Narla V.R.

Chapter wise review of V R Narla`s Truth about Gita

2010-09-04T18:06:00.000+05:30

The Truth About The Gita: V.R.Narla (1988) [229P] Narla Institute of New Thought

The Truth About The Gita – A Closer Look at Hindu Scripture: V.R.Narla (Intro by)

Innaiah Narisetti (2010) [230P] ISBN: 161641832 www.prometheus.com

Book Review: Kavneet Singh

Ventakeswara Rao Narla an essayist, journalist and author

who has written over 30 books in Telugu and English on

religion, history and current events. He was the editor of the

Andhra Prabha daily and the editor of the Andhra Joyti. A

rationalist and an humanist who could be called Andhra

Pradesh’s greatest ‘critical thinker’ of the 20th century.

V.R.Narla has gone through the section of the Mahabharata

epic called Bhagvad Gita with a sharp scalpel and has

spared no effort to get to the true interpolation which

practically everyone else seems to shy away so as not to

upset the status quo or are simply afraid of the consequences.

Chapter 1 – Doubtful War

From our material it is impossible to say where the great

theme-battles of the two epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were fought, let alone when –

if indeed they represent any historical events at all……….[Page 46]

Narla, quoting D.D.Kosambi hits the nail on the head from the get go. The Gita has been

handled with kid gloves for so long that there seems to be no one willing to critically

examine it and face the wrath of the teeming followers.

Out of the forty-one contributors, not even half a dozen show any capacity to think boldly,

rationally, originally. And one or two of them have such a fuddled mind as to argue in all

seriousness that what millions of people have believed for thousands of years as true

cannot be fictitious……….[Page 47]

It is the educated in India who lead the charge of claiming the Hindu texts as ‘true’ which

borders on imbecility. In the sphere of religion, critical thinking has rarely been applied

with force so as to get to the ‘truth’. No wonder there is stunted growth in the realm of

critical examination of religion which has drastic digressive ramifications nationwide.

Chapter 2 – False Signposts

The Vikram Era, for instance, is said to have begun in 58-57 B.C. Who is this Vikram

after whom the Era is named?......The 2000th anniversary of Vikram was celebrated with

due pomp in 1943……None of the mutually contradictory essays in such volumes proves

anything beyond the will to believe…….When the chronology of ancient India is so

uncertain, so hazy, even when we come down to historical times, is it not useless to try to

fix a period for the persons and events mentioned in our two epics…….[Pages 48-49]

It is extremely clear that there is no proof of valid dates anywhere in the Hindu epics yet

the word ‘yug’ is used many times. The word ‘yug’ literally means millions of years,

when the fact is that modern man only existed, starting around 200,000 years ago.

And they end up by laying down stringent rules which govern a man’s life…..for they tell

him how to find his way to heaven, and once there, how to make a beeline for the

gorgeous bedroom of a gorgeous Ramba or a Maneka or a Tilottama or a Varudgini of –

well, he has a wide choice……[Page 50]

The end result of man, according to the Hindu texts is, if he apparently does land in

‘heaven’ is to have ravenous sex with all the heavenly maidens available for his pleasure.

Through all myths and mythologies, to whichever nation they may belong, are

intrinsically nasty, ours are easily the worst from a moral point of view. Furthermore,

they are most undependable as sources of history……[Page 51]

Religions can only be measured against the touchstone of morals and ethics. If Hindu

religious texts are to be examined with that yardstick then they become mostly obscene to

the profane with extremely little left of value for the betterment of mankind.

No valid distinction between history and mythology and naturally there was a tendency to

confuse the two, to mythologize history and to give mythology an historical garb. We can

thus see why there was a total lack of historical sense among the Brahmans who

composed the brahminical literature…….[Page 53]

Brahmins when it comes to their Religion have a dirty habit of suddenly pretending to

lose all their faculties, instead painting all the Hindu texts with a broad brush of historical

truth when absolutely none exists.

Chapter 3 – Duel with Dates

As if this confusion is not enough, some scholars do not accept the synchronism of the

Kurukshetra War and the beginning of the Kali age……….[Page 58]

As mentioned by Narla various astronomers imposed their authority and arbitrarily set

dates which are scientifically untenable.

The very concept of the Kali Age is based not on reason but faith. Faith and fabrication

go together, just as reason and truth march together……[Page 59]

All rationality has been thrown to the winds to fabricate the most absurd timeline called

Kali Yug and many other ‘yugs. A real time and place is required to make something true

otherwise it is simply a myth. Hundreds of scholars of all hues are still trying to

rationalize something that is completely irrational akin to the Greek myths of yore.

Chapter 4 – Fear of Disillusionment

Let us admit uncompromisingly that no Aryan culture has been isolated anywhere in

India as a material and recognizable phenomenon……[Page 61]

Mortimer Wheeler a famous archeologist after much research could not find any evidence

to show any great Aryan culture which can shed light on the wondrous Hindu epics at all.

Hundreds of other archeologists have tried their best to prove that these epics are real

history but fall short on evidence leaving a big question mark on the validity of the same.

What does all this show? It shows that the historicity of the Kurukshetra War is doubtful;

the long list of its participant kingdoms is doubtful; the extent and ferocity are doubtful;

indeed, everything about it is doubtful including the singing of the Song Celestial by

Krishna……..[Page 66]

Nothing has been found with the help of carbon dating methodology so far! Even with

the help of the Institute of Chronology more akin to the Institute of Astrology, absolutely

no agreement has been reached on any definite dates of these mythical events of the

Mahabharata.

Chapter 5 – A Fraud of Monstrous Size

The sheer bulk and weight of the Mahabharata, and its sheer nonsense, crushes out all

commonsense, even all common decency, from Indian life and thought……internal

evidence shows the handiwork of three scribes, Vysa, Vaisampayana and Souti….But the

truth is that, apart from these three, there were many more nameless scribes and

scribblers, fabricators and forgers, who put their finger into the prodigious pie.[Page 68]

This seems to be the most fantastic fairytale ever written by Brahmins to co-opt and

enslave all the natives of the Indian sub-continent in perpetuity. A small ballad ended up

being heavily padded and tampered to create one heck of a religious monstrosity.

All this helped make Buddhism develop rapidly as a major threat to Vedism or

Brahminism, as some would prefer to call it. To counter-attack it was necessary to create

a rival. After trial and error, the folk hero of a tribe of cowherds in and around Madhura

proved handy. But about the third or fourth century B.C., he was built up into a

god……[Page 73]

The obscure dark skinned local folk hero like Krishna is propped up into a religious deity

over time. Next a pro-Karuva slant is changed to a pro-Pandva slant due to the sacrifice at

Janamejaya who was supposedly a Pandva descendant and lavished gifts. Third there was

very serious editing done by hordes of Brahmins to elevate the priestly class to the top of

the social ladder permanently.

And with every revision, that influence has become more reactionary, more deadly. A

part of that revision, let me add, is the Bhagvad Gita, the Song Celestial, with the

exhortation to kill, to kill in cold blood, to kill as a matter of caste duty…...[Page 75]

The critical key to the entire Song Celestial is the understanding of the dark lord

Krishna’s brainwashing of Arjuna the warrior, so that Arjuna becomes a killing machine

without a conscience. What could be a more violent and vile scripture than that!

Chapter 6 – Outer Citadel and Inner Fort

“It is difficult to excel”, as P.D.Metha says, “the Hindu sense of dramatic in

religion….The poet author of the Gita could hardly have chosen a more arresting

opening scene for his philosophical song……..[Page 77]

The essence of the Mahabharata is in the Gita and it is the Gita’s convoluted sense of

righteousness which is the most troubling factor. Sutas or poet-ballad singers the real

originators of the small Mahabharata going back in time, which got rewritten and

rehashed to make it into a voluminous piece of second class literature.

Now for the Mahabharata being a work of moral grandeur, it is (to put it mildly) a

preposterous claim. To us who are ordinary mortals without any esoteric powers, the

mortals of the Mahabharata are muddy, crude, revolting……..[Page 78]

After thoroughly examining the Mahabharata anyone who does not get revolted by the

sheer immorality and highly unethical traits of the characters in this fairytale which is

being passed off as religion needs to stop, pause and critically rethink, why Brahmins

need to justify their amorphous text and their anomalous position.

Chapter 7 – Who is Krishna

Herman Oldenberg once asked, “Who is Krishna?”…….[Page 80]

The number of different Krishnas going back in time will drive any sane person crazy.

There were however, 900,000 of them, and in order to satisfy them Krishna became

900,000 different men. These exact figures are given in the text, and it adds that the park

resounded with the coitus of 1,800,000 persons. Then it proceeds to describe the

collective sexual orgy…….[Page 85]

Krishna in various purana texts including the Mahabharata Purana seems to have multiple

personalities, which includes being a world class sex manic to an extremely devious

politician pretending to be a warrior.

The devotes of Krishna to justify the going on between their god and gopis, but a special

feature of Hinduism. It has two sets of laws, one for the weak and another for the strong;

two sets of norms, one for the high and another for the low; two codes of ethics, one for

the gods and another for the mortals. Small wonder, there is such a lot of double-think

and double-speak in Indian life………[Page 89]

I have yet to read a more incisive critique by getting straight to the heart of the matter.

Narla has hit the nail on the head; as the unethical and immoral conduct of Indians in

general, emanates exactly from these holy Hindu texts such as the ‘Gita’.

Chapter 8 – Krishna As Man

Hopkins says of Krishna: ”Krishna is a pious hypocrite”……no amount of excuse, of

which there is enough offered, could do away with the crude facts of tradition, which

represented the man-god Krishna as a clever but unscrupulous fighter….[Pages 90-91]

Every possible trick and treachery imaginable is used by Krishna without lifting a finger

in the great war of the fable, Mahabharata.

Among Indian pandits, Sukthankar had the fullest knowledge of the case against Krishna,

and to the best of my knowledge his is the ablest summary of that case. It reads: That

paradox of paradoxes!..........A grotesque character who claims to be the highest god and

behaves uncommonly like a “tricky mortal”…….[Page 92]

Even Sukthankar a Krishna author-devotee admits the culpability of Krishna’s highly

unscrupulous behavior and breaking all protocols of honorable conduct. Even though

Krishna admits been ashamed of committing a sin by his dishonorable acts there is no

retribution or guilt at all by the highest god-man or man-god of the Hindu pantheon.

Chapter 9 – Krishna as Statesman

It was that concern which urged him to set up Krishna as a symbol of resurgent India –

united, free, powerful……[Page 98]

Bankimchandra Chatterji the supposed pioneer of modern Indian literature propped up a

completely flawed man-god as the inspiring (god-man) statesman for the rest of India to

emulate. That is why Indians became emasculated permanently.

When Krishna was unable at any time in his long life to unify his own Yadava people, is

it not preposterous to claim on his behalf that he was a great statesman who unified the

whole of India?.....Krishna himself joined in the massacre in its final stages. To call such

a man a far-sighted statesman, a great unifier of the nation, is to take leave of one’s

senses……[Pages 102-103]

Logic gets thrown out and bombastic adulations are poured onto Krishna when in reality,

a man such as him would be reviled in any other country on Earth based on his conduct.

Chapter 10 – Krishna as God

So his going to Darpudi’s rescue in response to her prayers is baseless……[Page 104]

Krishna is made out to be savior of Darpudi’s honor through supernatural powers when

he was not there at the time of her dishonor therefore could simply do nothing.

His first act in this part of his life was assassination of his maternal uncle Kamsa.

Assassination is not too strong a term for it……[Page 105]

Krishna committed a heinous crime and one of many, but got away because the Brahmin

editors have made his character exactly like their own.

Krishna is no less famous for his abductions. He carries away Rukhmini a day before the

time fixed before her marriage to Sisupula….. Any by right of forcible seizure conquest,

he adds 16,000 women from the harem of Naraka to the list of his wives……[Page 105]

Krishna would be in the Guiness Book of World Records today for the numbers of

women kidnapped by a single man ever and for producing only 180,000 sons.

The champion boozer of the city is the Lord’s own half brother, Balarama. Rarely is

toddy absent from his hand….The Lord himself is neither a vegetarian nor a teetotaler.

Men as well as women amongst the Yadavas were addicted to drinking……[Page 107]

Meat eating and binge drinking was the norm and the dark Lord himself partook in all of

it happily without which it would be impossible to have the energy to satisfy 16,000

women.

The whole Krishna saga is a magnificent example of a true believer can manage to

swallow, a perfect setting of opportunism for the specious arguments of the Gita….[Page

109]

In fact Sitanath Tattavabhushan a historian of Hinduism comments, “If all that the

Mahabharata and Puranas say about him [Krishna] is true, he cannot have been the

incarnation of God”. It could not be clearer than that!

Chapter 11 - Who Wrote the Gita?

Chapter XVIII, Verse 70, In that verse Krishna says, “and whoever studies this sacred

dialogue of ours…”….[Page 110]

How on earth did Krishna discern that if all humans studied his dialogue rather a lecture

given to Arjuna albeit only eighteen chapters long, they would reach heaven or swarga

where shapely maidens will be available at their beck and call. A man-god with such a

demented mind can hardly have highly intelligent and ethical qualities to impart!

His education was perfunctory…….Moreover he was too much of a dilettante to have

studied much later in life. He was more interested in a belle than a book……[Page 112]

A man-god who spent practically all his time whoring can hardly be expected to come up

with sublime inspiration to lead the world through righteousness into heaven.

Unlike me, Gajan Shripati Khair has veneration for the Gita.Here is Khair’s own able

summing up of his conclusions: The first author composed some portions of the

existing…..The second author added six more chapters….The third author recast the

whole poem by adding his own verses…..Logic, coherence and consistency are

subordinated to the indoctrination of the main principles underlying his

philosophy….[Pages 117-118]

There is no question that not just the small Gita but the entire Mahabharata, for the that

matter the entire spectrum of puranas have been written by dozens of different authors

over a very long period of time, adding and editing to suit their economic and social

standing in their realm. But to the question whether Krishna is the author of the Gita - the

answer is a resounding no!

Chapter 12 – And When?

Furthermore, though there are no references to the Buddha and Buddhism in the Gita,

the Mahabharta as a whole is not free from them. The words “Buddha” and Prati-

Buddha” occur here and there in the text of the epic…..[Page 120]

All claims by the Hindu establishment make the time frame of the Gita between 800-200

B.C. But all evidence seems to lead to the 3rd century A.D., because the writings of the

Gita indicate that the authors of the Gita were all aware of Buddha therefore the Gita is

post Buddha and not pre-Buddha as is claimed.

Chapter 13 – Gita as Scripture

The Gita is no Veda or Vedanga. The scriptural authority which it now posses is a late

acquisition…..Even S.A.Belwalkar had to own it, though tacitly, when he said that the

gita attained its “dominant position” during “the last twelve hundred years”, that is

after Sankaracharya’s lifetime…….[Pages 124-125]

The same Hindu-Brahmin Sankaracharya who murdered millions of Buddhists through

the largest ethnic cleansing, a Holocaust of the 12th century, brought the Gita out of total

obscurity to promote his own sectarian and caste interests to blunt the rapid rise of

Buddhism. This decadent text with his alchemy was made to shine like gold. All four

Acharyas were from the four southern linguistic areas. Their dark and deep influence

lasted till the eighteenth century. No wonder a mentally enslaved people were ruled easily

by the Mughals for a millennia and the British for over two centuries.

The very first of its translations into English aoppeared in 1785. Translated in by Charles

Wilkins under the title Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialouges of Kreeshna and Arjoon, its

publication was actively promoted by the then Governor-General of India, Warren

Hastings…..Its French rendering by M.Parraud (Le Bhagaut-Geeta) appeared in

1787…..[Pages 126-127]

The elasticity and the double speak of the text compounds the dichotomy, no wonder

Gandhi and his assassin Godse both revered the Gita. The Gita is so ambiguous that a

normal person will go nuts trying to figure out any ethical spirituality within it.

Upadhyaya proceeded next to print in parallel columns all the passages lifted verbatim

from the Upnaishads and they total up to twenty-two……But the first prize in plagiarism

should go to the Gita. It is a shining honor?......[Page 130]

So much priestly fraud has been committed that no wonder everything is contradictory

and there is no continuous inspiration to the sublime.

Chapter 14 – Has the Gita a Philosophy?

As far as India is concerned, the synonym for philosophy is darshana……And so the very

term darshana has put Indian philosophy on the wrong track……[Page 131]

There can be no original philosophy through blind faith and without critical thinking.

Evasive, primitive philosophical opinions which are highly retrograde, regressive,

immoral and unbelievably unethical make up the unholy religious classic.

The fact of the matter is, it is a poem, a collection of songs – not a work of theological

philosophy…..Page 133]

Some Hindu authors such as Sarma define the Gita as a collection of songs, some as a

drama (ishwarleela – god’s sport) and many others much more.

The “high god”, as Kosambi rightly pointed out, repeatedly emphasizes the great virtue

of non-killing (ahimsa), yet the entire discourse is an incentive to war.”…….[Page 135]

The contradictions abound therefore the Gita is a riddle hidden in an enigma. The

problem is that the riddle has been solved – the Emperor has no clothes!

Electicism is not integration. Different ideas and concepts, borrowed from different

sources by an eclectic, dot generally merge into a integrated whole, but abide side by

side as separate entities and led a split personality, to a double life, and ultimately to

downright hypocrisy…..[Pages 136-137]

Some very astute men calling themselves Brahmins with the sole purpose to

psychologically control the masses for eternity by usurping all power and silencing any

dissent in perpetuity very ably created this unholy tale of other worldly proportions.

“Why is a man to obey and why is it difficult to disobey?” questioned Eric Fromm, the

German born American psychoanalyst……My obedience makes me part of the power I

worship, hence I feel strong…….[Page 137]

Fromm has figured out the Gita riddle from a different angle and he is right!

The deluded despise Me clad in human body, not knowing my higher nature as Lord of

all existence (IX-11 Gita)…….[Page 139]

Krishna did not write the Gita but, the umpteen world-class plagiarists who concocted the

Gita made sure that the godly fabrication was drilled into anything which walked on two

legs so that its authority is unquestioned forever.

Chapter 15 – Ethics of the Gita

In ancient India ethics never developed, as it did in Greece, into a special branch of

study…...An ethical system with a social bearing can develop only in a society that has

some social coherence……..[Pages 140-141]

With the caste system rigidly in place no such ethical system could even begin to

germinate because the entire society was divided from top to bottom with the sole focus

of each sub-group more worried about their supposed position and all the protocols

surrounding it rather than develop a sound ethical system for uplifting society.

How can a scripture which makes a reluctant Arjuna take up his arms again and kill his

kinsmen to gain a petty kingdom promote world peace?.......[Page 142]

A man-god glibly lectures a soldier by convincing him to kill all those, he loves and cares

for, simply cannot be a man of peace and freedom. That rather makes Krishna a very

unethical and violent man akin to a modern day terrorist with a dangerous agenda.

Whatever these and other commentators on the Gita might say, the concern of ethics

should be, not with god and his angles, but with man and fellow-men. Its aim should be

“the greatest happiness of the greatest number”…..It should promote amity, not strife; it

should work for peace, not for war…….[Page 145]

The Gita is all about strife and war and then total annihilation of forces amassed on both

sides. Krishna to put it bluntly made Arjuna into a killing machine through his “song

celestial” instead of diplomatically using his wisdom to peacefully resolve the entire

conflict which could have been settled amicably if he was a visionary chief with the will

to do it. Therefore, unless most Gita apologists are high on something special while

reading it, there seems to be no ahimsa (non-violence) being taught, but rather extreme

violence is being propagated, justified and sanctified by the dark lord Krishna himself.

From blackmailing, Krishna proceeded to browbeating. He told Arjuna; “being a fool,

you think you will be killing Bhishma, Drona, Karna and others. In fact, they are already

killed by me.” To Arjuna much bewildered and broken down by then, Krishna gave a

stunning glimpse of his cosmic form. It was something ghoulish and bloodcurdling……

The core teaching of the Gita, as Prem Nath Bazaz has put it boldly,

succinctly and truly is this: “Murder with impunity”…..D.D.Kosambi wrote that the

ostensible moral of the Gita is: ‘Kill your brother if duty calls, without passion; as long

as you have faith in Me, all sins are forgiven…….[Page 148]

The ultimate kernel of the Gita lies in the above statements by Bazaz and Kosambi! The

Gita being the quintessence of the Santana Dharma, no wonder ethnic cleansing and

genocides are carried out against all minorities with complete impunity with absolutely

nothing bothering their conscience, since the dark-lord Krishna will forgive everyone of

their sins.

As Arun Shourie points out, the Gita is not consistent. It tells you act not to make a world

a better place to live in or to make your fellow-men better citizens to live with, but to seek

the merger of your individual soul with the supreme soul…….[Page 149]

Instead of merging one’s love with fellow human beings, the entire focus is to kill

because it is your duty and then merge with the Supreme soul. But the problem is, after

killing you will have no soul to merge with the Supreme!

“Kill , kill one and kill all, kill without the least constraint, because it is your caste duty,

because it is in consonance with nature.” To sum up, the ethics of the Gita is wholly

Machivellian and Nietzschean…..Krishna met his end by an aboriginal hunter who

mistook him for a quarry……[Page 151]

What could be more incredible than such unethical, unconscionable belligerence by a god

whose leadership has a billion devotees, leading them off the dangerous precipice into

permanent oblivion of Om!

Chapter 16 - Sociology of the Gita

The four fold order was created by Me according to the divisions of quality and work.

Though I am its creator, know Me to be incapable of action change (IV – 13)

{Gita}….[Page 152]

Nothing could be clearer than the above verse from the Gita where Krishna the dark lord

states that he created the despicable caste system. Further caste literally means varnas

which in turn means color. Therefore the entire edifice of the so-called caste system is

based on racial lines. The stratification of the social mobility is so rigid that there is

absolutely no scope for rise in status no matter how incredible one’s personal

accomplishments. This is the real ‘apartheid’ of the Brahmin kind!

He may or may not have been the Lord of the Jagat (Universe) but he was certainly the

Lord of Jugglery. Taking their cue from the Lord of Jugglery, the commentators on the

Gita maintain that caste system is not man-made but god-made; it is “therefore”

sacrosanct…….[Page 154]

How on earth does the all knowing god devise such a unjust and wicked system so as to

subjugate more than 95% of the population to perpetual servitude. No wonder, it is

possible in Krishna’s alternate parallel universe where all the 33 million gods reside to do

the impossible on this Hindu earth.

For finding, refuge in Me, they also who, O son of Pritha, may be of a sinful birth –

women, vaisays as well as sudras, - even they can attain to the Supreme Goal..[Page 154]

This verse of the Gita by Krishna should get an Oscar award for its sheer insolence and

the unspeakable gaul to be able to write such filth. It really means that all except the

Brahmins and the Kshytrias everyone else is “born out of the womb of sin.” Nothing can

be more repulsive than this statement but even worse being, that it is from the holiest

Hindu text. Dozens of well known commentators on the Gita have given evasive and

misleading translations because it boggles the mind, as to how is it possible that a holy

text can be downright racist to the vast majority of the population.

Now the forth key – and vicious – verse in the Gita is No.35 in Chapter III…….Better

one’s own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another well discharged. Better

is death in one’s own duty; the duty of another is productive of danger…….[Page 159]

This line probably the most famous one, from the Gita, is such a senseless and

convoluted statement. According to Krishna the most intelligent sudra cannot perform the

Brahmin’s prayers otherwise he would go to hell. Instead he should continue to be a

shoemaker if his father was one and give it his best and be content. Messing with the

sacrosanct varna system can as Narla puts it, “a spell in hell!” Arjuna cares more about

upsetting the caste system due to the war, as the war widows may intermarry with other

caste-groups or become sex-slaves of the lower castes, rather than the relatives he has

killed. The entire Gita is nothing more than barbed wire to keep the brutal caste system in

its place.

Chapter 17 – The Gita and Science

A true scientist cannot think, he cannot work, he can hardly breathe in the midst of the

vacuity and vapidity of Vedanta……[Page 167]

Out of the three Indian-born scientists who have Nobel prizes for their work two won it

for their work done in the US and decided not to return to the holy land of the Vedas.

Various charlatans posing as theologians propound many fantastic theories of inventions

of electricity and flying chariots all found in the Mahabharata eons ago. Even “sciencefiction”

has been incorporated into the Gita!

Chapter 18 - Why the Gita

By the time of Patanjali, that is, the 2nd century B.C., Krishna was being worshipped in

some parts of the country by some sections of the people as a personal god. Patanjali was

too shrewd a man not to take full advantage of this fact…..[Page 172]

The two greatest ruling dynasties prior to the birth of Christ in South Asia were the

Nandas and Mauryas both “Sudras.” Neo-Brahminism came about immediately after

Pushyamitra murdered Asoka and Brihadratha the descendent of Chandragupta the Sudra

emperor. Their two pronged attack to eradicate Buddhism completely; one, to physically

kill all monks and Buddhist followers and second, to rewrite and co-opt all those puny

gods including Buddha, so that the “sudras” never dare raise their head again. The ever

vigilant Brahmins never stopped reinventing their texts to make sure that no other Faith

ever subsumes them like Buddhism and Jainism did in the past. The proper title for the

Gita should be “The Caste Stays Rigid”. The Gita is basically a grim warning to all

followers that they better toe the line of castism or else contend with hellfire.

Chapter 19 – From a Tribal God to a National God

In fact he was disliked, distrusted, denounced. It is on record in the Mahabharata that

once he spoke bitterly to Narada that “the only enjoyment allowed to me is to listen to

their harsh words and constant complaints. The incessant invective I am subjected by

those for whose welfare I am slaving rankles in my heart perpetually.”….[Page 175]

Krishna was a mundane tribal leader otherwise why could he not save his own Yadava

clan from fratricide? Historical records show nothing about Krishna other than a indirect

reference to “Herakles” by Megasthenes, which Narla attributes to Krishna but there is

still no direct proof. Today thousands of books in dozens of languages abound on Krishna.

Not a single one I have come across so far makes any sense other than baseless rehash of

a myth. But the publishing continues and Krishna is today the embodiment of manhood,

of godhood, a National Hero of India. It boggles the mind how the blind continue to lead

the blind.

Chapter 20 – The Two Bhagavans

The second Bhagavan saw peril to the caste system in this approach. And so, to sanctify

the system he took it upon himself full responsibility for its creation…….[Page 183]

Bhagavan (god) Buddha who under the prevailing circumstances did his best to have

equality and justice to all through his sanghas. Bhagavan (god) Krishna on the other hand

created a first class con to usurp all logic and common decency from the laity and keep

them in permanent servitude.

