A Lesson in Literary Criticism from Viswanatha -Viswanatha as Critic

A LESSON IN LITERARY CRITICISM FROM VISWANATHA
Viawanatha as Critic

PROF. S. V. JOGA RAO
Andhra University, Waltair

Much has been said of Viswanatha Satyanarayana even long before he became a Jnan Pith awardee as poet, novelist and dramatist but I wonder how many of my literary friends, while assessing his all-round literary personality, could afford to miss to catch in him the sight of a critic with keen perception.

Every great creative writer, according to me or to any man of common sense, is a man of vision, a conscious artist, a critic of the first order and in fact the first critic of his own creation. If a poet is held in high esteem by a “Sahridaya” who is true to himself, he is indeed a great poet; but how can he become great as poet unless he can look at his own creation with a subtle, disinterested and dispassionate eye of an outsider? If we can dive deep into the mental workshop of any great composer, there we find his inner eye working like a watch-dog at the portals of his every expression. Yes, undoubtedly he is a great critic too even if he didn’t utter a line by way of criticism in his lifetime. Viswanatha, who combined in himself the Solomon and the Sampson in matters of quality and quantity in his literary output, was not only a creative artist of the first order but also a critic of the first magnitude.

He was his own first critic, hence every work of his is a work of art and stands as model but curiously enough remains inimitable. He is a critic on two more scores too, having to his credit one and seven more books dealing with pure and applied literary criticism respectively–besides several papers and critical introductions to many a literary work of bygone ages and current times as well.

Instinctively inquisitive he was and had an innate urge to think about, imagine, observe, understand and learn things more and more. In and out, in life and literature which happened to him quest and pursuit, he always used to be a poser of questions, seeker of answers and seer of truth all of which culminate in an aesthetic expression charmed with a philosophical repose. He was versatile and erudite in his scholarship of the oriental and occidental classics–not only of classics and classical treatises of literary criticism but also of the huppenny tuppenny chips of fiction. All this was the emotional ground of his poet and the intellectual equipment of his critic. In short he was a poet by temperament but a critic by aptitude.

As his own Critic

He displayed in almost all his creative works during the sixty years of his literary career many healthy critical attitudes and considerations towards literary skills, feats, beauties and niceties and proved himself to be an adept in self-introspection in this regard. Even his early verses and minor poems, whether extemporely dictated or cautiously composed, if scanned properly, reveal to us that a born poet always strives to establish his own style, that he takes into him everything from his environs if only it has a beauty in its face and life in its pulse, that a blade of grass becomes a thunderbolt with the witchcraft of his expression, that his power of imagination can translate for him anything into kindred experience and his expression assumes a new dimension on account of that kind of experience. His long poems, particularly the Ramayana Kalpavriksha, offer to us his critical philosophy that he is more an architect of expression than of verse, that he attaches more importance to the poet’s “Pratibha” than to anything else, and to the sentimental appeal of the poem than to its thematic setting and that the spiritual yearning or the inner urge of the soul of the poet with an emotional gush of his feelings within is the real keynote of the poem. We are prone to understand by his novels that an idea can be personified into a character and a character, if life can be infused into it, presents perpetual freshness to the novel and always makes it a pleasant reading.

These are my inferences of his critical outlook gleaned his compositions. Now let us look into some of his critical attitudes from his own reviews and reflections of his works:

I. From his article entitled “My great writing”:

1. The craft lies in the combination of chiseling the theme and making the format suit the sentimental appeal enlivens the grandeur of a great poem. His Nartanasalaand Ekavirahe says abound in this craft.
2. The cleverness of the poet lies in the selection of the theme, simply because certain themes are naturally pregnant with “Rasa” and certain are not.
3. The secret of the thematic interest lies in its gradual shaping and denouement.
4. No part of the theme should go astray leaving behind its bond with the main plot, lest it loses the sentimental appeal. He says that all his poems strictly adhere to this principle and particular mention may be made of his Venaraju in this regard.
5. If the poet, however much he concentrates on the main theme, doesn’t keep a watch over the trifling aspects also, his poem is likely to end up in chaos.
6. Aimless articulation of a fancy or fiction worn into the fabric of the theme and exuberance of description are deemed demerits and defects.
7. The poetic quality is not dependent on the thoughts and ideas–whether old or modern. The style, the form, the process of composition are its main contributing factors.
8. Descriptions they add much to the beauty of the poem bear testimony to the creative genius of the poet particularly when they embrace the object of the theme thus described. Every-where there is evidence for this in his Veyipadagalu.
9. Action is the pivotal force in the Western drama whereas “Rasa” is the nucleus of our plays.
10. Word and phrase which assumed semantic change, if used in their pristine sense, lose the charm of ready comprehension.
11. The poet who makes use of new words and phrases in numbers knows the real gigantic nature of the language, Viswanatha adds a new dimension to his expression with such usage.
12. Smooth running style should not be the sole criterion of a great poem. A verse with an amalgamatic expression of ideas, thoughts and feelings and with a fine element of suggestivity always limps. Clever poets pursue such a path, Viswanatha was one like Tikkana and he is conscious of it.
13. The texture of a poet’s style may be loose at times or close knit. If the whole of the poem is placed on a single track of composition it will be disgusting. So there must be a variety of processes in composition to avoid monotony. Viswanatha knows that he is a master of multifarious trends of composition. He cites some pieces of his Sringara Veedhi as examples.
14. A great merit of poetry lies in its idiomatic expression which expounds the genius of the language. Almost all his poems are of course mines for such expression but Sasidootamis considered to be a distinct example.

