Celebrating together its 29th anniversary and the birthday of Sri Ramanujacharya, the Srinivasa Mandiram & Charities (Bangalore) organised a lecture entitled ‘Comparative Study of Sacred Books’ at Janopakari Doddanna Hall in Bangalore on April 23, 1912. Johan van Manen (1877–1943), Assistant Director of the Adyar Library (Madras), delivered the lecture.

In his talk, he emphasised the need to rise above materialism. He remarked, “Give noble thoughts to a nation and the nation will become noble; on the other hand, feed it only with material thoughts and aspirations and it will be neither spiritually strong nor will it rise beyond the level of materialism.” He criticised the superficial study of scriptures as an effort “… merely to become pandits…” The study of scriptures was needed “to enrich our spiritual knowledge,” he stressed.

Johan van Manen

Born in a well-to-do Dutch family, Mari Albert Johan van Manen was attracted by Theosophy at a young age. His contacts with Henry S. Olcott and Annie Besant between 1896 and 1908 kept him interested in Theosophy. From 1904 to 1906 van Manen was the Honorary Secretary of the first Convention of the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society. Writing in the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS) Newsletter, Luba Zubvoka notes, “At the age of eighteen he was carried away by the teachings of H.P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical movement ... Believing that this movement could instigate Western respect for Asian people as well as enhance their self-esteem, he took to spreading Theosophy in Europe and the Dutch East India [Java].” van Manen knew Sanskrit and Tamil much before he made British-ruled India his permanent home, where he remained for the rest of his life, until his lonely death in 1943.

In 1909, van Manen came to the Theosophical Society [TS] (Adyar, Madras) accompanying Charles W. Leadbeater as his private secretary. During his tenure as the Assistant Director of the Adyar Library from 1910 to 1916, van Manen “witnessed the discovery and the initial education of the young Jiddu Krishnamurti (JK).” While at Adyar, he studied ‘Indian wisdom’ from JK’s father, Jiddu Naraianiah, a graduate of the University of Madras and a scholar, who held a responsible position with the government.

Writing the concluding note to My Occult Experiences (The Theosophist, July 1913 issue), an 80-page account of van Manen’s psychic experiences, Charles Leadbeater speaks highly of van Manen’s experiences: “. . . they clearly show a degree and type of sensitiveness, which is very well worth cultivating, with a view to practical results.” In the same note, Leadbeater expresses “high hopes for the future of the author.”

Van Manen detailed his experiences while deciphering the contents, origin, author and the unique character of a solitary leaf of a Tibetan manuscript, found in the collection of the Adyar Library, in an article titled ‘A Mysterious Manuscript’ that appeared in the January 1911 issue of The Theosophist. In the article he had this to say about the collection in the Library’s Sanskrit Department: “It already contains over twelve thousand works . . . a considerable number are unique, not known to exist in any other library, and of which a great number (if not unique) are of great rarity...”

van Manen left TS in 1916 due to his differences with the then President, Annie Besant, over her involvement in Indian politics. He then moved to Darjeeling to study Tibetan texts and culture. From 1918 to 1922 he served as the Librarian of the Imperial Library (now National Library, Calcutta), and during 1923-1939 he was the General Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, and the Editor of its journal. This society, established by Sir William Jones in 1784, was redesignated the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal (RASB) during van Manen’s term of office.

Current Science (November 1938) under Science Notes briefly refers to van Manen’s paper titled Recent Exploration in Tibet, which was read at a meeting of the RASB. In this, van Manen said, “In the last decade exploration has been very active. Geographically the work done may be roughly grouped into exploration (1) in the West, mainly around Kashmir, (2) in the South, the great Himalayan peaks, (3) in the East, the countries West of China, and (4) in Central Tibet, the few visits to Lhasa and other places. The exploration is chiefly of geological, alpinistic, geographical, botanical, zoological, anthropological, linguistic or historical nature, according to the special interest of the travellers.”

Apart from his study of Indian languages, driven by his interest in Buddhism, Tibetan culture, and linguistics, van Manen built up, over the years, an extensive collection of Tibetan manuscripts and block-prints, Tibetan Buddhist scroll paintings, and southern Indian Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts (olai). His collections are now preserved in the Kern Institute and the National Museum of Ethnology (Leiden, The Netherlands). Saraju Rath, researching the palm-leaf manuscript bundles preserved in the library at Kern Institute, Leiden University, indicates that van Manen collected “South Indian manuscripts while he was stationed in Calcutta through a contact established during his stay in Madras.”

Van Manen was in 1930 conferred the Order of the Honourable Companion of the British Empire, the highest distinction that could be conferred on a non-British subject in British India. The Kern Institute (Leiden) published in 1989 a biography of van Manen, The Dutch Orientalist Johan Van Manen, His Life and Work, written by Peter Richardus.

A writer ahead of his time
An occasional series on Tamil writing from Madras in the 1930s.