And whoever, at the time of death, gives up his body and departs, thinking of Me alone,

he comes to My status (of being); of that there is no doubt (VIII – 5)……[Page 189]

Even genocidal killers like Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi could enter heaven

provided they had Krishna’s name on their lips. Gita instead of being a book of

immortality is a book of high immorality which justifies extreme violence and apartheid.

If the Mahabharata is the “Encyclopedia Brahminica”, the Gita is equally certainly the

“Bible of Bondage”………...[Page 191]

Narla is at his finest and could not have put it any better.

Chapter 21 – All Things to All Men

What is far more shocking, it can be cited to justify mass murder. The Gita affirms that

“one neither slays nor is slain” (II-9). So, when you kill, where is the question of

homicide? And when you kill a whole population, where is the question of

genocide?.....[Page 199]

No wonder the modern day Brahmin puppeteers at the helm of the levers of power

continue to commit genocides on various religious and ethnic minorities with absolute

impunity, guilt free because they will have the name of Krishna on their lips and be

absolved of all sins before they ascend to swarg (heaven) and be lavished with more than

the standard 72 virgins.

Yes indeed The Gita is undoubtedly a non-ethical work. And yet, we read it, we treasure

it, we venerate it. It is the greatest triumph of the unknown author or authors who

fabricated the Gita; it is an equally great tragedy for India and the world……[Page 200]

The Gita seems to be the “Art of Slave Making” at its best.

Narla hopes that the Hindus of India will soon throw the Gita into the dustbin of history

permanently to get out from the retrograde morass of the current deluded thinking, which

is dragging the people and the country backwards with no end in sight.

V.R.Narla had the guts of a tiger, the memory of an elephant, and the critical faculties of

a very intelligent human. Narla is a giant among men, to give a brutally honest critique of

the most revered holy text of the Sanatainsts (Hindus) using common sense and logic.

One of the finest critically written books I have ever read. Anyone trying to understand

the ‘true’ heart of Hinduism without getting bogged down in the quicksand by reading

hundreds of various books on this subject, needs to carefully read this book. This brilliant,

little known classic has just been reprinted by www.prometheus.com in July 2010.

Robert Frykenberg comments on V R Narla

2010-08-31T15:37:00.002+05:30

Robert Frykenberg, emeritus professor in Wisconsin University, Madison USA commented that late V R Narla was bold and daring critique. During our discussion on 26 august 2010 in Swagat restaurant Prof Bob Frykenberg appreciated Narla as good friend of his. He told me about his close acquaintance with Narla in Hyderabad and also during his visit to Wisconsin University.I felt happy and informed him that Prometheus Books brought out his book The Truth about Gita as american edition with my preface in 2010
Narisetti Innaiah

Release of Truth about Gita

2010-08-31T14:58:00.000+05:30

V.R Narla`s Truth about Gita is released during August 2010 by Prometheus Books in USA.This is the first American edition which will be easy to the readers in West to obtain.
Mr Narisetti Innaiah and Mr Aramalla Purnachandra contributed preface to this american edition.

Good News

2009-05-28T00:16:00.004+05:30

V.R. Narla`s THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GITA is coming out soon in USA and continents. Prometheus Books in Amhrest,New York is bringing out this critical writing of Narla Venkateswararao as a part Center for Inquiry India project about critique of Hinduism.
Professor Paul Kurtz, international leader of secular humanism has agreed to bring this book to serve the public at large.
V R Narla wrote this book in the last days of his life ( 1980`s). He died before it saw the light of the day.
Dr N.Innaiah brought out it in Hyderabad, India. Then it was translated by him in Telugu and published. The ebook of Telugu version also is available in the center for inquiry/India site.
Narla V R studied various editions of Gita and its interpretations by eminents scholars. He touched all aspects of Gita and went so deep into its sociological, philosophical and theological realms.
Nalra V R Writings were brought out in 12 volumes by his family and released. But they are not available in USA and other countries.
Now Prometheus Books will compensate that loss.

Narla V R Centenary Celebrations

2009-02-11T03:18:00.001+05:30

Center for Inquiry India participated in the centenary celebrations of famous journalist humanist (late) V R Narla in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India on 29 January 2009.

Dr. N. Innaiah, chairman CFI India as main speaker on the occasion explained how Narla V R evolved from angry nationalist to rational humanist during his sojourn in the media world. As editor of two famous Telugu dailies, namely Andhra Prabha from Chennai and later Andhra Jyothi Telugu daily from Vijayawada and Hyderabad, Narla gradually adopted a scientific approach in journalism.

Mr. Narla V R has shown to the world that as age grows persons can grow in mind also. He wrote critical works on Hinduism, with special reference to Gita and Upanishads. In this context Dr. Innaiah announced the coming publication of Narla`s The Truth about the Gita by Prometheus Books in USA.

Narla V R with various personalities

2008-11-05T18:46:00.006+05:30

Narla V R With President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Narla V R with Dandamudi Mahidhar ( producer All India Radia Hyderabad,Hindi section) and N.Innaiah early 1970s

Narla in Greece

Close friend of V R Narla late D.Anjaneyulu , famous journalist and writer speaking

With Ananta Sayanam Ayyangar, Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru

Narla with great distinguished persons

2008-11-04T23:44:00.004+05:30

Narla Venkateswararao and Damodaram Sanjivaiah ( chief minister of Andhra Pradesh,and Kota Punnaiah Member of parliament) are close friends

Editor of two famous Telugu dailies

2008-08-16T19:28:00.004+05:30

founder Editor of Andhra Jyothi 1959

Editor of Andhra Prabha 1940-1958

BUDDHIST ART IN ANDHRA

2008-08-11T12:22:00.003+05:30

Thought the feet of Gautama, the Buddha, never touched the soil of Andhra, it was in this youngest State of the Republic of India that Budhist art and sculpture, especially the latter, had its finest flowering. The Andhras embraced Buddhism long before that era of Asoka and as Prof. K.R.Subramaniam has stated in his excellence monograph, Buddhist Remains in Andhra, “it cannot be doubted that Andhra Buddhism was pre-Asokan.”
Being a highly emotional people, the Andras are known even to-day for their quick and strong reactions. If they love they love ardently, and when they hate they hate violently. Taken as a whole they are kind, affectionate, hospitable and though sometimes prone to be irritatingly capricious, they have a genius for friendship, and are instinctively attracted by any progressive idea or ideology. Given this temperament, it can be taken for granted that they must have welcomed the gospel of Buddhism with its broad humanity, its emphasis on compassion, its message of universal love and brotherhood, its total rejection of all superstitions and its direct appeal to all that is sublime in human nature.
Anyone with imagination could certainly penetrate the thick fog of the intervening centuries and see the tall, slim, rather fair and wide-eyed Andhras in their million flocking to Buddhist shrines with their offerings of fresh and fragrant flowers; one may even here every hill and dale in the ever-green valleys of the Krishna, the Godavari and the Vamsadhara resounding to the incantation of Buddham Saranam Gacchami (which means “I take refuge in the Buddha, in the Gospel and in the Order”), That this is no idle speculation of mine is attested by scores of the remains of the Buddhist sites that are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the Andhra State from Salihundam in the north to Chinna Ganjam in the south, and from Gooty in the west to Ghantasala in the east. These ancient sites, in the words of Mr.A.H.Longhurst” are of far more real archaeological value than many of the great Hindu monuments of the South.” We owe their rescue from centuries of oblivion to the pioneering efforts of a brilliant band of officials, both civilian and military, and archaeologists, the most prominent of whom are Mackenzie, Elliot, Burgess, Sewell, Rea, Longhurst and Ramachandran.
I cannot claim to have seen all the sites of Buddhist remains in Andhra. I have, however, had the good fortune of visiting Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, Jaggayyapeta, Ghantasala and Bhattiprolu. Of these, the first two are well-known. They are both in Guntur District on the banks of the Krishna, the blue Danube of India, and the second biggest river of the Deccan. Though Amaravati is today a rather dusty village and not the seat of a great university that it was for some centuries, and though Nagarjunakonda is now practically a deserted valley and not the centre of another famous university as in ancient times, even casual visitor would not fail to sense in them some of the limpidness and sparkle of the Krishna river together wit the calm and peace and beatitude associated with Buddhism. Being a layman, I cannot, of course, speak wit authority, but as one who in his wanderings over India has covered almost all the major centers of ancient and mediaeval Indian art, I may venture my opinion for what it is worth that even after centuries of neglect and vandalism, the sculptures still to be seen both at Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda are second to none for their lyrical beauty, their divine grace and their depth of feeling.
Amaravati, as most of you are no doubt aware of, has an important place in the history of not only Andhra but Indian and world Buddhism. Situated within half-a-mile of the Satavahana capital, Dhanyakataka, it was the home of a special school of Mahayana philosophy. It was, however, more popular on account of the magnificent stupa that rose there majestically to a height of about 100 feet, and had at its base a diameter of about one hundred and sixty-two feet. (Comparative figures for diameter are; Bhattiprolu, one hundred and forty-eight feet; Ghantasla, one hundred and twenty-two feet and the main stupa at Nagarjunakonda, one hundred and six feet.) “The original chaitya of Amaravathi”, according to Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, “dates from 200 B.C. and some reliefs are of the first or second century B.C. The casing slabs and the great railing and also the few Buddha figures date from the latter part of the second century A.D., or at any rate not later than A.D. 250.” Of this railing, which was the supreme glory of the Amaravati stupa, Mr. James Fergusson says that “although the rail at Bharhut is the most interesting and important in India in an historical sense, it is far from equal to that at Amaravati, either in elaboration or in artistic merit.” “Indeed in these respects.” Continues the same authority who, along with Mr.E.B.Havell and Dr. A.K.Coomaraswami, was largely responsible for bringing to the notice of the outside world the beauty and the glory of Indian art and architecture, “the Amaravati rail is probably the most remarkable monument in India. In the first place, it is more than twice the dimensions of the rail at Bharhut, the great rail being 195 feet in diameter the inner 165 ft. or almost twice the dimensions of that at Bharhut; between these two was the procession-path, which in the earlier examples was on the tope itself. Externally, the total height of the great rail was about 14ft., internally it was two feet less, while the inner rail was solid and only six feet in height.” I need not go into the other architectural details of this great Amaravati stupa-a plaster model of which re-constructed according to a plan suggested by Mr. Percy Brown can be seen in the Madras Museum – but I should perhaps mention that it is estimated that “the railing alone provided a superficial area of nearly 17,000 square feet covered with delicate reliefs.”

Most of these reliefs are now unfortunately lost. Even by the time of Col. Colin Mackenzie who saw the great Amaravati stupa at the end of the 18th Century many of the sculptured marbles ad been destroyed. They had been dug up and burnt into lime by a local chieftain who in 1797 shifted is head-quarters to Amaravati, the very dust of which was rich with history and hallowed by tradition, and made a feeble attempt to find a new city about the Amareswara temple. And even those marbles that escaped this vandalism are now widely scattered. A large majority of them have been removed to the London, Paris, Calcutta and Madras museums; just a few only are left on the original site. More than a hundred of them – 125 to be exact- are now in the British Museum. Named after Sir Walter Elliot, who was mainly responsible for sending them to London, they are known as the “Elliot Marbles.” Rivaling even the Elgin marbles and the Assyrian reliefs in their grace and elegance, their power and poignancy, the Amaravati sculpture greeted me in the entrance hall of that great treasure house of world art in an uncommonly quite street in London. Across the Channel in Paris, I have again found in the Musee Guimet three, may be four, reliefs from Amaravati, while I recently counted fourteen of them in the Indian Museum at Calcutta. I need not, I suppose, add that the Madras Government Museum has more than three hundred and fifty of these art treasures from Amaravati, including, of course, quite a few fragments. While regretting this wide dispersal of the invaluable creations of the Andhra sculptors, I must admit that everywhere I found them well housed, and properly cared for except at the place of their origin. Two years ago when I was at Amaravati for the second time, I found the few marbles still left there dumped in an ugly shed, though even the smallest fragment deserves nothing short of a palace for its ineffable beauty and infinite grace.
As Dr. Coomaraswamy says, the sculpture of Amaravati which is mostly in relief and only rarely in the round, “is very vigorous and full of movement, sometimes passionately devotional, sometimes humorous, always voluptuous and decorative.” He also thinks that all of its is “a masterpiece of pure design charming in every detail”. Indeed, the art of Amaravati is a glorious product of the Andhra genius. Mr.Fergusson’s expert opinion is that the sculptures of Amaravati mark “the culmination of Indian art.” Even while disputing this estimate, Mr. Havell admits that the Amaravathi marbles present “delightful studies of animal life, combined with extremely beautiful conventionalized ornament.” He also acknowledges that at Amaravati “the most varied and difficult movements of the human figure are drawn and modeled with great freedom and skill.
Great freedom in expression and unfailing skill in making every line and curve and contour of a sculpture speak eloquently – these, indeed, are the two distinctive characteristics of the art of Amaravati. And what is equally important, it is essentially indigenous; it arose out of the inner urges of a people; it was the response to a challenge, and a pouring forth of the heart for finding fulfillment. The Gandhara or Graeco – Roman influence on Indian sculpture, if it was really strong at any earlier period, was negligible by the time it reached the banks of the Krishna in the early years of the Christian era. “The Amaravati sculptures”, Sir John Marshall has rightly stated, “indeed appear to be a as truly Indian in style as those of Bharhut and Ellora. They follow as a natural sequence on Mauryan art when that art was finding expression in more conventionalized forms. They have inherited certain motifs and types which filtered in from the north – west (i.e. Gangadhara), but these elements have been completely absorbed and assimilated without materially influencing the indigenous character of these sculptures.”

Though I am not one of those who feel ashamed to acknowledge that we have borrowed and assimilated something from others, it is asserted by competent authorities that outside influences are yet more negligible in the case of the Buddha image at Amaravati. According to Mr. Douglas Barrett (I am quoting from his recent publication, Sculptures from Amaravati in the British Museum.) “few, if any, of the Amaravati images of the middle and late phases are identical with those of Mathura….. There is, as it were greater naturalness about the Amaravati image. It is less of an ikon that the image of the north. Indeed, if the short curly hair, ushnisha, and halo are added to the figures of monks, which are frequently represented in the middle phase, the result is an Amaravati Buddha. The monks have shaven heads and both shoulders covered with the robe, which is naturalistically rendered.” “The Buddha image at Amaravati”, continues Mr. Barrett, “was carved not to express the abstract thought of the philosopher or theologian, but to satisfy the personal adoration or bhakti of the common laity and the simple monk, a need displayed by the other contemporary religions of India.” I may add that even if the Andhra sculptor derived much more than the idea of making an image of the Buddha from Madhura, he succeeded abundantly in infusing his creation with the spirit of the Andhras whose approach of life and reactions to their environment are essentially emotional.
The emotional impact of the Amaravati sculptures could really be profound. If I may strike a personal note, the sculpture of the four worshipping women, which is preserved in the Madras Museum, stirs me to the depths of my soul. With what simplicity and directness does this masterpiece show the utter abandon and the total surrender of these devotees bowing before the feet of the Lord !
Another Amaravati sculpture – also in the Madras Museum – always fascinates me with its dramatic effect. It represents the taming of the fierce elephant, Nalagiri, by the Master. How eloquently does it portray the transformation wrought in the wild beast by the commanding presence and the pervasive influence of the Prince of Compassion. Let loose into the crowded streets of Rajagriha by the palace mahouts, who were secretly bribed by Devadatta, the jealous cousin of the Buddha, it rushes forth to attack the Lord. In its mad progress through the fleeing crowds, it tramples under its cruel feet every one that fails to clear out of its path. Killing and maiming, Nalagiri proceeds on and on. A few more steps; a few more seconds – and it would be within reach of the Sakyamuni. Helplessly some people scream; desperately one of the disciples of the Lord tries to ward off the attack. Devadatta’s evil plan seems to be assured of complete success. But – lo and behold ! – even as Nalagiri approaches the Master it begins to soften and to relent, to hesitate and to falter, until finally it becomes meek as a lamb and salutes the Lord, whose august presence is represented by a pillar of fire. At this unexpected turn – this magical transformation – what should have been the feelings of Devadatta ? Through unrepresented in the sculpture, we can visualize him lurking behind some vantage point, with his face resitering in, quick succession feelings of expectancy, elation, doubt, disappointment, incredulity coupled with important range.
Before I pass on to other centers of Buddhist art in Andhra, may I crave your permission to say a few more words about the marbles of Amaravati? It is generally believed that the Amaravati sculptures were “originally covered with a thin coat of fine plaster and painted.” If it were so, we may safely presume that they once rivaled in the beauty and delicacy the paintings of Ajanta and Bagh. Even without these fine colurs, “it is only in the paintings of Ajanta and Bagh”, as Dr. James Burgess remarks. “that we find anything comparable to the rich variety and excellence of art displayed in these (Amaravati) sculptures.” In fact, Mr. Havell believes that the bas-reliefs of Amaravati (forming the decoration of the railing and the marble casing of the stupa itself) should properly be studied in connection with the fresco-paintings of Ajanta. I may be pardoned if I hazard the guess that the painters of Ajanta were no other than the sculptors of Amaravati working in a different medium.

Of equal merit are the marbles of Nagarjunakonda or the Sri Parvata (as it was known formerly), in the protective shadow of which once nestled the magnificent city of Vijayapuri, the capital of the Ikshvakus. While the Ikshavakus flourished and held away over Vengi as the successors of the Satavahanas, this lovely valley of the Sri Parvata - it has green hills on three sides, the deep blue stream of the Krishna constituting the fourth – was a great seat of Mahayana Buddhism, second perhaps only to Amaravati. Though the ruling kings were mostly Hindus, their consorts patronized Buddhism. According to inscriptions found at Nagajunakonda. One such royal patroness – indeed the very first – was Chantisin, another was Adavi Chantisiri, whild the name of the third lady that has come down to us is Chula – Chanti-sirimika. Though not related to the Ikshvakus, Upasika Bodhisiri who, I presume, was a fabulously rich heiress that donned the yellow robe, vied with the ladies of the royal family in her magnificent gifts. There may be some doubt as to her nationally – on the strength of their identification of her birth – place Govagama with Gongamaka, which is mentioned as a Ceyloness port in the Mahavamsa, some research scholars believe that she hailed from Ceylon – but as to her numerous endowments to te Buddistic establishments, not only at Nagarjunakonda, but at other places too, there is no doubt whatsoever. To quote from Early History of the Andhra Country by Sri K. Gopalachari, Bodhisiri helped to build at Vijayapuri “two Chairtanya grahas (one on the Lesser Dhammagiri by the side of a vihara as the special property of the nuns of Ceylon), and another at Kulaha-vihara, a shrine for the Bodhi-tree (i.e., a railing around it) at the Sihala vihara, one cell at the Great Dhammagiri, a mandava pillar at the Mahaviara, a hall for religious practice at Devagiri, a tank, verandah, and mandava at Puvasela, a stone mandava at the eastern gate of the Mahachaitya at Kantakasela, three cells at Hirumthuva, seven cells at Papila, a stone mandava at Puphagiri, and a stone mandava at the … vihara” We need not pause here to wonder as to what could be the modern names of the various places that received such varied gifts from Bodhisiri; it is enough for our purpose to note that such was the deep devotion of this and other ladies to the message of the Buddha that they poured out unstintingly all their treasures to adorn Vijayapuri with innumerable stupas, chaityas and viharas.
Great must have been the splendour of this citadel of the Ikshvakus for it attracted from far and wide not only merchants with wares to sell, but students seeking knowledge, both religious and secular. Even before the time of the Ikshavakus, Vijayapuri must have gained wide reputation as a seat of learning for that great philosopher. Nagarjunacharya, the profounder of Madhyamika or the Middle Path, spent (according to Tibetan traditions) the closing years of his life on Sri Parvata. But lured by his history and traditions of Vijayapuri, I should not lose sight of my main theme, viz., Buddhist Art in Andhra.
Well, unlike those found at Amaravai, the marbles of Nagarjunakonda are not dispersed (except for the four or five that have somehow found their way into Musee Guimet) and in their fullness they proclaim to the world the glory and grandeur of the Buddhist art of Andhra. Perhaps I should not fail to mention here that the excavations at Nagarjunakonda are not yet complete and that there is every likelihood of more sculptures as well as inscriptions and remains of ancient buildings being found there. There further excavations are being carried out now on a large scale for the site – I regret to say – is going to be inundated under the major irrigation project of Nagarjuna Sagar, work on which is now proceeding apace. Though it is rather unfortunate that an ancient site of great religious, artistic, cultural and historical value should soon be submerged under a vast sheet of water as a result of te new project. I, for one, would not bewail the event as the great Nagarjuna Sagar is expected to irrigate millions of acres of land, thereby bringing plent and prosperity to vast areas which are now periodically subject a famine conditions. And I am sure the great Buddhist divine and philosopher. Nagarjuna, would, in the largeness of his heart, bless the project.
During Nagarjuna’s time and for some centuries after him, Vijayapuri was slaking the thirst for knowledge of thousands of students that were flocking there from “Kashmira, Gangadhara, Cheena, Chilata, Tosali, Aparanta, Venga, Varnasi, Yavana, Palura, Damila, Tambapanni”. From now on instead of standing as mere shadow of its past glory, it would serve as a great reservoir for watering thirsty lands, thereby bringing happiness into thousands of homes; homes that are now steeped in poverty and are devoid of all decencies of a civilized life. Nagarjuna peached the gospel of life, not of the graveyard. His mission was to bring light into the dark recesses of the mind and to abolish ignorance and suffering. He would, therefore, be the first to assert that grinding poverty – poverty that is not voluntary, but enforced – with all the degeneration it inevitable bring about, leaves no scope whatsoever for an intellectual life, not to speak of a life the spirit. He would, I feel, not only not regret the conversion of the dead valley into life-giving reservoir, but would welcome it as a noble venture worthy of his teachings and his traditions.

Let me not, however, pursue this point further; all that I need to say is that the present sculptures at Nagarjunakonda and any that may be found as a result of the current excavations, will be treasured somewhere as a great national heritage. According to a recent report, an expert committee appointed by the Government of India seems to prefer the location of the Nagarjunakonda sculptures and other finds at the top of the Sri Parvata itself, for that reputed hill would continue to hold its head aloft in spite of its base as well as its flanks being totally submerged in the great lake that would be formed once the Nagarjuna Sagar project is completed. This appears to me to be a good idea, and I hope that it will be implemented. If, however,any practical difficuilties are encountered in putting it through and an alternative site is chosen, even then that new place would, I am confident, become another Nagarjunakonda. For the gospel so brilliantly interpreted and so vigorously taught by the great Nagarjuna is writ large on every frieze.
How deeply did one of the Nagarjunakonda sculptures move me during my last visit! It depicts the great wave of sorrow that swept through the royal court of Kapilavastu when the news of the sallying forth- the Mahabhiniskramana – of Prince Siddhartha in search of the Dharma is brought back by Channa, the dutiful charioteer. King Suddhodana’s head is bent down in grief and he is almost frozen on his seat. Prince Yasodhara is falling down unconscious as if struck by lightning. Channa, who is kneeling at the feet of the king, is a picture of sorrow. The faces of the royal attendants are masterly studies in sadness.
And the most suggestive, poignant touch of all, the eyes of that noble steed, Kantaka, who had overnight carried the Lord on his back ut of Kapilavastu, are glistening with tears. For a moment I was wondering wheather the very stone on which this scene was depicted was not itself melting into tears ! Such indeed is the marvel of the art of Nagarjunakonda !! It is rich without being elaborate, moving without being sentimental, meaningful without being didactic. Even a broken piece from Nagarjunakonda is evocative as I realized when I noticed a small fragment representing the fingers of a hand. The moment I saw it I felt sure that it must have been a fragment of a statue of the Buddha, for who can mistake the luster and loveliness-the power and elegance of-the fingers that set the Wheel of Dharma in motion.
I have dwelt on Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda at some length because they undoubtedly represent the two highest peaks of Buddhist art in Andhra. Though of lesser importance, the finds at Goli, Jaggayyapeta, Bhattiprolu, Ghantasala, Guntupalli, Garikipadu, Salihundam, Ramatirtham and many other sites of Buddhist remains in Andhra are remarkable in their own way. The stupas at some of these places are said to be earlier than those at Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda. Either as a result of vandalism or pilfering by the agents of foreign governments, not many sculptures from these monuments are available for study. Still the few marbles left after centuries of depredation and destruction clearly bear the stamp of that genius that was to find its spring-tide at Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda.
Even broken pieces of the freizes of the much neglected stupa at Jaggayyapeta, which I visited recently for the first time, are things of beauty. Fourteen sculptures recovered from Jaggayyapeta – all of them either broken or mere fragments, the only exception being a standing Buddha – are in the Madras Museum. This standing Buddha is exceptional, not merely because it was found undamaged, but also because it differs both in age and style from the rest of finds. It has an inscription on its lotus base in characters of the sixth century – the gist of the inscription being that the image was made under instructions from Jayaprabhacharya. A disciple of Nagarjunacharya – it is concluded that it belongs to a much later age than the rest of the sculptures which are akin to those of the first face of the Amaravati stupa, and hence are dated as early as 200 B.C.
The most interesting as well as important of the Jaggayyapeta marbles is a slab representing a Chakravarti. The seven jewels which surround him – the queen, the prince, the minister, the elephant, the horse, the wheel, and the gems – proclaim him to the world as a king of kings. Noteworthy features of this sculpture are not only the square coins that are showered on the emperor from the sky and the jewels worn by the human figures, but also the elongated structure of those figures which constitute a marked departure from the stunted representations of the Gandhara School. It is this elegant attenuation of the figures the subsequently led to the “towering and graceful forms” in the sculptures of the middle phase of Andhra sculpture at Amaravati. Another interesting find in Jaggayyapeta is the “punyasala,” a beautiful sculpture showing a two-storied shrine.
My visit Bhattiprolu, a village in the Republic Taluk of the Guntur District, was in my teens; hence my memories of the stupa there are extremely vague. But I gather from the report of Mr.Alexander Rea on his excavations of Buddhist mounds in the Krishna District that even by 1820 the stupa at Bhattiprolu was denuded of most of its bricks and all of its marbles. “The bricks being of large size and good quality” says his report, “were used for road-making, and the marbles variously utilized in the construction of a sluice in the Krishna canal”. There is however, some doubt as to whether the marbles had any carvings on them. Mr. Robert Sewell, who visited the place the earlier than Mr. Rea was of the opinion that they had carvings. In a report which he made out to the Madras Government in 1878, Mr. Sewell said : “That they really were carved marble sculptures is tolerably conclusively proved by the fact that in the walls and floor of this very Vellatur sluice marbles have been extensively used. Some sculptured stones bear carving assimilating in type to those at Amaravati though they do not appear to have been so beautifully executed.” I have no hesitation in agreeing with this opinion. The greenish white limestone quarried in Palnad in Gutur District and widely used in adorning the stupa in Andhra has no intrinsic beauty. It has no gloss, no variegated hues; it is dull, drab, cold. Now-a-days it is used as raw material by our cement industry. Only the masterly hadn of the Andhra sculpturs gave this flimsy limestone a life and a message; a life of unsurpassed beauty and a message of love for all sentient beings. This intrinsic lack of any beauty in the lime stone of Palnad makes me believe that It could not have been used in the stupa at Bhattiprolu, or for the matter of that, at any other place. Without some sculpture or other on it-be it a lotus, a dharma chakra, a naga with an out-stretched hood, a bodhi tree or the Sri Padas. Well, whatever sculptural wealth the Bhattiprolu stupa had, which by the way was constructed of solid brickwork unlike those at Ghantasala and Nagarjunakonda, is now totally lost.
An identical fate seems to have over taken the Buddhistic stupa at Gudivada, a taluk centre in the Krishna District. “About 1840 a mound of brick-work was demolished here to obtain material for repairing the high road between Bezwada and Bandar.” Referring to this vandalism, Mr.Rea says: “It is to be regretted that all these works have suffered at the hands of those who required material for the construction of roads and other such works. Though among the oldest existing monuments of an ancient civilization, their great antiquity was no protection to them from the despoiling hands … Such being the case we can only unearth and endeavour to piece together such remains that escaped the notice of the despoilers. We have been able to gather from these – in many cases seemingly shapeless mounds – that the architectural works of the Buddhists have never been excelled by any of later date existing in India. Unlike the later architecture of the Dravidians, their buildings not only contained masterpiece of detail, but the buildings were themselves perfect examples of architectural composition.”
For quoting here Mr.Rea at some length my only excuse is tht his report published in 1894 with a pretty long title, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities, Including the Stupas of Bhattiprolu, Gudivada and Ghantasala and Other Ancient Sites in the Krishna District, Madras Presidency; With Notes on Dome Construction, Andhra Numismatics and Marble Sculpture, has now become extremely scarce, though I have been lucky in obtaining a copy of it only the other day from Poona. While it is hard to resist the temptation to quote more passages from this rare report. I would merely add that all that Mr.Rea could recover from Bhattiprolu were two caskets with sacred Buddhistic relics and from Gudivada a large and valuable hoard of ancient coins, some of which date back to the Satavahana Empire. A very interesting coin from the same hoard “bore the figure of a Roman or Greek galley, with a rather crescent shaped hull, two masts and a large oar-shaped rudder”. Mr. Rea certainly deserves our grateful thanks for these valuable finds, but it must be mentioned that it was rather unfortunate, that he narrowly missed unearthing the marbles of Ghantasala; how this happened we shall see presently.
Though it is a debatable point whether Bhattiprolu and Gudivada could lay claim to any sculptural wealth, there is no such doubt regarding Ghantasala, a village sixteen miles west of Masulipatnam. When I visited the place a few years back I found there some uprights of the rail of the local stupa with finely – chiseled dharma chakras. The original name of Ghantasala is said to be Kantakasaila; in fact, Ptolemy refers to it as “Contocossyla” It is surmised that the place was named after Kantaka the renowned horse of Buddhist lore. The frieze from Ghantasala depicting Kantaka is preserved in the Madras Museum. The rest of the marbles of Ghantasala are now in far-off Paris in Musee Guimet. One of these which fascinated me during my visit to Paris in 1954 is a masterly depiction of three storied building with adorer; another is an exquisite sculpture vividly portraying the happiness of Suddhodana, when he heard the news of the birth of his son, Siddhartha.
According to Mr. Douglas Barrett, Assistant Keeper in the Department of Oriental Antiquities in the British Museum, “the most important slab” from Ghantasala is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “It is carved on both faces. The palimpsest shows an elaborate stupa similar to those on the late drum slabs at Amaravathi. On the other face is the scene of the Buddha at the Niranjana river, there is a fragmentary pilaster up the left-hand edge.” Could the importance of this relief be that it is carved on both faces? I do not know. But I am convinced that the Mahachaitnya at Ghantasala was one of the most important in Andhra. The art of Ghantasala vied with that of Amaravati at its best. A slightly damaged head of the Buddha, a sculpture in the round, found in Ghantasala, is in my opinion definitely superior in certain respects to those which I have seen in Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda. It has more repose and profundity, and just a suggestion of a smile reminding one of the crescent moon that faintly glimmers in the sky and makes the young night all the more mysterious and bewitching.

