CHAPTER 3

"A narrative, like a bed, which is to wake up its occupant happily refreshed, is

set off by its wellchosen words like feet, luminous with the clever jo~nings of

harmonious letters".

Bana in the Harsacarita

"For when facts are looked upon as mere facts, having thew chain of

consequences in the world of facts, they are rejected by art".

Rabindranath Tagore.

From the Vedic Times to the Present : The Nature of lndian Biography

A Historical Survey o f the lndian Biography

The panegyric poems of the Vedas are lndlcatlve of the existence of

biographical literature in ancient Ind~a. The poems are the works of pnestly

poets who sing praises of their patron prlnces Arthur A. Macdonell In

Historv of Sanskrit Literature takes note of the historical bases of these poems

conceding at the same time, elements of exaggeration in them (107).

'Biographical narration was one of the pnme motivations behind the

Ramayana; and the composers of the Mahabharata described the poem as

an "itihasa", a life-history of kings (Devy 80). Raahuvamsa of Kalidasa

dealing with the lives of princes and their incarnations IS also a work

biographical in nature. A notable biography of ancient lndla IS Advaghosa's

Buddhacarita, a poem in thirteen cantos. Ancient biographical works In prose

include BPna's Harsacharita and the Jataka stories. The latter narrate the life

of Buddha in his many incarnations.

This chapter begins with a historical survey of the lndian biography

from the Vedic times to the present, touching upon our indigenous theories of

art contained in the writings of Sanskrit scholars. Ananda Coomaraswamy

and Tagore. Following this is an assessment of available lndian criticism on

the English biographical writing in India. At this juncture, a famlllarization with

our cultural notions of fact, personality, time and death is called for. An

understanding of concepts such as 'Karma', 'Moksha' and 'Guna' embedded

in our religious philosophy have a bearing on the understanding of

Personality. After an explanation of these concepts, the chapter consults

leading biograpkers In India on the art Of biography. No less important are the

pract~cal problems confronting the lndlan biographer. Thts IS discussed at the

end

What rules of art governed our anclent lndlan biography? m a t bearing

do our Indigenous art theorles, anclent and modern, have on biographical

wrtting?

Systematic lndian aesthetic theories were formulated centuries after

the great epics and dramas were composed. Even before the theories took

shape, the creative minds of the Upanishadic era posited divinity as the

essence of all art. The origin of the work "Alankarasastra", the lndian word for

aesthetics can be traced back to the Rigveda.

"Art creation as well as genuine appreciation or heartfelt response

demand an artistic or aesthetic imagination which is designated as 'Pratibhs'.

It is a rare sensibility characterised by insight and intuition" (Krishnamoorthy.

lndian Theories 5). According to the lndian view, art IS either a faithful

representation of Nature or a transformation of ~ t . The artist need not always

create; endowed as he is with taste and imagination he has the capacity to

discover beauty in things seemingly ordinary. Such a v~en. of art,

Krishnamoorthy points, concurs with those of Plato down to C.E.M.Joad.

The evocation of "rasa" or aesthetic joy IS what all good art should aim

for, according to the lndian thinkers. Through "rasa" is possible the

attainment of spiritual bliss or "Ananda". Krishnamoorthy's lndlan Theorles of

Beauty illustrates the process that leads to the expertence of " ra~a" in a

Sahridaya (art critic) who on contemplating a work of art has an experience

kindred to that of its creator at the moment of composition. By invoking the

analogy of a beauty queen, Indian aesthetics stresses the organic unity of its

concepts This is well explained by Krishnamoorthy(8). The natural beauty of

the queen is referred to as "alankara" which is of the "Svatah-Sambhavi" type.

TO complement her natural beauty, she may adorn herself with ornaments.

These may enhance her natural charm. The added adornment also is an

'alankara" of the "vakrokti" or "atis'ayokti" type. So far only the external

aspects of her beauty have been considered which do not take into

consideration her character and qualities that have to do with her emotions

and intelligence. The qualities of this beautiful damsel are termed "gu~as".

Both the physical beauty and the inner excellence of character are of no avail

unless they lead the maiden to secure the love of a husband of her choice.

With all her ravishing beauty and strength of character Parvati was not able to

win the love of Shiva. Only by taking to 'tapas' was she able to win his heart.

Similarly, art and literature are also beautiful damsels. "Alankaras" and

"gunas" are essential accompaniments of literature; but mere adornment and

feelings evoked in a work are of no use unless they lead to aesthetic

enjoyment or 'rasa' in a connoisseur. "In other words, the end-value of beauty

is witnessed only when the beholder is enraptured by the interplay of passing

moods or 'vyabhit2ribhavas' illustrated by 'anubhavas' [gestures indicative of

the mental disposition of the beauty queen, termed literature] and occasioned

by 'vibhavas' [background]" (Krishnamoorthy 8).

Learned opinion in Sanskrit poetics decries the tendency to examine

each of the aesthetic concepts in isolation. The very understanding of

literature underscores the organic unity of all the aesthetic W p t s . In this

essavs in Sanskrit Criticism. Krishnamoorthy notes how

Sensuous images, associative thoughts emotional overtones,

turns of expression - all contribute in an unanalysable way to

the totality of the final aesthetic experience. A trained reader

can pass, unhindered, from the mere w rds to this final

experience at one stroke as it were. This whole process is well

brought home to us in the theory of 'dhvani' or 'suggestion'

propounded by Anandavardhana. 'Suggestion' is the name

given by him to the peculiar power or potency inhering in all the

elements constituting poetry. (Krishnamoorthy, Essavs 18).

It should however, be noted that while 'rase" is the end towards which

all good art strives, the theoreticians stressed ethical, relig~ous and moral

values in a work of art. Art as performing the dual role of delight and

instruction, is a view endowed by both the Western critics and the

theoreticians of ancient India.

But Sanskrit poetics concerned itsekf mainly with poetry. Its conception

of the poetic world is not an imitation of the real world but a w r l d transformed

by imagination and hence answerable only to the rules governed by

imagination. There is however, criticism concerning biography in Bana's

Harsacarita which will be taken up for discussion after considering the views

of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Rabindranath Tagore on art.

According to Cwmarswamy, the Orient and the Occident do not stand

In opposition to each other in their views on art. His wide-ranging knowledge

and contemplation of aesthetics led him to observe remarkable similarities on

the notions of art between Christian mystics and ancient Indian thinkers. The

nineteenth-century Western thinkers like Moms and Ruskin argued that art is

part and parcel of life, not a luxury to be pursued in idle hours. It is this

understanding Of art that Coomarswamy endorses. Interpreting thls

theoretician for us in his The Aesthetics of Ananda Coomaraswamy,

Raghavan draws the attention of the reader to the salient features of literary

art: it is intellect, and not sensibility that is of essence in art. Decrying the

notions of genius, originality and newness in literature, Coomaraswamy

points that the creator does not strive for newness in his work; rather, his IS a

quest for genuineness and perfection. In fact each man striving towards

perfection no matter to what profession he belongs, is an artist. Debunking the

notion of art for art's sake, Coomaraswamy argues that art is utilitarian even if

its end value rests in the divine.

Of special interest is what Coomaraswamy has to say with regard to

the literary artist being referred to as a man with a rare gift, the creator of

masterpiece. Even the notion of freedom in art is ridiculous:

Where do these questions arise when the patent character of all

traditional art, Christian, Oriental or folk, is ~ ts anonymity? It is

not the expression of some particular personalfty or of some J

indiv~dual idiosyncrasy; but*is man, as the external and universal

self, that is expressed. It is the supra individual level from which

the artist derives his vitality. (Raghavan 3)

The debunking of the notions of originality, individuality, self-expression

and the literary artist as a man of rare genius accord well with current literary

theories originating in the West. Like the Western literary theorists

C~omaraswamy seems to laugh at the idea of looking for hints of the

personality of the witer in his work. So he would come down on the current

practice of literary biography.

Reaching for the infinite is the Tagorean concept of art. But the poet

critic is quick to add that this striving for the beyond is not just for the one with

a metaphysical bent of mind. Art is a part of our everyday existence In India

and it has been so since the ancient times. "The poet of the Upanishad has

said that the slightest movement of life would be impossible if the sky were

not filled with infinite joy. This universal presence was as much of a reality to

him as the earth under his feet" (Tagore, Art and Aesthetics 26).

When Tagore points that a large part of Indian literature IS rel~gious, he

is saying nothing new. But his understanding of art lies in his unique

perception of the d~vine. Tagore wonders at the capacity of the Indian people

to feel the presence of God in the birth of a child, in the men and women who

are good and true, in the daughter's visit to her parental home after her

marriage and in several such domestic events.

Art means seeking the divine; and the way to the divine, the poet-critic

tells us, is not by transcending the ordinary, the routine or the normal.Tagore

would say: the recognition that the divine dwells in the realms of our own work

aBay world, and the ability to perceive it is an experience of art.

Under what conditions does Art take birth? It shows itself, "where there

is an element of the superfluous in our heart's relationship with the world. In

other words, where our personality feels its wealth it breaks out in display"

(Tagore, Art and Aesthetics 28). There IS an aspect of man which is finite, and

another which is infinite. It is the infinite which reveals itself in symbols that

have elements of the divine or the immortal.

What works according to the poet are worthy of being called art? The

answer lies in excluding those works which do not belong to the realms of art

A great work of history may be interesting as a source book. But art may not

welcome it to its territory. In Tagore's view, an incident affect~ng a large chunk

of humanity certainly deserves serious attention; the event may even be

considered worthy of securing a place for itself In h~story. Yet, ~t may fall as a

work of art. On the contrary, the poet shows us how jealousy originating in a

domestic set-up can have meaning and significance beyond the immediate

family depending on the way it is perceived by the literary artist.

Shakespeare's Othello is a masterpiece of dramatic art that is built around the

theme of jealousy.

Art is rooted in the individual, stresses Tagore. Wh~le society upholds

abstrations in the name of nationality, school and religion only to stifle the

individual, art is totally free from abstractions.

