Book title: Anandaslokamanjari
Author: Jaharlal Saha
Publisher: Vicky Publisher
Pages: 184
Price: Rs 200
Jaharlal Saha, though not a very known name for general readers, is a serious student of Sanskrit literature. This book is an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the slokas composed by Bharatgaurav Anundoram Borooah.
It opens with two eulogistic Sanskrit sonnets of the author himself; the first is on Borooah, and the second on Surjya Kumar Bhuyan, Vishwanarayan Sastri and Mukunda Madhav Sarma, the three biographers of the great scholar.
He pays tribute to them for their contribution at reviving the interest in Sanskrit as well as Borooah, then compares them with one another on their critical approach.
Borooah’s popular image is that of a scholar and an administrator for which his poetic achievements and innovations have been rendered to a position of secondary importance.
The writer proves with evidence from the slokas that he was no less a poet; but he did not have much time to devote to the Muse for his official duties and also for his preoccupation with the magnum opus, English-Sanskrit Dictionary.
Saha has compiled and translated the slokas, adding necessary parsing and annotations for the readers. Even grammatical explanations are given, which is commendable.
What he primarily aims to do is to establish Borooah as the first sonnet poet in Sanskrit. He examines the Petrachan, Shakesperean, Spenserian and Miltonic sonnet forms and also that of Madhusudan Dutta of Bengal to educe that Borooah evolved his own original form of writing sonnets; and Grantha Visarjanam meaning “dedication of the book”, appearing in the third volume of the Dictionary in the first ever sonnet in Sanskrit.
He examines and analyses the poem and finds that the basic characteristics of a sonnet are unmistakably there. It was not accidental; it was an ingenious attempt. It is a Sragdhara meter, and the author provides its Assamese rendering in original sonnet form.
The concluding cluster of the slokas of Janakiram Vasya composed in Anustupa meter has the traits of a sonnet.
Saha guesses that Borooah had perhaps written many more slokas which were unfortunately lost. The existing 30 slokas of Borooah were written as part of his books; they are original, and hence an indispensable part of creative Sanskrit writings.
Because of their lyrical qualities, musical notations of Sa Nu Bharatbharati, Vande Bhababhutim and Grantha Visarjanam were provided by Borooah for those who want to sing them.
In spite of its richness, Sanskrit is neither familiar nor popular; it is read and used only by a handful of people. The writer is unhappy about it; Sanskrit which has the “capacity of representing every form of human thought in most appropriate language”, is not as much cared for as English. It is not a healthy trend; teaching the language in schools is necessary to popularise it, he feels.
A list of important events between 1807 and 1889 and four pictures of Borooah add to the book which opens up new vistas for further research on of Borooah.
Vicky Publishers has done a laudable job by publishing this book of merit which makes interested readers feel rewarded; but five full pages of corrigendum deters concentration.
SYED MAHHAMAD MAHSHIN
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