It is, indeed, a great pity that most of the sculptures of Ghantasala are lost to our country for ever. Mr. Alexander Rea, who carried on excavations in the village somewhere around 1980, confined his attention to the main stupa, which in its dilapidated condition is locally known as Lanja Dibba, i.e., the harlot’s mound. It is really amazing, and not a little saddening, Chinna Ganjam, Pedda Ganjam and quite a few other places the remnants of the sacred shrines of Buddhism came to be given such filthy name as Lanja Dibba and Bogamdani Dibba. The only exception to this which I know of is the stupa at Amaravati. Its local name is Dipala Dinne, i.e., the mound of lamps. But even this reference to lamps may not after all be a very complimentary one, for practically at all places where there is a Buddhistic mound there is a local tradition that prostitute had her residence on it and used a lamp for signaling. May be the bad name often given to the Buddhistic mounds is an index of the fanatiscism with which Buddhism was perhaps suppressed by later day Hindu Zealots, or may be it denotes the low levels to which Buddhism had probably sunk in its last day when it assumed the forms of Vajrayana and Sahajayana, forms in which it hardly differed from unbridled tantrism. Of these two reasons I, for one, give greater credence to the former. But let me not drift from the main theme; I mean the excavations of Mr. Rea at Ghantasala. Obvisouly attracted by the large size of the main mound, he confined his operations to that only. Though it showed up the foundations of a large stupa as also a relic casket, it had no sculptured marbles. The sculptures of Ghantasala were, in fact, elsewhere in a mound called the Kota Dibba. i.e., the mound of the fort. Mr. Rea did make a note of this, as also of a third one in the village which is locally known as Polimera Dibba. His report runs thus : “On the south, just over the village boundaries is a low mound on the bank of a tank. It measures about seventy feet across, and is roughly circular in plan. The foundations of brick walls appear at places, and brick debris lie all over it. It may possibly be the remains of a stupa.” Here Mr. Rea was on the brink of a great discovery. Had he made it, it would have been his supreme achievement as an archaeologist. But he narrowly missed it. Subsequently in the twenties of the present century, a peasant, while cultivating his fields bordering on this very mound, Kota Dibba, uncovered as many as thirty sculptures each rivaling the other in its masterly portrayal f scenes from the life of the historical Buddha or from the Jataka stories. These wonderful marbles, according to a reliable account given to me by some leaders of the Village, wre dumped under a tree and left there uncared for until someone from Pondiherry appeared on the scene and furtively bought up the whole lot for an insignificant sum of less than Rs.5000/-. Thus did we lose for good the art treasures of Ghantasala, which today occupy a place of pride in the Musee Guimet.
As I have not visited the rest of the Buddhist sites in Andhra I cannot speak about them from personal knowledge. But I should, perhaps, mention here in passing that fresh excavations are now taking place at Salihundam, situated on the south bank of the Vamsadhara in the Srikakulam District, and it is reported that some very important finds have come to light. Buried in known and unknown mounds yet to be dug up, there are, I am sure, invaluable treasures of the period when the saffron robe was adding its rich and resplendent colour to the Andhra scene. I am not a Buddhist either by birth or by persuasion, but I am proud of Buddhist art in Andhra, as it is inherently Indian without confining itself to the religion that inspired it or to the region where it found expression. It is a rich heritage of which India, nay the world, could be proud. It does, indeed, transcend all boundaries of nationality and time. Created mostly on the banks of the Krishna at the dawn of the Christian era, it attracts and influences us even today, as it did most of Asia two thousand years ago. With Amaravati as its main base, it shed its light far and wide. It crossed the seas to inspire the sculptures of South East Asia as re-affirmed by the latest book of Dr. Reginald le May, The Culture of South-East Asia. The influence of Amaravati, according to this writer, “was felt architecturally in Ceylon and in Lower Central Siam, and possibly reached as far as Sumatra in the south. “Disagreeing with the traditional view that Buddhism reached Java and Borneo from Gujarat and the mouths of the Indus, he draws pointed attention to the fact that “the earliest images of the Buddha found at Sempaga in the Celebes, in the south of the province of Jember (Eastern Java) and on the hill of Seguntang at Palembang in Sumatra are all in the Amaravati style of Eastern India.” Another recent book. The Art and Architecture of India by Mr. Benjamin Rowland, also speaks of this wide-spread influence of Amaravati. Says Mr. Rowland : Owing to its commercial and religious affiliations, the influence of the Andhra Empire was enormously wide-spread : not only was the style of Amaravati extended to Ceylon, but Buddhist images in the Andhra style of the second and third centuries A.D. have been found as far away as Dongduong in Champa (modern Indo-China) and at Sempaga in the Celebes.” Could it be a mere accident that the region of Dong-duong lso bears the name of Amaravati ? Indeed, the age of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda is the golden age of Indian art and its luster would remain imperishable as long as even a broken piece of their wonderful friezes is left to beckon us to a just society that is free from caste and cruelty, and to a new world that is above hate and strife.

Brief Life Sketch

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V R Narla ( Narla Venkateswararao) was an outstanding journalist in Telugu. He edited Andhra Prabha, Telugu daily from Chennai from 1940 to 1956. He founded andedited andhra Jyothi Telugu daily from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh from 1958 to 1980.
He was trend setter in Telugu journalism.He introduced new features, brought out several talented personalities into limelight through dailies. Some of them were: Sanjiv Dev, G.V.Krishna rao.He also set new example through his editorials by reviewing great writings. He exposed persons in high places like Tanguturi Prakasam, Sanjiv Reddi, Jawaharlal Nehru.
He constantly criticised the reactionary writers like Viswanatha Satyanarayana for their caste mindedness and degradations through hierarchy.During emergency imposed by Prime Minsiter Indira Gandhi, he protested by not writing any editorials and left the country to USA where he toured to see national partks, museusms.

V.R.Narla participated in freedom movement of India during late 1920s,and was arrested, jailed for one year. His book Neti Russia was banned by the British government in India.
Narla collected thousands of books from his early days and read extensively. At the time of his death in 1985 there were 24 thousand books in English and Telugu. The collection was kept in B R Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad for public use and research. These books cover wide range of history, art, architecute, culture, criticism, poetry, religion, humanism, anthropology.Majority of the books are in Telugu.
Narla toured extensively in the continents,Russia, China, Australia, Egypt, USA, Europe and collected rare art pieces on Buddha. Narla arranged the collections into several categories and kept in his residence. He named his rooms as Buddha room, Siva room, Krishna room where he arranged books and art on those personalities.
Narla was member of Rajya Sabha ( 1958-1970). During those days he participated in delegations along with Dr Radhakrishnan and toured.
Narla wrote in English and Telugu, both poetry and prose. His plays are published by Sahitya Academi, Delhi and translated into several Indian languages. His play Seetha Josyam created much controversy in literary world. Similarly his criticism on Gurajada as edited by Avasarala Surya rao upset communists.Narla published research works on Vemana, Kandukuri veeresalingam.
Narla evolved from Journalism into Humanism and published several critical research works during his last days. They include The Truth about the Gita, an essay on upanishads and puranas, Man and his world; Gods goblins and men.
Narla kept his diaries with details. Some of them are kept in State archives, Hyderabad. India.

Dedications

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V.R.Narla dedicated his books to Devulapalli Krishna Sastri, V.M.Tarkunde, M.N.Roy, Prem nath Bazaz, N.Innaiah etc.
Narla has big family with eight children. All of them are doctors and except the eldest daughter Ms Sarada, all are settled in USA.
Dr Meenakshi is in Phoenix, USA. Dr Mohan das is in New York and he is an outstanding researcher in cell biology. Dr Durga Das is cardiologist in Detroit, USA. Dr Lakshman Das is in Richmond, Virginia. Dr Uma, Dr Chandra and Dr Rama are all in New York State , practicing doctors.
Narla participated in cultural, reformative and rationalist movements.He was advisor to the government of Andhra Pradesh on cultural affairs during 1982-85 when N T Rama rao was chief minister.
Narla encouraged intercaste marriages and three of his children followed his advice through intercaste weddings.
His wife Sulochana faithfully kept his library intact and helped him during crisis periods. The library was donated to B R Ambedkar Open University in Hyderabad, India. It is available for public to do research.
In the beginning of his journalist career Narla was associated with few periodicles like Congress, Jothi, Prajamitra and contributed articles to Bharati, Krishna Patrika.
Narla`s writings are published in 12 volumes( 4 in English).
He was honored Andhra, Nagarjuna, Sri Venkateswara Universities for his outstanding contributions in Journalism and humanist thought.

Seetha Josyam, Telugu play of Narla

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SEETHAI JOSIYAM: by Narla Venkateswara Rao, Sahitya Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, 35, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 30.
WHY DID I DECLINE THE SAHITYA ACADEMI AWARD?

THOUGH THE person in charge of publication at the Sahitya Akademi has goofed up the sub-title as "the Telugu novel that won the Sahitya Akademi prize", the book under review is actually a drama. The translator has chosen only parts of Narla's foreword that speaks of the questions that troubled him when reading Valmiki and the answers he had sought to make up on the basis of the original epic itself, which is a pity.
Of course, the drama was written in those days when many Indians still followed the Western version of an Aryan subjugation of what was termed as the Dravidian South. Naturally, Narla was engaged in battling the faith of the learned as well as the common people in the efficacy and supremacy of the Vedas that were supposed to have been written by Aryans. Those were the days when the Dravidian movement was at the apex of its fighting spirit.
Narla has chosen Sita as his mouthpiece. She is hardly 17 but speaks caustically throughout the drama and is, of course, the very anti-thesis of the princess in the epic. We do see Sita's sharp (but brief) words in the Ayodhya and Yuddha Kandas, and these few words of Valmiki may have given Narla the clue to create his Sita.
Her pert verbal clashes with Lakshmana, her insulting words to Brahmins and her scathing remarks on spiritual powers exemplify the well-worn maxim that nothing fails like excess. Epic heroines like Sita lend themselves to transformatory creations, but if someone goes totally against their basic character, the result becomes an aesthetic and moral failure.
All the same, Narla's Sita remains an unforgettable entrant to Telugu literature. She exemplifies the helplessness of feminist criticism in a largely patriarchal world.
We carry for long Sita's prophecy ringing in our ears: "For the sake of your dynastic pride, in some future time you might leave me helpless and alone in the deep forest." That is what happened in the Ramayana and that is what has been happening all these millennia.
PREMA NANDAKUMAR
Narla V R conducted reading sessions in Madras, Vijayawada and Hyderabad as pre publication survey. Several literary critics attended those meetins .Some of them are Palagummi Padmaraju, B S R Krishna, Puranam Subrahmanya Sarma,Nanduri Rama mohan Rao, Kappagantula Satyanarayana.
Seetha Josyam was translated into several languages in India.

It is really very reprehensible that a person like me who for nearly half century fought for the cause of freedom of opinion and expression should now be called an enemy of this very cause. Though I have repeatedly clarified that I have absolutely no opposition to adverse criticism of my literary works, in the context of withdrawal of my earlier consent to receive the award for my Telugu play “Seetha Josyam”, those who have been hurling abuses at me have conveniently overlooked this fact. I hope, I would forgiven if I place all material before the public so as to enable them to judge the correctness or otherwise of my stand.
Subsequent to the selection of my play for the Telugu award of 1981, a sub editor of the very academy, wrote a criticism of four pages wherein myself and my play have been denigrated, and what was worse, the official periodical of the Academy in May-June issue published this criticism. “One who is living under the façade of twentieth century Indian Culture”, “one who is under the illusion of living under attacks,” “one who takes a view first, and then looks for reasons,” “one who wants to establish the image of revolt” “a much protesting woman” “an immature college debator” “a fanatic” are some of the epithets hurled at directly or impliedly at me in this analysis, which is described as critical but not harsh.
When I questioned the propriety of this act, the editor of the periodical conceded it was a tarnishing act. He even went a step further and said that there was unrestrained zeal in upholding freedom of opinion. The Academi Secretary, of his own accord clarified further: To exhibit bad taste while criticizing a work selected for Academi’s Award. Certainly brings down the prestige of the Academi, and when such a criticism appears in the periodical of the Academi, it adds insult to injury, he said.
After examining the statements of these two responsible office-bearers, I decided to close all further correspondence on this issue. So I laid down two conditions namely that they must make amends by publishing of all correspondence on this subject in the periodical should forthwith be stopped. I wish to empasise that the second condition is confined only to the official periodical of the Acadmi. Since both the editor and the secretary have wholeheartedly conceded that publishing of a criticism denigrating my play after the announcement of academy’s award to my play was first of all a mistake, I think, this condition was appropriate. The demand that there should be no repetition was appropriate. The demand that there should be no repetition of what has been admitted to be a mistake does not come into conflict with either freedom of opinion or freedom of expression.
Since the Secretary of the Academi assured me “decisively” (to put it in his own words) That both these conditions would be fully implemented, I thought the issue had been resolved satisfactorily; but soon I realized that it was wrong to have felt so. A well engineered smear campaign was started in newspapers undoubtedly by a small group of the Academi. A prominent English daily hurled a question at me though its additional editorial: “Can an author become a censor also?” It was surprising that the same writer had a little earlier mentioned that “He (Narla) says that he would not have objected to it (that criticism) it if had appeared elsewhere. “When he was aware of my stand that I am ready to be subjected to criticism anywhere outside the periodical of the Academy, where is the question of the author himself playing the role of a censor also?
Of late this issue engaging the attention of the President of the Academi, and he has written a confidential letter to its Secretary. In his letter, he had alternative to accepting that a
“great impropriety” has taken place. To put it in his own words, “A great impropriety has occurred on account of publication of a condemnatory criticism of the book in the periodical of the Academi at a time when the Academi has honoured the book with its award and this has resulted in injustice to its author, but …….”. However, this “but” strongly gives scope to the continuation of the already occurred “great impropriety”, by keeping the pages of the periodical open to the debate on the issue. The President has tried to draw justification for his views from the poor old Voltaire’s grave. I do know as much as the Academi President knows, that Voltaire did say, “I do not agree with what you say, but I shall fight till the end, for your right to say it.” However, Voltaire certainly did not intend to fight till the end for any one’s right to repeat “great impropriety.”
Without going into further details, I only wish to state this much. From beginning to end this has been a sorry episode. I wonder whether the Academi desired to honour me or condemn me. I was actively associated with the Academi when Jawaharlal Nehru, Radhakrishnan and Suniti Kumar Chaterjee was subjected to calumny by the Academi through its own periodical at any time. I am sure that all self respecting authors will agree with me that in view of the manner in which the Academi has dealt with me. I had no alternative but to refuse the award.

Narla Collection of Books

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Narla library in B R Ambedkar Open University

Sri Narla Venkateswara Rao, popularly known as “Narla” was born on 1st December, 1908 into a Telugu family of Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, India. His initial education was through Hindi Medium though he later took his B.A. Degree from Andhra University. Journalism, not very popular or remunerative in those days, had been the first love of Narla who started his career with Swarajya on a paltry salary of rupees twenty five per month in 1935. Prior to joining Swarajya he had contributed to Bharathi, Samadarsini, Prajamitra as a freelance journalist in Telugu. His publications Swadesh Samsthanamulu and Neti Russia had brought him recognition and fame. After a few stints with Samadarsini and Prajamitra, he joined as News Editor of Andhra Prabha on 1st August, 1938. Thereafter he became the Editor and continued in that capacity till 1959. Under his editorship, Prabha’s circulation grew to a phenomenal 57,000. He wielded his pen against the mighty and moulded public opinion according to his world view. Whether it was Prakasam or Viswanatha or Rajagopalachari or Ranga or the communists, he spared none. Under his stewardship Andhra Jyothi shifted the business of journalism from a fight against the establishment to a pursuit of development symbolizing post independent, resurgent India. During the same period he published several short-plays, collections of poems, Kottagadda, Kaaka Sapatakam, narlavarimata, Jagannatakam, and monographs on Vereesalingam and Vemana for Central Sahitya Akademi. Narla became a Rajya Sabha member in 1958 and again in 1965. He made his presence felt in Parliament by his eloquence and constructive ideas. He extensively toured foreign countries and several parts of India in his capacity as a Member of Parliament and Press Council of India. Since his contributions to literature, journalism and politics are manifold, it is difficult to fit his monumental genius into any one frame. He was a man of many achievements, but of them all, Narla brought journalism from the elite to the masses, from the smoke-filled drawing rooms to the grassroots, from classicism to colloquialism. Narla did to journalism what Sri Sri did to poetry, he brought it down to earth from cloudy heights. His death in 1985 left a void in the field of Andhra Journalism.
In fond memory of late Narla, his wife late Mrs.Narla Sulochana and her family members donated his entire life collection of over 18,000 books to Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University Library, Hyderabad, India in 1995 together with an amount of rupees one lakh for organizing an endowment lecture on his birthday every year. In 2002, the family members have generously donated another five lakhs rupees for maintaining the library. The university contributed a matching grant of rupees four lakhs and the total amount of ten lakhs is made into fixed deposit. The income from this deposit is utilized to organize the endowment lecture and for maintenance of library.
The university has been organizing the lecture meeting every year on 1st December. The topics were:
In 1996 – Smt. V.S. Ramadevi, Former Governor, Karnataka State on “Reservation for Women in Legislation”

In 1997 – Sri. G.S. Bhargava, noted journalist on “Corruption in Public Life”.

In 1998 – Dr.N.Jayaprakash Narayana, Lok Satta Convener on “ Political Parties and Democracy”

In 1999 - Sri. Potturi Venkateswara Rao, Former Chairman, A.P., Press Academy on
“Language Standards in Telugu Journals”

In 2000 – Sri. T.H. Choudary, Former advisor to Govt. of A.P. on “Frightful Problems in India – Favoured Solutions”

In 2001 – Sri C. Raghavachary, noted journalist on “Narla – Path Finder in Telugu Journalism”

In 2002 – Sri. A.B.K Prasad, Senior Journalist on “Foreign Investment in Print Media”

In 2003 – Sri I.Venkata Rao, Former Chairman, A.P.Press Academy on “Telugu News Papers” – Development and priorities”

In 2004 - Sri.V.Hanumantha Rao, Renowned Journalist on “Parliamentary Democracy and people”

In 2005 - Sri.K.Ramachandra Murthy,Editor,Andhra Jyothi on “Newspapers – Society”

In 2006 - Sri.M.V.R.Sastry, Editor,Andhra Bhoomi on '' Telugu Newspapers – Credibility”

In 2007 - Sri M.Rajendra, Former Editor, India Today(Telugu) on “ Journalism – Narla's Perspective”

The subject-wise collection of books in Narla Library are as follows:

000 Computer science, information & general works - 486 books
100 Philosophy & psychology - 849
200 Religion - 1404
300 Social sciences - 540
400 Language - 256
500 Science - 298
600 Technology - 220
700 Arts & recreation - 722
800 Literature - 5929
900 History & geography - 7296

Database of Narla collection is created and is accessible through Local Area Network. Shortly, the above collection may also be accessible through the internet. These books are available to general public for reference on all working days between 10.30 A.M. to 1.30 P.M.
Dr.Sujata, director , Library of the University.

Telugu Version of the truth about Gita

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e-book on Narla’s work launched
HYDERABAD: The Telugu translation of ‘The truth about Gita’, written in English by noted journalist late V.R. Narla was launched by Andhra Jyothi editor K. Ramchandra Murthy in the form of an e-book here on Wednesday. It could be accessed on "http://centerforinquiryindia.net/india" N. Innaiah, chairman, Center for Inquiry translated it.