Tagore's view of art recognizes the limiting nature of facts. Facts, may

be important, but by themselves they do not have the power of beauty; In

their measurability lies the limitation of facts. But beauty cannot be measured.

For it is an expression, an expression that results In the moment of the artistic

personality feeling its wealth:

So we find that our world of expression does not accurately

coincide with the world of facts, because personality surpasses

facts on every side. It is conscious of its infinity and creates from

its abundance; and because, in art, things are challenged from

the standpoint of the immoral Person, those which are important

in w r customary life of facts become unreal when placed on

the pedestal of art. (Tagore, Art and Aesthetics 30)

Tagore's understanding of art influenced his autobiography His

concept of art and aesthetics as having a bearing on biography will be

discussed later in this chapter.

It is beyond the scope of the present work to go into the depths of

lndian theories of art. Suffice it for us to have an understanding of the genre

of biography as it existed in ancient and modem lndia and the theories of art

governing it. The lndian biography in English may be influenced by its

Western counterpart. Yet, it differs from the Western genre in a number of

ways. One of the aims of this study is also to observe the influence of the

traditional biography on the lndian biography in Engllsh.

Creative writers in the West have been wary of admitting biography into

the territory of art. We have already discussed Virginia Woolfs doubts about

the genre. After pondering at length the question 'Is biography art?,' she

concedes an in-between status, that of a superior craft, to the genre. Harold

Nicolson is convinced that biography does not require genius; ~t can make do

with talent, he asserts. But theoreticians and writers of ancient India

considered life-writing an art though modern biography may not welcome the

Buddhacarita and the Harsacarita into its fold. Early lndian biographies mixed

fact freely with imagination. Subject-worsh~p IS an outstanding feature of

these %arks. It is not just the bi9graphy of our anclent civilization which mixed

fact with myth, legend and panegyric; life-wrlting in India, barring a few

exceptions has been influenced by these features of its Sanskrit ancestor.

For that matter, emphasis on fact, object~vity and research have been features

of the Western biography only from the seventeenth century onwards wth the

rise of science. Till the age Of Science, the Indian and the Western biography

were written on the same lines.

Going back to these Sanskirt biographies, their l~terary mer~t cons~sted

in their power to evoke "rasa". Of special interest IS Harsacarita by

Banabhatta wherein is elaborated the art of the chronicle. In Harsacartla the

incidents selected are primarily from the literary and aesthet~c standpoints

with an eye on "rasas" "viz. The heroic, the furious, the pathetic and the

wnnderful" (Krishnamoorthy, Banabhatta 25) Although the tradition of heroic

biography in India can be traced back to the second country B.C..

Harshacharita of the sixth century AD is the one that has survived This Ilfe-

history of King Harsha whose fnend was Bana, is a work of prose. In ancient

India, prose was accorded a place equal to poetry. Written In an elevated

style, Bana's life-history of King Harsha is referred to as 'akhyayika', a

historical chronicle. Krishnarnoorthy notes the generic features of this Indian

varlety of the chronicle whose kernel is a historical ep~sode encrusted with

layers of legends.

It also has room for didactic maxims and often the hero narrates

his adventures in the first person. The chapter divisions are

called 'breathing pauses' (ucchvasa) and pithy sayings are

in verses of set metres (vaktra etc). (Banabhatta 13)

In the introductory verses of the life of Harsha. Bana, whlle elaborating

on the features of a work of literature has something specific to ponder over

the art of the Chronicle. Delight and lnstructlon seem to be the twn objectives

of this genre.

L ~ k e a bedstead it makes for easy rise,

And with its golden thoughts enshrlned.

The chosen words are footrests otherwise:

The reader is by the Life refined

(qtd in Krishnamoorthy, Banabhatta 14)

Briefly told, the Harsacarita of Bana starts on an autobiographical note

coverlng Bana's family, the witer's birth and education and his wanderlust.

When on one such occasion he had returned from his travels, the klng sent

word that he was desirous of renewing friendship with Bana which had

snapped owing to certain undesirable acts on the part of the latter. Bana

responded to the invitation and arrived at the palace. Though it took t~me to

break ice, the poet soon became a favourite of the klng. Some t~me later,

Bana sought the king's permission to go home. Harsacarita is the incomplete

chronicle of King Harsha, narrated by Bana to his couslns at their request. A

venerating tone dominates the chronicle; its style and the narrative technique

are of epical quality. Harsha is exalted to the level of an eplc hero and the

historical elements freely mingle with the supernatural. So the work belongs

to the genre of epic romance. But in the words of Cowell and Thomas

Bana is not a mere rhetorician; his descriptions of court and

village life abound with masterly touches whlch hold up the

mirror to the time. Not even the Pali Jatakas Introduce us more

directly into the very heart of the period or give us a more life-

like picture. (preface ix)

Cowell and Thomas polnt how the contemporary picture of Harsha's

klngdom and the king's governance v h c h brought about unity b e h e n

Hindus and Buddhists, corroborate with the records left by Chinese traveller

Hieun Tsang who resided for a period in Harsha's court.

The earlier work. Buddhamrita or Doinas of the Buddha IS in the form

of a "Kavya" or a court epic; the epic poem conslstlng of twentyeight cantos is

the composition of ABvagho~a, poet-philosopher and a contemporary of king

Kanishka of the second century A.D. Only a portion of the work exists in the

original Sanskrit. A complete translation of the Buddhacarita is available in

Chine se and Tibetian. The English translation by E.H. Johnston of the epic

poem has made use of the original Sanskrit and the hYo Chinese and Tibetian

versions.

Buddhacarita has all the elements of a hagiography;rnyth and legend

freely mingle in the narrative, and the subject is invested with the qualities of

the supernatural The just born Buddha "did not come Into the world through

the portal of life; and since he had purified his belng through many aeons, he

was born not ignorant but fully conscious" (Johnston 3). Barely out of the

womb he proclaimed: "I am born for Enlightenment for the good of the. w r ld ;

this is my last birth in the world of phenomena" (Johnston 4).

Working within the conventions of Kavya or artificial eplc poetry.

A6vaghosa3s Buddamrita abounds In strik~ng srmiles and elaborate maxims

with style dominating over matter. A speclmen aphorism in the narrative

pontificates over the ruinous nature of passion:

There is no calamity in the world equal to the passlons and ~t IS

to them that mankind in their delusions are attached. What wise

man, afraid of calamity and recognising the truth to be thus, ,. r-,

would of himself yearn for calamity? (John,,l51)

In most of the early Indian biographical narratives the doctrine of

Incarnation is Central to the life-histories. The Raghuvamsa or 'Race of Raghu'

IS a Kavya consisting of nineteen cantos. It narrates the life of Rama along

with the Ilves of his predecessors and successors. Rama himself is

considered an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Jataka tales of Pali literature

are prose narratives of Buddha in his various births.

Of interest in a study of biography as a literary genre, is the fact that

Ilfe- writlng ancient India, whether in prose or poetry, was accorded a place

equivalent to that of the greatest poetry. The only little difference between a

work of pure imagination and life-writing was that life-writing took off from its

basis in history to the realms of imagination. So the questions posed by

*stern thinkers, 'Is biography an art' or what kind of biographical literature

passes for art seem irrelevant in the context of ancient lndlan biographies.

In India, it is only afler the sixth century AD, in works llke the

Harsacarita and Kalhana's Raiataraaini, the Ain-i-Akbd, and the Akbarnama

that we find facts that can be venfied with "a mass of hlstorlcal material in

contemporary works of literature and also to epigraphic and numismatic

evidence" (Dhar 1). It is of relevance to discuss Kalhana's Raiataraa~ni or The

River of Kings.' This is "the only Sanskrit composition so far discovered to

vhich the title of history can with any propriety be applied (qtd in Dhar 28).

The Raiatara~ini is a poetic composition in eight cantos that narrates the

history of Kashmir extending to 2333 years, from the ancient times to the

times of Kalhana. Written in the W l f l h century, this is the only Sanskritlc

work that resembles the Western concept of a critical history. Kalhana's

respect for facts, his objective approach and his commitment to art make this

historical work provide a cue to the art of biography. In the first 'Taranga' of

h ~ s historical work. Kalhana notes the first duty of a historian: "That man of

merit alone deserves praise whose language, like that of a judge, in

recount~ng the events of the past has discarded bias as well as prejudice"

(Kalhana 3).

Virtues as well as foibles of the rulers of Kashmir find their way into the

Raiataraaini. -Kalhana seems to be endorsing the present day views when he

denounces the great-man theory of history. The great deeds of certain kings

were merely answers to the need of the times, he observes.

Raiataraaini also mentions dates in the narrative, which brings it closer

to history as we understand it today. The life-history of the kings is also

accompanied by a portrayal of the social history of the ages. In the eight

century, we are told casteism did not come in the way of recruiting men to

important military and civil positions; women enjoyed freedom and the queens

shared responsibilities in the running the state. Men and women enjoyed

equal property rights and the women, in no way, were restricted. The

translator point$the fact that in Sanskrit there is no word for the "Purda," a veil

whlch screened the women from the gaze of men.

What Kalhana has to say with regard to facts holds good for history as

well as biography: "That virtuous poet alone is worthy of praise who, free from

love or hatred ever restricts his language to the exposition of facts" (Dhar 35).

The River of Kinas may be an important contribution to history, the

only one of its kind in Sanskrit literature; but this work is not a history that

resembles w r k s like the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em~ire . More

Importantly, it is a combination of history and Kavya, a work of imagination. In

the introductory Canto, the poet calls himself both a historian and Kavi working

on the Raiataranaini. The poem in eight cantos consists of eight thousand

"shlokas" and resembles the genre of 'carita"; yet it is different from the usual

~carita*~ in that it is a narrative of the dynasties of Kashmir that span more

than two thousand years.

The content of the long poem is part history and part legend. Kalhana

turns historical as he approaches his own times. As regards style, the poet

adheres to the Kavya conventions but his narrative is free from tiresome

descriptions and elaborate similes. The style is direct and the diction, simple.

