27. Commentaries on books E. C P Brown by Dr V. V. Subrahmanya Sharma

27. Commentaries on books E. C P Brown by Dr V. V. Subrahmanya Sharma
This is a book published in 2003.There is a photograph alleged to be of C.P. Brown’s office room. This is utterly ridiculous filled with latest sofa sets, godrej tables etc. and smacks of a misplaced hero-worship. Out of a total of 76 pages excluding the two thick glossy covers, there are only10 pages on the life of CPB, and 8 pages on his works, and 4 pages on his will and postings etc. which may be termed as biography. Most of it is inane stuff. Apparently the book was written more for personal satisfaction of the erudite scholar. There were 23 boys 25 girls in the orphanage looked after by D.B. He served only for about two years when he was asked to leave it in August 1788 and concentrate his attention towards missionary work (Why was he asked to leave is a question to be looked into as he was actually brought to India for this job? Was he making money? A moral behaviour?). He was appointed presidency chaplain in 1794. The same year, his wife died. The Fort William College started by Wellesley (1787-1805) imparted elementary knowledge of Indian languages. D.B. became a provost in the college in 1800 and left the job in 1808. The statement by Dr. Sharma that he continued as a provost ‘till his death’ is therefore not correct and I wonder how the learned Dr. Sharma wrote that. In fact his request to let him work without pay was also turned down. D.B. left no property due to “entire income spent for charitable purposes” is a canard being spread without any evidence. Such adulatory LIES about British are due to psychological bondage under which we Indians are still suffering. I have proved elsewhere in Chapter 11 that even if 10 guests were to be with him throughout his Life, the prices being such it would not have made a dent. In fact there is a very strong case to investigate if he had a few concubines, as was the general practice with at least 70 % of chaplains who had easy access to easy women. Dr Sharma quotes CPB, “From childhood I was taught to correct errata and fill up deficient passages in books. The driest enquiries had the greatest charms for me”. This is a typical child’s job and instead of going to a school, CPB spent the boyhood at home and later bluff the world that he learnt all languages at home! The author says, because of the corrections, of errata Brown could undertake and pursue literary activities of immense importance for the growth of Telugu language and literature as he got his first appointment in the Telugu region. Let us analyse this insipid statement.A boy, sits at home, no school, no work, and corrects errata. What knowledge of a language of any topic is gained? The fact is they had no schools to go to being more or less an occupation army, after Plassey in 1757. Have a look at CPB’s obituary, which says he had a practical knowledge of Persian, Hindustani and Sanscrit not scholarly knowledge. There is a gulf of difference, between practical knowledge as against scholarship, which our learned Dr. Sharma should know. If boys can become scholars living at home, 90% of schools can be closed and converted to Reading Rooms!! If collection of manuscripts and getting them corrected is a great service we may as well stop creativity and dump thousands of manuscripts in schools. There are thousands of them in various Manuscript Libraries! I shall skip most of the stuff repeated, by Dr. Sharma from the two other biographies, of Rao and Bangorey.But the most farfetched, ridiculous and blasphemous idea in this book is that Brown had a reverence to the Goddess Lalitha, throughout his life. Publication of Lalithopakhyanam under the title of 'The legend of Venus' is an insulting title given by CPB. Venus is the Goddess who was lovesick and runs after Adonis and this is the typical western way of degrading the Hindu Pantheon. But the pity is how could a Telugu pundit, Dr. Sharma say so if it is not to sell CPB to the Hindu public to do Pada puja to this Lalitopasaka. The putrid mind of CPB must have conceived of portraying the most powerful deity of the Hindu Pantheon as a love sick Venus. This methodology of insulting Hindu Pantheon is continuing from those days till now. Ahalya Sankrandanam, as Bangorey points out was printed for the erotic poetry as also Sasanka Vijayam. CPB gathers Kavichoudappa satakam, along with others. The aim is to tarnish our gods and goddesses, bring out whatever dirty poetry is written. And our biographers call it literary service. I understand that in the Dictionaries also such blasphemous notions exist. See the western Henry Millers, the Harold Robbins, the Mary Anne’s and you can see the havoc being wrought by them. This is the mind that CPB had which conceives of portraying type of Goddess Lalita, held in the greatest veneration by the HINDU as a VENUS. And the writer doesn’t even condemn the sacrilege. All this in spite of the fact that CALDWELL clearly stated that CPB had an anti HINDU mind. Five pages covered V.P. Sastri, a teacher and R.G. Sastri another teacher. While dealing with the former the author says that Telugu verses and lyrics mesmerised the mind of C.P. Brown while Brown himself never said so! And how can a person who was learning alphabets, to pass a compulsory, elementary exam start becoming music minded in the class? Are the alphabets taught in a musical fashion? The most reprehensible statement is “that CPB was admired and adored as an incarnation of the Goddess Saraswathi by the learned Pundits in India”. It is insult to make such unfounded assertions based on pauperised shameless writers who have sunk into a pitiable state of slavishness due to poverty, begging for food all the time. To take the views of such demented poets and calling them learned pundits is it self an insult. The author does not seem to realise the contradictory statements of the write up on Vedam and Ravi as opposed to CPB’s statements like lack of dictionary, insufficient grammar, and worthless native books and pedantic teachers. How could the author talk of Vedam as a giant of knowledge and yet accept CPB’s derogatory statements. Doesn’t he see the contradiction? There are four pages reproduced from a fourth class Telugu book published in 1934. It is redundant. However we can see how many erroneous ideas have been pumped into the young impressionable minds of the students of those days probably conditioning them as evidenced by Bezwada Gopala Reddy. I am only repeating the errors in that book, without any detailed comment – 1. He is extremely intelligent (not correct).2. Learnt more than necessary Telugu (not correct).3. Gave lot of money to Pundits (absolutely incorrect).4. There were no dictionaries then and so he makes one with lot of troubles (totally incorrect).5. He was not fond of praise (not correct).
Dr. Frant Gaetaho Morales in his article temoans the fact that we are not careful in using our language particularly when it relates to the West and our inter relationships. DR. Sharma has used words, which literally poison the mind of the poor Telugu children. For example: Brahmayya Shastri, the Telugu master calls Brown a Saraswati, and this Saraswati has not written one single Telugu book!! Or a paragraph in all his Life. Publication of religious books was being discouraged in the presses owned by missionaries and Government. P.H. Shastri seems to have established in 20 April 1840 a press named Viveka Darsham. He also published a few ancient classical works. Similarly B.S. Chari also authored Sabda Ratnakaram. The author mentions seven books in Telugu script published by P.H. Shastri. By and large writing small paragraphs on twenty-one Telugu Pundits of that period is the only asset in this otherwise meaningless monograph.