The Truth about the Gita

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A more apt title would have been "The Myth of the Gita". For all that is traditionally said about it is open to serious doubt. Was a great war was really fought on the plain now hollowed as Kurukshetra? In case it was fought, did every principality in the India of the day, and some even beyond India, join one side or the other? What was the date of the war? Was there a Krishna, Vasudeva who elected to be charioteer of Arjuna? Did Arjuna, said to be singlehanded victor of many battles, lose his nerve when he saw the mighty army of Duryodhana arrayed against the smaller one of his own? Granting that he was, in fact shaken by he thought of having to kill his kith and kin to gain a kingdom, could a pot talk by Krishna prepare his mind for the terrible carnage which followed? And did the two vast armies, poised for the battle, stand still while the question and answer session
between Arjuna and Krishna went on for the better part of a day? Another important question that faces is thus: In case the Bhagvad Gita, the song, Celestial, was actually sung by Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, how did it come down to
us? The full text of the Gita, says the Mahabharata was reported at the end of the day by Sanjaya to the old and blind Dhritarashtra sitting miles away in his palace near Hastinapura. Not only did Sanjaya report every word that dropped from the blessed lips of Krishna, but he also described the setting of the divine discourse without missing the slightest gesture by the head or hand or the very Thought lifting of an eye-brow. Unseen by anyone, unhurt by any weapon, he moved freely from one side of the battle front to the other. Day and night made no difference to him. He knew no fatigue and worked round the clock. He read the innermost thoughts of
everyone as though he had an open book before him. Naturally this leads us to another
question. how did Sanjaya manage to do what sounds incredible? How could he put the inventions of the present scientific and technological age, the radio, television, and video to shame? The traditionalists will, of course, retort that even to pose uch question is silly. They will tell you that the sages of that bygone age were only a notch below the gods and they had the poser to grant any boon, and Vyasa was a supreme lord of boons. And so, when Dhritarashtra, the congenitally blind Kuru king keenly waiting to follow fortunes of the war , prayed that Sanjaya his crony, be given the boon seeing and hearing and knowing everything. Vyasa gave it readily.
Obviously, these miraculous powers were given only for the duration of the war. For we do not know of Sanjaya having used them afterwards. Furthermore there was a point when these powers let him down. On the last day of the war, Satyaki spotted him and
might have put him to the sword but for the timely intervention of Vyasa. Brushing aside the traditionalists who put pious gloss over ugly facts, it should be bluntly stated here that Dhritarashtra, thus favoured by Vyasa was Vyasa's illegitimate son. Can a holy man like Vyasa be guilty of lechery? Yes, he was. And he was himself the
natural son of Satyavati, the offspring of her pre-marital sex with Parasara a great sage. And in his turn, the greater sage, Vyasa, was the father of four illegitimate sons in all. Frankly, the age of the Mahabharata was the Permissive Age par excellence. In that age drinking and dicing were customary. Cattle-lifting and the abduction of prospective brides were widely prevalent. Fratricide and genocide were not uncommon. To ensure royal succession and to avoid sure passage to hell, the birth of a son even outside wedlock was actively promoted. Indeed, it was at the
insistance of Satyavati, the queenmother, that Vyasa impregnated her two royal daughter-in-law, Ambika and Ambalika. For their dissolute husband died prematurely without leaving a son to continue the Bharat dynasty. So wide spread was the permissiveness of the age that sexual looseness, bordering on depravity, was not at all confined to the Bharat dynasty. It was very much present in all dynasties as well. To traditionalists all this may be another proof of the miraculous power of sacrifices, but to a modern man with a liberated mind this can only be skullduggery that was being widely practiced by the so called sages. It is quite likely that the illegitimate children of an illegitimate sage were palmed off on a willing Drupada as
gifts from heaven. It looks as though it was also the age of illegitimacy. For, we find, apart from royal princess, the two leading teachers of archery of the age (both of them from the priest caste) were also illegitimate; reference here is Thought to Drona and Kripa. Of course, their questionable origins are hidden, as usual, behind smoke screen of sanctimony. Can any one who cares for naked truth deny that fornication in its grossest form was part of the more important of the Vedic sacrifices? There is ample justification for referring here at some length to what is
frankly putrid stuff. For our traditionalists extol the Mahabharata day in, and day out as the Fifth Veda. They tell us that it is the longest epic in world literature, indeed an encyclopedia of all knowledge, a verifiable treasure, house of history and polity, of sociology and philosophy, of religion and ethics, and of much else. They even tell us that what is not found in its pages is not worth knowing. To counter their balderdash, it needs to be said that the Mahabharata is also Vyasa's Thesaurus of Vice. Are our minds so conditioned by our puerile Puranas that we can be fooled by any fanatic nonsense? Is there something basically wrong with our national psyche? I am pretty sure that most of the contributors to Mahabharata fast during an eclipse and take a bath at its end, feeling joyous that by their piety they saved the sun or the moon from mortal danger. It is clear proof that they were born believers, grew up as believers and one day will die as believers. They are incapable of doubting, of questioning and of putting anything to the acid test of reason. In their view to doubt, any old belief is to be an infidel, to question it is to be guilty of sacrilege, to seek to put it to test of reason is to condemn oneself to a long term in hell. I know that these are strong words, perhaps harsh words, but they are, I submit, not uncalled for in view of the credulity, bordering on imbecility, which is much in evidence in every sphere of our national life today.
Without any apology for drifting too far from Kurukshetra and the chariot of Arjuna stationed on no man's land to serve for the time being as a pulpit for Krishna, let us now return to the sermon he delivered in the form of the Gita. When Sanjaya, the war correspondent of yore, was giving graphic oral report to Dhritarashtra that evening was anyone recording it on electronic tape for the use of posterity? No, but was not Vyasa there to work wonders? He had a prodigious brain unmatched even by the latest computer. With its help, he edited four Vedas, composed the Mahabharata, authored eighteen major Puranas, wrote Brahma Sutra and did a lot more. To him reproducing the text of the Gita which is after all a tiny fragment of the mighty and weighty Mahabharata was child's play. And he did that many years after the Kurukshetra War. Along with the rest of that epic, he taught the Gita to four of his disciples, besides his son. One of the four was Vaisampayana, and like his Guru, he also had a computer brain. When Janamejaya the grete grand-son of Arjuna, performed a great sacrifice to extirpate the Naga clan, Vaisampayana recited for the
edification of the great assembly at the sacrifice the whole of Mahabharata, including the Gita. On that occasion Souti Ugrasravas was present and he, in his turn, recited it from first to last for the benefit of Sounaka and a host of Thought other sages who performed a twelveyear sacrifice in the Naimisa Forest. It is not on record as to who took up the role of recital from Souti. However that may be, the point is that between the original teaching of the Gita by Krishna and its recital by
Souti at least a century must have elapsed. For after the Kurukshera War, Yudhishtira rules for thirty-six years; Parikshit, his successor, ruled for sixty
years. It is not known when exactly Janamejaya launced genocide of the Nagas as a measure of revenge for their assassination of his father Parikshit. Nor is known definitely how many years later Sounaka initiated his sacrifice at Naimisa Forest. But of one thing there can be no doubt. The time-lag between Krishna's teachingof the Gita and its recital by Souti cannot be taken as less than a century. Not one but several centuries must have elapsed from the time Souti to the time of the final
reduction of the Gita in writing. If we have to give credence to traditionalists,
that gap is to be reckoned not in centuries but in millennia. Over such a wide gap in time did the text of the Gita as taught by Krishna retain is original size or shape or the scope of its message? It can, of course, be argued by the traditionalists that the Vedas were reduced to writing after a much longer gap than the Gita and yet even nuances of its pronunciation retain their original purity. But the Gita is no Veda and even now its scriptural authority is not universally accepted. In fact, none seems to have taken the Gita very seriously before Adi Sankaracharya who lived in A.D. eighth century, and wrote a commentary on it as a part of campaign to destroy Buddhism. Not to speak of others, neither the Arya
Samajists nor Brahmo Samajists attach much value to the Gita. And so, any analogy sought to be drawn between the purity of the text of he Vedas and of the Gita can hardly be relevant. The improbable setting in which the Gita is said to have been taught and the dubious way in which it is supposed to have been handed down to us are
good enough reasons to convince a rational mind that it is a myth. Having first read the Gita when I was a fresher at college and having given very many years to the study of innumerable commentaries on it, I am convinced that all that is said about the Gita, including its authorship, its time and place of composition, its transmission from generation to generation, its importance as compendium of a unified and profound system of philosophy with relevance for all people and all times, in a word, everything that is sedulously propagated about it is a myth.
V R Narla
(From Introduction to Book
The Truth about the Gita,
published in 1988)

The Telugu translation of V R Narla`s critical book in English entitled: Truth about the Gita

Opinions on V.R. Narla by Eminent People

2008-08-08T10:58:00.000+05:30

D. Anjeneyelu

Narla is power to reckon with in Telugu journalism. During the decade and more after Independence, perhaps no single individual has played as a significant a role as he in the evolution of political ideas and the education of the Andhra masses. Even in the years before political freedom, there had been few others with such a marked influence on public opinion with the possible exception of the late Mutnuri Krishna Rao (of The Krishna Patrika). He has not been content merely to reflect public opinion, where it could be gauged without difficulty, but has striven to create it where it is lacking and shape it after is heart’s desire’ where it happens to be inchoate. He has attained popularity without playing to the gallery and achieved power and prestige that owe little to extraneous forces and adventitious factors. And all this –against heavy odds, and in none too propitious circumstances.
A journalist is sometimes described as a gentleman in a hurry and he gives the impression of being a half-brother to the politician. Narla has nothing in common wit the typical journalist of popular imagination the hustling gate-crasher, the flashy go-getter and the dashing dare-devil. Rather phlegmatic by temperament, e as no easy enthusiasms and does not believe in making quick friendships by the breezy, hail-fellow- well-met’ methods of ‘contact men’. Laconic in speech, he is not eager to hold forth on all things under te sun with the jaunty air of professional omniscience that comes natural to many who want to impress. He is willing to listen and learn, to wait and watch. Not for him the trappings of genius and the outer hahiliments of eminence. Greatness can be quiet and humble. No reader of the Andhra Prabha) which he has built up during the last two decades or so, ever since its very inception) can fail to realize that here is an editor who knows is own mind as well as the reader’s. Te editorial columns and the news columns bear touch of one with personality that cannot be hidden even in the mammoth set-up of chain newspapers. Narla has made of the daily newspapers from an indifferent sheet to be read, like part of an ancient book, at one’s leisure after the day’s work, to something essential and vital to be discussed and absorbed as an indispensable element in our daily life. If he had not actually started the practice of using simple, spoken Telugu in the leaders (the pioneer’s credit probably goes to Thapi Dharma Rao), he has definitely helped to establish the vogue beyond the realm of controversy. In the presentation of news, he has effectively adopted the modern technique and methods of the English news papers. The art of page make-up was virtually unknown to the Telugu newspapers, which were just trying to serve up the news anyhow, before Narla came on the scene and transformed the face of the newspapers with his double-column headings and ‘Intros’ and banner headlines, spicy box items and smart picture captions. (After doing the day’s leader, he still continues, everyday to look after the make-up of all the pages standing at the stone for two hours or more at a stretch). Bred in the best traditions of the British Press, he has succeeded in making his newspaper popular without being cheap, bright without being yellow, and effective without being sensational.
It has hardly an accident that Narla had made a mark in journalism, as he did, though he is favoured by luck. He has allied a sense of mission to a keen awareness of the hard realities of relentless profession that has also to sub serve the interests of big industry the while it strives to work for the cause of the masses. Born with no silver spoon in his mouth. Narla had none of the advantages, in early life, of patrimony or patronage. He did not have the average means even for going through the college and obtaining a degree. He did, no doubt, secure his degree, maintaining himself in college partly on his own earnings through part-time work in Krishna Patrika and regular contributions to the English and Telugu Press. The thirst for knowledge as always been there and urge for expression. Quite early in his college days, he did caught the itch for writing. And the patriotic fervor (or fever, as it is more appropriately termed, in one’s adolescence) gave an edge to his youthful exuberance and often landed him in trouble because of his terrorist associations. Narla felt the call to be journalist. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than to call himself “V. R. Narla, B.A., Journalist” in those days. But journalism was not yet a profession. It might have been a mission with some; but generally speaking, it was a refuge for rejects from other professions – briefless lawyers, unsuccessful politicians, those who have missed the first or second class necessary to be college lecturers, and the like. There could be no training facilities worth the name in a profession in such a state. But, Narla managed to make the best use of the resources available to him. It struck him to get hold of old English news papers used for packing in grocer’s shops and get from them enough material for political comments on world affairs in the local weekly. While still in Masulipatnam, he has had a good grounding in Indian politics and a fair grasp of international affairs, as was evident from his freelancing efforts.
It was in Madras that Narla’s regular career as a journalist began in the early thirties. He owes much, in his early attempts to enter journalism, to the kindness and help of the late S.G.Acharya (of Chitragupta and the Prajabadhu), whom he remembers with gratitude. He had varying spells of work on a number of English and Telugu newspapers in Madras including the Swarajya and gained all-round experience. It is curious to recall that Narla had, in those youthful years, a preference for writing in
English, being less at one in Telugu and was once actually on the point of leaving for Bangalore to work on an English weekly. The Andhra Prabha was started on August 15, 1938, and Khasa Subba Rao was the first editor, succeeded soon by the late Nyapati Narayanamurti. Narla joined, its stiff as news editor and attracted attention by dint of his devotion to duty, added to a natural flair for newspaper work. His succession to editorship in the early forties was a logical culmination of his strenuous training and purposeful endeavour. He did not take the editorship as another step in the ladder of promotion. It was the spirit of a trust that he took it up. And there has been no question of public interest, on which he has not brought to bear an original approach during the last seventeen or eighteen years of his tenure as editor. Nor has there been any occasion of anxiety to the nation in which he hesitated to take the plunge and rally the Andhra Public to play its proper role.
Narla spurns to easier course in suggestions solutions to the burning problems agitating the country in general and the Andhras in particular. He is not afraid to take an unpopular stand in the controversies of the hour, if he thinks it best in the larger interests of his people and everyone in the long run. On the separation of the Andhra State, for instance, he did not want the city to be a stumbling block in the way of attaining the State. His words, like C.R.’s formula on Pakistan, were, at that time, none too palatable to many in the heat of the moment, partly due to sentiment and association, but his solution, though it involved the abandonment of just rights, proved to be the more realistic, and the only practical one. He has an open mind and is ready for compromises that do not militate against first principles, whether it be on the location of the new capital, the merger of Andhra and Telengana or the sharing of river waters between Andhra and Madras. He fought against the Krishna Pennar project proposal tooth and nail until it was dropped and campaigned for the Narndikonda Project which now goes under the name of Nagarjunasagar. But he was not against the sharing of the surplus water of the Godavari with Madras State. The needs of the ryots of Kirshna and Guntur districts should come first in harnessing the water of the Krishna, he argued. He is always prepared to decide every question on its merit.
While he is not over-fond of indulging in controversies, he never fights shy of them when it is necessary to give the lead and take sides in the process. On the issue of the leadership of the Legislature Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh, his attitude was unequivocal and the vigorous leaders and effective cartoons of his paper, which were talked of every where in Ahdhra, were fully justified by later events. He has his finger on the pulse or his readers. On the issue of official language, he struck the golden mean between the out-and-out enthusiast for the indefinite continuance of English and the Hindi Extremists who would like to give short shrift to English. He is quite aware of the value of English as the window that opens out to the world at large and as the fountain-head of modern knowledge, as he had possibly read and purchased more English books than many editors of English newspapers. But this has, in no way, dimmed his love for the mother-tongue or deflected him from the objective of enriching Telugu idioms with the wealth of new ideas and thought patterns as well as modes of expression from English. Of course, he always takes care to see that the new found gains are not at the expense of the genius of the Telugu language and its basic traditions rooted in the life of the people. The service done by the Andhra Pradesh in collecting lakhs of rupees for rushing relief to those hit by the Godavari floods and the famine-stricken in Rayalaseema, by donations through the paper and through dramas by well-known film stars, is still fresh in people’s memory. The leaders of Narla in this connection, written with great feeling, rarely failed to strike a responsive chord in the readers’ hearts. They were like personal appeals to every man to do his bit and none stinted to contribute his mite. Though Andhra affairs are naturally the first concern of the editor of Telugu daily, Narla never stricts his study to questions of local, regional or even national importance. He has had a particular interest in foreign affairs and is monthly articles in the Andhra Jyothi were marked by clarity of analysis and simplicity of expression. Party politics cannot be ignored by any journalist but Narl’s accent is on principles rather than on personalities. He has refused to burn incense at idols, political or religious, secular or sacred. He is a worshipper at the shine of Democracy and has left no stone unturned in the uphill task of stabilizing the democratic forces in Andhra against the onslaught of totalitarian hordes masquerading as paragons of Constitutional virtue, but ever on the prowl under the cover of dark and itching to seize power by hook or by crook. For authoritative pronouncements on cabinet responsibility parliamentary government and other issues of democracy he has imbedded the board principles enunciated by Laski, Bryce and Dicey and would often refer to May’s ‘Parliamentary Practice’. When necessary.
The newspaper might be the Bible of to-day and the wastepaper of the day after, but no editor who wants to educate his masters can always be absorbed entirely by passing phases and transient problems. He has to go a little deeper as Narla has often done in his exposition of the duties of the citizen awakened to freedom and his conception of Indian culture. He is for a judicious admixture of the old and the new. He peeps at old customs and traditions through the microscope of new values. Rejecting all that has outlived its utility, he wants the rest to befitted to the requirements of modern times. He is for the preservation and promotion of what is worth preserving in our culture but he does not agree that it could be done only by the renovation of temples and the compulsory study of Sanskrit in schools.
Narla has come up the hard way. He had met with many disappointments in his early life, but that has not warped his soul and distorted his outlook. He has had more than his share of hardship and suffering, but that has not soured his spirit. He has managed to keep cool head and an equable temper in the midst of the bustle and hurry of modern life and the noise and bustle of a daily newspaper. He has acquired the perspective that gives poise to his personality. He is a picture of power in repose and strength in reserve. He has done much already, but his golden age is not in the past.
- D. Anjaneyulu (From Half Way 1958)

SIDELIGHT ON NARLA
EDITOR NARLA

Vasan (Left) & Khasa Subba Rao (Right)

I have known Sri Narla from the time his career as a journalist began. For a brief interlude he worked as a reporter on Sri Prakasam’s English daily Swarajya. He real chance came when he was appointed Editor of Andhra Prabha. This was nearly 17 years age. He bought to the editorship of Andhra Prabha from his reporting days a vivid consciousness of the importance of direct contact with people and of first-hand assimilation of the outstanding issues affecting their interests and welfare. He was no more desk editor. Realizing that faithful portrayal of contemporary events was the real work of a newspaper, he sought knowledge and information in direct investigation. It redeemed him professionally from the theoretical desk academics which mars so large a mass of our news paper work, investing it with unreality and artificially. He achieved genuineness by actual contact with the affairs of the workaday world. It was heightened by two of his distinctive attributes, intellectual and moral probity, and perseverance in the spirit of the workman throught all phases of responsibility. Narla is a devil for work because he had the good luck of stumbling on life’s great secret of realizing joy and happiness in hard work. He acquired pride of vocation through joy of work. It enabled him to cost away all tempting pressures as unthinkable defections from duty. Indian language-papers have been thrown into, experience of a somewhat unusual kind for which the old traditional idiom and phraseology were not always sufficient of adequate. In this dilemma many practicing journalists resorted to literal translations of English terms. The language they evolved became in consequence anemic and stilted. Narla broke away from this easy path of verbal equations and took great pains to discover for each new idea comprised in modern experience an effective descriptive term suitable to the genius of the language. The credit for having developed Telugu into an efficient instruments equal to all the emergencies of this atomic age under the spur of daily necessity in the performance of newspaper work, belongs to Narla, more perhaps than to any of his journalistic compeers. In the profession of journalism the reward are uncertain, the hazards are in plenty, the stain and the wear and tear of body and mind terrific, life is precarious, and nothing is safe and settled. Narla had his full share of the difficulties and nightmares of this grueling profession in his early days. He entered it without any influence to back him. By dint of hard work and sustained integrity of character, he has made himself the most powerful influence in the Telugu-speaking world.
Because of the delight he found in his vocation, Narla has been able to turn it into a stepping stone for universality of understanding. Unhappy persons cannot spread the joy of life among their fellowmen. Sorrow is perhaps Providence’s way of enriching one’s sympathies, but those who lapse into moroseness cannot go far along that way. The professional success which as come to Narla redeemed him from the engrossing jealousies of the defeated, and by his own introspection he has learned to reject the trivial purposes that loom so large in the vision of so many aspirants to literary fame. An active life lived in the centre of affairs of historical significance has enabled him to look the truth of things in the face, and a cheerful unspoilt spirit has served to endow his comprehension of reality with good nature, purposefulness and balance. These virtues make is plays and other literary work eminently worthwhile.
With unremitting toil and honesty of purpose Narla has won his way to the affections of people of all walks and stations in Andhra Pradesh. His life is an epitome of hard work well done, and in a way it reveals, for all to see, to what pinnacle of glory devotion to duty in the untrammeled path of journalism can take a man. In politics, unlike in journalism, the fallacies of the leaders bind the practitioner, and the scope for individuality of expression is limited. It remains to be seen to what extent any journalist, unless he is himself the top leader of a political organization, can conform to the steam-roller discipline of party politics without surrendering what is most precious in the function of the press. I hope therefore that in the days to come the lure of parliamentary politics will not divert Narla from a vocation of such high purpose where he is so much at home and has given such a good account of himself already.
- by Khasa Subba Rao (From Half way 1958)

POET, ESSAYIST AND PLAYWRITER

- Kolavennu Ramakotiswara Rao

Narla is a ‘double first’, eminent as a journalist and as a litterateur. Journalism, in its higher levels, shades off into literature. A considerable portion of the literature in any modern language consists of poems, stories, essays and plays which had appeared originally in the leading periodicals or in the literary supplements to the dailies. Narla has helped the growth of Telugu literature through journalism and has himself emerged as a writer of the front rank.
Being a lover of life, the ‘many coloured dome’, and a keen observer of men and things, Narla displays in the writings a rare comprehension of the mental attitudes and the emotional reactions of people in every walk of life. His personal attitude is that of a modern intellectual convinced that progress consists in a perpetual forward movement and that old-time tradition is usually a deadweight making for stagnation. This outlook is reflected in every line of his writing.
Of his published works, Mataa Manthee and Pitcha Paattee and collections of occasional essays in which Narla resorts to the light, convensional manner for the expression of his views on matters which interest him. And is interests are varied. They range from the gathering of books to the smoking of cigarettes, from the study of the classics to a dissertation on beards. There is humour, vivacity and sarcasm in these essays, allied to a comprehension of the inwardness of a situation. And all through, there is a sunny smile of the inwardness of a situation. And all through, there is a sunny smile for the writer can laugh at himself as at others. In recalling incidents or relating anecdotes, Narla impresses us by his powerful memory. One passage, in particular where he describes a rainy evening on the Madras beach, rises to height of eloquence. The loneliness and the agony of an aspiring young man, fighting an apparently unending battle, are here conveyed to us, along, with the glory of comradeship with the ocean. A delightful picture of felicity and contentment is given in the sketch of the child who interrupts his father with “impossible” queries and the other child which crawls up to him to be fondled. The quiet Sunday morning intended for writing is ruined, but here is the joy of fulfillment.
Narlavaari Maata and Jagannatakam are volumes of verse which introduce Narla, the poet. Narla is an admirer of the medieval Telugu poet, Vemana, whose aphoristic verse has become part of the common speech of Andhra. Vemana was a philosopher who read the book of life, and with his penetrating vision pierced its inmost secrets. Like Vemana, Narla employs the medium of the simple four-line verse with a refrain at the end: “True is the word of Narla.” Everyday incidents which indicate the fret and the fever of life, and the wider movements in the economic and political sphere, form the subject matter of these words of wisdom. The first two lines sum up a situation, and the third is a reflection on it, rapier-like in its quality. Speaking of elections which play so important a part in our life he says, “If you elect a buffalo how will it till the land?” Or again, wit regard to Socialism and brotherhood he says, “How can these exist alongside of communal feelings, “for” can a calf subsist with a tiger?” But these verses are not all of equal quality and sometimes the politician over-shadows the artist :
“In a changing human society
The mean fellow who is not a Socialist
Is just a blot on humanity.”
About Communism he says:-
“Class-war is not the only road to Heaven
Nor is progress achieved only through bloodshed
And the great Marx is not the only Pathfinder.”
While the qualities of intellectual perception and pithy expression mark this volume, Jagannatakam (Drama of Life) reveals Narla as a poet gifted with emotion and imagination. The language takes on a real poetic quality and through is songs and poems, in diverse metres Narla wins a place among the important poets of the day. The odes to the “Ocean King” and to “The Spirit of Poesy” and the little piece “Mooka Bhasha” (Silent Eloquence) have moved me deeply, through their exquisite phrasing, their haunting melody and their rich emotion. In the “Cloud-Maiden” he strikes a new note:
“If the cloud-maiden melts and drops down to earth what matters! Had not the young Moon adorned her brow and had not the stars been like jasmine in her hair?”
The essays and poems are of high quality but it is Narla the play wright, who appeals to me most. Kotta Gadda – a collection of sixteen one-act plays – is his most distinctive contribution to recent Telugu literature. Here are combined sympathy and imagination, observation and apt expression. Narla’s sense of humour is here displayed to the best advantage. Through many years of travel study, Narla has gained intimacy with the modes of thought and the nuances of language of the common people in the villages, and of the sophisticated city-dwellers. He has the true play wright’s Prospero-like serenity of outlook, sharing men’s joys and sorrows without being submerged in them. In construction of plot, unfoldment of character and the finale these plays mark a new phase in the history of the Telugu play. Narla’s study of English and continental drama is extensive and he owes to that study some of the technique of his plays.
Katta Gudda, the title piece, mirrors the conflict between the points of view of the older and the younger generation. The father naturally loves the old soil and would prefer to struggle on in the dear surroundings of boyhood and youth. But the son wishes to face life in another village and to better the prospects of the family. The father who is adamant is finally overcome by is love for the grandson, from whom he cannot bear to be separated. So he too moves on to “new ground”. This is an intensely human situation and the play wright has brought out all its possibilities. ‘The Next Harvest’, ‘Unanimity of Opinion’, and ‘The Bridge’ are among the best in this collection. Narla’s contribution to Telugu literature is of great value. Sincerity, sanity and a refined taste are its dominant qualities. Behind them all is restrained emotion which expresses itself in love of Beauty. That Beauty is always around us; only, the eye must perceive it and the heart adore it !
- by K. Ramakotiswara Rao (From Half way 1958)

NARLA AND HIS PLACE IN TELUGU LITERATURE

- Thapi Dharma Rao (Tatagi)

It is title difficult for me to think of my friend and former colleague, Sri Narla, as a man who has completed fifty years of life. Whenever I think of him, I still him more or less as on the day he joined me as my news editor in Janavani, with his nose for news, his gift for apt head lines, his flair for page make-up, his readiness to learn from everything and everybody and his zest for life. As his chief for about a year, way back in 1936, I can speak at length about him as a journalist, but that aspect of his career perhaps needs no elaboration from me after his long, unbroken tenure of nearly seventeen years as an editor. I would, therefore, like to confine myself to Narla as a man of letters.
Though his literary output is not extensive, Narla has already secured for himself an hounoured place among the makers of modern Telugu literature.
His Narlavaari-Maata is pleasantly reminiscent of our beloved Vemana though with this difference: While Veman gave his sage verdicts on society and its problems as they existed in his day, Narla as portrayed in his own inimitable way the problems facing the present-day society and thus comes much nearer the hearts of the modern readers. There is yet another difference; Vemana oftentimes show a partisan spirit and puts a sting into his words; Narla, on the other hand, generally takes a philosophic view and speaks out his mind with the broad smile of an onlooker. With its mastery of idiom, its command and even flow of style and its sanity of observation, Narlavaari-Maata ranks high in literary merit and is sure to remain for long a cherished book of the Andhras.
In his collections of playlet, Kotta Gadda we see Narla with ever vigilant eyes and a heart keen on registering the life touches of the men and matters he encounters. Consequently, we have in the collection of one-act plays a true picture of the modern Andhra village with its joys and sorrows, its aims and aspirations, its struggles and triumphs. Narla’s versatility has herein evolved its own techniques and handled the various themes in masterly and progressive manner. No wonder, the playlets have capture the imagination of our young writers, some of whom are adopting them as their models. The two collections of Narla’s short essays display. At once his wide knowledge of Western literatures and his keen observation of our life and society. Herein he has supplied a long-felt want in our literature i.e., the essay on the lines of Lamb and Goldsmith.
Through his books Narla has given the lie direct to those who cry hoarse from the house-tops that Telugu journalism is proving a bad influence on the Telugu language. Though Narla is first and foremost a journalist, his books are no mean contribution to modern Telugu literature, a contribution for which the Andhras will ever remain grateful to him. It is hoped by me and by his numerous other friends and well-wishers that Narla continues his work in “fresh woods and pastures new” and further enriches our literature with his masterpieces.
- by Thapi Dharma Rao (From Half way 1958)