Kavya is defined as 'the speech the soul of which is Rasa" and its aim is to

teach the art of life, according to Mammata, the Kashmiri rhetorician (Dhar

28). 'Shanta rasa', the sentiment of recognition, dominates thls historical

poem.

Deportment, the bejewelled physique and the robes of the characters

of the Raiataraaini are treated with as much importance by Kalhana as the

thoughts and emotions of the personalities. A typical example IS the

description of King Bhikshacara on the brink of defeat; to make things worse

he was deserted by his own ministers and soldiers:

This dark locks of hair were thinned by prolonged anxieties, the

hem of his military uniform fluttered like a gay pennon as if it

were his waving ensign; with the lustre of his motherof-pearl

pendants which danced against the cheeks, and the beauty of

the sandal emollient which gleamed like his proud smile, he

appeared at the finale of an amazing career to have overcome

defeat by kicking it with his feet- (Kalhana 546)

In spite of being categorized as history, Ragatarangini freely mixes

legend, exaggeration and superstition. Kalhana himself seems to be

subscribing to the belief in the miraculous when he describes the deeds of the

ancient kings. For that matter, history, mythology and legend coalesced in

Indian literature until the last hrrro centuries. We should remind ourselves that

this tendency to blur reality with the supernatural existed even in English

biographical witings as late as the seventeenth century. The case of Francis

Fry in John Aubrey's Brief Lives written around 1667 is an example.

Moreover, when we ascribe truth and objectivity to historical or biographical

narratives, we should do well to remind ourselves that objectivity itself is a

relative term. Kalhana lived in an age when what we call superstition passed

for reality; in the same manner John Aubrey himself believed in the demon

incident ascribed to Francis Fry. The sixteenth and the seventeenth century

England believed in witchcraft and demons. So taking off from history into the

realms of the miraculous and the supernatural was a tendency with writers

other than Indians too.

After the twelfth century, royal Indian biographies abound both in

Sanskrit and in the other Indian languages. These are mainly works of

professional bards in the employment of kings. Some of these bards were

attached to local communities and the records they have left of the genealogy

Of prominent members of the community, is a valuable contribution to

biographical literature in the oral tradition. The "hereditary bards were

Brahmins known as Bhattas, and they composed panegyrics in honour of their

patrons and their patrons' ancestors in Sanskrit The efflorescence of the

bardic literature extends approximately from 1400 A.D. to 1800 A D " (Slnha

27).

Life-witing received a new Impetus with the Muslims invadlng India

There was a spurt of writing in areas related to biography and autob~ography

Emperor Babar's daughter. Gul-Badan Begum wrote her Humayun-nama in

Persian in the sixteenth century. The work is partly reminiscences of her

father and her brother Humanyun; it is also partly autobiographical. A

noteworthy work of historical interest belonging to the Mughal period is the

Akbar Nama or the memoirs of the great Mughal emperor Akbar. Written in

Persian by a dose contemporary of Akbar, ~ b u - ~ - F a z l ~ , Akbar Nama, other

than being a work of biographical memoir in the Islamic tradition, gives us

glimpses of the times of Akbar. It holds a pride of place among the very few

historical works of medieval India. Nevertheless. the memoir has drawn flak

by none other than the translator Beveridge himself. According to him Abul

Fazl

was a great flatterer and unhesitatingly suppressed or d~storted

facts. His style, too, seems - at least to Wesiarn eyes to be

quite detestable, being full of circumlocutions and both turg~d

and obscure. He is often prolix, and often unduly concise and

darkly allusive. (Beverldge preface)

Beveridge had his frustrations with the translation and hence the

Outpouring in the above lines. His irritation notwithstanding, he f~nds hlmself

Commending Abul Fazl for his meticulous work that has contributed valuable

information, the only one Of lts kind, to our understanding of Akbar and hls

times.

Akbar Nama is like any other medieval b~ography. There is no clear

line of demarcation between hlstory and brography. The real and the

supernatural partake in the narrative; miracles are juxtaposed wth h~story.

The Nama is not just a brrth to death life-history of Akbar. Its lengthy probing

into the genealogy of the Mughul emperor goes back to God's first human

creation, Adam himself,with Akbar as the fifty-third descendant of the first

man. Not only is the Individual seen as part of family, ancestry and society he

is also an instrument, albeit a lucky one, in the powerful hands of Fate. The

SIX chapters of the Nama that are on horoscopes testify to the strong belief in

astrology, a belief that movements in life are preorda~ned. Akbar Nama

abounds in maxims contained in both the prose narrative and the verses that

appear as refreshing interludes in the long lengths of story-tell~ng In prose.

Digressions are a feature of this work. Of special interest is the dwelling on

the concept of t~me as elaborated in the H~ndu, Jalna and lslamlc

philosophies. The scholarship of Abul Fazl shines through the work.

Then there is the typical humility of the lnd~an biographer: his feellng

unequal to the subject. Abu-L-Fazl spends a whole chapter thanking the

emperor for giving him the opportunity to serve him4. The reverential tone of

the entire Akbar nama itself is indicative of this feeling of humility.

Biographies in other Indian languages that carried on with the tradition

Of ancient Indian life-writing are the Rajasthani, Urdu and Kashmiri

biographies. Till the twelfth century, the Rajasthani biography assumed the

form of a chronicle that celebrated the lives and deeds of Kings and prlnces.

After the invasion of the Mughuls. styles of Persian life-writing influenced the

biography of this IaIguage The Persian influence can be seen in some

excellent Urdu life-writing, known as "Masnavis" of kings and religious men.

Kashmiri biographies are written in the form of "Rashinamas" and "Nwr

namas".

With the British came the influence of English life-wr~t~ng on

biographies in the Indian languages. If biography in India, even after the

advent of the English continued to be haglographic, it was largely due to the

nineteenth-century English biography of the Victor~an era which glossed over

the frailties of its subject. However, it is worth noting that there are some

excellent biographies in the Indian languages that have contributed to the

growth of the biographical genre in India. In the Bengali language, for

example, creative writers like Bankim Chandra and Tagore have contributed

in great measure to the growth of biographical writing. Bankim Chandra has

written short biographies of Dinahandu Mitra (1877), lswar Chandra Gupta

(1 889) and Sanjibchandra Chatterjee (1 893). These biographies are not mere

compilation of facts and dates. In them Bankim explores the art of biography

by adopting the method of analysis and viewing his subjects as products of

their milieu. Rabindranath Tagore had reflected on the art of life-wrltlng when

he commented on Tennyson's biography written by the latter's son:

"Tennyson the man may be here, but where is the poet? I seek, and find him

not '(Khanolkar V). Tagore's autobiography is ~llustrative of his views on life-

writing. Facts and dates give way to an intuitive self-portrait that avo~ds

tedious chronology by stringing together those episodes that are s~gnificant.

The highlight of the autobiography is the unlque way in which facts are

handled. Tagore has the same approach towards his biographical essays.

Moving to the other eastern areas of India. Orissa and Assam, we

come across biograph~es, ~ndlgenous as well as those Influenced by the West.

The seventeenth century saw,,first Oriya biography, J5agnnath Chritamritg by

Dipankar Das. Western Influence began to show Itself in the nineteenth

century. Of late, fictconal biography is gaining In importance in Oriyan

literature. The fictional biography of poet Madhusudan Das by Surendra

Mohanty, and the biography of poet Kuntala Kumari are some notable

examples. Hagiography had its way in the Assamese biography. The

worshipful tendency in life-writing could be attributed to the tradition of hero-

wurshlp inherent in Indian society, and so such biographles exist, not only In

Assamiya but in all the languages of India. There IS another reason that

explains the venerating tone of these biographies of our pre-Independence

era. When the entire nation adopted a worshipful attitude towards men and

women who took an active part in the freedom struggle, thelr biographies had

no option but to toe the line of the natlonal attitude. But of late Assamiya

biography has turned experimental. Praphilladatta Goswami's Eti Jiva Kahani

(A Livlno Story, 1979) has an ordinary subject. Adoptlng a combination of

autobiographical and fictional techniques, Goswarnl unfolds the narrative of

his subject.

Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati literatures have contributed In thew own

way to the biographical genre. The Marathi biography made ~ t s beginning In

the thirteenth century. Historical biographies known as "Bakhars" are a part of

the Marathi biographical tradition. Experiment in the twentiethcentury Marathi

biography has resulted in life-writing based on psychological interpretations.

The Hindi biography of the medieval era was slow in asserting itself but

picked up in the following centuries. There are a number of biographies of

writer Prernchand which give rare insights into the mind of the writer.

premchand: Ghar Mein (Premchand: At Home) by Shiv Rani Devi and Amrit

Rats Premchand : A ~ i f e ~ are two notable biographies of Premchand. The

latter is a well-acclaimed biography of the Hindi language. Adopting novelistic

techniques within the limits of the biographical genre. Premchand is a vivid

account of the most notable Hindi novelist of our times. Premchand referred

to his life as a "stretch of plain and level ground" (Rai 3) and hence of no

Interest to anyone. It is to the credit of the biographer that he successfully

captures the inner drama of his subject's life. Translator Harish Trivedi has

rightly commented in the preface (vi) that this biography IS more a creative

work than a document. Comparing Amrit Rai's Premchand with another

biography of the great witer by Madan Gopal, critic lndra Nath Choudhuri

observes that Premchand shows how biography can "loosen its roots in fact,

document and truth to enhance its literary quality. Rai's biography is

strengthened by fictional techniques thereby making the work "more

convincing as a literary piece than Madan Gopal's biography" (Choudhuri 36).

When we move over from Hindi to Gujarati literature we come across a wealth

of biographical writing ranging from pen portraits to full length biography. In

the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Gujarati life-writing emulated Western

lives.

