Triple stream: A Centenary Garland to the founder

TRIPLE STREAM

A Centenary Garland for the Founder (1894 - 1970)

I.V.CHALAPATI RAO

The name of Late Sri. Rama­kotiswara Rau whose birth centenary is being celebrated all over the country is in­dissolubly linked with TRIVENI, the long­standing and ever-popular literary and cul­tural quarterly. A humanist turned into jour­nalist and a freedom fighter of rare vintage Ramakotiswara Rau lived like a crusader and died like a martyr for the cause of higher journalism. To him journalism was not a mere profession or vocation but a God-appointed mission to maintain the highest stan­dards of writing and direct the taste of the readers towards the composite culture of India and the spirit of national integration.

As late Sri. Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiah said “Rama Kotiswara Rau nourished TRIVENI with literary food brought from scholars in every part of In­dia”. The finest articles and poems in In­dian languages - Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali etc., - were translated and published in the journal. He succeeded in making the Journal an organ of the Indian Renaissance which was among other things a revival of Literature, Art, Philosophy, Religion and Politics. Through this innovative journalistic project he achieved inter-state goodwill and harmony to no small extent by making the contributors and read­ers of every linguistic group note and ap­preciate the beauty and merits of other national languages.

TRIVENI thus became the acknowl­edged forum for all the Indian writers who believed in caring and sharing. In this he worked single-handed to achieve the laud­able objectives of the present Sahitya Acad­emy and the Indian P.E.N. As late Professor. V.K.Gokak commented “The In­dian P.E.N. and Sahitya Academy took up this work either when it was the break of day or in broad day light. But Mr. Rau worked in the night when it was darker be­fore dawn. It was indeed a step in the di­rection of federation of cultures, arts and lit­eratures through identification of their simi­larities and a cross-fertilisation of ideas. TRIVENI did not merely mirror the Renais­sance but re-interpreted its nuances through translations and transcreation”. Writing about this, Basudha Chakrabarty, the noted Bengali writer, said, “If this was not work for national integration, one would wonder, what else such work could be?”.

At a time when the intelligentsia of India were fascinated by foreign culture and obsessed by their narrow veneration of English literature, Rama Kotiswara Rau brought them into contact with our own rich cultural heritage and the priceless treasures of Indian literature. Besides, he dared to stress a new use for English in post-Inde­pendence India as a catalyst and bridge ­builder between the Indian languages and also as an effective instrument to put our own writers and celebrities on the world stage. By any standard this is no mean achieve­ment, particularly in these days of irrational and chauvinistic dislike for English as a for­eign language.

In his able hands TRIVENI became not only a nursery of writing talent and qualitative standards but also a launching pad for future editors and writers, critics and burgeoning poets. Eminent editors and writers like M. Chalapathi Rau (the doyen of Indian journalism), Manjari Iswaran, Basudha Chakrabarty, A. S. Raman, C. L. R. Sastry - all luminaries that lit up the journalistic sky were either his admiring apprentices or devoted disciples. M. Chalapathi Rau said: “As an editor if he has to be put in a class, he is in the class of Gandhi, who though a Mahatma, is the greatest editor I can think of, the editor of the greatest week lies the world had known (‘Navajeevan’, ‘Harijan’ etc) and was the only editor who successfully ran journals without adver­tisements. In slightly more commercial un-Gandhian age Rama Koti imperiously insisted on accepting only advertisements of quality and cheerfully suffered in the process”.

Referring to the encouragement received from Rama Kotiswara Rau who published his writings in TRIVENI, Basudha Chakrabarthy commented: “I feel in retrospect that some of the scrappy things I produced might have been reasonably rejected”. A. S. Raman wrote about the successive stages of the ripening of their relationship: “My rapport with him was instant. It began as a compulsive reader-­editor equation, imperceptibly grew into a contributor - editor collaboration and finally culminated into a pupil-preceptor dialogue”.