NARLA – A UNIQUE JOURNALIST
- KOKA SUBBA RAO

NARLA and I have trod apparently two different paths-I, the law and he, the journalism. Though appear to be different, they converge on the same ideal, viz., the up liftment of the society. They are the two potent and constructive instruments of the rule of law. Rule of law in democratic instruments of the rule of law. Rule of law in democratic countries has a rich content; it preserves freedom, controls autocratic power, and is a powerful instrument of socio-economic justice. Indeed, journalism has a larger share and responsibility in this regard. For, in a democracy, the ultimate sanction lies in public opinion and public opinion in its turn is shaped by constructive journalism. The appalling poverty of the country in all its different manifestations in mind, body, and spirit may to some extent be traced to public inertia. The main functions of the press, as I apprehend, are : (1) presentation of facts; (ii) fair criticism; (iii) reflecting public opinion; and (iv) educating and shaping public opinion.
Autocratic power considers press as its enemy number one, and it seeks to forge shackles on it directly through laws and indirectly through inducement by way of advertisements, subsidies, etc. Not and less insidious one is that of the business magnate, who control and finances the paper, for the paper for him is only a means to earn profit. The editor is expected to play his tune. To discharge the difficult and delicate function of and an editor in such adverse circumstances requires a man of high caliber and moral favour.
By equipment and experience NARLA has filled the role of an ideal editor. He is a voracious reader and there is no branch of relevant knowledge that is beyond his reach. He is equally well versed in English and Telugu literature, inn foreign and Indian philosophy, in history and political and social sciences. He has practical experience of Indian life and society, for he has passed from village to city, from poverty to prosperity, and from failure to success. He reached his ideal through hard work and dedication.
He has a style of his own in Telugu which is at the same time precise, original, and forceful. E coined scientific Telugu terminology to suit the dynamic needs of the society. He has freely drawn from the reservoir of erudition and experience and presented to the public all the causes he espoused in his own inimitable manner.
NARLA is a man of courage of conviction. Is moral courage is expressed in terms of objectivity. It is not concerned wit personalities but with the quality of their actions. For bad acts do not cease to be bad if done by “big” men. His paper effectively and at times even vehemently attacked corruption in its comprehensive sense in all its varied ramifications.
An editor may project his personality through his editorial or e may be polished or a finished conduit pipe of the manager’s ideas. NARLA’S conception of editor is of the first kind. His journalistic excellence in Telugu reached the highest water mark in his editorship of Andhra Prabha. Through the journal, NARLA played an important role in shaping public opinion in Andhra Pradesh. It was freely said that he had to resign the editorship of Andhra Prabha as he could not conform to the second type.
Thereafter, NARLA promoted Andhra Jyoti and is now running it in terms of his idealism. It does not live on governmental or proprietorial patronage. It expresses opinion objectively on men and matters; it seeks to educate public opinion on different aspects of human and state activity; it stoically bears the burden of integrity; it showed the way to others that there was no inherent conflict between success and integrity and that both could stand together.
NARLA is also literacy figure of high repute. I am not a scholar to evaluate his contribution to the Telugu literature. But I was accustomed to judge on expert evidence. Experts agree on his literary expertise. His sixteen one-act plays reveal his skill in characterization and dramatic construction; his collection of lyrics styled Jagannatakam are profound in thought, original in conception, and reflect conflicting emotions; Narlavari Mata, a book of aphorism, projects his condensed views on men and matters in the tradition of Vemana’s proverbs; his collection of essays, inspired by his deep knowledge of similar English literary forms, is his original contribution to the Telugu literature.
The Sahitya Akademi has rightly entrusted to NARLA the difficult and scholarly task of writing in English the biography of Veeresalingam. As expected, NARLA has brought out an admirable but concise biography of that “great social reformer and the father of modern Andhra.” I hope and trust that the best in him is still to come.
Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Indian Parliament, is best suited for NARLA’S temperament. His political, social, and literary background will certainly find expression and command respect in the cultivated debates of the Upper House. In the name of public good, freedom of press is now in peril. A more robust champion of the press cannot be found in and outside the council than NARLA. The necessary condition of the survival of free press is an united front of the press itself. NARLA will be its focal point.
NARLA is a gentleman and a loyal friend. The existence of men like NARLA in public life is a guarantee that all is not lost and there is still future for democracy in our country.
- by KOKA SUBBA RAO, Former Chief Justice of India

NARLA –UNIVERSAL PERSON

Justic A. Sambasiva Rao

If only NARLA could laugh a little more and smile a little more! How often I have wondered these days, whenever I have heard that he has not been keeping good health. Earnest and even serious as he is, he has paid little attention to rest and rejuvenation, amidst his treasures of art and in the company of is books. Frail in body, he as infinite capacity to re-charge and replenish his sources of energy and inspiration, from reading of books and appreciation of art, and also of course, from incessant smoking. Nobody, who knows him, can miss to notice his liking for smoking.
NARLA’S is a highly sensitive nature. His reactions are quick, sharp, and spontaneous. If good ideas and places and pieces of beauty evoke immediate appreciation and enjoyment in him. Injustice and insolence provoke him to the quick. Once his sensitive mind and heart are roused, his powerful pen goes into instantaneous action. Thus we have seen him, in many a journalistic battles, in the role of gallant knight, wielding his mighty pen as a devastating sword, defending the causes which he as considered righteous, and beating down into smithereens the ideas which he has adjudged unjust and reactionary. No doubt, he has created many a friend and foe alike, in the process. But I have never known him waver in his purpose or resolve on that account.
I first came into contact with NARLA writings his first books Neti Russia (Modern Russia) and Swadesa Samsthanalu (Native States). True they were not as mature and finished as is later writings. Nevertheless, they gripped the attention of my young mind, with their freshness and new outlook. Since then, I have followed NARLA’S career wit great interest. His advent into journalism and his editorship of Andhra Prabha took the Telugu journalist world by storm. He introduced a new force and a new dynamism into Telugu journalism. He brought to bear the entire force of his powerful personality into it. NARLA never knows and never tolerates doing things in halves. Whether constructing a sentence, or even a phrase, or an idiom, or projecting a new idea or theme, or building up a new venture like Andhra Jyoti, he has always been a perfectionst. His assistance is unceasingly on the most appropriate, the most effective, and on the perfect.
NARLA has a very modern and scientific mind. In all his endeavours as a journalist, as a writer, as a thinker, and as a public man, he places “modernism” in the very centre of things, as the very core of the issue, as the practical panacea for India’s and world’s problems and needs. He rebels against orthodox, superstition, and blind faith with all his being. He upholds the primacy of reason and scientific thought in all human endeavour. Inspired as he is eminent thinkers of the world and nearer at home, by Vemana, Veereslingam, and Raghupati Venkataratnam Naidu, NARLA has become a rationalist and humanist, to the very depths of his personality.
He is an ardent nationalist and patriot. His love for Telugu language, literature, and art is great. But these do not prevent him from respecting and appreciating other peoples, their cultures, their languages and arts. His innate humanism and rationalism have made him highly sensitive to beauty wherever he finds it, and receptive of good and original ideas wherever they come from. NARLA is, indeed, a universal person. NARLA, as a journalist and propounder of ideas, played a significant role during the pre-independence years, inspiring people wit patriotism and idealism. After Independence, he turned his attention to practical problems that are inherent in the reconstruction of the Indian society. He has diagnosed that, outstanding of all the problems and the most difficult of them all are ignorance, the superstition, the fear complex, the lack of self-confidence, and the disinclination to receive and imbibe modern ideas, and the disinclination to receive and imbibe modern ideas, which are tying down the Indian people to backwardness and penury. He has, therefore, taken up the challenge and now all his energies and activities are directed towards creating a new and modern outlook in he in the Indian people.
Indeed, NARLA’S role so far has been significant and purposeful. And the glory of his career, and the apex of his contribution to Indian life, is yet to come. And it will come. He is going to make a mighty contribution to the philosophical revolution and cultural renaissance of the Indian people in general and the Telugu people in particular.
- by Avula Sambasiva Rao
Chief Justice, Retd. Andhra Pradesh High Court, (From diamond Jubilee Souvenir 1968)

V.R.Narla Photo Album

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Complete writings of Mr V.R.Narla ( Narla Venkateswararao 1908-1985)

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Most of his writings in English and Telugu were brought out by his family members during 2008. The total volumes are 12. Five volumes are in English and 7 volumes are in Telugu. They are edited by Mr Velaga Venkatappaiah, retired librarian from Tenali, Andhra Pradesh, India.
The volumes are priced each at Rupees 200.( $ 5) They are available with Visalandhra publishing house, 4.1.435,Vignan bhavan, Bank Street, Hyderabad 500001, Andhra Pradesh, India.

TELUGU
Volume - 1 Pages 448
Pp 448 includes photos of Narla
7 Telugu books are included in the 1st volume:

They are:
1.Neti Russia ( Russia Today) 1934 PP 102
2. Swadesi Samsthanalu ( Native states) 1938 pp 154
3. Austria aakramana ( occupation of Austria) 1938 p149
4. Czeck raajya vichedam ( breaking Czek empire) 1939
5. Palastena ( Palastine) 1939 pp 74
6. Kadambam ( essays mislenney) 1945 Yuva publication

TELUGU
Volume - 2 Pages 448
Kotha Gadda (plays)
17 items covered – Published in 1947, 1956
Maataa Manthi : Pichchapaati = Kotha Paathaa(essays)
43 items covered – Published in 1951, 1975
Kadambam – Published in 1976( essays)

TELUGU
Volumes - 3 Pages 448
Jabali –(play)Published in 1974
Seetha Josyam ( play) - Published in 1979
Narakamalo Harischandrudu (play) – Published in 1982
Hiranyakasipuni Hatya(play)– Published in 1990-1991
Pancharaatram (Drowpadi) (play) - Published in 1990-1991
Kadambam –Chenukulu -Churakalu - Published in 1945, 1976.

TELUGU
Volume - 4 Pages 448
Vemana – critical research work13 items covered
Vemana : (writings of Foreigners) Paschchatyulu – Grantha Parichayam
Veeresalingam (monograph)
Gurajada (monograph)

Narlavari maata(poems)- Published in 1956
Navayugaalabata (Padya Samputi)(poems) - Published in 1974, 1984
Jagannatakam (Geethalu : Geyalu) – Published in 1957
Maavooru (Geya Kaavyam) in Andhra Prabha
Vemana - Published in 1989
Veeresalingam – Published in 1985
Gurajada – Publisehd in 1982

TELUGU
Volume - 5 Pages 448
Culture and Arts (Samskruthi Kalalu) – 27 items covered
Language, Literature (Bhasha Sahityalu) - 18 items covered
Scientific Knowledge – Saastra Vijnanam - 13 items covered
Religion 1 – Natural (Matam – 1 : Saadharanam) - 15 items covered
Religion 2 – Upanishattulu (Matam : Upanishattulu) – 23 items covered
Religion 3 – Truth about Geetha) (Matam : Geetha Rahasyam) – 24 items covered.
Creative Literature – (Shrujanaathmaka Saahityam) – 8 items covered

TELUGU
Volumes - 6 & 7 Pages 448
Editorials in Andhra Prabha, Daily 1942-59
Editorials in Andhra Jyothi Daily 1960-75
Essays in Andhra Prabha Weekly
Essays in Andhra Jyothi Monthly 1946-47

ENGLISH
Volume : 8 Pages 448
The Truth about the Gita – 21 items covered
An Essay on the Upanishads – 22 items covered
God’s, Goblins and Men – 165 items covered

ENGLISH
Volume - 9 Pages 448
WORKS OF NARLA
Plays on Ramayana
The Last Word on Ramayana
Part-1 Jabali Part-2 Seetha’s Destiny (Seetha Josyam)

Preface to Jabali by V.R. Narla
1. Myth and History; 2. Popular Versions, The Original Text; 3. Food Habits; 4. Drinks; 5. Seethas’s Abduction; Incongruities; 7. How much did Valmiki Write?; 8. Concept of Incarnation;
9. The Three Texts; 10. Interpolations; 11. Valmiki; 12. Rama’s Image; 13. Valmiki’s Rama 14. Human, Not Divine; 15. Jabali; 16. The Play, Jabali; 17. Jabali – A one Act Play

5. The Last Word on Ramayana Part – 2 Seetha’s Destiny
How much of Ramayana is True ?; Which is Janasthana? Where was Lanka?; Who were the Rakshasas?; Who were the Rishis?; Rama’s Role in the Intrigues of Rishis; Weapons in Ramayana; Seetha and Rama; Epilogue; Annexure -1 Dasharatha Jathaka; Killing People who Bore on Enmity.
Why did I Decline the Sahitya Academi Award? – V.R. Narla

6. Gods, Goblins and Men (thoughts of Narla)

New Religion; Only one Life; True and False; “No God, No Heaven” ; Uddalaka; Can any Religion be Wholly New?; Caste and Equality; Art Symbols and Motifs; Folk Tales; Indian Writers; The World of Indian Writers; The Indian Press; Soul’s Habitation; Soul’s Habitation; Promotions and Depromotions in Heven; Chauvinism; Philosophic Doubt; Indian Masses; Swaminatha Iyer; Three Questions; Life Span; Freedom and Justice; Puranas; Stury of Technology; Supreme Art; the Elusive Gandi; Cooking As an Art; Our New Thugs and Pindaris; Death; Caste and Islam; Duggal; Bhaktiyoga; The Doctrine of Avatar; Works as Worship; In Writing History; Religious Wars; Vedic Rishis : Their Child Mind; Jainism; Double Tragedy; Glory of Great Britain; Ghurye; Frozen Mind; A Good Meal; End of Man’s Efforts; Vestiges of Tribalism; Vedanta and Marxism; Unexamined Life; God and Devil; Marx and Engles; Philosophy; Tatya Tope; Religion; Systematic Thinking; An Archaeologist; False Prophets; Mind; Kitchen Religion; Rammohan; Magic; Indian Independence; Nirmal Kumar Bose; Russian Literature; Hindu Immortal; Revision of Scriptures; Idol Worship; A Journalist; Realism; Lal Ded; Death’s Arrival; Gandhi’s Humanism; Past Births; The Karma Doctrine; Early Indian Religions; History and Mythology; Tara Chand; Nehru’s Blind Spot; Nehru, the Writer; Good and Evil; Man’s Place in the Universe; Great Truths; Angel and Animal; India’s Oldest Philosophers; Why no Herodotus? Leisure; Popular Culture; Being and Becoming; God Should be Grateful; Sex and Sin; We and They; Thought and Action; V.O.C. Pillai; Man, A Part of Humanity; The Ultimate Prophet; Cyrus; Upanishadic Philosophy; Scientific Revolution; Biography of Religion; Atheism; Soul and Spirit; Ethics; Higher than Newton; Man’s Kingdom; Editor; Tulsidas; Rama and Seetha; Religion; Test of Leadership; Double Strategist; Thought and Action;
Miracle Play; Lenin; Two Schools; John Dewey (1859 – 1952); Atomic Theory; Laughing Philosopher; Chekhov; Sycophancy;
Descent From Heaven; Two Major Steps in Civilization; Without Quotation Marks; British Sense of Humour; Kshetrayya; Truth and Myth; Gifts of Science; Madhusudan Das (1848-1934) Religion and Nationalism; Nehru’s Economic Thinking; Art of Biography; Lending Books; Absolute Ethics; Insights and Blind Spots; Science; Indian Temperament; Khajuraho; Philosophy and Science; Indian Elite; Plekhanov; Ambedkar; We and Our Literature; Jawaharlal Nehru; Jayaprakash Narayan; Bread and Freedom; Religious Susceptibilities; Politics and Political Office; History; Crossing The Floor; Bread and Circus; Going Back; Desire for Office; Religious Philosophy; Power Without Knowledge; Truth, Scientists and Religion; Trotsky; Time is Money; Hinduism Opposed to Equality; Science and Philosopy; Scriptures; If Rationalism; Science and Superstition; Collin Davies; Afghanistan; Science; The Only True Quest; Dharmaraja; The Killing of Sambhuka; God Working Overtime; Throughout History; The Ultimate Sanction of All Religions; Ganges Water; Pursuit of Happiness; Rationalism and Religion; Life and Death; New China; Revelation; Sundhindranath Datta; Humanism; Religion; Ghosts; Khruschev; and 146 items covered.

ENGLISH

Volume - 10 Pages 448
WORKS OF NARLA
Writings on Culture
Traditional Indian Culture, Poverty of Intellectualism in India. East & West : Myth of Dichotomy,
Man and His World .
1. Traditional Indian Culture (Part one : India and The World)
Part Two : State and Statesmen;
Part Three : Life, Language and Literature
Part Four : Art and Science
2. Indian Culture : Its caste Complexion
3. Poverty of Intellectualism in India
4. East and West : Myth or Dichotomy
5. Articles on Culture
6. Gods, Goblins and Men
7. Man and His World
25 items covered.

Published in 1969, 1978, 1979, 1981.

ENGLISH

Volume – 11
WORKS OF NARLA
Writings on Literature
Vemana : Through Western Eyes, Vemana (1969), Veeresalingam (1969), Gurazada (1979) and Men and His World (1984)
1. Vemana : Through Western Eyes
2. Vemana : A Monograph
3. Veeresalingam : A Monograph
4. Gurazada : A Monograph
5. Man and His World
93 items covered.

ENGLISH

Volume - 12
WORKS OF NARLA
Miscellaneous Writings
Man and His world, Seminar Papers, Essays, Parliamentary Debates, Letters, Diaries, Notes .

1. Man and His World
79 items covered.
2. Essays and Seminar Papers
3. Parliamentary Debates
4. Letters of Shri Narla
5. Diaries of Narla
6. Notes of Narla on Asura India

Narla Venkateswararao ( V.R.Narla) dedicated his writings to various persons. Here are the details:
Dedications:

V.R.Narla dedicated his books to various persons:

1. Neti Russia (Russia Today)1934
Dedicated to his peda nayana ( elder brother of his father)
Venkata ramanna.

2. Swadesi Samsthanaalu (Native States)1938
dedicated to Mother and father

3. Austria akramana (occupation of Austria) 1938
dedicated to: N.G.Acharya, writer, journalist

4. Palastina 1938(Palaestine)
dedicated to:Surapaneni Venkataratnam
Yarlagadda Venkatakrishnarao

5. Kadambam(Mislleny) 1945 and 1976
dedicated to: Sarada, chandrakala,Meenaakshi,Uma,Rama(daughters)

Eldest Daughter Kolli Sarada

6. Kothagadda (telugu plays)
dedicated to Gurajada Apparao

7. Pichaapaati-Maataa Manthi-Kotha Paatha
Dedicated to Mohandas, Durgadas, Lakshman das (sons)

8. Jaabaali ,Telugu play
dedicated to: Devulapalli Krishna Sastri

9. Seetha Josyam (Telugu play)
dedicated to: Vidwan Viswam

10. Narakamlo Harischandrudu (Telugu play)
dedicated to. Dr.N.Innaiah

11. Vemana (research work)
Dedicated to: Gorrepati Venkatasubbaiah Pandit

12. Gurajada ,critical study
dedicated to Krishna Kripalani

13. Navayugaala Baata (poems)
dedicated to: sulochana (wife)

14. Moodu Dasaabaalu (thirty years of editorials)
dedicated to:Mutnuri Krishnarao
Khasa subbarao

15. The Truth about the Gita
dedicated to D.D.Kosambi

16. Gods,Goblins and Men
dedicated to: all humanists of all nations and all times.

17. Indian culture, its caste complexion
dedicated to M N Roy and Ram Manohar Lohia

18. Poverty of intellectualism in India
dedicated to: Prem Nath Bazaz

19. East and West: Myth of dichotomy
dedicated to: Niranjan Dhar

20. Man and his world
dedicated to: V.M.Tarkunde

21. Veeresalingam (critical study)
dedicated to Prof N G Ranga

Narla V R on Viswanatha Satyanarayana

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V.R.Narla was always stood for human values and equality. He opposed casteism and reactionary attitudes in poetry and fiction. Thus he wrote scathing criticism against Viswanatha Satyanarayana. He even wrote editorials against him in Andhra Jyothi daily .The present article was published in Patriot ,English daily from Delhi.

Viswanatha Satyanarayana is undoubtedly a genius. For over four decades now he has been striding the Telugu literary scene like a Colossus. From the lyric poem to the grand epic, from the short story to the mighty saga, from the one-act play to the full – length drama, from the literary essay to the philosophical disquisition, there is no literary genre to which he has not contributed abundantly. He is, indeed, the most prolific of our front-rank writers. At a modest guess, his published works run into more than thirty thousand pages. And at what speed does he compose? A three hundred- page novel, he claims, takes him just one week’s dictation. He is equally quick in his output of poetry. After mental composition, he sets down on paper, again according to his own claim, a score or more of verses at a time. Even though he is now publishing much more than ever before. This is all the more amazing when we note the most of the other Telugu writers who started their literary careers along with Viswanatha in the twenties of this century have gone more or less dry quite along while ago. The versatile and prolific nature of the genius of Viswanatha has attracted to him a host of admirers. I too count myself as one among them, though unlike others I am rather critical of the abiding values and the ultimate worth of his contribution to modern Telugu literature. Torn by an inner conflict, though he might not himself admit it, Viswanatha’s literary career, after the first few years of youthful idealism and spontaneity, has taken a sharp turn towards what I am call a misguided classicism. His instincts are democratic and progressive, while his convictions are, by and large, based on revivalism, if not obscurantism. As one who has known Viswanatha intimately for over thirty years, I can say that he ceased to be his earlier natural self from the day he came under the spell of a Masulipatam College Lecturer, who in his middle age donned the ochre robe. This happened way back in 1930 or thereabouts. We may say that it marks a Great Divide in Viswanatha’s both life and works. Everything he wrote before that reflects the time spirit. It is contemporary not only in its content but also in its form. Fresh as the early morning sunbeam, sprightly as the mountain brook, brilliant as the autumnal lightning, his early poetry appealed to millions of heats. His Kinnera Saani paatalu and Kokilamma Pelli, which employ folk meters, are modern classics. Some of the lyrics which he produced during this period are comparable to the best of their kind anywhere in the world. Two volumes of verse devoted to the vanished glories of Andhra, and the romantic play, Anarkali, of the same period are of a high order. Their appeal is at once simple and profound. Their touch is sure and they are full of genuine poetic feeling. His early novel Ekavira, is of outstanding merit.
Viswnatha’s subsequent work is by contrast rather stilted, artificial, heavy and, what is infinitely more regrettable, retrograde. No doubt, he still shows his old grasp of the native idiom but it is vitiated by his inordinate love for obsolete expressions. His diction ha still more of its original cadence and power, but it is overshadowed by his new-found delight in using long, ugly and almost unmouthable word – compounds. (Rukmininatha Sastri, a parodist, has hailed Viswanatha as Paashaana Paaka – Prabhu, the Master of the Stony Diction.) Viswanatha’s initial love of progress still tries to break out of the heavy crust of his later convictions, but only with occasional success. As years passed, the belief’s instilled in him by his chosen spiritual guide have tented to blur the perceptions of Viswanatha, to produce la nostalgia in him for the dead past, and to make him a fervent advocate of an order of society that is fast disintegrating. This process being now almost complete, his world-view is severely limited, and this has made him a sectarian poet instead of the universal singer he should have been, judged by the excellence of his earlier work.
If we were to believe Viswanatha’s admirers of his poetical works, the Ramayana, and of his novels, the Veyipadagalu (Thousand Hoods), are his supreme achievements. They tell us that his Ramayana puts the old classic of Valmiki in the shade, and that his Veyipadagalu is far superior to Tolstoy’s War and Peace. But to me and to people of my way of thinking, his Ramayana is “Valmiki Made Difficult”, As for his Veyipadagalu, it is the dying hiss of the thousand-hooded feudal society. The impending death of that society may bring tears to Viswanatha’s eyes. But should not all right-thinking people welcome its end? The sooner it is dead and buried, the better it is for India and the world.
His most recent volume of poetry, Viswanatha Madhyakkaralu, which has received the Sahitya Akademi Award for the best Telugu book in 1961-62, is in line with all his later work. Madhyakaralu is a difficult metric form. It has neither ease nor grace. We find it employed occasionally in our older works either to show the poet’s virtuosity or to achieve some variety in composition. No other poet has ever composed one hundred verses in it, let alone one thousand, as Viswanatha did in this award-winning book. It is at best a typical example of the metrical feats of which he is capable, while at its worst it is amongst the less readable of his compositions. Divided into ten sections, it sings the praise of the presiding deities of ten temples. Its philosophy, if it can be said to have a philosophy, is wholly conventional. At places, it certainly shows Viswanatha’s mastery of the idiom, but in my opinion it is not one of his best works. My deep regret that the all-round talents of this brilliant man are not put to use in the service of the progressive forces that are seeking to build a new society and to evolve a new culture and civilization is all the greater after the perusal of Madhyakkaralu. In justice to Viswanatha, I should, however, state that people whose values of life and literature are opposed to mine think that this book is the crowning achievement of his creative genius.
With his prodigious intellect, his rich imagination, his fine sensibility, and his quick responses, Viswanatha should have been a worthy claimant for wider fame, but narrow sectarianism and aggressive obscurantism have clipped his wings, preventing him from soaring ever higher into the empyrean heights. The loss is not his but that of modern Telugu literature.
It will not do to write off Viswanatha as an obscurantist and target about him. He is more than an individual; he is one of the more powerful leaders of religious and social reaction in India. Though his writings he opposes any deviation from what may be termed militant Hinduism. He pours ridicule and contempt on Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and the rest of the world religions. He upholds the caste system with all its gradations and degradations. He campaign for the restoration of the feudal order of society. He is dead set against modern science and technology, indeed, against modernism as such. It will be a bad day for India if on account of our complacency he and his reactionary ideas and ideals are allowed to prevail.
(Published in the Patriot daily, New Delhi in 1963)

Cult Baba Rajaneesh

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Sells sex as spiritualism. He is by no means original in this sordid commerce. Sahaja, a Hindu cult, was a like type of commerce, and so was Vajrayana, a Buddhist cult. Both of these cults have died out but another one called Tantra persists. With his ill
digested knowledge of the philosophies of the world, Rajnesh puts a new gloss on old obscenities.
Born at Jabalpore (Madhya Pradesh ,India) on December 11, 1913, Rajneesh’s original name was Chandramohan. As a young man he dabbled in poetry and painting and photography. He took his M.A. degree in philosophy from Sagar University in 1957. Employed in the same University as a Junior Lecturer he soon got tired of his humdrum life and turned into a godman in 1967. It took him half-a-dozen years to attract a wide circle of disciples, mostly women, to set up his ashram at Pune, and to emerge as Bhagavan.
Rajneesh has a glib tongue; he knows to attract attention to himself and holt it by giving fancy titles to his bawdy discourses and interspersing them with cheap witticisms, banal aphorisms, sleazy epigrams, tawdy paradoxes, nonsensical maxims, outrageous obiter dicta and vulgar quips. That he has a genius for this sort of trickery is evident from the titles of his books such as “Nothing To Lose But Your Head”, “Get Out of Your Own Way”, “Above all, Don’t Wobble”, “A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose”, “God Is Not For Sale”, “The Buddha Disease”, “ I am the Gate” and “The Sun Rises IN The Evening.” By way of morning and evening discourses he spewed out more than thirty-three million words between 1974 and 1978, apart from answering 10,000 questions. Every word uttered by him was taped and out of the tapes emerged almost 350 books, roughly about half in English and the rest in Hindi. Along with his books, his discourses, recorded on audio and video tapes are available for sale in plenty.
A second interesting point regarding Rajneesh is his showmanship. He has an impressive beard, wears flowing robes, sports many types of headgear, and dramatizes his entrances into and exits from lecture halls to create awe in his disciples (almost wholly from the West). And his philosophical discourses – more properly, they should be called obscenities in a brothel – are superbly printed, handsomely bound, and of course, highly priced. Being a shrewd businessman he publishes his own books, and they should be fetching him a fabulous income. His autobiography with gorgeous photographs – it is called The Sound of Running Water – is sold at Rs. 2500 a copy. Another thing, no less fantastic, is the sale of a bound volume of blank pages, called Rajaneesh Nothing, at Rs.25 a copy.
Yet another strong point of Rajneesh is his temerity. He hurls the foulest abuse even against men in high positions if they question his pretensions. When Morarji Desai was Prime Minister he called him all sorts of dirty names. The ward off any risks from that quarter, he was cunning enough to give a political slant to his tirade. Furthermore, while running down Morarji Desai, he heaped praise on Indira Gandhi as the only person fit to rule India.
Of the many impostors posing as Bhagavans, the most sophisticated, most snobbish, the most articulate and the best showman is undoubtedly Rajneesh. And yet, he would not have achieved the stupendous success he did but for the fact that he embodies in his own degenerate way the spirit of the Age. As far as the greater part of the West is concerned, this is the Permissive Age. And Rajneesh is one of the major prophets of that Age, permitting everything from whipping to whoredom. (1980).