Down south, the publicat~on of Naadi Manuscripts by the University of

Madras has pointed to the fact that biographies of ordinary men and women

exist in lndia (Mowli 63). Such manuscripts. Mowli contends, exist in many

languages of India. These are biographical sketches of persons who were not

under the gaze of fame. Probing further into Tamil Literature, biographical

traces can be detected in the hymns of Saivite saints and war literature. Over

the centuries Tamil biography evolved further, and in the last two centuries, it

came under the influence of Western life-writing. The Kannada and the

Malayalam biography have their unique life-portrayal traditions even though a

good number of biographies eulogise their subjects. As with other lndian I~fe-

writing, biographies in these languages have imbibed traits of the Western

biography.

These full-length life-accounts apart, lndia also has, since the anclent

times, a rlch tradition of brief writings on great men and women In the form of

diaries,inscriptions and epigraphs. To such a tradition of life-writing d ~ d the

lndian biography in English make its entry in the nineteenth century.

The earliest biographical work by an lndian in English is Bioaraohical

Sketches of t h e Dekkan Poets by Kavali Venkata Ramaswami, published in

the year 1829. As the title suggests, Dekkan Poets is a compilation of brief

life-sketches of poets and scholars of Sanskrit, Marathl, Telugu and Tamil.

The brief biographies start with the ancient Hindu seer Shankaracharya and

end with Ramaswami's brother who was an acclaimed poet in Telugu and a

Sanskrit scholar. The biographer was a multifaceted personality wth keen

Interest in the languages. He was a scholar of repute in Telugu and Sanskrit

and had a good command over the English language. In the Dekkan Poets,

we find a good number of translations of verses from Sanskrit, Tamll and

Telugu into English. In the preface, Ramaswami celebrates the art of poetry

pointing to the fact that there is something congenial in the Indian atmosphere

h i c h fosters the growth of poetry. While he celebrates the poetry of the

great masters of Sanskrit literature, he also notes how poetlc talent

sometimes degenerated into panegyrics to fulfill the requirements of the royal

patrons.

Almost all the biographical sketches in Dekkan poets are narrations of

external incidents of the subjects' lives. The narratives start with the birth,

dwell upon the gift of the Muse, for Ramaswami subscribes to the Hindu vlew

'that poetry is innate, and not to be acquired, and, accord~ng to the

astrologers mankind obtain th~s art by a fortunate influence of the planets

Jupeter (sic) and Venus" (Preface 11). The life-sketches then move on to the

educational attainments, the oeuvres and end wth the death of the poets

Though the sketches are of poets, Ramaswami seems to concern himself

only with the external actions and exploits.

However, these real life stories are not entirely written in the manner of

records. Ramaswami has displayed his researching skills and the account

that he gives us of even his brother, Boriah is not entirely eulogistic The Ilfe-

sketch of the scholar-seer, shankaracharya6 by any biographer is bound to be

hagiographic. Ramaswami's life of this saint too is replete with all the

elements of a hagiography: The precocious child, the genius in the making ,

the many miracles attributed to Shankaracharya including the one on the

transmigration of his soul. But the biographer appears to be a sceptic, yet he

describes some of the miracles because the biography had to be based on

me recards he received. World ovep, , Ramaswami tells us, religious

Personalities are invested with the miraculous, and he too is reluctant to

94

modify the records he has come across, for such an act is tantamount to

impiety. He explains:

I have given the records as I received them and find them

acknowledged by the most learned men who have wrltten on the

Hindu theology, and leave it to the candor of the Engllsh reader.

to whom th~s work is pr~nupally addressed, to use h ~ s o m

judgement in giving credit to the m~raculous adventures of the

Hindu Sage in question.(3)

Shankaracharya travelled to the remotest parts of India. Oflen he

would be accompanied by his disciples. In the snowy mountains of northern

India, he completed his theological works and handed them over to h ~ s

disciples. Ramaswamy's narrative tells us:

The last account we have of this Hindu legislator informs us that

he went to the country of Yuvans, or Greeks; he never returned.

as no authentic narration of his death has been given; many

pious H~ndus believe he is still in existence ... (11)

The above words testify to the biographer's objective outlook. He does

not want to pen a hagiography but at the same time concedes the bei~evers

their beliefs.

This early Indian attempt at biography In English reads more like

records of landmark events of the l~ves of the poets, with brief references to

their wcrks. As the compilation consists of l ~ fe sketches of a hundred and

eight poets, we can hardly expect the writer to do anyth~ng more than sklm the

surface. Nevertheless, the work is of historical Importance as ~t is the first

serious Indian attempt at writing biography in Engl~sh. Between the early

decades of the nineteenth Century and the outbreak of the Sepcy Mutlny In

1857, only three w r k s of life-writlng were published: Ramaswaml's Dekkan

-, Raja Ram Mohan Roy's brief autobiography and Lutufullah's

~utobiography.~

In his PersDectives of Indian Prose in Enqlish. M.K. Naik identifies four

phases of development in the non-fictional English prose In lndia (222-236)

The first of these phases was the early nineteenth century, before the Sepoy

Mutiny in 1857 Confusion reigned supreme in a natlon not yet out of its

struggle to find its own Identity. So biography and autobiography are not the

genres to survive, let alone thrive, in such an age, opines Naik (223) The

next phase is the post-insurrection and pre-Gandhian age which was marked

by a rapid change in the educational system in lndia The establishment of

institutions like the Arya Samaj and the lndian National Congress was the

result of the religious and political upheavals that were then taking place.

B~ography and autobiography flourished. In this phase and by the end of the

century, a dozen lndian biographies in English were p-rblished. But the

increase in the number of books related to life-wrlting was not marked by

quality and certainly did not promote the art of biography. The Indulgence in

life-writing served the cause of religion and nationalism and written with the

Purpose of moulding patriotic sentiments. According to Alphonso Karkala,

non-availability of authentic data and a lack of scientific approach in collecting

material, were the main reasons for the English biography by Indians turning

Out to be no more than information and dates pieced together in a hurry (89-

90). S.K. Ghose's biography of Lord Gauranga is an example of the kind of

life-writing that flourished in this phase. Biographer Ghose narrates the life of

the fourteenth century who was -=nsldered a relncarnatlon of ~ o r d

Kr~shna Lord Gauranga has all the features of a wrlt~ng that resembles a

hagiography Thls Ilfe-history IS based on the observations made by the

devotees of Lord Gauranga The work abounds In mtracles mag~cal powers

and the supernatural ascrlbed to tts subject Rlght from the day the boy

Krlshna Cha~tanya IS born, every movement of the chtld 1s seen In dlv~ne l~ght

Here IS young Cha~tanya, fondly called Nlma~ belng seen In a Godly l~ght the

very avatar of Krlshna

While the boy slept a moonllke aura often floated across hts

body Sometimes hls body was enveloped wth I~ght, and the

mother found the room fllled wth lumlnous f~gures One nlght

when these f~gures had reappeared h ~ s mother asked htm to go

to h ~ s father, who was sleeplng In another room As the boy

proceeded to h ~ s father's room she heard the sound of anklets

such as llttle chlldren somettmes wear Jagannath also heard

the same sound and he explained that th~s lndlcated that Gopal

was present In the boy / I I

The lndlan b~ographer whether he IS wrlttng the l~ fe of a Salnt or a

great person belong~ng to any profess~on surrenders hlmself at the feet of h ~ s

subject "A sense of Inadequacy and unfitness haunts me." wrltes biographer

Majumdar In the preface to h ~ s life of the nineteenth century wrlter and

splrltual leader Keshub Chundur Sen Majumdar penned the biography In

1887 The sctuatlon IS no different today as the lndlan blographer wntlnues to

be humble The author of Keshub Chundur Sen sees the death of hls splrltual

leader as only a release from this Ilfe. In many biographies of spiritual men of

lndla death is not acknowledged Majumdar

is firm that he [Keshub Chandur Sen] works and prays with us

from the manslons of the blessed where he has ascended, that

his hallowed influences fill us in our attempts to be like h~m, and

that in life, death, and eternity, our relat~ons to h~m, and to each

other, are inseparable In God. (preface VII)

In his preface to the second edition of Keshub Chandur Sen, Majumdar

lays claim to objectivity saying that he has neither concealed nor glossed over

the "apparent llmltations of my honored fr~end"(Vlll). Somehow, the

biographer seems to be defens~ve about the warts in the personality of

Keshub, as these words indicate: "his greatness can very well take care of the

few singularities for which justly or unjustly, men found fault with him" (VII).

But a reference to Richard Ellmann's Golden Codgers tells us that even the

greatest English biographer, James Boswell tends to be defensive about his

subject's hypochondr~a. Dr Johnson's achievements are projected In a

greater light because of this malady. Things are not so with the modern

biographer. An example is George Painter who In h ~ s b~ography of Proust

writes about the subject's asthma without giving any excuses. Thls change In

the attitude of the modern biographer is due to the fact that "we are willing

today to admit that weaknesses are conducive to the development of genlus,

rather than hindrances upon it (Ellmann 15).

Such was the nature of the nineteenth century Ilfe-wrltlng In Ind~a.

About a dozen biographies in English were published wth most Of them

leaning towards hagiography

The third phase of the lndian prose in English belonged to the

Gandhian era which stretched from 1920 to 1947. It was a period of hectic

national activity inspired by Gandhi, N e h ~ . Moulana Azad and many eminent

men who jolned their ranks. It was an age marked by rapid changes in the

polltlcal arena. Changes in social and economic fronts too were vast. As the

struggle for Independence gained momentum, those associated with the task

of freelng India from the shackles the British were looked upon as national

heroes. A few decades later, they would be honoured in many book-length

b~ographies. The Gandhian era looked back at the nineteenth century, picking

up a number of heroes and heroines for biographical treatment. But the large

number of biographies produced during this period are mostly uninspiring

with the subjects projected as role models of society. An exception is V.S

Sreenivasa Shashtri's life-writings. His full-length portraits of Sir Pherozeshah

Mehta and Gokhale, and thumb-nail sketches are fine examples of the art of

lndla:biography.