C. L. R. Sastry another great journalist, stated that he was greatly influenced by Sri. Sathyanarain Sinha of the Hindustan Review, Sri Ramakotiswara Rau of the TRIVENI and Kedarnadh Chatterji of the Modern Review. Although there were a few others who influenced him, these three were like “the Everest, Kanchan Junga and Nag Parbat”. Thus every one who was admitted into Triveni brother-hood had unforgettable experiences.

When other Editors accepted only well-written and fool-proof articles, he en­couraged budding journalists and made a conscious effort to discover talent and fos­ter it. The run-of-the-mill editors are like banyan trees which dry up surrounding soil so that the smaller plants cannot grow. What was the speciality of Rama Kotiswara Rau’s editorial technique? He had published the articles of the writers of outstanding merit as well as those of the average writers with potential for future growth. His editorship was like a pair of golden scissors-one blade cutting for meritocratic quality and the other for egalitarian equality. His minute care was the bolt which held the two blades together. Having worked with him as an apprentice, M. Chalapathi Rau wrote: “I saw Ramakotiswara Rau edit. I saw him hack at manuscripts. I saw him turn the most slov­enly articles into very shapely essays. He did this to my manuscripts also, and from that inexorable impartiality of his blue pencil, I learned much and I am still learning”. Isn’t it good to be praised by the praise-worthy?

It is common knowledge that an editor who takes his job seriously, finds little time for any thing else. His work with the pruning knife substantially cuts into his own writing time. Thus Kolavennu did his work, sacrificing his own writing time to enrich others language and talent. However, his satisfaction was that his TRIVENI became the vehicle for many writers. Without ready finance and steady circulation of the jour­nal, he had to face many hardships. Even in those trying circumstances he resisted the well-meaning advice of some of his friends like Raghunathan the famous editor of the Hindu, to switch over to the professional editorship of a daily newspaper which was a paying proposition and a sinecure for am­bitious pen pushers.

The man is greater than the editor. His heart like a sensitive seismograph used to react sympathetically to the slightest tremors of human suffering. His vision was neither blurred nor circumscribed by narrow feelings of linguism, regionalism, communalism - not even nationalism. He was not the sort to be confined to his post-­office pin-code address. As he looked at everything with an aesthetic eye, it was not a surprise that he was particular - almost finicky - about the quality of paper, printing, title page etc., of TRIVENI. On one occa­sion, to publish a rare article on the Round Table Conference in London he did not hesitate to gift-wrap one thousand copies of reprints on superior paper and present them on a platter to P. S. Sivaswamy Aiyer at his request, at a time when Triveni was in financial crisis. He offended Rt. Hon’ble Srinivasa Sastry, a formidable scholar, by applying the editorial scissors to cut out the word ‘Witty’ from his well-written article! When the silver-tongued orator took up cudgels against him on this score, Kolavennu asserted his prerogative as editor. Spicy instances like this are galore.

Predictably, this freedom-fighter ran into financial difficulties like the redoubtable Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam on whose ill-fated paper SWARAJYA he had first worked as a journalist in the noble company of Khasa and Krupanidhi. He had to sell his property in a vain bid to grasp the economic nettle! He lived in voluntary poverty without envying the wealthy journalists. “The sparrow pitied the peacock for the burden of its fan” as Tagore said.

When the publication of TRIVENI got water-logged in 1949, Dr. Bhavaraju Narasimha Rau took over its stewardship.

Ever since the journal has been running regu­larly on the lines laid by the founder, with changed locations. Now permanent ar­rangements are made for the journal by establishing TRIVENI FOUNDATION in Hyderabad. Dr. Bhavaraju Narasimha Rau himself passed away last year after putting his indelible stamp on the journal. We, the members of the Triveni Foundation pay our homage to these dear departed leaders on this land-mark occasion of Kolavennu’s birth - centenary. In their absence their pres­ence is all the more deeply felt by us. We cheerfully carry the burden and the glory.

‘Who is there to take my duties?’
asked the setting sun
‘I shall do what I can’
said the earthen lamp’ --- TAGORE

I. V .Chalapati Rau
Editor.