(By K.R.A. Narasiah)

Among the avant garde writers of Tamil in the mid-1930s, one of the foremost was K.P. Rajagopalan of Kumbakonam. Known as Ku Pa Raa, he wrote for Manikkodi, a Madras magazine started by Stalin Srinivasan (about which subject I had written earlier in these columns).

Ku Pa Raa got cataract of the eye at an early age and lost his Government job (he was a revenue inspector) because of this shortcoming! Chitti says, “During those days of near blindness, he produced some of his best stories.” Once, during those hard days, Chitti visited him and found that Ku Pa Raa, who had almost lost his sight, could still imagine the scenes that he had earlier seen from his window, and recited in his melodious voice the lines from Keats:

Magic casements opening in the foam,

Of perilous seas in the fairey lands forlorn. . .

As N. Pichamurthy used to say, Ku Pa Raa always had a notebook with him in which he noted down the poems of the great English poets. He was a graduate in English literature and had mastered Telugu, Sanskrit and Bengali. He studied Bengali to understand Rabindranath Tagore better! In fact, he translated three Bengali novels, Durgesanandini, Devichoudarani and Hiranmayi.

He brought in a new style of writing in Tamil and wrote in that style as many as 79 short stories, a novel, 8 dramas and 21 poems, all between 1934 and 1944.

As he dictated, his sister Ku Pa Sethu Ammal would take his words down. She lived a long life of penury. (She had assisted in writing dialogue for a film in 1943, Krishna Bakthi, in which P.U. Chinnappa and T.R. Rajakumari had acted.)

Later, Dr. Mahalingam of Trichinopoly cured Ku Pa Raa’s sight through surgery, but the writer could not get back his job, even in spite of the intercession of T. Prakasam who was then the Revenue Minister! But, as Thomas Gray put it, “Chill penury did not repress his noble rage”; he continued to write. He worked as editor of a magazine Grama Uzhiyan published from Uraiyur, by Thiriloka Sitaram.

Ku Pa Sethu Ammal kept all the 9 pies (3/4 anna) postcards addressed to and received by Ku Pa Raa tied like the Leiden copper plates! And with some other letters they were handed over to Chitti before his death; these were kept in a cardboard box and later came into my possession. In the bunch, I came across some rare letters written by leading persons of the age!

Known as literary twins, Pichamurthy and Ku Pa Raa came to Madras for a livelihood. Both were Telugus but were very good in Tamil; joining Chitti, who was the only one having a job then, they tried to eke out a living. When Chitti was posted as a teacher in Ponneri, Ku Pa Raa was promised Rs. 50 a month by Sangu Ganesan who was trying to run a journal, Swatantra Sangu. Ku Pa Raa’s gotram was Bharadwaja, which in Tamil was karichchan (Decrurus macrocercus) and he wrote under that name as well.

While editing Manikkodi, Ku Pa Raa had to leave due to a difference of opinion with T. S. Chockalingam, the publisher. On the advice of V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, Ku Pa Raa accepted the editorship of Veerakesari, a Colombo Tamil newspaper, and moved to Ceylon.

As he found living hard in Madras on his return, Ku Pa Raa shifted to Kumbakonam, where he tried to run a bookshop called Marumalarchi Nilayam. There were many people who came and read the books available in the shop, but none to buy! On the other hand, he was constantly under pressure to repay debts and a letter written in English by a later well-known Tamil and English critic (dated 27-2-1943) says, “I hope you will remember your promise and clear my dues at least now, making no more excuses. I would thank you if you will so arrange that this mercenary relation of yours does not any longer persist. The total amount due from you is Rs 50/- capital + Rs 7/- interest + Rs 6/- for one copy of Kambaramayanam supplied. Rupees Sixtythree and Annas eight. . . ”(I am not disclosing the name of the letter-writer for obvious reason.)

To add to Ku Pa Raa’s misery, a letter was received from the Newsprint Controller to stop publication of Grama Oozhiyan, as the journal was indulging in freedom movement propaganda!

Ku Pa Raa was called a man ahead of his times. In everything, he was ahead of his time, including death! Born in 1902, he passed away on April 27, 1944 when he was just 42! Even death came so suddenly that no one was prepared for it. A common friend of the three writers Ku Pa Raa, T. Janakiraman and Narayanaswami, V.R. Rajagopalan (who was editing a journal from Tiruchi called Kalamohini) was getting married. The friends attended the marriage and, while returning, Ku Pa Raa developed a severe pain in the leg. Dr. Mahalingam, the eye doctor, took them all in his car to Tiruchi hospital where a surgeon, Sharma, diagonised the ailment as advanced stage of gangrene. He was angry with the patient for having ignored the disease. He spoke rather harshly and Dr. Mahalingam admonished the surgeon for being harsh with a patient. The surgeon suggested amputation of the member as the only cure. But Ku Pa Raa did not want to go through the surgery. “I don’t want to undergo surgery. Please get me a glass of water from the Cauvery,” he is said to have pleaded. After drinking the water he wanted to return home. The doctor drove them all to Ku Pa Raa’s place.

But he did not live to reach home! The one ahead of his time was ahead in death as well!