II. From his “Myself and My Writing”: (Viswasree Viswanatha Special Number, 1954.)

1. Every language has its own genius. The ideas expressed in one language find place in all other languages also. Ideas belong to individuals. Language belongs to an entire race, which lays its stamp of distinctiveness on the ideas it expresses. As such, a poet should keep pace with the tradition of his own language and its expressions and see that the national character of his poetic expression is preserved and protected. Yes, Viswanatha was a Telugu poet to the core even in his Ramayana and for the matter of that in his Sanskrit plays, the Gupta Pasupatam and the Amrita Sarmishtham also. Of course he takes pride in his Indianhood and also considers himself a citizen of the world. That is a different matter. All great poets are men of all clime and all time.
2. Style is the characteristic feature of the poet. Nobody else or he himself cannot undo it. Every great poet has his own stamp of personality in matters of style. Some words and phrases, idioms and articulations stand peculiar to him and readily reveal the identity of the poet. This almost seems to be Dr Viswanatha’s exposition of the purport of the famous dictum of Dr Johnson–“Style is the man.” Viswanatha’s style has already become proverbial in the Telugu literary world.
3. Variety and multitude know no bounds in the world of humans. Certainly that much of variety is there in the poets’ attitudes in a world which evolves itself from the mental plane.
4. Ideologies do not make poetry. Poet’s ability is of paramount importance. One might be a great poet without being a “Beetle” or an “Angry youngman.” These ideologies change their faces from time to time and sometimes go into the oblivion or become obsolete. Then how can these have a relevance to poetry? So Viswanatha had always been a staunch advocate of tradition. Tradition is the presentness of the past according to T. S. Eliot.
5. Valmiki, Vyasa, Kalidasa, Ibsen and Shaw–all were real representatives of their times and society and still considered to be great poets not because of their ideologies but on account of their mastery over the medium and their uniqueness in expression.
6. A real poet before sets himself to the task of composition has got many problems to face. What kind of theme is this? Which creative flourish grooms harmony with it? Which thought is really a child of great imagination? How to mould a sentence in tune with an uncommon idea? Which is the appropriate figure of speech in that context? How to evolve there the element of suggestivity? How to determine the relationship between the “Rasa” and the “Sayya”? The poet has to draw conclusions and then proceed. His poem is the result of so much thinking and planning of so many things. How then an ordinary reader who is not in the know of all this can full-well appreciate the burdensome conception and the labour pains of the poet?

III.       From his “The Inner Meaning of the Veyipadagalu”:
(Broadcast by A. I. R., Madras on 7-4-1955)

1. The inner meaning of a work means the purpose with which it was composed. If the poet is a man of ability, he reveals his purpose in the beginning and also at the end quite suggestively but not explicitly.
2. Broadly speaking, poems are of two types–sentimental and ideological–a slight overlapping of the other element may be present in both.

Veyipadagalu is a first-rate allegorical fiction in Telugu literature and on that account was often not understood in the right perspective. Viswanatha offers in this discourse a lucid exposition of the symbolism employed in this novel.