The fourth phase is the post-Independence stage. In the aftermath of

1947, there was time for Indians to introspect; while there was a wish to

rediscover his roots, the lndian also took to modernity. Windows were

opened to winds blowing from the West. Consequently, the West was

influencing all spheres of life in India. It was in such a cllmate that lndian

writing in English gained momentum. In the init~al decade after the freedom,

there was the tendency to glorify the prominent personalities of the freedom

movement. But as M.K. Naik notices in his "The Achievement of lndlan Prose

in English", the post-Independence era is also noted for examining the lndian

ethos in the light of modern ideas. He also points that the rightful

assumption of a recognized national identity has boosted the lndian writer's

self-confidence, widening his vision and sharpening his faculty of self-scrutiny

(233). Nirad C.Chaudhury's oeuvre serve as examples of the fine prose

writings of these era

A great number of biographies appear in this fourth phase of lndian

prose In Engllsh. Even as biographies multiply, there are yet many more

heroes and heroines who need to be written about. As noted biographer B.R.

~anda ' points, a large number of our lives are on the leaders of the national

movement. He contends that biographical output in India is still not significant

and great ancient and medieval personalities have yet to make their way into

an lndian biography in English (Art of Writina a Bi00ra~hy 4446).

Critical Paucity

Nanda may lament the dearth of biographical writing In many areas;

but what is more serious is the virtual non-existence of critical studies of

biography in India. While there are a few articles on particular biographies

and autobiographies, a couple of independent publications on life-writing and

a few seminars on the art of biography In India, there has been no serious

attempt at an in-depth criticism of the biographical output in our country.

Karkala's Indo-Enolish Literature offers a glance of life-writing in the

nineteenth century. Our noted critics K.R. Sreenivasa lyengar and M.K. Naik

devote a few pages for a brief criticism of lndian biography in their works: but

they do not provide any insights into the genre of life-~witing in India.

However, lyengar in his The lnd~an Contribut~on to Enalish Literature gives us

bird's eye view of biography and autobiography as practised in India.

Writ~ng in 1945, lyengar had, naturally, no reason to be very optimistic about

the output in the area Of life-writing. Lamenting the quality of biography

produced in India which wuld not stand comparison to the well known w r k s

of Boswell. John Aubrey, or Lytton Strachey, lyengar makes this comment

that deserves our serious attention:

cur massive biographies are unreadable and our shorter ones

puerile. A book like Dhanakoti Raju's Queen Emoress Victorla,

Her Life and Times (1887) is merely a haphazard compilation.

but it gives the pattern of the general run of so-called

biographies in India. Journalistic hacks put together in a mood

of incredible hurry stray speeches and statements and scatter a

number of dates in between; the resulting monstrosity is

supposed to do duty for a biography. (233'

In Indian Contribution lyengar gives us brief cr~ttusms of the

b~ographies he has examined. Some life-histories, he feels, have contributed

to the genre, but lack in conveying adequately the personality behind the glare

of publicity. tie has wurds of pralse for Shastri's Life of Gokhale as the

biographer strikes a balance between the public and the private individual.

Also there is much of himself that Shastri reveals in the process of

understanding his subject's personality (239).

lyengar is fully appreciative of Sri Rustom Masani's Dadabhoi Naoroii

as the work makes use of letters that are self-revelatory. More importantly,

the individual narrative coalesces with the "remorseless march of the years

and the procession of the events' (240). Further, the biographer's met~culous

research does in no way lead to a dull compilation of facts, as the work

indicates evidence Of the art of selection.

In his brief critiques of a few biographies, lyengar, as we have just

observed reveals his acquaintance with the art of modem biography. He fully

endorses the Johnsonian attitude to biography. the domestic privacies being

as important as the outward life of adventure. But he is aware of the

limitations the lndian biographer writing on an lndian subject has to contend

with. There are no diaries or letters that he can have access to in order to get

a glimpse of the inner life and the lesser known aspects of the subject. Hence

lndian biographies tend to largely concern themselves with the public llfe of

their subjects (240). The non-availability of data relating to private life is not

the only hurdle in the path of the lndian biographer; his tendency to gloss

over the weaknesses of his subject has something to do with the nature of

Indians themselves for whom 'the skin is still sensitive to criticism but

gluttonous to flattery" (qtd in lyengar 244). However, a reading of a few

creditable biographies in 1945 gave hope to lyengar that there would be a

better quality of lndian life-writing in the future. HIS hopes have not been in

vain.

lyengafs lndian Writinu in Enalish, a comprehensive work that surveys,

a large body of writing in the English language by lndian writers dismisses the

biographical genre in just a few pages by offering us glimpses of some

notable English biographies in India. Nor is an adequate attention paid to the

lndian biography In English by M.K. Naik in his A Historv of lndian Enalish

Literature. Here again we are offered just a passing glimpse of some

biographies. Naik's Pers~ectives on Indian Prose In Enallsh too IS

disappointing in this regard.

There are two independent publications on biographical wrlthng in India.

One is The Art of Writina a Biosra~hv Structures and Strateaies ed~ted by M.

Sivararnkrishna and Sumita Roy. The articles in this collect~on were or~glnally

presented as papers at a seminar on the art of b~ography. The book offers

some valuable information on life-writing in India. There are two papers which

discuss current theories of biography, three papers by practls~ng biographers

and two papers which discuss life-writing in India. While the book offers some

insights into the art of life-writing, there is no In-depth study of select

biographies. In his "Biography: An Overvhew", Sivaramakrishna makes an

plea for indigenous ways of doing biography. He invokes concepts of Tamil

poetics, "akarn" and "puram", the interlor and the exter~or counters of

consciousness. Drawing upon Hindu insights, he ponders over these

concepts:

t h e nature of "maya" and ~ t s mimetlc, fict~onal elements, the

concept of "Sarnskaras", the antecedent predispositions

impelling character; the idea of "gunalkarma" predomlnant

passions right in thecr own but creating disorder if exclus~vely

pursued. Above all, the rich range of narrative art ev~dent In

"Purana", "Ithihasa" 'Charitra", "Kavya".

Recovered and contempor~sed, these could prove to be

enduring indigenous strategies of biography (34).

Another interesting paper in this collection is "Literary B~ography IS not

History" by lndra Nath Choudhury. Writing Ilves, according to him, has very

little to do with "an i n ~ t i t ~ t i ~ n a l concern for Ilterature". Blographles are

witten, he says, "with personal motives to give some lnslght into the real~ty of

other people's livesW(.,s

Choudhury, while taking note of the Importance of fact In biography, IS

also wary of an undue emphasis on fact. lend inn in^" may polnt that "A

biographer is an artist under oath (qtd in Choudhury 4<) meaning that he

should include nothing that cannot be supported by documents But

Choudhury recalls Lytton Strachey's portrait of General Gorden where the

biographer relies more on his artistic bent of mind than follow a chronicler's

instinct for documenting. He draws upon Tagore's autobiography and the

views of Vishnu Prabhakar who has written one of the finest biographies of

Sarat Chandra, to strengthen his argument for a biography that loosens ~ t s

hold on facts

Being hero-worshippers by tradition, Indians do a kind of biography that

tends to build a halo around their subject. Added to this problem is the

traditional aversion for fact gathering. But Choudhury is also suspic~ous of the

present day Western genre of life-writing which seeks to "reveal scandalous

behavior and stylist deviance of the writers which provoke far more Interest

and sell for more copies than any actual book by the wrltten in questionW(42).

B.R. Nanda's "Biography in India," is another paper in The Art of

Writina a Bioaraohy that deserves our attention. Nanda does not tell us

anything new about the art uf biography, but takes stock of the biographical

writing in India which he feels lacks in both quantity and quality In spite of

the growing number of biographies in India, he observes that attention is paid

more to men in politics of the present century. He feels our men and -men

of the past are not adequately represented. Regarding the quality of the

lndian biography in English, Nanda IS sore about the life-w~ter's Ignorance of

the complex nature of the human personality Gandhi is always portrayed as

a Mahatma, Tilak's life-sketch is woven around his statement, "Swaraj IS my

birthright, Gokhale IS seen in the image of the "Servant of India", and Lala

Lajpat Rai is summed up as the Lion of Punjab. In other words, an aspect of

personality is made to represent the person; the desperate efforts of these

famous men in reconciling their public llfe with their domestic demands never

get noticed by the biographer. The resultant work is more a bronze statue

than a man (48).

The second independent work by an lndian on the genre of biography

is D Anjaneyulu's The Art of Bioara~hy. This slim volume running into

twenty-five pages is helpful to the general reader as it carries a brief survey of

biography the world over. It has very little to offer to the serious student of

biography.

Thus, the existing criticism of the genre of biography in India is hardly

adequate for an assessment of thousands of biographies written by Indians in

English. This meagre critical output may be interesting but it offers us no new

insights, as the critiques are based only on Western notions of biography. As

regards poetics for the lndian biography, all these noted critics have drawn a

blank.

With what critical tools do we evaluate the lndian biography in English?

The "rasa-jhvani" theory cannot be deployed for a critique of modern

biography. These critical concepts of Sanskrit poetics could well serve the

biographical literature of ancient and medieval lndla which saw no distinction

between purely maginative writing and writing with its basis in history. In fact

as we have noted earher, the Buddhacarita and The Raiataranaini are

considered 'kavya'. Such biographical works, including the Harishacharita

which is in prose took off from their historical core and soared to imaginative

levels with the narrative picklng up rnyth,legend and fiction on its way. Should

we then completely rely on Western theories of biography, more so because

the concept of modern biography w th its emphasls on research and fact is

Western in origin? The answer lies in realizing that both these theories,

Sanskrit poetics and the Western theories of biography are not wholly

adequate to provide a critical framework to evaluate the lndian biography in

English. Also, the little lndian critical response to the lndian biography in

Engl~sh is woefully inadequate Biographical writing continuing to flourish in

lndia in spite of a lack of theory need not be surprising as no Ilterature,

according to Ganesh Deny in h ~ s "criticism in crisis", IS dependent on a critical

or a literary theory for its growth (42). Yet a theoretical framework is very

useful in evaluating any literature. At this juncture, it is helpful to consider

Devy's suggestion for lndian English literature which he feels is not backed up

by a sensible critical approach. These views also hold good for the lndian

biography in English.

