Book Reviews

Book No 8894
HARMONY OF RELIGIONS by Thomas Manninezhath C.M.I.; Motilal Banar­sidass, 41 U.A. Bunglow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi - 110007; 1993; xx + pp. 193; Rs. 175.

The western world knows its saints and mystics, it’s Boehme, Eck­hart, St Francis of Assisi ... and com­ing down to recent times. Rainer Maria Rilke and so on. But we Indians do not know anything about our own innu­merable spiritual giants that had walked this subcontinent down the centuries, ‘gems of the purest ray serene,’ like Tayumanavar. Unfortunately, we have always been damned by a negative appreciation of history’s value. Thomas Manninezhath has bro­ken new ground in this commendable enterprise of introducing our Masters to us as well as to the west. He has brought to bear on his work a scholar­ship honed to the finest standards.

Tayunlanavar’s lyrics breathe if nothing a transcendental note. He was verily a brahma kavi in the diction he employs there is no place for any cheap linguistic chauvinism. Adept equally in Samskrit and Tamil, his language combines telling beauty and vigour, with consummate metaphor and imagery. Ever steeped in a state of unitive bliss with God, how can the slightest suggestion of a conflict ever defile his mind? Fie upon all doctri­naire noises, schismatic tarantaras. The profound old wisdom towering above us, the stately music and the lilt of the verses, resound like the deep voice of an organ. He is past all dis­harmonies. From harmony, from heav­enly harmony the universal frame began. From all the compass of the notes, the lyrics run, the diapason closing full in the unitive experience with God.

That experience is the axis of truth which made him intuit the es­sence of different religious and hold that alone as the hub or navel around which all religions can and should meet in an atmosphere of harmony. The only true religion is that which accommodates everything in the locus of all-embracingness. This is promo­tion of fellowship and it is one of the operational dimensions of samarasam as Tayumanavar understood it. To quote our author, ‘The poet-saint praised, glorified and incessantly longed for that inseparable union, and invited everyone to participate in that bliss-giving experience of oneness.’ The saint’s call was, ‘O people of the world come together to see the Divine Hall that bestows liberation.’

We close the book with gratitude, but alas, not without a sigh. One is constrained to make the remark out of sadness, and not out of any spirit of carping criticism. The reviewer, a Tamilian, could not recognize any passage from the Tamil transliteration except after much guess work. I felt cheated in that I could not immedi­ately enjoy the choicest Tayumanavar fare spread out before me. It is not our case that the author has been at fault. Obviously, he must be following some accepted academic canons in this re­gard but how off the mark!

That takes one to the larger and somewhat controversial issue. Primar­ily, Tamil is not phonetic language, let us face it. There can be no imposition that Tamil should be spoken only in a particular way. The difficulties of a successful transliteration are admit­tedly enormous. But the feeling nags on. All this painstaking transliteration, to what end? To close, my gratitude for the learned author and his labour of love.

G. NAGANATHAN

“THE JOURNEY OF MY LIFE” Autobi­ography of Tanguturu Prakasam Sup­plement by Tenneti Viswanatham. Translated from Telugu into English by Prof. I. V. Chalapati Rao, sponsored by Prakasam Institute of Development Studies and published by Booklinks Corporation, Hyderabad-27. Vol. I Rs. 350, Vol. II Rs. 350.

This is the story of Tanguturi Prakasam, the lion-heart, as narrated by himself, originally in Telugu. His autobiography, however, did not cover the latter part of his life. The task of completing the narration was under­taken by Tenneti Viswanatham, the most natural choice for the task. The original in Telugu has been translated into English by Prof. I. V. Chalapati Rao, a renowned author of biographies.

Prakasam, during his life time, was the darling of the Andhras. Logi­cally so as he was the very epitome of the ethos of the Telugu people, with all their good and indifferent aspects of pshychological make-up. He was at once brave, generous, tenacious and at the same time emotional, lacking in foresight and business sagacity. Thus he was a typical Andhra and identified himself with the Telugu people. From 1921 when he entered the national movement after giving up this lucrative legal practice in the High Court of Madras, until his demise in 1955, his story was the history of the political movement of Andhra Desa. As Revenue Minister and Chief Minister of the composite Madras province and later as the first Chief Minister of the new State of Andhra he left an indelible mark on the people.

He ardently believed in and endeavoured to implement the Gandhian programme of rural develop­ment and Grama Swarnjya. It is a irony of history and also of human relations that despite this, Gandhiji was not favourably inclined towards him.

It is a remarkable feature of Prakasam’s career that from utter pov­erty and anonymity, he quickly rose to high prominence and great affluence by sheer dint of his own effort and later once again slipped into acute poverty during his later life. This too was due to his own sacrifice and lack of commercial acumen.

The saga of his great life was told in part by Prakasam himself in Telugu calling the narration as “Naa Jeevita Yaatra” (the journey of my life). This reviewer had the opportunity to read the original in Telugu also. The simple Telugu style used in it and the direct manner of narration was typical of Prakasam.

Evidently he did not maintain a diary and he mostly relied on his memory while writing the autobiogra­phy. Occasionally some incidents and individuals of significance were not mentioned. For instance the no-tax campaign of Peda Nandipadu in the then Guntur district was actually con­ducted under the direct leadership of Parvataneni Veeraiah but Prakasam forgot to mention his role while dealing with that campaign. Such are only occasional lapses, most probably due to lack of record.

Prakasam did not hesitate to call a spade a spade and to criticise his contemporaries. A historian shall not run away from that task, however embarrassing and unpleasant it might be. Being a lawyer by training and profession, he projected his point of view on several issues very forcefully.

Tenneti Viswanatham who wrote the supplement, containing the latter part of Prakasam’s life, narrated it in great detail. His admiration for Prakasam was patent and he very well played the role of Boswell to Prakasam’s Dr. Johnson. But he was sticking to actual events as they occurred. The story as told by Viswanatham brings out the nobility and generosity of his hero in full measure.

Prof. Chalapati Rao’s rendering into English is very polished and ade­quate to the task. It does not indeed read as a translation. One gets an impression that it is the original itself.

The autobiography turns out to be the history of Andhra Desa contem­poraneous to the life of Prakasam. It has all the qualities and merits of a very valuable source of the history of the Telugus of the period.

Such is the value of this book worth reading not only as the autobi­ography of a great and noble leader of people, but also as a worthy contribu­tion to history.

JUSTICE AVULA SAMBASIVA RAO