IV. From his “Myself and the character of my writings”: (Andhra Patrika, 2-11-1960)

1. I know and followed the varied ways of the bygone poets. One must have a deep insight to understand a poem. It should be borne that no writer wishes to remain unintelligible to anybody. While composing the Ramayana I am pursuing an un-common path of technique.
2. Our aptitudes are dependent on our mental faculties. One understands the niceties of a poem according to his own familiarity with the old poetry, the impact of civilization on him and his own culture, tradition, equipment and ground.
3. My Ramayana is only a commentary to that of Valmiki and not its translation. I made it with the cream of my own experiences, with my everything which resulted in beautiful “Kalpanas” and with a thousand and one ways of expression.
4. I know that everybody knows the story of Rama–nobody needs write it again–if he attempts, he is justified in doing so if only he is able to display something highly unique. I wrote it therefore.
5. Almost in each and every verse of my poem, i.e., the Ramayana Kalpavriksha, you will find some unusual or uncommon skill. Only those who understand the sparkling nature of Telugu poetry can understand mine. Here I employ a thundering compound and there I make the structure quite loose and lucid. My “Rachana,” the process of composition of word and phrase, will be in accordance with the propriety of the thematic context, of the character and of the psychological atmosphere. In fact that is the secret of the “Kavyasilpa.” A poet is not worth the epithet if he doesn’t know the “Rachanasilpa.” That was the way of all our great poets.
6. I have been watching the literary scene in Telugu since some forty years. Everybody styles himself to be a critic, without having some norms of his own or without following the established critical principles of the past masters. Many journals and magazines came into existence, some of them have some notions peculiar to them alone and these so-called self-styled critics cater to the policies of the journals and made criticism a profession and a trade.
7. What is a novel? Very difficult to define. Great novels never resemble each other. The novel composed by a man of rare ability will not be on a par with any model of that literary type (Viswanatha views that this statement holds good in the case of his own novels).
8. Criticism is or two types–rational criticism and scientific criticism. The second one gained importance in our country.
9. Literature is weighty and mighty in its character. One must have sufficient equipment, ground and insight to understand it.
10. Viswanatha, in this article, in clear terms claimed himself to be a conscious artist. He states that as matters of preparation for composing the Ramayana he studied human psychology to its core, used to compose at least ten verses a day (of course destroyed many of them which were composed over a period of two decades) in order to achieve mastery over the art of versification and clarity in imagination. He means a poet’s effort should be such if he wants to write a really great poem.
11. He professes himself to be an “Inspired wiseman”–and not an “Inspired fool” as he introduces into his writings many an unusual occurrence. They may appear improbable but are not impossibilities. If we scan the newspapers we come across with so many freaks of nature and the like. That apart in literature, such things are to be understood as symbols to certain ideas and as targets forcertain aims and objects of the poet. In fact it is also one of the many techniques and fashions of literary delineation.
12. He further states that “some find fault with him that he often indulges in Samaasas (compounds)”. But his Sasidootamis devoid of Samaasas. One must have imagination to understand poetry. If a particular word or phrase is beyond one’s comprehension, he may consult a dictionary. He composed quite wilfully his Kumarabhyudayamin a lucid manner and described the impact of the seasons felt in the Telugu country in his Telugu Rutuvulu, which according to Veturi Prabhakara Sastry is a book to be preserved with pictorial design just like the volume of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. In his poem Jhansi Lakshmibai the heroine dies in her struggle, and the poem ends up in a tragedy. Our Alankara Sastra objects to such writings. He wanted to be faithful to the Sastra; at the same time his patriotic fervour goads him to write the poem. What to do? He did “Kaalavarnana” (description of time) in the beginning and at the end of each canto with a view to justify his stand by making us understand that her attempt to overthrow the yoke of the British domination became futile on account of the hostility of the time which is the formof God and He is to be blamed.

See, how explicit was Viswanatha in his critical analysis of his own works.

He confidently says at the end of this essay that he can have his reign in Telugu literature with his other works alone without having become the author of the Ramayana Kalpavriksha.