... a theory appropriate for understanding lndian English

literature will emerge when the intellectual discourse in lndia

develops in a full native form, when an lnd~an branch of

linguistics, psychology and soc~ology attains maturity. Such a

discourse will offer the initial theoretical premises which, then,

can lead to the formulation of a theory.. . . Till then a confident

use of simple common sense and the inborn literary sensibility

should be our critical presaiptions(43).

With this 'simple common sense" and "inborn literary sensibility" as our

guidelines, we shall now go back to the definition of biography we started with

In the first chapter

"History", "Individual" and "Literature"

Writing in 1928, Harold Niwlson found this definition of biography in

The Oxford Dictionary: the history of the lives of individual men as a branch of

literature (7). But for the gender bias indicated in the exclusion of women,

this definition is the most convenient. Three m r d s in it, "history", "individual"

and "literature" fows our attention to the very essential elements of biography:

It [the definition] prescribes by implication that biography must

be a truthful record of an individual and composed as a work of

art; it thus excludes narratives *ich are unhistorical, which do

not deal primarily with individt~als, or which are not composed

with a conscious artistic purpose. (Niwlson 8)

Nicolson elaborates further, making a distinction between "pure" and

"impure" blography(9-10). Impure biographies are those that are

Commemorative; when a biographer uses his subject to demonstrate a virtue

or a thesis, he is again rendering his m r k Impure; lastly, undue subjectivity

on the part of the life-writer is also another reason for ~lography turning

Impure.

In the lndian context, the word 'individual' in the definition of biography

poses problems; for how does a biographer isolate a person in a culture which

has always considered the individual as part of family and society? Again, the

word 'history' in the definition implies an adherence to facts. Indians by

tradition have a strong disinclination for fact-recording. The lndian biography

in English which is shaped by the traditional lndian biography and also

influenced by the English biography has to work out its own attitude to fact. At

this point it is important to recall the discussion on the role of fact in

biography (Chapter two). Even in the West, it was only after the seventeenth

century that biographies were produced with an emphasis on fact. The very

ancient of our Sanskrit biographies started with their basis in fact but these

were subordinated to the poet's art. Again, in our discussion of Kalhana's

Raiataranaini we noted that what we now regard as superstition and legend in

this age passed for facts in Kalhana's age . So was it with John Aubrey in his

Brief Lives who gives the reader the impression that he himself believed in

spectres.

How does the lndian biographer reconcile the traditional attitude

towards fact with the current emphasis on history and hard fact? The best

guideline to solve the dilemma facing the lndian biographer is the one offered

by Vishnu Prabhakar, who wrote Awara Masiha, a well acclaimed biography

of Sharat Chandra. Admitting that the genre of biography does not make

allowances for tampering with the real fads and incidents of its subject,

Prabhakar, at the same time points at the difference between reality and truth:

Reality is always on the surface but one needs to go beyond the

surface to know the truth. This difference between reality and

truth separates biography from history because the writer must

go beyond to create. A researcher goes for the facts and the

biographer artistically recreates those to tell the story of the life

of a man ... (qtd in Choudhury 37)

The a d of creativity therefore requires this going beyond facts. So the

emphasis on both history and literature in Nicolson's definition of biography is

hard to achieve. If biography, whether lnd~an or Western, is to survive as

literature, it has to artistically recreate facts as Vishnu Prabhakar has put it.

It is again helpful to recall Tagore's views on facts. There is something

measurable about facts. Hence their limitation. This is not to deny their

importance, but the poetcritic reminds us that by themselves facts do not

have the power of beauty; for beauty is the result of the artlstlc personality

feeling its wealth at the moment of creation.

How then do a biography? What exactly should the life-writer's attitude

towards fact be? In his autobiography as well as in his comments on

biographies, Tagore expounds his views on the art of life-writlng Sharlng his

experience of writing autobiography with us, Tagore's first remarks are that

this genre is not "a faithful copy of all that is happeningU(l). The

autobiographer's taste decides what facts to include and what to leave out

"He has no compunction in putting into the background that which was to the

fore, or bringing to the front that which was behind. In short he is painting

Pictures, and not writing history" (1 ).

After having decided to write about his life Tagore reallses

that life's memories are not Life's history, but the orlglnal work of

an unseen artist. The variegated colours scattered about are

not reflections of outside lights, but belong to the palnter h~mself

and come passion-tinged from his heart, thereby unfitting the

record on the canvas for use as evidence in a court of law

Autobiography depends solely on memory and when Tagore exhorts

that life's memories are not life's history, and what is painted on memory's

canvas is the work of an artist, he is stressing the subjective nature of the art

of autobiography.

Tagore's argument could be stretched to biography too. For th~s is also

a genre that relies on the memories of a number of persons connected with

the subject. As the poet observes, the very process of highlighting certaln

facts and playing down the others is guided by the biographer's taste. Hence

the biographer as literary artist cannot be taken for a historian and h ~ s work

cannot be used as evidence in a court of law.

It is interesting to observe how these views on facts of Vishnu

Prabhakar and Tagore concur with those of Western minds. We are

reminded of Carlyle's words in 1834, "Wilt thou know a Man, above all a

Mankind, by stringing together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?" (qtd in

Nadel 5)

Wth this understanding of the role of fact in biography, we now need to

turn our attention to the factor, "individual" in Nicolson's definition of

biography, and his assertion that biography "excludes narratives ... which do

not deal primarily with individuals" (8). The Chambers Dictionaw explains

"individual" as 'a single person, animal, plant or thing considered as a

separate member of its species or as having an Independent existence. a

Person". This explanation points to a person isolable from hls milleu Before

we move on to the lndlan COnCept of "person", and the applicability of the

notion of individuality to Indian biographies, we should turn our attention to the

recent theories originating in the West, theorles concerning the biographical

self.

Chapter DNO elaborated on the postmodernist concept of the self. a self

that breaks loose from its unitary confines. As we have already noted In the

same chapter, James Clifford questions this very Western concept of the

individual who is extricable from h ~ s milieu. This concept gained currency in

the year 1 81 0 when

... Coleridge identified a new cultural configuration whlch he

termed "the age of personality". Within thls context of

individualism (a nineteenth-century term) the modern

biographical genre took shape, transcending the traditional

concerns of spiritual autobiography and politicallrelig~ous

hagiography. But the fascination with individual lives as ends in

themselves has never gone unchallenged and in recent

decades ... Structuralism has again placed sharply in question

the status of the individual subject. (Clifford 4243)

Clifford goes on to wonder at biographies continuing to sketch a

coherent personality in spite of philosophers, psychologists and sociologists'

unsuccessful attempts at figuring out the structures and practices that add up

to a "perscn" (44). Like Erik Erikson, he suggests that b~ographers take Into

consideration, cultural determinants of individuality.

Cliford's suggestion gains more relevance in the Ind~an context. In h ~ s

'Inner World", a Psycho-social discovery Of India, psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar

points at the overwhelm~ng importance of cultures in personality formation.

The old nature vs nurture, heredity vs environment, controversy

boils down to an acknowledgement of every ~ndiv~dual's dual

heritage: our biological - physical endowment lndel~bly

embell~shed by the culture of the particular society which

surrounds us from the beginning of life, enveloping us l~ke the

very air we breathe and without which we do not grow into viable

human beings. (Kakar 9).

"Inner World" IS an exploration of lndian cultural psychology wherein

Kakar provides ins~ghts Into the Hindu vlew of personality He points how the

understanding of concepts such as "guna", "moksha" and "karma" embedded

in our religious philosophy are essential to gain an understanding of the Hindu

world-view. His views are echoed by Sreenivasa Sastri, one of our well

known biographers.

"Men and women are, as our books say, the creatures of the three

gunas, 'sattva', 'rajas' and 'tamas' - in infinite comb~nat~on and ~nter-plaf',

says Sastri in the introduction to his biography of Sir Pherozeshah Mehta (2).

One of the first lnd~ans to break away from the hagiographic strain that

Characterized lndian biography, Sastri was familiar with the best models of

Western biography. Nevertheless, his wisdom directed him to draw upon

lndian philosophical insights. But what exactly are these three "gunas"? M.

Hiriyanna in his "Essentials of lndian Philoso~hv" elaborates:

Three three 'gunas' are named 'sattva', 'rajas' and 'tamas'.

Each of them stands for a distinct aspect of physical reality:

roughly, 'sattva' signifies whatever is pure and fine, 'rajas',

whatever IS active and 'tamas' what IS stolid and offers

resistance. (1 08)

Kakar clarifies this theory further: according to the Hindu theories of

psychology, a newborn infant is not a clean state but comes "equipped ... with

a hlghly personal and individual unconscious characterized by a particular

mixture of three fundamental qualities or "gunas" ("Inner World" 47). Such an

understanding pointlng that a child at blrth itself comes with a specific

constellation of the "gunas" defeats some notions originating in the West that

mth the right kind of care and upbringing the child can be moulded into a

personality that his parents envision for him.

Again, Hlndu philosophy supports the theory of reincarnation;

according to it the self is death transcending. Such a world-view is not

healthy for the growth of biography, for the modern version of life-writing is all

about the mundane, of the self that has existence in the space between birth

and death. In this connection, rt is interesting to take note of the observations

made by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador, to the court of Chandragupta.

He remarked about Indians in 300 B.C.

