for the solitary poem “Sweet Memory” which, no doubt, has its own intrinsic charm, there is hardly any effusion of emotion in the raw. Feelings and sentiments, ephemeral or lasting, are examined under a microscope by the unrelenting eyes of irony, humour or satire, assayed from the apex of logic and philosophy and illumined with poetic precision in a series of apt images There is a deft and deliberate attempt to universalise the emotion or the experience, and therein lies the charm of Menon’s poetry. The imagery is surcharged with suggestions. Words carry heavy loads, and the effect is a concentrated mode of expression, a consummate wit conveyed in a rhythm of its own. Poems are born perhaps on the surge of some emotion, the cathartic effect of a close communion with life in its various facets, which we call inspiration, but they are chiselled and chastened by phrases and phrases of thoughtful composure.

In Menon’s poems, we have the whole gamut of emotions extruded into lines laden heavily with meanings and metaphors, yet pulsate with simple symphonies of the spoken word and the song rhythm. The pace is never forced, and Menon’s craft is such that the synthesis of sense and sound transmutes the prosodic lines into poetic stanzas.

Half-way round the circumference
wait twenty-four hours,
the distance and the difference
of their might from ours.
(“Mariner’s Map”–P.9)

The idea that opposite sides of the globe have a bond in time, and what happens in one half, be it night or tragedy–a subtle reflection of the theme itself–will soon be transmitted to the other half, is presented here in the ground of a geographical truth which wears the veil of poetic imagery.

“A Tale of our times” directs the flashlight on the recent history of our country. Beautiful images stand out elegantly.

“... … … and the dust
winnowed out the sephyr”
“… … … the wind of hope
separates the wheat from chaff”
“March in my country began
with parched throats to spin
rain drops downed as hail-stones
mixing fresh blood with dulled bones” (p-61)

Numerous examples can be quoted of the compression of ideas achieved in a modicum of words, the essential trait of Menon’s poetry.

“The tumult of everything unfelt
terrorises all speech into guilt”
“(Golden Silence” p. 76)

“Danger to be at large
when everyone for himself
builds a golden cage”
(“Current Survey” p. 76)

“A sequence of stills can pose
for movement without any force”
(“Inside Heaven”–P.78)

“The dusk
has now a built-in-desk
to clear off doubts and debts
by sliding them over the edge”
(“Cul de sac” –P. 54)

and so on.

The poems bear testimony to the handiwork of a master-craftsman. That poetry is an essential but different form of expression is borne out by every piece. The above few lines were picked at random in the preceding paragraphs, but there are many more, even more scintillating, meaningful and artistic, and we have no hesitation to invite any lover of poetry and literature for a fruitful itinerary into Menon’s world of seventy-seven masterpieces.
–BHAVARAJU

Antiquities of South Canara District: By P. Gururaja Bhat, Principal, Milagres College. Kallianpur, South Canara. Price: Rs; 15-00

The book under review is a carefully studied work. About the antiquities of the South Canara District. It is a matter for satisfaction that at a time when early historical remains are fast disappearing, the author with painstaking care has personally visited the antiquities, taken notes, studied them originally, and has presented them in a logical and cogent manner.

The book has an able historical ground of South Canara District, followed by short notes on the sociological, religious and archaeological matters of the areas under study. This is followed by a list of important places containing ancient antiquities in the South Canara District, arranged in the alphabetical order. Under each important place, the epigraphs, the sculptures, the icons, and other matters of interest, are given as short notes. There is an architectural map of Tulunadu and also another map which shows its foreign contacts. This is followed by 184 plates giving photographs of all antiquities in the district.

The author has to be congratulated in collecting extensively the material required for this compilation, and in having carefully sifted evidence and presented them.

It may, however, be mentioned that some photographs could have been better. The book would have been more meaningful and useful, if diacritical marks had been used, especially for those who are strangers to the language. The explanations given could perhaps be slightly more informative and more elaborate.

However, the volume even as it is, is invaluable both as a guide to the interested research student, as well as serving as a model for such books to come on other districts in our country.
–DR. N. RAMESAN

Ethics and Metaethics: By B. S. Sanyal. Vikas Publications, Delhi. Price: Rs. 27-50.

Professor Sanyal after his four previous volumes on “Humanism in Philosophy”, on Religion, Culture and Logic has now given us a substantial study on the subject of Ethics. The fashion of the day in the ethical world is to assert the autonomy of the sphere of morality. Formal ethics was derived from Metaphysical Idealism. Ethics as the science of the “aught” in morality was derived from Metaphysical principles. Metaethics seeks to give us a fresh foundation for morality. The present work is a learned and splendid attempt to lay bare the structures and the functions of ethical predicates, sentences, arguments and theories. The book presents the different ethical theories as a series of graded metaethical doctrines. Dr. Sanyal steers clear of the two reductions, reducing ethics into a science of behaviour and making ethics a hand-maid of religion. He carves cut for ethics an unique place. Truth, massive erudition and diligent application of the principles, Sanyal’s work is a distinct contribution to the study of metaethics. The book carries six separate Appendices on distinct topics. e. g., The Human theory of Morality; Can metaphysics survive? Definitions, and Being and Non-being.
–P. NAGARAJA RAO

The Beginning Spring: By Robert Louis Nathan. Philosophical Library, New York.. Price: $ 4-75.

