Reviews

Adventures of King Vikrama, by Hansa Mehta. (Oxford University Press, Bombay. Price Rs. 6.)

“TELL me a story”–is there a ,child that has not asked so its grandmother, mother, or aunt before retiring to sleep for the night, and as it listens to the colourful, exciting tales of old falls into a blissful slumber? In the Adventures of King Vikrama, one recognises one’s familiar friends of childhood–dreams which have enriched the individual in the joy of his creative effort and the nation its granary of racial wisdom. “King Bhoja consulted his astrologers once again to find an auspicious day for him to mount the throne. At the appointed time, as he was about to mount, he heard a voice cry, ‘Stop! Stop!’ The king hurriedly withdrew his foot and said, ‘Who speaks?’ We are so well acquainted with the beginning: the statuette telling the story: intimate as the other refrain in the Arabian Nights Entertainments–at this point Scheherazade saw the approach of dawn and said she would continue her story on the following night.’ There’s such a delight in the nostalgic harking-. Mrs. Hansa Mehta has taken eight stories relating to the adventures of King Vikrama or Vikramaditya (‘Sun of Power’) who reigned in Ujjain, famous alike in legend and history; who defeated the Sakas and established the Vikrama era in 58-57 B.C. Her version is based on the translation of the eighteenth century Gujarati poet, Samalbhat. The tales are written with poetic feeling, simply, and clearly; they have been elegantly served as illustrator by Mr. Yagnesh Shukla. In Champak Library under ‘Fiction’ Adventures of King Vikrama is the best that the Oxford University Press has so far issued.

MANJERI S. ISVARAN

Universities and their Problems, by SR. Dongerkerey (Hind Kitabs Limited, Bombay, Price Rs. 6.)

THERE have been many books on Universities, but, to my best knowledge, never this kind of book. A University Registrar ought to know a good deal about a university though there is perhaps a good deal of it which he cannot tell. He sees it from the inside, as a fly caught in the mechanism may see a watch: That is, any Registrar. But when the Registrar is a poet and a man of culture, his view can be all-round too. With great industry with great patience, has Mr. Dongerkerey built up in this book both the canvas and the frame given us the facts and the reference; Soberly, tactfully, in a casually challenging manner, he has recalled for us all the old questions; asked new ones; modestly indicated answers to a few.

To many of the questions raised by Mr. Dongerkerey’s compendious volume, there is but one answer; but that answer, though known, is not forthcoming. As in other spheres of our life, the solution is found, but the problem remains. That is because ourselves are the problem. Because we dare not look at ourselves, we never look at a problem full in the face. Education, to us, is politics. Education is business. Education is power. Education is humanitarianism. Education is a thousand other things. It is never simply education. Being human, it is no wonder if it should get mixed up with all these all-too-human matters. But, none the less, as Mr. Dongerkerey’s book insinuates, that way madness lies.

The theoretical and historical portions of Mr. Dongerkerey’s volume are both sound and comprehensive; yet not without as valuable practical lessons for us, if read between the lines, as the more ostensibly practical portion wishes to raise: the relation of a university to Government; the place of examinations; the question of compulsory attendance; the teacher’s remuneration; the importance of research and the stage at which specialisation should begin; the value of a liberal education; the place of the classical languages and of the Fine Arts; the need for reorienting all our education; military training; the danger lurking in linguistic universities etc.

As will be seen from this brief and very incomplete catalogue, not all questions are easily answered, and many bristle with doubts and perplexities which, given a saner outlook in education, Time alone must dispel. We must, meanwhile, admire the courage with which the author of this vertitable guide to Universities, has posed some of them. He may not have given the final answer to all of them. But, thanks to the provoking and sometimes provocative, illumination of this seemingly quiet book, those who follow, may.

A.M.

The Man-Eater of Rudraprayag, by Jim Corbett (Oxford University Press, Bombay. Price Rs. 6.)

TAKING the book in my hand, I wondered what could be its merits to deserve such fine printing and get-up by the Oxford University Press. But a cursory glance through the first few pages sufficed to whet my avidity to read more carefully the chapters contained herein. And what interesting details gripping the reader’s imagination one gets here!

The entire volume deals with a wicked leopard which did such havoc among the hill- folk of Rudraprayag and exacted a heavy toll of more than a hundred and twenty human lives within the course of nearly eight years. The way the interest in the narration is sustained by gradual stages of preparation to the denouement, as if in a novel where a celebrated burglar or murderer is traced by a detective, makes really one’s appetite for blood-curdling situations grow intenser with the chapters.

Though one finds here bright and effective descriptions of nature and human psychology interwoven with the graphic accounts of the main theme of the hunt for the man eater, it cannot be said that the climax where the leopard is finally vanquished has anything in it much worthy or the earlier adventures. Rather one smells something of an anti-climax, because the man-eater is simply shot down without the author of the deed ever having fixed his aim on it or knowing the consequences of his being aided by the adventitious factor called luck. Still could we grudge the sportsman here the vividness of his experiences and the greater vividness of his powers of expression in narrating those experiences, which may certainly enlarge the knowledge of those who go out with a rifle in search of big game?

K. C.

KANNADA

Keechaka, by G. P. Rajaratnam (Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay. Re. 1-8 as.)