Death is with them a very frequent subject of discourse. They

regard this life as, so to speak, the time when the chlld within the

womb become mature, and death as a birth into a real and

happy life for the votaries of philosophy On this account they

undergo much discipline as a preparation for death. (qtd in

Kakar "Inner World" 7)

The Hindu theory of 'Karma' is yet another feature of the religious

that seems to go against modern biography. The doctrine of

Kanna subscribes to the principal of causation positing that every event in the

moral sphere is preordained. Generally, the doctrine is presumed to be

fatalistic but Hiriyanna points that it is not so. Those who oppose the Karma

factor opine that, it is freedom curtailing. Hiriyanna counters this argument by

showing that only external factors are responsible for clamping individual

freedom, as the self is rewarded of punished in the present life, for its own

deeds in the previous life. Moreover, the belief in Karma is responsible for

leadlng an individual along the moral path in order that he may have a better

life in his next birth. Hiriyanna elaborates how this law of Karma is deeply

ingrained in the Indian psyche:

The law of Karma accordingly is not a blind mechanical law, but

is essentially ethical. It is this conviction that there are in real~ty

no iniquities in life which explains the absence of any feeling or

bitterness - so apt to follow in the wake of pain and sorrow -

which is noticeable even among common people in lnd~a when

any misfortune befalls them. They blame neither God nor their

neighbour, but only themselves for it ... (48)

If the enacting of one's Karma is life, than 'moksha' is the ideal that one

Should strive for, the ideal that recognizes the liberation from the cycle of

rebirths as the end value towards which all human endeavour should be

directed. "Moksha" is the achieving of self-perfedion. 'Salvation' serves as an

approximate translation of this Sanskrit word into English. This English word,

though, does not carry the full import of 'moksha" whose meaning, as Sudhir

Kakar points, can be grasped only by the initiated Philosophers describe it is a

state In which the subject and the object become one, a condition leading to

the fusing of the human being with the infinite. Kakar sees the attainment of

'<moksha" as something equivalent to mystical experience ("Inner World 16-

17) In the West, such an experience is believed to be the preserve of artists,

poets and philosophers. Not so in India, where mystical experience could

enter the world of the ordinary too. Hence in India it is "central to the imagery

of culture" (Inner World" 17).

B~ography is about worldly involvement. "Moksha", seems to be

working in the opposite direction as it seeks a release from worldly

~nvolvement. The doctrines of "Moksha" and "kamla" show no proclivity for

the mundane. The world-view forwarded by these notions helped a kind of

biographical writing in ancient India, writing which drew upon the theories of

Incarnation and portrayed their subjects as anything but ordinary. Examples

of such life-writing have been discussed in this chapter. But the H~ndu

attitude seems to be antagonistic to the very idea of modern biography, a

genre originating in the West with its preoccupation with the here and now.

Nevertheless, the Indian biography in English, an offshoot of the Western

biography, does carry messages of this ancient philosophy as we shall be

observing later.

Included in the Hindu concepts that have contributed to the unique Ilfe-

view of our culture, is the concept of time. Notions of time and destiny which

have a bearing on Individual psychology, are also culturally determined.

Modem biography which traces the development of its subject through his

lifetime is based on a linear notion of time. The West conceives of time as

being made up of such units as days, months and years. Hindu theory

interprets this division of time as 'worldly manifestations of permanent

absolute or real time in all its empirical plurality" (Kakar, "Inner World" 45).

Corresponding to their theories of 'maya" and reality, the Hindus perceive

temporal divisions as illusory and posit the notion of real time as indivisible

and motionless and part of the '~rahman:" Kakar makes an interesting

observation regarding the indifference of Indians to these units of time. He

points that the Hindi language has just one word, "kal" (derived from "kala") to

refer to time of all magnitudes: "kal" stands for tomorrow, yesterday, a

moment or an age (46). There is not just an indifference to magnitude

~ndicated in the word "kal". Its usage also sees no difference between the

past, the present and the future. Such a perception of time is bound to have

its effect on our life-writing. Historical events seem to assume legendary

character, having "little immediacy in the lives of individuals;

they seem to recede almost instantly into a distant past, to

become immemorial legend. Gandhi's murder.. has

already assumed the mythical form of the 'death of a hero'. In

the individual's subjective chronology, it is merged with other

similar historical events which took place hundreds of years ago

- as 'the past'. On the other hand, mythical figures like Rama or

Hanuman are as actual and as psychologically real ... as recent

historical characters such as Ramakrishna or Shivaji. (Kakar,

"Inner World' 46)

116

Such an understanding of the concept of tlme and its bearing on the

individual character is echoed by Srinivasa Sastr~ in his Life and Times of Sir

pherozeshah Mehta. What men and women are and what they do, he tells

us, "is not to be judged by our limited vlsion as we know and assess them in

our brief day" (2). In Sastri's understanding it is only the larger vision and a

look at the man and the event from the perspective of extended time that

leads to a sensible judgement of the subject and his deeds. Pondering over

the mysterious way in which nature functions, Sastri shows how notions of

virtue and vice change from time to time. Hence his advice to writers,

therefore, is to register all they know and believe in its fullness; "to keep

anything from posterity is to leave it without ampleness for judgement. It is

not exaggerated humility to say, 'How dare I judge for all of them? It is but the

confession of a universal human infirmity" (Sastri 3).

Such is our cultural perception of time and the understanding of the

self. The denial of time divisions as artificial, and real time as homogeneous,

~ndlvlsible and motionless realizable In the state of "moksha", the ideal

towards which an individual should strive, go against current biographical

trends that look for some particular personality traits and ldiosyncracies of

their subjects. As regards notions of self and individuality as understood by

our culture, Ananda Coomaraswamy elaborates: "for in what we call

personality, tradition sees only a temporal function which you hold in

lease"(42). And he continues: "It is not surprising that even in life a man

Wuld rather be represented thus, not as he is, but as he ought to be,

impossibly suparior to the accidents of temporal manifestation" (43). Such a

view adopted to the writing of biography would defeat the very notion of

lndivtdualit~ which N~colson stresses in his definition of biography.

coomaraswamy's "standardised types of human beings" is more encouraging

to the writing of hagiographies.

The Hindu view of the true self and the empirical self, their difference

and the deal of life as a progression from the empirical self towards the

transcendental or the true self is well elaborated in S.RadhakrishnanSs

Eastern Reliaious and Western Thouaht. The transcendental self

is not an organ or a faculty but that which vivifies and disposes

every organ and every faculty, the vast background of our being

in which all organs, intellect, and will lie. Body, mind and the

world are almost arbitrary restrictions imposed on this

consciousness. This universal self is in our ordinary life ...

confused with the empirical self. (Radhakrishnan 27)

Radakrishnan describes the empirical self as the "system of energies,

psycholog~cal and logical, that lays claim to independence and individuality. In

common parlance, the empir~cal self is taken to mean our personality; and this

personality is often confused for the transcendtal self. The human personality

is a sort of psychological be~ng that answers to our name, is

reflected in the looking glass (narnarupa), a number in statistical

tables. It is subject to pleasure and pain, expands when praised,

contracts when criticized, admires itself, and IS lost in the

masquerade. (Radhakrishnan 27)

It is not just Hindu~sm that advocates the transcending of the mundane,

other Indian religious philosophies like Islam. Buddhism and Jainism too posit

a world-view that seeks the beyond, treating our worldly existence as a

ÿ as sing phase. The lndian form of Islam is moulded by Hindusim, even

though as poet lqbal has pointed in his ~srar-i-khudi12 that the Quran does

not uphold the philosophy of ego sublimation.

So lndian philosophy and lndian views of art defeat the mundane

dimensions of the self, running counter to the modem biographical self. We

have not yet exhausted some important lndian views on the self and its

implications on biography. One such view is Sri Aurobindo's. Sri Aurobindo

shares with us his original thoughts on the English poetic tradition. In his

Future Poetry he expounds on his unique concept of poetry. But when it

comes to biography, he seems to be dismissing the genre itself. According to

him the self that the biographer is after is accessible only if the subject is a

man of action as in the case of Napolean or Julius Caesar. Poets,

ph~losophers and Yogis cannot lend themselves to biographical treatment.

This was Sri Aurobindo's message to a biographer:

I see that you have persisted in giving a biography - is it really

necessary or useful? The attempt is bound to be a failure,

because neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of

my life; it has not been on the surface for men to see.

(Aurobindo, On Himself 378).

The self in the view of Sri Aurobindo is conceived as residing within or

Wthout, depending on the vocation of the subject, whereas the selves posited

by Hindu theories, ethnobiography and post modernism are decentred and

complex.

It is this complex nature of the self that confronts biographer lqbal

Singh when he struggles to sketch a unified picture of his subject, Poet

Mohammed Iqbal. Singh's method of doing biography appears to be shaped

by both lndian and Western traditions of life-writing . He ponders the nature

of the human personality; and he is not among the life-witers who subscribe

to the myth of a coherent self. Experience at writing biography13 has taught

him to visualize a personality that accords well with the postmodern views of

the self. He shares his perceptions with us:

The unitary conception of individuality is largely illusory; the

individual is rarely, if ever, individual. The human personality is

a plurality, a many in one: it is not a monolithic structure and of a

piece, but is made up of a series of layers, of strata, of disparate

and even contradictory elements of being, held together by the

most tenuous threads and encased in a parchment shell which

is also a mask. This makes the task of biography ... difficult.

(Singh 97)

Singh is a representative of the growing number of lndian biographers

who are writing with an awareness of the demands of the genre, combining

the lndian as well as the Western methods of life-writing Our philosophical

bearings may go against modem biographical trends; yet there are lndian

biographies that show a leaning towards Western ways of writing a life, and

their number is increasing. T N ~ , a large number of lndian biographies in

English are hagiographic. But hagiographic tendencies are to be found even

in English biographies prior to the twentieth century. It is o3ly from the

beginning of the twentieth century, especially with the arrival of Lytton

Strachey's Eminent Victorians that English biography began to be written

depicting the virtues as well as the foibles of the subject. This change in the

nature of the English biography did not have an lmmed~ate Influence on the

lndian biography; the change towards a dispassionate attltude was to come

about only gradually, for when the likes of Strachey in England were busy

writing objective biographies, lndian biographers were busy celebrating the

deeds of the national heroes engaged in liberating therr countrymen from the

clutches of the British. The hangover of the nationalistic spirit persisted long

after our Independence, fostering the growth of hagiographies. The subject-

venerating tendency continues to this day.