Library of V.R. Narla in Ambedkar Open University

2008-08-08T10:39:00.001+05:30

Whatever his critics might say – and he had lots of critics, bitter critics, vicious critics and even vengeful critics – Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a great man. Indeed, he counts among the half-a-dozen really great men thrown up by India during the past two or three centuries. The greatness of a man has little or no relationship to the number of followers he attracts, to the offices he attain or the power he wields. Much less has it got anything to do with the riches he accumulates. It is rarely, if ever, that riches can be accumulated without resort to highly dubious means. In my life I have known quite a few new rich men and the moment I got a true insight into their character, I found most of them to be the polished version of the murderous Thugs and Pindaris who ravaged India in the first half of the nineteenth century.
What, then, is the real test of a great man ? It is his readiness to stand alone, if need be, against the whole world in defence of what he deems to be his own ideas and ideals. To him, there can be no compromise in any matter that involves basic principles, no knuckling even under the heaviest of pressures, no shortcuts to lessen the length or the tedium of the lonely journey, no half-way house to rest so as to get a second breath; he should always be on the march, upward and onward, until he reaches his goal or falls by the wayside with no regrets, no remorse, with nothing but undimmed faith in the ultimate triumph of what he believes to be best for man and man’s future as man. Thus a really great man is ever a lonely pilgrim.
Such a pilgrim was Ambedkar. That which Bergson was calling elan vital and Bernard Shaw “the life force” was kind to Ambedkar. It was more than kind; it was generous. It endowed him with a robust physical frame, with a round and impressive face, with large, bright an penetrative eyes, a razor-sharp intellect, a ready propensity to reach out to what seemed to be unattainable, and most important of all, with a darning, defiant spirit. But Hindu Society was cruel to him. For ages and ages, which stretch even beyond the remote and hazy beginning of recorded history, that society was cruel, abominably cruel, to every section and every segment of the caste in which he was born. It treated the people of that caste as subhuman. Indeed, while it saw a god in a fish, a tortoise and a boar, and a goddess in a cow, while it worshipped even serpents and fed them with milk, it treated some fellow-men, of whom Ambedkar was one, as worse than quadrupeds and reptiles. In other countries and in other times, there are certainly many instances of man’s inhumanity to man, but it is left to India and to Hinduism to treat some of its own children as “unapprochables, unshadowables and unseeables.” “Most parts of the world”, as Ambedkar said, “have had their type what Ward calls the lowly. The Romans had their slaves. The Spartans their helots, the British their villains, The Americans their Negroes and the Germans their Jews. So the Hindus have their Untouchables. But none of these can be said to have been called upon to face a fate which is worse than the fate which pursues the Untouchables. Slavery, serfdom, villeinage have all vanished. But unsociability still exists and bids fair to last as long as Hindustan will last. The Untouchable is worse off than a Jew. The sufferings of the Jew are of his own creation. Not so are the sufferings of the Untouchables. They are the result of a cold, calculating Hinduism which is not less sure in its effect in producing misery than brute force is. The Jew is despised is not denied opportunities to grow. The Untouchable is not merely despised but is denied all opportunities to rise.”
But nothing whatsoever could stop Ambedkar from rising to the top. And he utilized his rise not to help himself but to help his community as well as his nation. From the every position of vantage which he came to occupy in his tumultuous life, he launched well-directed and massive attacks on the citadel of Hindu society. The breath its walls, he had to cannonade ferociously. When the odds were so heavy against him, he had per forced to hit hard, neither giving nor receiving any quarter. Without taking into consideration the nature of the struggle he had to wage and the conditions under which he had to wage it, to call him rude and vituperative is hardly fair. Given his background, he had every right to lash out even more sharply background, he had every right to lash out even more sharply against those who for ages had subjected his community to the foulest of indignities and inequities.
You cannot wage a battle for social justice without at the same time formulating for yourself a social philosophy. And this is exactly what Ambedkar had to do. I do not agree with all that he had written on the origin and growth of the caste system. Nor do I subscribe to his view that Buddhism can put an end to the evil system of caste with all its “gradations and degradations.” I have also many mental reservations with regard to his ideas about socialism and communism. But I am one with Ambedkar in thinking that the very basis of Hinduism is its “graded inequality.” “There is not only inequality in Hindu Society”, as he stated, “but inequality is the official doctrine of the Hindu religion.” So Hinduism, to quote him once again, “is incompatible with liberty, equality and fraternity, that is with democracy. “Yes, indeed. You cannot be a Hindu a democrat at the same time. Much less can you be a Hindu and a socialist at the same time.
Speaking on the occasion of the third reading and the adoption of the Constitution of India, Ambedkar (who had a big hand in drafting that Constitution) said among other things :
“Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other’s to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be divorced from equality, equality be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without frenternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things. It would require a constable to enforce them. We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane, we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in object poverty. On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man, one vote, one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man. One value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions, How long shall we continue to deny in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up.”
We did not pay heed to Ambedkar’s warning and allowed the contradiction in our society not only to continue but to grow further. For this folly we had to pay a heavy price in the form of relapsing into slavery, a more abject slavery than the one we suffered under the British, during the dark and dreadful fays of the Emergency imposed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi. “Despotism”, as Ambedkar warned us as early as 1943, “does not cease to be despotism because it is elective. Nor does despotism become agreeable because the despot belongs to our own kindred. “To our eternal shame, we allowed in less than thirty years after throwing off the British yoke an “elective despotism” to be clamped down on us by “a despot belonging to our own kindred.” A matter of greater shame is the fact that there are still large sections amongst us who are swearing eternal loyalty in power had abrogated all our fundamental rights including the right to live, who imprisoned more than 100,000 people without trial, and who allowed scores of detenues to be tortured to death in jails. Surely, all these were no basic defects on our approach to life. On this point too Ambedkar did say something very pertinent. “In India”, he said. “bhakti or what may ne called the path of devotion or hero-worship plays a part in politics of any other part of the world. Bhakti in religion may be road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship.”
Like our mental habit of bhakti, our belief in what is called prarabdha or fatalism also leads inexorably to dictatorship. On the authority of Bryce, Ambedkar had drawn our attention to the grim fact that there is what is called the fatalism of the multitude; it is the “tendency to acquiesce and submit to despotism due to the sense of helplessness arising from the belief that the affairs of men are swayed by large forces whose movements cannot be turned by individual efforts.” Hinduism , more than all other religions, fosters that tendency and it can easily lead to dictatorship. To the best of my knowledge, the only major Indian who drew our attention decades in advance so unerringly to the perils of “elective dictatorship” Inherent in our mental make-up was Ambedkar.

THE need for SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT

2008-08-06T08:56:00.002+05:30

If the eighteenth century was primarily the Age of Reason and the nineteenth the Age of Science, the twentieth is the Age of Technology. Elaborating the interrelationship between reason, science, and technology would only be stressing the obvious. It is by the freeing of the mind from the chains of traditional thinking, by liberating it from the prison house of superstitious beliefs that the eighteenth century set men on a new path of discovery, and inspired them to bold adventure into realms that were undreamt of earlier. Had a patriarch from the times of the Buddha or of the Christ revisited the world in the closing years of the eighteenth century or in the opening decades of the nineteenth, e would have found much of it quite familiar. Since then there has been a major change in the scene; in fact, it is almost a new world. This radical transformation was wrought by the new modes of thought, by the new approach to life and its problems, initiated by such giants as Voltaire and Diderot, Hume and Bentham, Franklin and Paine, Goethe and many others – each a daringly original thinker. Collectively, they made the eighteenth century the Age of Reason, unique and resplendent.
Whether we like it or not, we in India have to enter these new Ages of Reason, Science, and Technology and achieve a drastic transformation of our national scene and society. Suppression by an alien government during the crucial and revolutionary phase in the life of the West has left us far behind in the race. To make good this late start, we have to hurry all the more. To talk of the vanity of material riches is an exercise in futility. How can a rich, varied, and full life be based on abysmal poverty? How can the spirit soar high when the body is half-starved, weak and diseased? Surely our nation was well-fed and well clothed during those periods when it thought boldly, acted nobly, and lived fully. Neither the age-old methods of agriculture, nor industry centred on the cottage, will pull us out of our present subsistence economy. It is only science and technology that can provide a broad base for a full life, a life that is really worth living.
No doubt, with the forging of nuclear weapons, there has been a reaction against science and technology. But are weapons and wars something new? Be it with clubs and axes, bows and arrows, swords and spears, rifles and cannons, men have always gone to war, and they will continue to maim and to kill as long as they are swayed by avarice and hate rather than by love and tolerance. The very fact that science and technology have now placed the ultimate weapon in the hands of men many finally banish war, for the only choice before them now is either to live together or perish together.
Before I proceed to my next point, I should pause here to recall the sage words of Jawaharlal Nehru. “Just as every great invention can be used for good or evil ends,” he said, “the development of science which has advanced humanity so tremendously has also been used for evil purposes. But that is not the fault of science. That is the fault of the human being who uses it for evil purposes, and that is another question.”
The evils of the present age, whatever they be, are not inherent in science and technology, but in the minds of men. The age of reason, which gave birth to science and technology, is as yet only in its bud; if we, in our folly, do not arrest its full flowering, it will yet yield rich fruits by newer insights, greater truths, and may ultimately enable us to know even the secret of life and death. A future Newton or a future Einstein may probe the very heart of the universe and reveal the nature of the eternal forces that go to form the sun, the moon, and the stars, and the milky way and all that lies beyond unto infinity. Those that scoff at this as a wild dream would do well to remember that this new and revolutionary phase in our history has started only recently. If the period since the emergence of man is taken as one day, the ages of science and technology together constitute hardly a few seconds. It is not, then, utterly foolish to despair of them and to talk of the evils which they have produced?
Given proper understanding and direction, science and technology can yield many rich benefits, including the greatest of them all – the emergence of one world. Science and technology know no national bounds; by their very nature they are universal there can be, for instance, no such thing as an American chemistry or a Soviet chemistry; all chemistry is one. So, too, is all technology. And the greater the measure of scientific and technological knowledge that is shared, the greater is the unity between nations. There was a time when we too shared our scientific knowledge and technological know-how with the rest of the world. The concept of zero and the place value of numbers are, for example, our supreme contributions to mathematical science. It is, indeed, these conceptual tools, and these alone, which enabled man think in terms of billions and trillions and to comprehend the vastness of the physical universe. And our contribution to metallurgy, especially to the making of high grade steel, is by no means small. Even in modern times we have given to the scientific world a Ramanujam and Raman, a Bose and a Bhabha. It should, however, be readily admitted that our record in scientific achievement is as yet rather meager. We have to produce many more scientists and inventors before we can reach parity with the more progressive Western nations.
The supreme need for scientific and technological progress is, more than the setting up of national laboratories, the cultivation of the scientific spirit. Taking nothing for granted, questioning everything, probing everything – that in essence is the scientific spirit. It is not given to everyone to become a scientist, but no one can really call himself a modern man unless he is capable of adopting the scientific spirit that the climate necessary for new scientific discovery and invention will be created.
It is sad to admit it, but still one has to admit it in truth, that the scientific spirit is, by and large, absent in us. We still think on traditional lines; we still hug to our bosom old superstitions; we still swear by glories which faded out long, long ago. What is even worse, our science teachers, who should set an example, are letting us down badly. They explain to their students the real reasons for a solar or lunar eclipse, and yet the moment an eclipse is over they take ceremonial bath and offer their thanks for the release of the sun or the moon from the clutches of the phantom demons of Rahu and Ketu. With such superstitions men in charge of our education, how can the scientific spirit grow in our country?
We should not, however, despair of effecting a change. It certainly requires superhuman effort, but it should not be shirked if the nation is to be pulled out of its age-old ruts. Superstitions have to be fought on every front; the scientific spirit has to be fostered by every means. A nation that fails on the scientific front cannot develop industrially, it cannot improve its economy and, what is much worse, it cannot defend its independence and its way of life from either internal disintegration or external aggression. Only the determined cultivation of the scientific spirit can guarantee our freedom and bring us peace and plenty.
In developing our science and technology we have to receive help from whichever quarter it is offered. Neither pride nor prejudice should stand in our way. We should progress with a sense of urgency, for our national integrity and political freedom are threatened. The defense potential of any country is, at present, directly proportional to its industrial capacity, and that, in its turn, is related to its mastery of science and technology. We can, therefore, neglect science and technology only at the peril of everything that is dear to us.
(1965)

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN TELUGU

2008-08-06T07:21:00.004+05:30

Kandukuri Veeresalingam

It was Kandukuri Veeresalingam, the Father of Modern Andhra, who wrote the first book in Telugu for children. Very early in his campaign for social and moral reform, he realized that unless women and children were properly educated, his labours would not succeed to any appreciable extent. Finding that books for this purpose were not available, he proceeded to produce them with his characteristic promptness and pertinacity. The books he wrote for women are many and varied; he was not, to our regret, equally prolific wit children’s literature. For the young folk he did only two books. The first of the two is a translation, or more correctly, and adaptation of Aesop’s Fables in Telugu. Under the title Neeti-Katha-Manjari, it was published way back in 1989 in two parts. Illustrated books were at that time a rarity, but Veeresalingam rightly felt that a publication meant for children ad to be illustrated well. Therefore he put himself to much trouble and expense in getting good illustrations for every fable in his book. His second book is Neeti-Deepika. It is a century of moral verses.
Like the rest of his work, the children’s books of Veeresalingam are now somewhat dated. In his day he was the best writer of prose; in fact, it was he that did away with the highly artificial and ornate prose that was fancied till then as the hall-mark of a literary style, and introduced in its place a prose that is at once simple and chaste. But it is often simple to the point of bareness, chaste to the extent of being flat. His poetry too shows like drawbacks. But what contributed most to the rapid dating of the writings of Veeresalingam is his severely puritanical and didactic temperament. He was more of a preacher than of a writer, more of a crusader than of a poet, more of a prophet than of an artist.
It is a pity that though Veeresalingam pioneered children’s books, no major writer followed them up for a long time. Only years later G.V.Sitapati began publishing some poems and songs meant for children, but they are mostly the exercises of a pandit in the field of poetry. A few other writers like Venkata Parvateeswara Kavulu, Kavikondala Venkata Rao, Nalam Krishna Rao, and T. Kameswara Rao did try their hand at children’s books, but not with much success.
The first really creative writer who took keen interest in children’s literature is Chinta Deekshitulu. Fertile in imagination, quick in emotional responses, highly sensitive to beauty which he could spot even in the most trivial of objects like a broken and forsaken doll, he was a perceptive writer, a true poet, a born story-teller. In everything he wrote there is something child-like, a sense of wonder, a propensity to dream, a bubbling zest for life. He reveled in the company of children; indeed, most of his life was spent amongst them either as a teacher or as an inspector of schools. Writing for children was for him almost an act of self-fulfillment. He wrote for them not as an outsider, but as one who felt like them in every fiber of his being.
Lakka Pidatalu (“Painted Pottery”) is a collection of songs written by Deeksitulu for children. A full-length songs of his called Hanumantuni Toka (“The Tail of Hanuman”), brilliantly summarizes the epic of Ramayana for the young folk. Another work, Suri, Seeti and Venki, is a collection of delightful sketches woven round the lives of three girls of different temperaments. But by far the best of his many books for children is the novelette, Lilasundari. It is a little classic.
After Deekshitulu we have not yet had an equally gifted writer for children. No doubt, B.V.Narasimha Rao, Kavi Rao, and M. Venkataramana and others are doing their best for children. The songs by Narasimha Rao are simple and sweet. Kavi Rao’s Nelavanka (“The Crescent Moon”), besides being a fine piece of writing, achieves high standards in art-work, printing, and get-up, Venkataramana has created “Budugu”, a precocious and naughty boy who, while exasperating, can also fascinate. But these and others have yet to reach the heights of Deekshitulu. And no wonder! How many writers for children have come up to the level of Lewis Carroll in English, the brothers Grimm in German, Hans Christian Anderson in Danish, or Rabindrabath Tagore in Bengali?
Besides original writers for children have come up to the level of Lewis Carroll in English, the brothers Grimm in German, Hans Christian Anderson in Danish, or Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali?
Beside original writers for children in Telugu, there are some who have diligently collected and published the old and traditional literature which has mostly come down to us in the form of songs, ballads, fables and riddles. The doyen amongst these is the late Veturi Prabhakara Sastri. Scouring even the remotest corners of Andhra Pradesh for old inscriptions and manuscripts of unpublished works, he also took loving care to collect everything he could find in children’s literature. A small part of his large collection has been published in his compilation called Bala Bhasha (“Children’s Language”). It is hoped tat the rest of the material collected by Veturi would also be published soon. Another collection omparable to Bala Bhasha is edited and published by G. V. Subbaiah. Called Navvulu-Puvvulu (“Smiles and Flowers”), it has been reprinted four times. Of foreign classes in children’s literature, we do not have as yet many translations. But the few that are available are of high quality. Special mention may be made of Alice in Wonderland by V.D. Prasada Rao, Pinocchio by Y. Satyanarayana, Tom Sawyer, Huckelberry Finn, and Treasure Island by V. Rammohan Rao.

Radio Annayya

It is indeed gratifying that more and more Telugu writers and publishers are taking active interest in the production of children’s literature. The Southern Languages Book Trust. Madras, sponsored a set of fine books for children. So did M. Seshachalam & Co of Masulipatnam. B. Nagi Reddy, an imaginative and enterprising publisher with immense resources at his command, is doing his best for children. His Chandamama, the children’s monthly, launched originally in Telugu, has now its counterparts in five other Indian languages.
But a lot more has to be done. Writing for children calls for special gifts. Simply because a writer is eminent in, say, poetry, novel, short story, or any other genre of creative writing, e cannot ipso facto be an eminent writer for children. The child has a world of its own. It is half real and half phantom world. There is no clear-cut line between the two halves; they merge into each other inextricably. And so, nothing fantastic or bizarre. A bird can talk, a tree can walk, a hill can grow wings, or a river can stand still, time itself can come to a stop. Out of nothing, isles, cities, and palaces can emerge and disappear as magically. Man can, at will, ascend to heaven or descend to hell. He can play with fairies, sing with angels, and dine with gods. He can join battle wit demons, either alone or by summoning a friendly giant or two to his aid. Only those who can step into this wondrous world and out of it as its naturalized citizens can write for children. It may sound odd but still it is a fact that Lewis Carroll – it was the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dogson – was a mathematician, and Jacob, the elder of the Grimm brothers, was a philologist. And yet they have become immortals in children’s literature because even in their adult life they were the naturalized citizens of the children’s world. Such writers appear but rarely.
Still, even writers less gifted can do much to improve both the quality and the variety of our children’s literature. Of course, characters and episodes from our folklore and our mythology will continue to charm our children, but our writers should not work the same old quarries all the time; new gold mines are there for exploitation. For instance, are not our armed forces, unmindful of all hazards, bravely standing guard on our far-flung frontiers to defend our hard-won freedom? But, how few are the stories which have for their back-ground soldiering, seafaring, or flying! By not touching these and other spheres of our national life, are not our writers for children losing an opportunity of producing thrilling stories of adventure ?
Broadly we can say that our writers for children, as indeed writers in general, are not touching our national life at as many points as they should. This is much more than an artistic failure; it is nothing short of letting down our nation. This is the time when we are striving to build for ourselves a new order of society, a society based on political freedom, social equality, and economic justice. It cannot be achieved unless there is a revolutionary change in our basic thinking. We should think more of men than of gods, more of this world than of the other, more of science and technology than of prayers and miracles. And unless this shift in thinking is brought about when the mind is young tender, and receptive, it cannot be done later. Once this is conceded, it need hardly be stressed that the role of writers for children in reshaping our national life and thought is crucial. They should take leave, thought is crucial. They should take leave, though not for all time, at least for a generation, of sleeping princesses and dashing princes, of banished kings and bemoaning queens, and concentrate on the life of the people. The people are astir again after centuries of stupor, and are marching forward. Given poetic sensibility and penetrative vision, sagas more glorious than the Ramayana and the Mahabharata can be written on their onward march and upward surge.
—-

ANDHRA’S CONTRIBUTION TO CULTURE

2008-08-06T03:38:00.001+05:30

Rich and varied is the contribution of the Telugu language and literature to Indian thought and culture. But how many know about it ? Abroad, barring a few ideologists and other specialists in allied fields, scarcely anyone in aware of even the existence of our language. Though hurtful- it certainly hurt me much – this is the plain, blunt truth. Since most foreigners still believe that India is a Tower of Babel with hundreds of strange dialects, much attention may not, perhaps, be paid to their ignorance of our national languages and their relative importance. But are people in other parts of our own country any better? Unfortunately, No. Of course, quite a large number of them are now coming to know that everyone south of the Vindhyas is not a “Madarasi”, that all “Madarasis” do not speak one and the same language. Still, as for the origin and development f Telugu language, the rise and progress of Telugu literature, and the nature and significance of the contribution of Telugu men of letters to our national thought and culture, their ideas are at best rather hazy.
And yet there was a time when Telugu could claim the position and prestige of an international language. True, we cannot now say exactly how or when Telugu spread to a large number of Asian nations, yet it did spread and influence them greatly. As was pointed out by the late Dr. C.R.Reddy, an eminent scholar and educationist, “it spread through the Eastern Pacific, embracing within its scope the lands and islands east and south of Burma right up to the intrepid emigrants from Andhra who dared the uncharted seas in their tiny and frail craft.
As a living monument to the cool courage of these colonist we have a community called Tegalogs in the Philippines. They constitute the bulk of the population of those islands. It is quite possible that their name is derived either from Telaga, that is, the sub-caste which goes by that name, or from Telugu. What is infinitely more important is the fact that a large number of Telugu words are current in the Philippino language. A Jesuit Father, it appears, has compiled a dictionary of Telugu and Sanskrit terms found in the language of the Filippinos. Dr. C.R. Reddy, to whom we owe all this information, bemoaned the loss of this dictionary from his personal library. How I wish that attempts are made to locate a copy and reprint it. The Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Akademi can, and should, take up this matter seriously. I may perhaps, also venture to suggest that the Government of Andhra Pradesh should provide funds to the State Sahitya Akademi to depute a specialist to the Philippine Islands to carry on research to establish further the affinities between the Philippino and Telugu languages.
My keenness to state the claim of the Telugu language for an international status has, I am afraid, carried me too far afield. Well, even if this particular claim is disputed, no fair-minded man can belittle the contribution of the Telugu language and literature to our common national heritage. It is, of course, well known that all the Dravidian languages, including Telugu, have freely borrowed Sanskrit words, but what is less known is the fact that this was not altogether a one-way traffic.
Sanskrit and its direct offshoots that constitute the Aryan group of languages north of the Vindyas did take over many words of Dravidian origin. Not being a special student of linguistics, I cannot by myself assert that the Sanskrit word Sardoolam (tiger) is derived from the Telugu expression charala mekam, but I have the authority of that internationally reputed linguist and Chairman of the Sanskrit Commission, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, for making this assertion. Years ago I had the pleasure of calling on him at his residence in Clacutta. In his long and list of Telugu and Tamil words that found their way into Sanskrit. Having lost the notes I made at the time, I cannot, to my regret, give you the full list, but I distinctly remember his mentioning tintrini (the Sanskrit term for tamarind tree) as another term,. Derived from the Telugu word chinta.
My friend and colleague, Vidvan Viswam, tells me that atta, pindi, and bokkanam, three Telugu words which stand respectively for mother-in-law, powered rice, and handbag, are adopted in their original form by Sanskrit. According to him manee (a measure), Paddee (calf) and Kundam (pot) are also loan words from Telugu. Their original forms are respectively manika, padda and kunda. Quite a few Telugu words have likewise passed into Prakrit. Two notable examples are padi and potta.
While the contribution of the Telugu language to Sanskrit and Prakrit may be limited, the contribution of Andhra poets and pundits to Sanskrit and Prakrit literatures is fairly extensive. “The name of many Andhras are familiar to the world of Sanskrit scholars”, says Dr. P.T. Raju in his fine little book, Telugu Literature, and goes on thus :
Mallinatha, the commentator on Kalidasa’s poems, is known to all Sanskrit students. The best and the most popular commentator on Kalidasa’s dramas is King Kataya Vema. Singa Bhupala was a learned and powerful ruler, during whose time Srinatha and Potana flourished. He was so renowned a scholar that for the final test of learning every pandit of the time made it a point to visit his court and undergo his personal examination. He is the author of several Sanscrit works and his Rasanavasudhakara is a well-known work on Sanscrit drama. Vidyanatha’s Prataparudriyam and Jaganatha Pandita’s Rasagangadhara are famous treatise on Sanskrit poetics. The latter work has never been superseded. Bhavabhuti, who went to Kashmir from Vidarbha, is claimed here to be an Andhra, for Vidarbha which borders on Telangana was part of the Andhra. Krishnadeva Raya, in his introduction to Amuktamalyada, tells us that he is the author of half a dozen Sanskrit works. Gunadhya was a minister to a Satavahana emperor and the author of Brihatkatha. There are several less famous writers of whom Vamana Bhattabana, Sivalinga Bhupati, and Lolla Lakshmidhara may be mentioned. Hala’s contribution to Prakrit is quite well known.
Hala’s work, I may add, is of a very high order. Though popularly known as Gathasaptasati, its original name is Sattasai. It is also called Gathakosa and Saptasataka. It consists of seven hundred verses. With rare exceptions each verse is complete in itself. And each verse is cameo of life, generally sensuous, often frank, occasionally humorous or ironical, and always tender. Taken together, they constitute large and variegated canvas which pictures vividly the life of the common men and women of Ancient India. Their life is simple and sweet and yet it is not without sighs and tears, disappointments and disenchantments. It is amazing how Hala, an emperor, had entered so thoroughly into the spirit of the life of the common people and depicted it with so much love, sympathy and understanding. May be it is this sense of amazement which makes some scholars believe that Hala was only a compiler of Gathasaptasati and not its composer. Granted that there is some truth is such a belief, Hala, as Winternitz puts it, was “not merely a compiler of an anthology, but rather a gifted redactor, who made the selection with dexterity and skill probably gave to the stanzas the final poetical form from for the first time.”
Now, though it is not strictly within the scope of my talk, I may be pardoned if I mention in passing the contribution of Andhra to religious and philosophical thought is indeed very great. According to Dr. Raju, whom I quoted a little earlier, Andhra can boast of three of the foremost philosophers of Buddhism – Nagarjuna, Arya Deva, and Dingnaga. “They may not have been born in the country between the Godavari and the Krishna”, he says, “but that the Andhra was the place of their activities none can doubt, and who their parents were it is difficult to establish.” Pushing the Andhra claims further, he declares :
The belief is strong tat Kumarila, Vidyaranya, Sayana and Sayana-Madhava were Andhras. Annam Bhatt and Dharmaraja Adhavarindra are well known to all students of Indian philosophy. Nimbarka and Vallaba who, strangely enough, could not get followers in their own country. Sripati’s commentary on the Brahma –Sutras, called Srikarabashya, written from the Virasaiva point of view, has recently been published. The author hailed from the Guntur District. Chitsukha belonged to the Vizagapatnam District. There are others also whom the Andhras claim as their own.
Some of these claims made by Dr. Raju may be disputed, but we are certain that the forefathers of Basava, the founder of Virasaivism wo lived in the twelth century, were Andhras. Their original home was Vengi or, more specially, Kamme Nadu of the Vengi province. The forbears of four other great figures in Kannada life and literature, namely, Adi Pamma, Nagavarma I, Durgasimha, and Janna, were also from KammeNadu. Attimabbe, originally of Kamme Nadu, was a patron of the Kannada poet Ranna, while his father, Mallappa, patronized Ponna.
The impact of the sons of Andhra on another neighbouring area, that is, Tamil Nad, is equally powerful. To give only one example. Tyagaraja, the greatest master of the Karnatak music, was an Andhra by birth. In fact, all his compositions are in Telugu. Two other famous composers who have contributed richly to the glory of the Karnatak music are Annamayya and Kshetrayya. Others who have built golder bridges between Andhra and Tamil Nad are the Telugu rulers of the Vijayanagarm Empire and the Andhra Nayak Kings of Madura and Tanjore, and the poets, playwritings, musicians, artists, and architects under their royal patronage. And I should not omit to mention that the aphoristic verses of the poet-philosopher Vemana and the many humorous takes in which Tenali Ramalinga figures as the ingenious and impish hero are the common property of all the people of South India.
It is, I hope, obvious even from this very brief account that the contribution of Telugu language and literature to Indian thought and culture is as rich as it is varied. If I have avoided a reference to modern times, it is to leave on scope to the charge that I have made invidious distinctions between contemporary poets, play wrights, novelists and other writers. In the interest of national integration at the intellectual and emotional levels, it is essential that an extensive programme of translation of important literary works in Telugu, ancient, mediaeval, and modern, should be undertaken. The Sahitya Akademi is, no doubt, engaged in this work, but its programme is now very modest. It needs to be greatly expanded. (1962)