This neat little volume under review is a plea for a return to simpler ways of ethical life and the need to fly fromtechnology and nuclear inventions. The author describes the horrors of modern civilisation and exposes its dehumanising effects on man’s life. In the last chapter the author appeals to the youth of the world, to give up the hypnotic dependence on technology and to obtain the sanctity of souls. The advice is to flee from the cities and sky-scrappers. The book is a poetic appeal to live a simple life and cherish noble thoughts. It has a sane human touch. But a critical reader gets the impression that the author is trying to put the clock of progress . We do not know whether the return is possible. Anyway we have to reconcile in our life with technology and science.
– P. NAGARAJA RAO

Ripples of the Mahanadi: By Dr. Mayadhar Mansinha. The Minerva Associates, Calcutta 29. Price: Rs. 16.

Ripples of the Mahanadi is an Anthology of free English Translations of the poems of the famous Oriya poet. Dr. Mayadhar Mansinha. Dr. Mansinha himself is the translator. Thevolume is ‘but a small segment of his work.’ Dr. Harekrishna Mehtab describes him as ‘the best’ and ‘the best-known modern poet of Orissa.’

The Anthology is punctuated into six segments. In the apparent diversity of the sections, there appears an abiding unity of love. The first section, ‘A Young Soul on Fire’, comprises poems which describe the lover’s love for the beloved. Passion and encounter, balmy embraces and hasty kisses, ecstasy and pain, union and separation, agony and solace–all are described in this section with sanctity. The second section deals with ‘His Soil and People’: thissection exposes the poet’s love for the moonlit waters of Mahanadi, the peasant’s hut, the paddy fields, the village of Orissa, and the new-age man. The third section is a battery of love-laden ‘Tributes to the Great’: to Srikrishna and Buddha, Tagore and Bapuji, and Konarka, the Chariot-Temple of the Sun-God that enshrined the creative beauties oftwelve-hundred poets of stone.’ The fourth section is entitled ‘The Great Journey’: it is an expression of the poet’s love of God. His supplication, aching for His creative embrace, and hope to be eternally flowing in ‘his vast creation from point to point’ form the significant tone ofthe section. The fifth section is ‘Of a Sorrowing World’: it comprises selections from Dr. Mansinha’s’ Sonnet–Century’, Krushor ‘The Cross in Oriya.’ This section is a testament of the poet’s pity and lovefor the suffering humanity. He starts with ‘the Cross of Christ who is a symbol of ‘Love and Sacrifice,’ refers to ‘The Countless Crosses,’ and sheds in helpless agony ‘a warm tear-drop’ for ‘the world’s sorrows.’ Finally the poet expresses his love for the ‘Blossoms of Death’ and invokes his Soul-Swan to ‘Shake off the illusions of the small’ and ‘Rise and Rise’ to have ‘a taste of the Limitless.’ Obviously the fifth section marks the sublimity of the poetic articulation. Kamalayanaappears to be the most ambitious modern epic of Dr. Mansinha. The story of Kamala (the hero, and Karuna (the heroine) and Viswamitra (their daughter) in the epic is a plea to project the poet’s ideal ‘concepts [of change] from narrow nationalism to pure Humanism...for the true service of Man’. After the sublimity of the fifth section, the three excerpts in the last section give just a tantalizing taste of his epic.

In the different sections, the poet, for illustration, draws apt similes from nature which afford glimpses of his love of Nature too. Thus, while ‘Love’ is the pervading theme, the different phases of Love appear celebrated in the diverse sections of the Anthology. The book offers a rewarding study, and it deserves to be a library edition for extensive reading.
–Dr. K. V. S. MURTI

Isavasyopanishad(with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya): Translated by Swami Satchidananda Saraswati. Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya, Hole Narasipur (Hassan Dt., Mysore State). Pages 58. Price not given.

This is the 158th publication of the Adhyatma Prakasa Karyalaya, H.H. Satchidananda Saraswati has written commentaries in lucid Samskrit on almost all the Bhashyas of Sri Sankaracharya, and therein he unravelled many of the knotty problems in Sri Sankara’s Advaita. Now for the first time he has undertaken to translate all the Sankara Bhashyas into English and publish them with introduction and notes also. We sincerely welcome this step as this will enable any English-knowing readers to understand and appreciate Sri Sankara’s Advaita in its natural glory. The edition under review contains the Upanishadic text in Devanagari script and English translation to the text and Sri Sankara’s Commentary thereupon. A summary of the teaching of the Upanishad is also given at the end. The additional value of this edition lies in the critical foot-notes, the appendix and the glossarial index which facilitate a critical understanding of the spirit of the original texts and co-ordinating the contexts of this Bhashya with Sri Sankara’s other Bhashyas. Wehowever suggest the inclusion of the original text of the commentary also in the future publications. We whole-heartedly commend this valuable edition to all the students of the Advaita Philosophy.
–B. KUTUMBA RAO
Journalists and the Law: By K. D. Umrigar. Law Book Company. Sardar Patel Marg, Post Box No. 4. Allahabad-4. Price: Rs. 12-50.

