Dr. S. Srikanta Sastri's works in Kannada by B. R. Gopal

The purpose of this paper is to acquaint reader, specially the non-Kannadigas, with Dr. S. Srikanta Sastri’s works in Kannada. Numerous Kannada articles written by him have been published in various learned journals and in several special issues of daily newspapers, weeklies, etc. Many in Karnataka still remember the great controversy he raised by publishing his work on Purandaradasa in 1964 during the great saint-poet’s quatercentenary celebrations all over the State. In putting forth his views Dr. Sastri had entirely relied on that material that he had collected and was not swayed by any religions considerations.

His books in Kannada have been many. His essays on the great men of history ಐತಿಹಾಸಿಕ ಮಹಾಪುರುಷರು in a Text Book edited by Dr. M. H. Krishna more than 25 years ago have retained their popularity to this day. Since then Dr. Sastri has written profusely in Kannada: ಭಾರತೀಯ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ (Indian Culture), completed in 1944; ರೋಮನ್ ಚಕ್ರಾಧಿಪತ್ಯದ ಚರಿತ್ರೆ (History of the Roman Empire, 1948-49); ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ಚರಿತ್ರೆಯ ರೂಪರೇಖೆಗಳು (Outlines of World History, 1957) which is even today a very good text book  for the undergraduate students; ಪುರಾತತ್ವ ಶೋಧನೆ (Archaeology, 1960); ಹೊಯ್ಸಳ ವಾಸ್ತುಶಿಲ್ಪ (Hoysala Architecture, 1964) etc. This brief paper confines itself to an assessment of only three of Dr. Sastri’s Kannada works viz., ಭಾರತೀಯ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ, ಪುರಾತತ್ವ ಶೋಧನೆ and ಹೊಯ್ಸಳ ವಾಸ್ತುಶಿಲ್ಪ.

Bharatiya Samskriti (ಭಾರತೀಯ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ) was written in the pre-independence years, in 1944 though it was published only a decade later in 1954. In the preface to the book, also written in 1944, he summarises briefly the contributions of India to world culture. By then Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West had been published and Toynbee had put forward his challenge and response theory of cultures in his first few volumes of the study of History. These so-called philosophers of History, more specially Spengler, had forecast almost the end of human civilization and said that human society stood on the brink of destruction. Progress of science, Imperialism, Capitalism, weakness of religion and religious orders, Nationalism and the like were described by many of these philosophers as reasons for such a breakdown. Reviewing these Dr. Sastri in his preface says that the entire problem could be analysed in three ways. Politically it was a conflict between Monarchy, Despotism and Democracy; economically there was a growing gap between the rich and the poor; ethically mutual suspicions, injustice, deceit among the nations and lack of freedom of action and thought in individual’s life-these were the bases on which human civilization stood and which were now sinking.   It was essential to find suitable answers for the problems that arose out of it and Dr. Sastri said that Indian Culture had in it the answer.

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