THIS is an attempt to salvage a play which the late Mr. Kailasam might have written. The author has depended on the memory of a close associate of the late playwright for the characterisation, the course of the plot and for many vivid bits of dialogue. In all probability the late Mr. Kailasam would have written it in English. This Kannada version is an improvisation and an effort to reconstruct and preserve the conception of the deceased dramatist. Keechaka is idealised as a great hero who had renounced the affairs of the Virata kingdom after he failed to win Droupadi in the Swayamvara. He is piling up military triumphs and is tired of them. He is a master of the art of Dance. Virata’s kingdom is described as open to all who seek to settle in it and Keechaka is its protector and guardian of its larger-hearted tradition. When he meets the disguised Droupadi, his old memories are kindled. He is not a lustful monster as in the popular story. He meets Sairandhri (Droupadi) in the garden and Bheema meets him in a wrestling encounter and holds him in a death grip–in a scene which is painfully elaborate. Death comes to Keechaka as a release from a life of frustration and infructuousness. The traditional story is there and the end, but the characterisation, the sequence of scenes and a great deal of the dialogue constitute a new approach to an old theme and a spirit of bold and ingenious invention which generally marked the late Mr. Kailasam’s treatment of our ancient epic themes and characters.

Sri G. P. Rajaratnam has invested his version with a classic touch and dignity by adopting old Kannada diction and rhythm.

K.S.G.

Swatantra Bharatada Ashoka Chakradhwaja, by G. P. Rajaratnam  (Hind Kitabs Ltd., Bombay. Price Re. 1-0-0).

THIS is a book telling us all about the National Flag, the significance of its colours and the Wheel. The author has presented a mass of antiquarian material bearing on the Asoka Chakra, and expounded its significance with the aid of extracts from ancient Buddhist literature. The extracts of stories from historical and legendary sources bearing on Asoka and Lord Buddha make interesting reading, and relevant extracts from the writings and speeches of Gandhiji and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru establish the continuity of the inspiring Indian tradition of Dharma–the working out of which is the significance of the symbolism of India’s National Flag. This is a book which every patriotic Indian youth should read, to understand the rich heritage that is sought to be embodied in our National Flag.

The book is well illustrated and very neatly got up.
K.S.G.

TELUGU

Thayagaraja Kirtanalu, With a commentary by Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri. (Andhra Gana Kala Parishat, Rajamahendravaram. Pp. 754, Price, calico bind Rs. 12 and ordinary Rs. 10.)

THYAGARAJA, the Bhakti yogin, lives even today in his innumerable Kirtanas, compositions perfect in technique, mellow in tune, and hallowed with divine melody, which attract the lay votary of music as well as the classical artist. The members of the Madras Committee of the Andhra Gana Kala Parishat, one of the many branches of the Gautami Vidya Pitham of Rajamahendravaram, an institution set up to revive our ancient Vedic learning and arts, have placed all those interested in the literature of music under a deep debt of gratitude, by the excellent Telugu publication of his Kirtanas with commentary by the learned Pandit, Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri. All the Kirtanas of Thyagaraja so far available numbering nearly 700, are incorporated in this work. This is thus a unique publication and a definite contribution to the Telugu literature on music.

Thyagaraja’s is a household flame in South India. He needs no special mention or introduction. With his birth a new epoch was ushered into the history of the Karnatic music. It was in the hands of this master-artist and gifted composer, Thyagaraja, the Telugu brahman
immigrant of Tiruvayyar (Tanjore district), that Karnatic music had attained its perfection. His Kirtanas were, in fact, the literary expressions of the emotions of his agitated heart in his secular life, which spontaneously burst out in the form of concrete musical melodies in the course of pouring out his heart and the offering of his self at the lotus feet of his supreme lord, Sri Rama. Thus, each of his emotions and feelings worked out its own way and expressed itself in enchanting music notes, and in the choicest words and phrases, which at once appeal to the heart and evoke similar feelings in the listener. Thyagaraja ennobled the Karnatic music by his innumerable Kirtanas and seated it on a lofty pedestal, imparting to it a grandeur, all its own. He was not only a Vaggeyakara but also a great religious teacher. As he was proficient in the traditional Hindu lore, his Kirtanas exhibit an intimate knowledge of the Ramayana and of the philosophy of the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita, and generally exhort the Hindu mind to extricate itself from human frailties to attain salvation. The Andhra Gana Kala Parishat is fortunate in securing the services of Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri, who is eminently fitted for the work entrusted to him by reason of his profound scholarship and mastery of the Puranic lore. Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri has not only given the meanings of the words used in the Kirtanas but also has explained the Kirtanas themselves in the light of the teachings of the Upanishads and the Gita and with reference to the Ramayana. Hence, his commentary in Telugu greatly helps the reader of these Kirtanas to know their full significance. It is thus doubly useful to the musician and serves as a book of knowledge for the general reader. A valuable biographical account of Thyagaraja from the pen of Prof. Vissa Apparao, the editor of the series, and an elaborate introduction dealing with the inter-relations between music and literature and with several topics concerning the musical and literary aspects of the Kirtanas, written by Sri Kalluri Virabhadra Sastri, enhance the value of the work greatly. The members of the Andhra Gana Kala Parishat and those of the Madras Committee have to be congratulated for placing before the Andhra reading public such an excellent edition of the Kirtanas of Thyagaraja. The Andhra Gana Kala Parishat deserves every encouragement from the Telugu public. We await further important publications in this series.

M. SOMASEKHARA SARMA