INDIAN CULTURE -sublime and ridiculous aspects

2008-08-05T07:36:00.004+05:30

I am not laying special stress on the close association of the origin and growth of our culture with slavery just to disparage what is called our old and traditional culture. I am second to none in praising where praise is due. I join the world in paying my tribute to Sophocles and Euripides, Bhasa and Kalidasa, Shakespeare and Milton, Pushkin and Gogol, who are the cream of traditional culture. I am fully alive to the sheer mass and majesty of pyramid, the beauty and grandeur of a Gothic church, the sculptural wealth and charm of an Indian temple, the simplicity and dignity of a mosque, or the dream-like quality and elegance of the Taj. But at the same time I am not oblivious to the brutal fact that all these structures were raised on the blood and sweat of millions of my fellow-men who were subjected to abject poverty and cruel slavery. In Athens, at its Zenith – in the age of Pericles – the proportion of free men to slaves was roughly 1 : 3. In Sparta, for every free Spartan there were at least five Helots, who may be described as semi-slaves or serfs. Aegina, the island across the Bay of Megara and Corinth, had (according to a calculation made by Aristotle in 350 B.C.) a population of half a million, of whom 470,000 were slaves ! All these shocking details of slavery pertain to ancient Greece which is acclaimed, and rightly too, as the original home of Western culture.
In India, despite the testimony of Megasthenes to the contrary, there were slaves. “It is but a historical truism,” says Dr. U.N.Ghoshal, “that slavery has been a recognized institution in our land throughout the ancient, not to speak of the mediaeval period of our history”, and proceeds to quote from the Rig Veda, from the Upanishads, from the Jatakas, from the Arthsastra and other old books hundreds of references to slaves and slave-owning. It is possible, even probable, that the number of bond slaves in India was much less than in Greece. If so, the reason for it is not that the Indian society was juster and more humane than the Greek. It has, in fact, perpetrated the worst crime of man against man by classifying a sizeable section of the population as untouchable. If it did not at the same time condemn millions to bond slavery, it was solely due to the fact that cheap labour was provided by the lower castes. The caste system, which is after all a thinly veiled, but by no means less unjust and cruel form of slavery, reduced to a minimum the need for bond slaves.
Not only in Greece and India but in other nations too where culture first flowered, be it Sumeria, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Judea, Rome, Persia, or China, it did so only on the basis of slavery in some form or other. However much we may deplore this fact, it must be conceded that in a predominantly agricultural society there could be no other basis for the development of culture. Culture is essentially a product of leisure and plenty, of intellectual and creative pursuits; and an agricultural economy can provide leisure and plenty only for a few. Hence all traditional cultures had to have slavery as their material basis.
This age-long basis of culture has come to be altered with the advent of the industrial revolution and the consequent change in economic technique. Of course, the golden age has not dawned wit the industrial revolution; nor has slavery disappeared from the face of the earth. On the contrary, in the place of bond slavery, the industrial revolution has introduced a more insidious form of slavery; I mean the wage slavery. It has produced the ever-recurring fear of unemployment. It has also tended, especially in its initial stages, to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. In its first strides it has indeed caused greater misery to the common man than ever before. It is because every technical advance in the production of wealth would not by itself lessen the sum of human misery or increase the prospects of plenty and peace. This was proved abundantly by the food-producing economy which replaced about 6,000 years ago the earlier one of food-gathering. The former is decidedly superior to the latter and certainly more productive. And yet “it introduced”, in the words of Bertrand Russell, “slavery and serfdom, human sacrifice, absolute monarchy and large wars, Instead of raising the standard of life, except for a tiny governing minority, it merely increased the population. On the whole, it probably increased the sum of human misery.” Likewise, if the second major technical advance in production which man has achieved through the industrial revolution has in some respects caused more misery than happiness, it is because the habits of the earlier age are too deeply ingrained to be easily shaken off.
On account of the stupid, selfish, and perverse use to which the new economic technique is being put, there is now in most parts of the world greater concentration of wealth in fewer hands, greater concentration of power together with greater capacity for evil, greater danger of global wars and the total annihilation of man. While I concede all this, I would like to point out that “science, as a dominant factor in determining the beliefs of educated men, as existed for about 300 years; as a source of economic technique for 150 years” only. In this all too brief period- you may compare it with 6,000 years of a purely agricultural economy - it has wiped out many superstitions, lighted up the dark corners of the minds of millions of common people; has given them slowly, but steadily, more and more voice in the shaping of their own destiny; and, above all, it has created hope in them of a new age in which plenty and leisure would not be the exclusive privilege of the fortunate few; and arts and culture and the graces of a life of the mind would not be gifts vouchsafed to a tiny minority. If that new age is still only shimmering on the distant horizon, tantalizing us as a hope still to be realized, as a dream yet to take concrete shape, it is mainly because of our stupidity, selfishness, and perversity; it is because our social and political organizations are not able to meet the challenge of our technological advance.
While valuing our traditional culture as a great heritage of which we can be proud, I stand for the modern culture of the common man based on freedom and equality, on education and enlightenment, on scientific truth as against religious faith; in short, the culture of the emerging Great Commoner. I am against any attempt to go back to a supposedly golden age. The golden age is never behind us : it is always ahead of us. We cannot reach it by walking backwards; but by proceeding forward with hope, with confidence, with the torch of reason in our hand, and love of our fellow-beings in our heart. If we take care of our future, traditional culture will take care of itself. Those parts of it that have vitality will certainly survive, for they already constitute a part of our being, while the rest are bound to disappear in spite of any attempts on our part to breathe new life into them. Talk of reviving a culture betrays an ignorance of its very nature. As Eliot has aptly pointed out, “culture is the one thing that we cannot deliberately aim at. It is the product of a variety of more or less harmonious activities, each pursued for its own sake : the artist must concentrate upon his canvas, the poet upon his typewriter, the civil servant upon the just settlement of particular problems as they present themselves upon his desk, each according to the situation in which he finds himself.” Such being the nature of culture, we should. I submit, talk less of preserving our traditional culture or of consciously evolving a new one, and concentrate more on living; living in tune with our better natures, in harmony with our social environment, and in appreciation of the glorious gift of all the poetry and beauty which the azure sky, the verdant earth, the soaring hills, and the sparkling seas richly provide us. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if the chances of a culture flowering were not greater when we had fewer societies for the advancement of culture and much less talk of culture. Culture may or may not be a new word; but certainly the particular meaning with which we are using it nowadays is new It was not bandied about in that sense either in the Athens of Pericles or in the domains of Vikramaditya, and yet where else did it flourish more?
And finally, my submission is that whether we are conscious of it or not, a new culture is shaping itself amidst us in response to the new environment of this technological age and in consonance with the new urges of modern man. Even now in India, where the technological revolution is in its initial stages, it is fostering a new outlook, a new philosophy, a new approach to life. It is transforming the caste structure; it is cutting at the root of the age-old theory of karma which seeks to justify every social inequality and iniquity on the basis of supposed sins committed in a mythical past birth or births. It is making the common man stand up and demand, not as a matter of generosity, but as his birthright, political freedom, economic opportunity, and social justice. It is making a man even out of an untouchable who for ages has been treated as worse than subhuman, and, what is infinitely worse, made to believe that a just God had condemned him to that wretched status. Out of all this ferment, a new culture will, I am sure, emerge triumphantly, unless it is submerged in a tidal wave of reaction and revivalism. This new culture when it emerges will make us feel ashamed of the present caste distinctions, and economic inequalities, the present poverty and squalor of a large majority, and the present ignorance and superstitions of the masses. A new dawn is ahead of us; it will mark the beginnings of a new and glorious age. (1955)

ART AND SCIENCE of AJANTA AND ELLORA

2008-08-04T21:14:00.005+05:30

V.R. Narla toured extensively in India and abroad. He studied the sculpture, art , architecture. He is very fond of Buddhist art and literature. He compared the Indian architecture to western and eastern countries.
Here is the in depth study of Ajanta and Ellora caves by V R Narla
( Narla Venkateswararao)

Before your actual visit to Ajanta and Ellora you might have heard for years a good deal about their far farmed caves. You might have seen quite a few reproductions of their glorious paintings and sculptures. You might have even gobbled up what this art critic or that connoisseur had written in praise of them. With all this prior knowledge, you might have started on your journey with high expectations. And yet, neither Ananta nor Ellora will let you down. They are vibrant with beauty and grace and power far beyond the range of your highest expectations.
This, at any rate, has been my personal experience, and it is, I believe, also that of thousands of other visitors to these cave temples. Speaking strictly for myself, I cannot say the same thing of the many famous sights seen by me in my fairly extensive travels round the world. Besides Ajanta and Ellora, only Angkor Wat greatly exceeded, in magnitude and splendor, my mental picture of it.
Even in retrospect, I find it somewhat difficult to sort out my impressions of this renowned temple on the outskirts of Siam reap in Cambodia. Rising tire over tire, it soars into the sky; it is a structure that is vast, gigantic, stupendous. It is more a city than an edifice. In fact the literal meaning of Angkor Wat is “the temple city.” Like an overgrown metropolis bulging at its seems, it stuns you by its very size. You feel lost in its bewildering maze. Walking along miles and miles of its galleries or colonnades and viewing, however cursorily, the countless sculptures in low relief that adorn them, is a physical effort, which is likely to fatigue you unless you are young and robust. As in the case of the Niagara Falls, which I visited a little earlier, Angkor Wat is pervaded by something elemental, its neighbourly counterpart, the ancient royal city, Angkor – Thom, were (according to popular tradition) not men, but mythical giants.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia

The impact of Ajanta and Ellora on you is totally different. Here you feel that you are in the presence of something that is at once secular and sacred, intimate and ethereal. Nothing is outsize, nothing over whelming. Instead of being dazed as at Angkor Wat by the sheer weight of magnitude and profusion, you feel gently transported into a realm of art and poetry, into a world of dreams and visions. As you wander from one cave temple to another, a sense of awe and wonder, of peace and plenitude, settles on you.
Of Ajanta and Ellora, the former has been fortunate; it was abandoned totally and forgotten for about a thousand years. During this long period of oblivion, it was hidden from public view by forest trees that grew above and around its caves, and what was perhaps worse, the caves became the hideouts of predatory men and beasts. Many of the paintings of Ajanta and some of their sculptures have, in consequence, suffered irreparable damage. The story of the rediscovery of Ajanta is indeed very fascinating. Here is how Mukul Dey recounts it in his book My Pilgrimages to Ajanta and Bagh.
In the year 1819 a British officer, retired from the Madras Army, was out alone in the jungles close to the village of Ajanta on hunting expedition. Unsuccessful, he wound his way on and on through the wild stony tracks. Having pursued his haphazard course for some time, and, imagining himself far enough from human beings, he was surprised to hear but a little way off the shrill voice of a boy. Hastening his steps, te captain soon came up to a young person talking to his herd of half-wild buffaloes in the middle of the jungle.
The boy, seeing a European and consequently hoping to earn a little tip by showing him the actual home of the tigers, led him a little way from where he was standing and, pointed through the trees, said, “Look, Sahib”. Eagerly looking in the direction of the boy’s extended arm, he saw through the thick green foliage something, a little golden-red in colour, peering between a few mauve coloured stone – carved pillars or columns.
The captain, intensely excited, feeling that he was on the brink of making an important archaeological discovery, sent immediately to the village for men to come with torches and drums, with axes and spears, to hew down the tangled clusters that had throttled the entrance to the caves. Thus, a clearing was made in the jungle, and a passage forced into these long-forgotten cave-temples which had been hewn out of solid rock between the third century B.C. and the seventh century A.D.
As the army officer clambered up the steep bank of the Vaghora and stood before the cave temples, he must have felt as though a new and wondrous world has revealing itself to him. This, indeed, is the great thing about Ajanta; it bursts on you as a magnificent revelation. So does Ellora.
The caves at Ajanta are wholly Buddhistic, while those at Ellora are representative of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The caves at both the centres were excavated and adorned over centuries. Royal patronage for them was there in plenty, but it was the devotion and magnificence, love and labours of generations of religious men and their lay followers that helped to create them with all their beauty and splendor.
Without going into the details of the environs or the number and the lay-out of the Ajanta caves, I would like to refer here briefly to their great message, as it is understood by me. Try however much, you cannot run away from life. The Buddhist monks tried their best to run away from it by leaving their kith and kin, by forsaking their homes and hearths, by renouncing the world and all its pleasures and, finally, by shutting themselves up in a lonely glen with its little stream, Veghora. But still, life pursued tem relentlessly to claim every one of them as her own. The paintings of the Ajanta caves are there to proclaim this triumph of life. In practically every one of the frescoes you find life holding its court, attended not only by men but also by the denizens of the skies and the forests. In those assemblies gods and goddesses hold converse wit mortals; princes and princesses rub shoulders with peasants; birds and animals vie with each other in adding colour and animation to the scene. Here is pair of lovers looking into each other’s eyes; there a recluse turning is gaze inwards; elsewhere a mother finding her fulfillment in the child in her arms; everywhere life is bubbling with a new joy and breaking into a new song.
Besides this message of the triumph of life, Ellora offers you another too. There was a time when Hinduism, Buddhism, and Janinism clashed violently with one another to establish their individual ascendancy. This rivalry took a different form here in Ellora. Each of these religions tried at this spot to excel the other not in destructive but creative activity. Between them they have presented to posterity a total of 34 cave temples hewn out of the bowels of the solid rock. What a better world would ours be if only all the religions would compete likewise and all the time in what is essentially artistic and creative!
If I were to dwell on the individual excellences of the cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora, there is no knowing where I should stop. I will, therefore, confine myself to some general observations. As you visit one cave temple after another, you will often be transfixed by the figure of the Buddha with his eyes closed in deep meditation and yet peering with love and understanding into the innermost recesses of your heart. You will be entranced by one or another of the Bodhisattvas with his angelic face lit up wit a sweet smile of compassion abounding. You will be charmed by the celestial beauty of the Apsaras, amused by te sort and stodgy figures of the Yakshas and fascinated by the flying Gandharvas. Each of these joyful moments will live with you for ever as a priceless treasure.
As I have avoided details about the individual excellences of the cave temples, I am refraining from dwelling on other minor things such as, for instance, how to journey to Ajanta and Ellora or where to stay. Detailed information on these points can be easily gathered from the guide-books published by the Department of Tourism of the Government of India. I would, however, like to say on the basis of my own experience that the best time to visit

Ajantha and Ellora is towards the end of the rainy season. By then the fields are a vast sea of rich verdure, the sides of the rocks are lush with vegetation, and the whole prospect as you journey to the caves is a veritable feast to the eye. During this time you may have a few sparkling showers, making the weather cool, refresh, and bracing. Round about Deepavali, the festival of lights, is the best time to plan a visit to the cave temples.
Although the distance between Jalgaon and Ajanta is much shorter than between Aurangabad and Ajanta. I recommended the longer route. It passes over rolling hills and dales through a bewitching countryside, and your very journey through it is sure to put you in a better mood to see and to enjoy and to receive the profound message of Ajanta.
There are two more tips which I would like to give a visitor to Ajanta and Ellora. The present approach to the Ajanta caves is not the ancient one; in the olden times one had probably to wade through a part of the Vaghora river to climb up the steep stone steps, which are still there, to reach roughly the middle of the crescent in which are embedded the thirty caves. If you were to start at this point and work your way to either side, there would be a certain logical progression in the impressions formed by you. The caves now marked I and II are not the earliest; they were probably the last to be excavated and embellished. And they are by far the best, both for the wealth of their paintings and for the fine points of their architecture. If you were to see them first, the rest of your visit might be an anticlimax. You should, therefore, reserve these two caves to the very last.
In the case of Ellora, the procedure to be followed is just the reverse. Most people, beguiled by the local guides, begin their visit by visiting Cave XVI, famous as the Kailasa, which is roughly in the middle of the whole group. E.B.Havell says that it is “in some ways the most wonderful tour de force achieved by Indian sculptor-architects”. After the powerful impact of this marvelous creation, the rest of the sights tend to pall on you. So you should begin with Cave I and proceed unhurriedly until you reach Cave XXXIV. I know that not only many visitors to Ellora, but art critics and historians as well, hold that art and architecture found their best and fullest expression at Ellora in the Kailasa temple. But I, for one, would recommend more than causal attention to Cave XXIX. It is grand in conception and grander in execution. In my opinion, for what it is worth, it is the real Kailasa. Here you find the great Siva in every mood, from the most benign to the most terrible. “Sculpture”, according to a definition by Will Durant, “is motion immobilized, passion spent or controlled, beauty of form preserved from time by metal congealed or lasting stone.” As you gaze in awe at the great sculptures in this cave you will realize how true Durant’s definition is. I sometimes think that the creators of the Nataraja of Chidambaram and elsewhere owed their inspiration directly to the dancing Siva of Ellora. (1967)

Enjoy Shakespeare - Avoid emulation

2008-08-04T13:23:00.003+05:30

Shakespeare, being “myriad-minded”, means many things to many people. So does he to me. To the same person he means different things at different ages. So is the case with me. In my boyhood I was charmed by him when he was introduced to me by Charles and Mary Lamb. While at college he repelled when he was thrust on me as prescribed reading. Later on in life when I sought him out of my free choice, I felt as Swinburne said of Michaelangelo :
He was most awful of the sons of God
And at his feet as natural servants lay
Twilight and dawn and night and laboring day.
I am not believer in God or in his chosen sons, but it there is a God I would be terribly uncomfortable in his presence. Try however much, I can have no rapport with him. He would make me feel a mere straw that is carried swiftly along the onrushing stream of his creative genius, and buffeted by its turbulent waves. Unlike every other poet and playwright, this is how Shakespeare makes me feel in his company. Tolstoy too is a giant in his own field, te novel, but you could at least sit at his feet, though not by his side; you could converse with him, though not dare contradict him. All you could do with Shakespeare is to worship him from afar or to disdain him outright.
For different reasons, Voltaire, Byron, Tolstoy, and Bernard Shaw were severe on Shakespeare. “He was a savage,” said Voltaire. “who had imagination. He has written many happy lines; but his pieces can please only in London and in Canada.” And he boasted that he had been the first to show the French “some pearls which I had found” in the “enormous dunghill” of Shakespeare’s plays. Byron, in his turn, said that Shakespeare was “a damned humbug.” “The content of Shakespeare’s plays,” fulminated Tolstoy, “is the lowest, most vulgar view of life which regards the external elevation of the great ones of earth as a genuine superiority; despises the crowd, that is to say, the working classes; and repudiates not only religious, but even every humanitarian, effort directed towards the alterations of the existing order of society.” The denunciation by Shaw was no less trenchant. He said : “With the simple exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind against his.”
In his day, Shakespeare aroused jealousy, angry and explosive, in his fellow-poets and play wrights. Here, they felt, is an uncouth fellow, of humble origin, of no university education, a mere actor and a minor one at that, “an absolute Johannes fac totum” (Jack of All Trades), who not only dares to presume that he could cut and prune, add and embellish, and totally refashion the plays of the University Wits, but also write new plays. He is “an upstart Crowe beautified with our feathers”. And yet he thinks “in his owned conceit the one lie Shake-scene in the country.” We should be wary of him; e has a “tiger’s heart wrapt in a player’s hide”. Though it would be unjust to accuse Voltaire. Byron, Tolstoy, and Bernard Shaw of a like professional jealousy, it is conceivable that unknowingly to themselves they may have felt a hidden impulse to tell themselves and the world that they are no less tall than the Avonian Bard.
I am too small to denounce or denigrate Shakespeare, nor have I a desire to do any such thing. I stand at a safe distance and salute him. When I desire to learn a lesson or two in dramatic construction, I do not go to him but to Sardou and Ibsen. When I want to inspiration to Synge and Lady Gregory. When I seek to raise a laugh. I prefer to follow Moliere and to wring a tear, Bhavabhuti. When my aim is to drive home a moral. Shaw and Tolstoy are more approachable models for me. For giving a modern interpretation to an old myth, O’Neill and Anouilh are safer guides, and for philosophical slant, Sartre. For making people sit up and think of socio-economic problems and their impact on contemporary life, Hauptmann and Galsworthy are, I feel, within easier reach. For symbolism, my vote goes to Strindberg, for imaginative realism to Chekhov, for the experimental play to Pirandello, for the wistful to Barrie, for the bizarre to Ionesco. In my more daring moments, I sometimes venture to look up for instruction to Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, but never to Shakespeare. He is as towering among play wrights as was Gulliver among the Lilliputians.
It is true that the work of the other play wrights is of a higher uniform quality. In Shakespeare, “there is”, to quote J.W. Mackail, “slovenliness, disproportion, impropriety, bombast, Vulgarity – one need not enlarge the catalogue. He is often barbaric. But no one has ever called him, from his best to his worst, un dramatic.” Even Tolstoy, in spite of his low opinion of Shakespeare, had to admit that “however arbitrary the positions in which he puts his characters, however unnatural to them the language he makes them speak, however lacking in individuality they may be, the movement of feeling itself, its increase and change and the combination of many contrary feelings, are often expressed correctly and powerfully in some of Shakespeare’s scenes”. From my fairly wide reading of world drama. I can say that besides his dramatic power there is something in Shakespeare which can only be called elemental, primordial. He thunders like a Jupiter, declaims like a Jehovah, proclaims doom like a Jeremiah, and curses like a very Satan. With him, if it is love it should be all-pervading; if hate, all-consuming; if murder, all gory. Nothing by halves, not even clowning and bawdiness. His clowns should be like no other clowns and his bawdiness should be more salty than the worst of billingsgate. He is so prolific that he has created about a thousand characters, major, middling, and minor. They range from Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and Lear to Puck, Prospero, Touchstone, and Falstaff, from Desdemona, Juliet, and Cleopatra to Rosalind. Portia, and Katharine, and in between we have a whole blood of villains headed by Iago. Barring the very minor characters, each of the rest has a life and individuality of his or her own. “The characters created by Shakespeare”, as stated truly by Pushkin” are not, as in Moliere, types of this or that passion, this or that vice, but living beings, filled to overflowing with many passions and many vices; circumstances mould their varied and many-sided characters before the eyes of the audience.”
The uniqueness of Shaskespeare is that he is great even in his faults, and they are more than covered up by his command over words, his mastery of rhythm, his flash of phrase. As Ivor Brown has rightly said, his is the “supreme verbal genius that raised words not only to a higher power but to the highest power ever achieved by any writer in our language.” This “verbal genius”, coupled wit his dramatic power, made Shakespeare the greatest of world’s play wrights. At his magic touch the grossest material springs into pulsating drama. Marx and Engels said that in the philosophical writings of Bacon “matter smiles upon the whole of humanity in all its poetically sensual radiance.” This is even more true of his supreme genius one has to see him on the stage. Twice I tried to see him at his birthplace in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, but to my great disappointment I was told on the first occasion in 1954 that every available seat was booked for weeks to come, and one the second, during the early part of this year, the season had not yet commenced. I had, however, the pleasure of seeing him performed at Aldwych Theatre by the Old Vice Company, as also by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company. In all I have seen five London productions of Shakespeare, and each one has been a living, thrilling, abiding experience.
But I hold that every age has its own theatre and its play. Let alone others, even the British cannot go back to the Elizabethan Theatre or to the Elizabethan Play except as a matter of historical interest. In his day, Shakespeare’s plays were modern, but now, in spite of their undimmed beauty, power, and excellence, they are period pieces. Shakespeare was the son of his age, the Age of Renaissance, when the European mind broke loose from its chains and the European spirit soared into new and hitherto undreamt of realms of freedom, knowledge, and enlightenment. Not only metaphorically but also literally, the Western man, by circling the globe for the first time in history, discovered new continents and opened up new vistas. Shakespeare was the trumpet voice of this new age in Europe. We in India have also stepped into a new age, but it is a pity that while we are now politically free and united after centuries of bondage, our mind is still imprisoned in the dead past and our spirit is poor and timorous. If we were to have new drama and new theatre, there should be a reawakening of the mind and a resurgence of the spirit. I am convinced that trying to imitate Shakespeare without steeping oneself, as he did, in the spirit of one’s age, without his matchless genius for words, or his instinctive feel for the theatre is a futile as it is foolish. And, in any case, Shakespeare is inimitable. No less a poet than Milson felt that Shakespeare had a paralyzing effect on his imagination and complained to the ghost of the Bard of Stratford-on-Avon thus :
But thou, our fancy of itself bereaving
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving
As no plant can thrive under the spreading shadow of the mighty banyan, no playwright could flourish if he were to come too much under the spell of Shakespeare. During the past sixty or seventy years we have had in my part of the country at least one Andhra Shakespeare for each generation, and, by and laarge, their work has turned to be "sound and fury signifying nothing".I may therefore, say that Shakespeare in the final analysis, means to me a poet to be enjoyed but not emulated, a playwright to be admired but whose petrifying influence has to be avoided as far as possible. (1964)