V. From one of his speeches reported in the Andhra Prabha, 10-12-1959:

1. He says–“So far as I know, there are not more than a dozen who understand the genius of the Telugu language. People are mad after reading my novels simply for the sake of my Telugu and my idiomatic expression. My poetry is a sealed treasure to those who do not know the grand setting of a village scene.
2. “Those who advocate that poetry should be intelligible to every Tom, Dick and Harry need not look into my poetry. It would be certainly well within the easy reach of those who try to understand the ancient poets with a sympathetic posture.”
3. “Why did I style my Ramayana as “Kalpavriksha” instead of labelling it something like “Viswanatha Ramyana”?–simply because that one can find in it the path of any ancient poet...But of course I have my own stamp in each and every verse I composed.”
4. Here in this context he enunciated a fine philosophy which is behind the metrical composition. The “Dvipada” metre is a mould of monotony. That is why only a few poets in Telugu took recourse to it. In short, it is not capable of offering any dimension to expression which can make the theme interesting. Of course there is a vast variety in metres, but only certain metres are dependable in this respect just as we take into consideration only certain qualities while assessing the personality of men who are common with others in many respects though differ from any other in certain.
5. Every great poet understands the literary spirit of his own mother-tongue as reflected in his life and expresses himself in a particular set up of letters which is in tune with the life force dwells within himself.
6. Every poet great in stature employs the compounds at proper places. If not, the poem lacks in sentimental appeal. Every, poet generally makes use of lengthy compounds in descriptions. A clever expression of ideas finds a place in contexts of description but not the sentiment.
7. “I composed my poem in order to elucidate my own theory and principle, a Sahridaya can catch it. Better to leave it there than to read with your own principles in view. Shakespeare was not very much appreciated during his days. When Coleridge appeared on the scene and announced that this is this, then people “Ohoed” (nodded their beads as a token of acceptance).
8. Story-narration or versification is just like the process of delineating a new musical melody. Just as a “Raga” with a particular note-system assumes a new melody by dint of the creative genius of the singer, so also a metrical system in a poem assumes new dimensions of effect by the creative genius of a poet.
9. At times great poets employ elongated compounds to present a pen picture of the whole emotional situation embedded in a particular context.
10. Great Poets do not compose to evoke appreciation from the petty minded. He does his job, as observed by Bhavabhuti, only for the sake of one who is his equal in mental development and understanding of the nature of poetry.
11. Viswanatha further explains in this speech how the various aspects of his Ramayana should be viewed at and looked at and what kind of equipment a reader should possess to understand it fully.

VI. From the report of Viswanatha’s interview with Sri A. S. Raman, formerly Editor, Illustrated Weekly of India, Published in Triveni, Oct., 1971:

1.              “In my opinion, an author can be modernistic and traditional. Creativity and conformity I feel are not things divorced from each other. Life is a perennial stream and it goes on renewing itself on the strength of its own secret, invisible reserves. An author who addresses himself to his contemporaries is bound to speak in clear, firm accents which are not only intelligible but acceptable to them.”
2.              “An author who assimilates the temper of the age he lives in without uprooting himself from the values and ideals he has inherited from the masters of the past, is a true individualist.”
3.              “I believe that scholarship is an excellent aid to creativity. Without the support of the depth and range of one’s own reading, one soon exhausts oneself if one begins to write seriously.
4.              “To me writing is a very serious and responsible occupation.”

VII. From the speech delivered by Viswanatha, at the award-presentation function, Bharatiya Jnan Pith, New Delhi, on 16-11-1971 (Published in Vimarsini, Vol. II, Research Journal of the Department of Telugu, Kakatiya University, Warangal):

“What is Rasa? The lightning state of hiatus of the Atman and of the Jeeva–the Jeeva who surpasses the stage of being influenced by passions, is said to be the state of Rasa, first by Bharata and then by Sanskrit rhetoricians. The final purpose of a Kaavya is to send the reader into a state of that trance.”

VIII. From Viswanatha’s dialogue with Sri K. Ramachandra Murty (Published in the Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad, 22-5-1973):

1. “In my opinion the real assessment of a poet’s worth will be done after he is gone.”
2. “One may be a poet and he may not be an intellectual. All intellectuals are not poets.”
3. On Poetry and Politics: “Poetry and politics are poles apart...Poetry deals with almost all things that are seen in the world. Politics is one of the many.”
4. Of Language: “You want to express your thoughts. That is a language. If many thoughts can be expressed in a language you call it expressiveness of the language. The thoughts are there. They are not the same all over the world and in all times. Times change, circumstances change. New ideas come and new thoughts arise. Man invents new words.”
5. Of Literature “There are literatures in all civilized countries. And certainly there are men who get inspired by the great poets of their languages. The impression of literature upon men much depends upon the temperament and proclivity of certain men.”
6. Of Science and Literature: “A great science and a great art benefit the men who understands them and can put them to proper use...To the best of my knowledge no science, no literature is for the good of all. They are for intellectuals of a high calibre.”

As has been stated above, the various views expressed by Viswanatha on different occasions and times and in different contexts dealing with various aspects of literature and literary theory and principles of criticism are the outcome of a master mind and a kindred soul appears to be charged with the “Samskaara” and experience of an old soul with several births to its credit. Some of them may appear to be more ingenious than convincing and some may leave room for controversy, but most of them are replete with a critical acumen of a high order and are acceptable to any man who is not insane or irrational.

This is only a part of the lesson–the other two parts being Viswanatha’s applied criticism and Viswanatha’s treatise on literary criticism–at the end of which there is an alround assessment and summing up.