The practising journalist, contrary to popular belief, enjoys no freedoms wider than those vouchsafed to the individual citizen under the Constitution. Nor can he claim any special privileges other than those provided in the chapter on Fundamental Rights under the Indian Constitution. A glance at Mr. Umrigar’s book, packed with miscellaneous information, is sure to have a sobering effect on the new entrant to journalism.

The law of libel is something that the working journalist, the reporter as well as the editorial writer, should be particularly careful about. In reporting the proceedings of a Legislature or a Court of justice, the reporter cannot take shelter under privilege or public interest that might protect any member’s utterance in the two chambers. He must use his discretion and take the risk where he feels it necessary.

The state of law, with particular reference to the journalist in the different countries of the world, including parliamentary democracies, people’s democracies, Latin American dictatorships, etc., is discussed in relevant detail. The specific provisions of the Indian Constitution, which strikes a balance between individual freedom and social control are also stated. The elaborate appendices and the detailed index are as useful as the 30 chapters of the text. The publication is in the nature of a minor encyclopaedia for the Reporter.
–D. ANJANEYULU

Fundamental Questions in Aesthetics: By P. C. Chatterji. Published by the Registrar, Indian Institute of Advanced Study. Simla-5. Price: Rs. 20-00.

Aesthetics is a branch of Philosophy. Its business is said to be definition of Art. Neo-positivists argue that Art is indefinable–be it, symbolic, classical and romantic. They pontificate that it is unique and is divorced from practical ends. And as in Ethics it has no problems to solve. Says the author: the concept of “Good” or “ought” in Ethics is as well applicable to Aesthetics. Art has certain generic qualities and it can both be interpreted and evaluated.

In this connexion, two theories–Solipsistic and Bruce-Collingwood–are examined. They trot out fantastic views that the work of art cannot be claimed to be identical with the visual object and it simply exists in imagination. While rejecting them in totoMr. Chatterji provides a firm basis for the objectivity of easthetic judgements.

Being expressions of emotions, all art-objects evoke in the contemplator pleasurable sensations, parasitic on cognitive fact. The element of “Drive” is totally absent in them. They arise out of sheer sympathy.

And for evaluation of Art, some common characteristics are enumerated as: order, simplicity, coherence and compactness. But in the case of literary works, truth is brought in. Here truth is not meant to be coherence or usefulness. It is to be construed as sincerity or insincerity of what is asserted or stated. And the statement may either be emotive or scientific.

Aesthetics–it can be affirmed of it–is more than canons. Its presence is felt in the blush of a jasmine, the glow of the sun, the flash of lightning, and the coquettish smile of Delilah. It has its being in ‘unheard melodies’ and emotions that cleanse and elevate. The more tragic the emotion is, the more of aesthetics is to be had out of it. The book is well written. Any art-lover can dig into it and have his bag-full.
–K. SUBBA RAO

TELUGU

Sri Tallapaka Annamacharyulu (A historical novel): By Tummalapalli Ramalingeswara Rao. Copies can be had from Sri Yarlagadda Venkanna Choudary Shashtyabdapurtyutsava Sangham, 69, G. N. Road, Madras-17. Price: Rs. 6-00.

This exhilarating historical novel coming from the pen of a well known literary critic, novelist and poet, interweaves dexterously the life-stories of Annamacharya, the celebrated composer of songs on Lord Venkateswara and the Telugu poetess Molla, bringing into its fold some relevant events in the life of Saluva Narasimha Raya. Portrayal of the characters of Annamacharya, poetess Molla, and the villainous Perumallayya is excellent. Delineating the sentiments of devotion, love and heroism, without anywhere losing the propriety, the novel provides a very good reading. About twenty-five important and popular kirtanas sung by Annamacharya on different occasions given at the end of the book enhance the value of the book.
–B. KUTUMBA RAO

MARATHI

Shankara Vedanta Prakriya: By Swami Satchidananda Saraswati. Translated by Modak and Desai. Adhyatmaprakasha Karyalaya, Holenarsipur.

There is a continuing controversy among Advaitins as to what precisely Shankara meant when he propounded the fundamentals of the Advaita Philosophy in his commentaries on the Upanishads, Gita and Brahma Sutras. Different writers have interpreted his concepts and phrases differently. The author ofthis treatise has written a number of books expounding what he considers to be the real, original Shankara Vedanta. The present essay examines certain key concepts like Brahman, Atman, knowledge, etc., and develops a pattern of thought with some coherence. Students of Advaita will find this work stimulating. The Marathi translation isfluent, and faithful.
–M. P. PANDIT