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V R Narla on culture

2008-08-01T20:54:00.002+05:30

Late V R Narla was a critic of culture who observed different cultural patterns from cosmopolitan angle. Here is one such critique on culture:

TRADITIONAL INDIAN CULTURE

What is Culture? Culture is, no doubt, a much used, and we may even say often abused, word; but are we all agreed about its meaning, its scope, and its significance? I have yet to come across two definitions of culture that do not differ in some vital element or other.
Culture, according to Matthew Arnorld, has “its origins in the love of perfection”, and it is “a study of perfection”. If this is rather delightfully vague, his further elaboration that “culture has one great passion, the passion for sweetness and light”, does not, I submit, leave us with a clearer notion of culture. John Cowper Powys, who has written a whole book to explain the meaning of culture, warns us in his preface that “it is perhaps unwise to attempt a single dogmatic definition of culture”, and proceeds to give us quite a few of them. One of these equates culture with self-control; another identifies it with perfect union between an individual’s life and his opinions; while the third describes it as “the calm refuge, a patient, skeptical, but not cynical standing – ground, from which you can survey the tract of our journey through the years without too much self-abasement and without too many regrets.” Though Powys refuses to be bound down to any single dogmatic definition of culture, he considers the following one “rather felicitous” and quotes it with approval : “Culture is what is left over after you have forgotten all you have definitely set out to learn.” This is indeed felicitous, but hardly an all-inclusive or fully acceptable definition of culture. Nor can we wholly agree with T.S.Eliot when he tries to make culture more or less synonymous with religion. Eliot is probably nearer the truth when he says that broadly speaking culture could be described as “the way of life of a particular people living together in one place.” But could even this be acceptable to all? M.N.Roy, for one, questions this. He thinks that culture is neither national nor racial in its sweep. He asserts that it manifests itself differently in different individuals in spite of all of them belonging to the same national or racial group.
Though there is such wide divergence of opinion about the meaning of culture, it could, I suppose, be taken for the purposes of our discussion that culture is that which helps the inner growth of man, conditioning at the same time his reactions to, and relationships with, the outside world, and through the man in the aggregate putting its own deep and unmistakable stamp on the social, national, or racial group to which he belongs. On some such working basis only we will be able to start our discussion on the impact of technology on the traditional cultures of South-East Asia. But there is still room for considerable difference of opinion as to what could be called a “traditional” culture.
Though tradition implies a certain continuity and, may be, even an element of stability, it cannot defy the laws of change, growth, decline, and even death. A tradition may be vigorous or senile, healthy or diseased. It may be a living tradition or one that is dying or dead. Even when there is no violent break with the past, there may be subtle changes in a tradition which, though slow and imperceptible, may in a generation or two alter it so thoroughly as to make it unrecognizable in its original form. To take an example from our own history, the traditions of the early Vedic Age are not the same as those of the later part of it. The first and last hymns of the Rig Veda are not sung in praise of the same set of gods; the old gods were demoted and dethroned and new ones were invoked to preside over the sacrificial fires. This period is indeed strewn with many broken idols, overthrown divinities, and forsaken faiths. As beliefs changed and horizons widened, as new insights were gained and new experiences acquired, the pattern of the Vedic culture underwent subtle changes until in the period of the Upanishads the child-like naïve Vedic folk-poet gave place to the questioning and rejecting, the arguing and postulating Upanishadic sage. Tradition is thus subject to change. It may change for the better of the worse, but it does and should change; otherwise tradition ceases to be living; it becomes a dead-weight that drags down man and arrests his onward march.
If it is conceded that a living tradition and, much more so, a living culture are subject to continuous change and adjustment to a changing environment, it is, I take it, not correct to associate our traditional culture with any particular period in our history, whether Vedic, Buddistic, Classical, or Mediaeval. It cannot even be equated with what was obtained in the pre-British period. I would like to lay special emphasis on this as I find a general tendency to associate our traditional culture with some earlier period or other according to one’s preferences or predilections. Rammohan and Bankim Chandra, Ranade and Telang. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, Veeresalingam and Venkataratnam and towering over them all, Gandhi and Tagore belong to the modern age, and yet their life and thought are a part of my traditional culture, no less than what has come down to me with infinite variations and adjustments from earlier times. But if I were to draw a broad line between traditional and modern cultures, I would unhesitatingly say that traditional culture ceased to be purely traditional when the quest for scientific truth led directly to a new and revolutionary economic technique, for it altered the material basis of culture.
As Will Durant says in Our Oriental Heritage, the first volume of his monumental work. The Story of Civilization, “the first form of culture is agriculture.” Man has existed for about a million years but he took to agriculture only about 6,000 years ago, and “it is when man settles down to till the soil” – here I am again quoting Durant – “and lay up provisions for the uncertain future that he finds time and reason to be civilized. Within that little circle of security – a reliable supply of water and food – he builds his huts, his temples and his schools; he invents productive tools and domesticates the dog, the ass, the pig, at last himself. He learns to work with regularity and order, maintains a longer tenure of life and transmits more completely than before the mental and moral heritage of his race.” And I may be pardoned if I supplement the words of Durant by saying that what we call our culture is this mental and moral heritage.
But let me revert to the origins of culture. Agriculture, while it undoubtedly removed the hazards and uncertainties of a hunting and food-gathering life, and provided a modicum of security, as also leisure, to form the seed-bed for the sprouting of culture, also led not only to private property but to slavery. “The rise of agriculture and the inequality of men”, to quote again Durant, “led to the employment of the socially weak by the socially strong; not till then did it occur to the victor in war that the only good prisoner is a live one. Butchery and cannibalism lessened, slavery grew.” Side by side with slavery culture also grew. But it was basically the culture of the classes who had leisure to think and to plan, and not that of the masses who were, by and large, condemned to hard labour. This culture, in spite of the heights it reached, could not altogether escape the deadening influence of slavery that formed its bedrock. How else can we explain a classical philosopher like Aristotle defending slavery as natural and inevitable, or a pious man like St.Paul blessing it as a divinely ordained institutions, or the compassionate Buddha barring the entry of slaves into his order?

Man and his world

2008-07-20T06:26:00.006+05:30

Great sayings of V R Narla
(Narla Venkateswararao emerged as great thinker and writer as he grew in age and mind.He reflected on global aspects and reflected under the title Man and his World.He would have changed the title as humans and world , which includes both men and women)

MAN AND HIS WORLD

THE WORLD
The world is real, very much real, a thousand times more real than the philosophers who call it an illusion, a mirage or a phantom.

MAN THE THINKER
Man is thinking animal, and the more he thinks and thinks objectively and creatively, the lesser will be the animal in him.

ETHICS
If you insist, as Gandhi did, on an absolute truth, asolute celibacy, absolute non-violence, absolute sacrifice, absolute non-possession, and other such absolute ethical values it will result in absolute hypocrisy.
By getting mixed up with religion, ethics loses much of its point, most of its purpose, and almost all of its spontaneity.

GANDHIAN ATHEIST
If anyone claims to be both a Gandhian and an atheist, he must be either a fool or a knave.
RELIGION AND CULTURE
A world religion is an impossibility; a world culture is not. The only hope of One World and One Humanity, therefore, lies in the emergence of a world culture.

THE DEEPEST LOVE
Expresses itself, not though a cataract of words, but by the glow on the face, the sparkle in the eye, he thrill of togetherness.

MAN
As an individual is now by far more humane than in the earlier ages, but man in the mass is infinitely more brutish.

NATURE
Unnatural pleasure will be novel, intense and exotic, but in the end nature will surely have its revenge – total, terrible, terminal.

THINKER
The primary function of a thinker is to recognize in advance the emerging historical forces and to transform them into ideas, concepts, hypotheses or theories.

TO DIE
With a smile on your lips – what a grateful and gracious farewell to life it would be !

CUSTOM AND TRADITION
Custom makes life a routine; tradition makes thinking needless; and together they make man a robot.

CUSTOM AND TRADITION
Entrenched habit is custom; mummified custom is tradition.

CUSTOM AND TRADITION
If custom is really sound, a better name for it will be rational behaviour; and if there is such a thing as a healthy tradition, a more apt name for it will be a living heritage.

ABRACADABRA
If the syllable “OM” opens the gates to heaven, why should the syllable “Blash” be less sacred or magical ?

SYCOPHANT
A Slave can be pitied, for slavery is often imposed by others; a sycophant can only be detested, for sycophancy is self imposed.

SWADESHI
After having campaigned for more than half a century for Swadeshi during the British rule we are now enjoying the privilege of wearing chains bearing the legend “Made in India.”

GANDHI
Who can doubt Madam Gandhi’s hold on the affections of the Indian masses? And yet one cannot help fearing whether that hold is not turning into a stranglehold. (1981).

HYPOCRITE
An outright scoundrel is a saint compared to a downright bypocrite.

FROG, HE SUPER YOGI
A yogi can live in an air-tight chamber for days and weeks. But as a frog can do it for years and years, should it not be deemed a Super Yogi ?

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Have made the world small; it is a boon, an inestimable boon. Science and technology have also made the human being small; it is a curse, a terrible curse.

SCIENCE AND PHYLOSOPHY
Science should explain the world to man; Philosophy should teach man as to how he could make his life in the world joyous as well as meaningful.

OUR LAW MAKERS
Break laws without the least compunction, for they think thar the laws are, after all, of their own making.

THE CLASS IN POWER
No class in power liquidates, itself. It is therefore foolish to think that the Indian bourgeoisie, though it swears by socialism, will ever establish a socialist order of society.

HUMBUG
To take vow of silence and yet to carry on conversation through the medium of writing is sheer humbug.

FORGIVENESS
Personal injuries may be forgiven, but certainly not public injustices.

ASTROLOGICAL SCIENCE
Is a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore.

MIXED ECONOMY
In the mixed economy of India, all the losing industries are run by the public sector and all the profitable ones by the private sector.

LIGHT AND LIGHTING
When intellectuals meet, there is light; when wits meet, there is lighting.
A CLOSED MIND
Is the worst prison in the world.

A BLESSING
A corrupt bureaucracy is a real blessing under dictatorship for it lacks the character as well as the will to ground down everything like a bulldozer.

DILEMMA
To enter politics is to soil yourself; to shun politics is to allow the country to go to the dogs.

CORRUPT POLITICIANS
Thieves fall out when it comes to sharing their loot, and so do corrupt politicians when it comes to sharing office and power.

SARAT CHATTERJEE
In Saratchandra Chatterjee, the man and the artist were closely inter-related. This is true of all master artists and their art, but in the case of Sarat the identity between the man and his art was complete, total. It may be said the Sarat, the man, emptied himself into Sarat, the artist.

EINSTEIN
Unlike Gandhi, Lenin and Mao who aspired to be great, Einstein was unconsciously great.

GREATNESS
Thrust upon people will lose it glitter in a generation or two.

FAME
Is often a poor index of greatness.

LIE
To lie with a straight face is in art; to remain unblushing when caught in the process of lying is super-art.

THE BIGGEST LIAR
is he who tells you that never in his life was he guilty of even a white lie.

HALF - TRUTH
is a bastard, being the offspring of illicit union between truth and falsehood.

MAN
should aim at being a total man and not a superman.

LITTLE MEN
When great principles end, little men come to the top.

ATHEISM
The day atheism produces a scripture is will be dead; to be ever living and ever growing it should be ever questioning.

POWER
If being too long in power corrupts, being too long in opposition, with little or no prospect of ever attaining power, corrupts much more.

MEN
We need neither supermen nor under-men, only rational men, and the larger their number the saner will be the world.

THE TEST OF A GREAT MAN
Lies in the number of followers whom he inspires to rise to greater heights than himself.

IMMORTALITY
Works for a great idea, or better still, for a great ideal, for that idea or ideal may acquire a life of its own, a life that knows no death.

TO HATE
An evil man is moral; to be nice to him is amoral, if not immoral.

CASTES AND CLASSES
There are thousands of castes in India, but only two classes – those who eat those who are eaten.

CROOK
To think that a crook would not cheat you because of his affection or regard for you is to fool yourself that a tiger can, on occasion, be a vegetarian.

ADVAITA
is unending prattle on what is said to be the unsociable, the unmeasurable, the unnamable, the unknowable, etc., etc., etc.

PHILOSOPHY
A Philosophy that is unrelated to contemporary life is no philosophy. It can only help idle men to while away their idle time.
A philosophy that is obtuse is no philosophy. It can only help one to indulge in intellectual gymnastics.
A philosophy that goes against the proven facts of science is no philosophy. It makes a people highly superstitious if not positively idiotic.

PHILOSOPHER
The wisest of all philosophers is the laughing philosopher, and he laughs mostly at himself.

A MORALIST
need not be a bore provided he knows how to laugh at himself.

LEADERS
are not made; most often, they are self-made.

LEADERS
When your gods are of low morals, you cannot have leaders of high morals.

LEADERS
Who can hyptonize themselves will their lies can finally hyptonize, as Hitler and Mussolini did, their followers, too, with the same lies.

GOD AND MAN
Where God is enthroned, man is enslaved.

IN OLD AGE
Your physical pleasures get less keen and your physical pains more acute.

WHAT IS YOUR AGE ?
It can be much more than the total of your years or much less.

A POLITICIAN
makes headlines; a statesman makes history.

Thoughts of Narla V.R.

2008-07-18T13:37:00.002+05:30

GODS, GOBLINS AND MEN
THOUGHTS OF NARLA V.R.
(Narla Venkateswara rao expressed his thoughts on various subjects. Some of them are aphoristic and powerful. Here are some such ideas)

POWER OF THOUGHT

The thought of man is all-powerful and all-pervasive. How else could it have conceived an all-powerful and all-pervasive God?

WHAT IS MYSTERIOUS
Is what is yet to be probed by the human mind.

BHAKTI

The best of bhaktas are child-like. An adult and mature mind can find neither peace nor fulfillment in bhakti.

OLD GODS AS PRESENT SERVANTS

Wind and fire and water were once man’s gods; now they are his servants. As man learns to control more and more the elements of nature, the world of gods will thin out further.

IDOL AND IDEAL
Failure to live up to an ideal makes man to cling to an idol.

EVERY NEW-BORN BABY
Is a triumph of life in its race with death.

HUMANISM’S ULTIMATE VALUE
Like the world religions of today humanism too should have an ultimate value. But it should be of this world and not of any other, and it should find fulfillment in individual as well as corporate life.

GANDHIAN THOUGHT
Has ceased to influence contemporary Indian Society. To those who deny this, it should be pointed out that Gandhi himself felt in the last years of his life that he was cruelly betrayed by his countrymen. Indeed, on one occasion he said : “It may be thought the Negroes that the unadulterated message of non-violence will be delivered to the world. “How true these words have proved to be by the martyrdom of that great Negro – Martin Luther King!

V.R.Narla as Parliament member( Rajya Sabha)

2008-07-15T12:55:00.002+05:30

Role of V. R. NARLA in RAJYA SABHA

Shri Narla was the Member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms from 1958 to 1970. Shri Narla used to travel to Delhi and back after his election as Member of Rajya Sabha. He participated in the discussions on subjects of interest. They are limited. Some of them may be cited as examples.
On 16th December 1960, he spoke on the proposal for appointment of experts for making translations into Hindi and Indian Languages. He said that translation does not mean as work which should be done mechanically and the original should be well understood and re-created again. According to him translation is not a mechanical process; He suggested that translation work should be entrusted to creative writers. India also has to adapt the technical words on the lines of international usages as they are, so that India may develop as Japan.
He remained that the word ‘Sputnik’ is adopted practically by every community. He said that Egypt also is following internationally adopted words along with Arabic languages. The people on some occasions create words as per need. In this context he said that the workers in Visakhapatnam Harbour are using the word ‘thravvoda’ for the crane. They made it understandable to all. He gave exhaustive details about borrowing 90% revenue words from Urdu language into Telugu.
When the subject of transferring Berubari union area to Pakistan come for discussion on 23 December, participating in the discussion Shri Narla vociferously condemned the communists and Jyothi Basu. When communist made as attack on Nehru, he retaliated strongly and disclosed the greatness of Nehru. He also said that there was danger from China to India in the Northern Borders. Shri Narla said that the communists are putting the people in hysteria. The version that ‘one party one leader’ is not democratic and at the same time they should remember the role of a leader like Nehru.
Speaking on Salar Jung Museum(At Hyderabad) on 15 December 1960, he compared 50 to 60% of the objects in it to junk. He said so after visiting hundred Museums in India and abroad and examining their contents thoroughly. The image of the Museum will be high if they are removed. ‘Because of this junk the remaining thing lost their value’, he said. (He lamented that he had not come across even a single sculpture to proclaim the glory of our Kakatiya Empire. He further said that he had not found a single object of art to represent the greatness of our Satavahana empire.)
Shri Narla supported the idea of keeping the Budhistic pieces of art on the Nagarjunakonda. He opposed the suggestion of shifting them to Sala Jung Museum. He said that some of the objects in the Hyderabad State Museum will gain in value and that he will not hesitate to pay tributes to Salar Jung. He was unhappy for its being in then state.
Shri Narla spoke on the history of freedom movement in the Rajya Sabha on 15th May 1961. Saying that there would be a cycle of high tide and low ebb in the history of almost every nation in the world he expressed that the 18th Century reached one of its low ebbs. He said that a few merchants could win the whole of the sub continent without even military training. Such details were touched in this history and therefore should not fall a prey to criticism. Though there are some deficiencies here and there, the book written by Dr.Tarachand deserves appreciation. He mentioned that the introduction in Kosambi’s Indian History also is dispassionate. He emphasized that truth should be known and future should be taken into the view. He also criticized in the introduction written for Prof. Humayun Kabir’s book. He expressed the view that Government did not take up responsibility for what was written by Tarachand. He justified Tarachand in applying the Marxist view to examine history. He said that Herald J Laski followed that method.
Shri Narla spoke on the issue of working Journalists on 11th December 1962 in the Rajya Sabha. He asserted that papers should not be nationalized and it will not suit democracy. Speaking on the monopoly in the newspaper field, he stated that there will be protection for the working journalists, if an attempt is made to increase the opportunities of employment. Though strike is oganized in big papers, journalists are not able to continue the strike for long an the reason for it is the non-availability of ways and means. He made suggestions to provide protection to small news papers and with regard to fixing advertisement tariff. He appealed to Government that rotary machines should be supplied on installment basis. On 6th December 1962 Shri Narla made a lengthy speech on Defense Bill When it came for discussion. Shri Narla condemned China for violation of Panchasheela Principle, harping on non-alingnment policy. He said that there were 47 Communist parties, and 13 Communist Governments in the world. According to him China resorted to aggression againt India; though none of them have committed aggression. He reminded that when Sun-yat-sen and Chang Kai-Shaik were the rulers also, they asserted that there were China’s boundaries in South-Asia. India is disclosing many defence secrets in haste and should be cautions. China is indulging in espionage activities through agents. We are revealing information which we should not do. He expressed that the Government should exercise its powers with care and caution.
Shri Narla spoke about Dakshina Bharatha Hindi Prachara Sabha on 29th August 1963 in the Rjya Sabha, stating that Ganghiji sent his son Devada as Hindi Praharak to Madras in South India. By making Hindi compulsory as part of curriculam; the Hindi Prachara Sabha will lose its importance and its financial resources will be lessened. Opposing the idea of making Osmania University as South Indian Hindi University, Shri Narla said that the Hindi Prachara Sabha may take up this programme. He stated that co-operation may be taken from South India for development of Hindi. In order to avoid from South India for development of Hindi. In order to avoid psychological disinclination among the non-Hindi speaking people, the word Barathi may be used for Hindi. Shri Narla reminded that the protagonists of Hindi opposed the suggestion of Gandhiji to use Hindustani instead of Hindi.
Shri Narla made an elaborate speech on the official language issue on 21 December 1967. He said that English language inculcated the spirit of freedom in us and those who oppose English should peruse the history of Indian renaissance. A few among the Hindi speaking people who are intolerant and orthodox and being hated.
It is that English is a foreign language. It should not be forgotten that Hindi also is a foreign language to people belonging to South-India. Nevertheless, they are ready to learn Hindi, but some time should be given. Difficulty arises if they are asked to learn Hindi urgently. Hindi among Indian languages is like a small aged girl who has not attained maturity. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are ancient languages when compared to Hind.
Hindi in its form is hundred years age only. Vraja language, Bundali, Marwadi, Maywadi, Jaipuri, Malvi, Avadhi, Bhageli, Chathisgarhi, Mythili, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Khadiboli, etc., are regional languages in Hindi region. Among these languages Khadiboli has earned prominence since 100 years. Hence it has to be very much developed. Shri Narla said that initiative has to be taken to international level. Shri Narla condemned the view of the orthodox Hindi people that learning Hindi is partrotism and nationalism. He said that it is not antinational if one does not learn Hindi. Though Rajaji and Anndorai opposed Hindi, it cannot be said that there should be time and opportunity to learn Hind. Though Rajaji and Annadorai opposed Hindi, it cannot be said that they are not patriots and nationalists. He said that there should be time and opportunity to learn Hindi. People from South India should be given a chance in developing Hindi. English is absorbing many Hindi words into it but the orthodox Hindi people are in the attitude that no English words should be taken into Hindi.
Freedom of the Press

On 22 August 1968 Shri V R Narla moved a resolution in the Rajya Sabha when the Andhra Pradesh Government brought the Bill to curb freedom of the press. The then Chief Minister was Shri Kasu Brahmananda Reddy. Shri Narla Said that the State Government brought this Bill to put a check on the press freedom. He vehemently said that the regulations on papers during the British Rule and during the Nizam days cannot vie with the Bill brought forward by the Andhra Pradesh Government. He read out the comment of ‘The Hindu’ paper in respect of this Bill intended to
uproot the press freedom. When once the constraints on papers are imposed, it is not known where they will end. ‘Examining of news to be published, is really censoring beforehand’ he said.
Dr. N Innaiah

Who wrote what on V.R.Narla

2008-07-12T07:28:00.001+05:30

Works on
V.R. Narla in Telugu language

1. Gorrepati Venkata Subbaiah : Nava Medhavi Narla (Modern Intellectual) 1975.
2. G. Mutyala Rao : Narla Sahityam (Writings of Narla – one observation) 1993.
3. M. Venugopal : Narla Sahityam : Samagra Pariseelana (Thorough Study of Narla’s Works) 1994
4. N. Ramanamma : Narla Vyaktitvam : Patrika Rachana (Personality of Narla – Writings in Media) 1987
5. M. Venugopal : Jabali – one study (Thesis on the play Jabali) 1988.
6. P. Krishna Murthy : Kottagadda (Thesis on Kottagadda – plays) 1982.
7. C. Vijaya Lakshmi : Editorials of Narla – 1987.
8. N. Anjam Raju : Editorials of Narla – Thesis - 1990.
9. Jasti Venkata Nasaiah : Narla Venkateswara Rao – 1963.
10 . Nagasuri Venugopal – Narla Vaari Bata (The Path of Narla) 2000.
11. Kolla Srikrishna Rao : Narla Samskruti (Culture of Narla) 1988.
12. Bondalapati Sivaramakrishna : Edited: Hamsa,monthly Special Issue – 1964.
13. N. Innaiah : Life and Experiences of V. R. Narla – Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Publication – 1987.
14. Nagasuri Venugopal – Navataraniki Narla (Narla for New Generation – earlier works (2007).

Works on
V.R. Narla in English

1. Blessings, Banquets : Messages Record on the occasion of the Fifty first Birthday celebrations of Sri V. R. Narla, 1958.
2. Excerpts from Reviews of his books : Madras : Narlavaru
3. Half-way : The Golden Book presented to Sri V. R. Narla on his fifty first birthday. Vijayawada : The Narla Golden Jubilee Celebrations Committee, 1958. 168 p.
4. Narla – Biographical Sketch. C N Sastry (1968)
5. Narla – Diamond Jubilee New Delhi : Narla Shashtyabdapurti Celebration Committee, 1968.
6. Seventy First Birthday Celebrations of Sri V R Narla. Special Souvenir. Hyderabad : Vamsee Granthalayam, 1978.
7. Studies in the History of Telugu Journalism : Papers presented on the occasion of Narla Shastyabdapurti. Ed : K. R. Seshagiri Rao, New Delhi : Narla Shashtyabdapurti Celebration Committee, 1968.