But in spite of the adulatory character of the general lndian biography

in English, some notable exceptions that advance the genre of life-writing

have made thelr appearance now and then. These lives wll be taken up for a

detailed discussion in the next chapter.

Traditional influences and historical circumstances might have

rendered most of our biographies subject adulatory; but the interest in the

mundane is certainly an influence of the English biography as a large number

of biographies with chapters that cover childhood, early Influences, school,

college, career and last years indicate. One of the first biographers to

combine healthy biographical trends of the East and West was V.S.

Sreenivasa Sastri. Since then more Indians are writing under the influence of

the Western biography. lndian philosophy may decry this tendency for the

mundane in modem biography, but our life-writers see no reason as to why

the indigenous biography should not be erriched by taklng cues from its

Western counterpart.

At this juncture, it is useful to recall that everything that is happening in

the Westem life-writing scene is not healthy. The warts-and-all biography that

claims frankness may at times degenerate into exhlbltlonlsm Agaln, owng to

the entry of psychoanalysis into biography, the nature of the self and creatlvlty

are invariably linked to sexual compuls~ons. As Sivaramakrtshna observes in

his 'Biography: An overview", the tendency to portray sexual lndlscretions IS

indicative of an anomaly of the Freudian-oriented modern consclousness.

"The Victorians pretended that nothtng like sex exists; the moderns pretend

that nothing else exists" (qtd In Sivaramakrishna 32).

Of interest to us is the recent trend In Western biographical writings

wt-tich indicate a moving away from portraying a unified personality. As we

have observed in Chapter two, ethnobiographlcal and postmodern practices

are questioning the very notion of the ind~vidual as conceived by the -st.

These current views show leanings towards the lndlan concept of the self, the

self as being an entity that is shaped by family, society and the times.

Today, biography is being Subject to continual experimentation.

Though the Indian biography in English is no match to its Western counterpart

in terms of variety, some notable examples, a few since the earlier decades of

the twentieth century and more in the recent years, are a substanttal

contribution to the genre of Itfe-writing.

Having said so much about the several conceptions of the self, we

move on to the last item in Nicolson's definition: biography as literature. As we

have noted earlier in this chapter, ancient and medieval biographies In India,

Wether in prose or in poetry, enjoyed the status of high art. The evocation of

"rasa", according to Indian theorles is the aim of all art. We have also noted

Bane's poetlcs on the art of biography in his introduction to the Harsacarlta.

Delight and instruction are the twin objectives of the art of biography, says

Bana; this is the end value of all art, a value endorsed by both Indian and

Western th~nkers slnce anaent times. Biographical art in ancient lnd~a

emphasized an ornate style and employed epic conventions These narratives

abound in aphorisms. Over the centuries, b~ographical style has changed

vastly but what we need to bear in mind is the high place that was accorded to

the art of wmposltion in life-writing in ancient India, and a wnt~nuation of this

att~tude among serious practit~oners of biography

We have also observed in this chapter the view of Ananda

Coomaraswamy and Rabindranath Tagore on art in general, and the bearing

of these vlews on the art of biography . In the context of fact, Tagore

compares the biographer to a painter, and the art of writing biography to the

art of painting pictures. In the process of paint~ng the artist's selectiv~ty leads

h ~ m to emphasize or blur certain aspects of his subject. So is it with the

process of the biography.

The writing of a life of his father was not really very different from the

wr~ting of a novel, confesses Amrit Rai in the preface of his biography of

Premchand. Himself a novelist, Rai remarks: if the writer of biography is "truly

tethered to a sold peg", the novelist is tethered to the peg of probability (viii).

Exper~ence of involvement in both the genres leads him to the realisation that

disc~pline and restraint govern the novel as much as they do biography "But

that does not at all impair the joy of creation and such a joy I have known in

this w r k too in full measure" (Ral vii).

If Rai adopts fictional techniques bringing biography closer to the novel,

Raja Rao experiments with both language and style in his biography of

Mahatma Gandhi: the style is 'puranic" and the language, a suitable

appropriation of English to convey lndian modes of thoughts and feel~ngs

These unique features are discussed in greater detail in chapter SIX

Another biography noted for its artist~c merlt is Dom Moraes' Mrs.

Gandhl. Discussed at length in the present study. Moraes' life of Mrs. Gandhi

is noted for its satirical touches. Certain characters in the biography stand out

as lampooned figures. Rich in metaphors, the other highlight of this life is ~ t s

descriptive passages that have the sure touch of a poet doing b~ography

Some lndian biographies have opted to tell thew stones through a good

use of letters. The technique is useful in relieving the lffe from a tedious

narrative. Letters also help evoke multiple points-of-mew.

The use of fictional techniques is slowly picking up. Other than Raja

Rao's biography of Mahatma Gandhi, the recent examples that have made

use of such techniques are Pinki Virani's Aruna's Stow and Shashi Warrier's

Hanaman's Journal.

Biographies that experiment with new techniques are rare. However,

the recent examples that we have noted are encouraglng and Indicative of a

bright future for the lndian b~ography in English.

So far we have grappled only with theoretical problems. The genre of

biography is also replete with problems of a practical nature. The lndian

Scenario throws up special obstacles that biographers may find d~fficult to

Surmount. It is a well known fact that Indians are intolerant of dissent and

Views that are uncomplimentary. The response to Ved Mehta's Mahatma

Gandhi and His Apostles and the furore it created in padlament serve as proof

Of Such an attitude - all because the biographer has sketched a portrait of

Gandhi that is not done in venerating shades. In the more recent years.

Khushwant Singh's zutobiography, a work much awaited by the reading

public, has been stalled by Maneka Gandhi as a chapter in the work portrays

her in not so pleasant hues. These trends are disturbing for the biographer

who is led to sacrifice truth in the name of 'respectability'. The problems are

even more difficult to overcome if the subject is alive.

It is not just the hurting of sentiments of the near and dear ones of the

subjects allve or departed that is of concern to the biographer. As Indians, we

have a tendency to ascribe legendary status to famous personalities we hold

dear. A biographer afler truth may stumble upon a foible of the subject but he

is forced to sacrifice the truth for fear of incurring public wrath. The quest for

truth is thus rendered an act of blasphemy by a hero-worshipping people; and

hero-worship in our culture has the sanction of tradition

The other practical problems that the lndian biographer faces.

problems of ethics, authenticity, celebrity and the factor of empathy are

common to biographers all over the world. As in the West, in India too

biography mainly concerns itself with the famous. But of late, secondary lives

and the lives of the non-celebrities are making their appearance on the

biographical scene. These works are discussed in the next chapter

Well-known lndian biographers of today share with us their problems

(Mukerji 63-65), They tell us about the obstacles that the lndian life-writer

faces. Writing about Laloo Prasad Yadav, Sankarshan Thakur had to contend

Vvlth several problems; the funds were limited, and so was time. Most

Important, Thakur had to grapple with the absence of records on Laloo, a

situation that could drive any biographer to frustratlon Then there was the

Problem of ethics too. With biographer Raj Rao, the uphill task had to do wth

Nissim Ezekiel's failing memory and the impediments it posed to authenticity.

TO add to the problems those close to Ezekiel pointed at Rao for having

missed this or that which in their opinion is a serious lapse. Ramachandra

Guha's woe was that he had to spend, like Thakur, a lot of his own money for

witing Verr~er Elwin. Research is money consuming and institutions do not

come forward to fund biography as they do not consider lifswiting on par

wth research work, grumbles Rao. A problem that arouses our curiosity and

the one that has gone unobserved so far is what Guha calls the Marxist

tradition pervading social science departments in lndia insisting "that

'objective forces' influence history much more than individuals" (qtd in Mukerji

65). This attitude comes down on the activity of doing a whole book on an

individual

Surprisingly, these obstacles have not hindered these biographers and

their works rate among the best biographies written by Indians in English.

Their success indicates a promising future for the life-witer in India. Yet,

when we take a look at the overall picture, lndian biography needs to gain

momentum and explore new ways of writing lives. m e number of biographies

is staggering, but as B.R. Nanda notes, many personalit~es have not b6en

written about. Moreover, biography has to move out of the confines of

celebrity and also focus on ordinary lives; and then, to sustain itself as a

genre, it has to be subject to experimentation.

Finally, what critical tools do we use to evaluate the Indian biography in

English? The criteria for evaluating the lndian biography in English cannot be

very different from those of Western biography, for biography as we

understand it today is a genre that has been introduced in lndia by the British

,, the nineteenth century. The lndian biography in English made its

appearance In the eighteen twenties at a time when lndian Writing in English

In all genres was just beginning to pick up.'4 Till the second half of the

wnt ie th century, with some notable exceptions, our biographical writings in

English were poor. In the sixties and thereafter, the scenario was not very

d~fferent but the number of biographies written with a commitment to the

genre has increased. The nineteen nineties have been a witness to an

Increase in the number of biographies that are valuable contributions to the art

of life-writing

A commitment to truth, truth as meaning not an obvious attempt to

gloss over the blemishes of the subject, and, equally important, a commitment

to art should serve as guidelines to the serious biographer. How far the lndian

l~terary biographer succeeds in meeting these demands will be discussed in

the next chapter which even while surveying our biographical writing in

English, picks out the ones that advance the genre of life-writing.

' Though Rajatarangini is a historical work, it shares many common features

with the Indian biography of this period. Hence I have included this work for a

brief discussion.

* The genre of 'carita" mixes history with legend. The discussion on the

Buddhacarita and the Harsacarita in the present work gives an idea of the

language and style of this narrative.

3 Abu-L-Fazl was born on 14'" Jan, 1551, so that he was eight years and

three months younger than Akbar (Beveridge Tr. Akbarnama).

Chapter XII, Vol. one.

This outstanding biography in Hindi titled "Kalam Ka S~pahi" is translated

into English by Harish Trived~.

The greatest of the Hindu philosophers, Shankaracharya was also a

preacher, scholar, writer and logician. He founded the Advaita school of

philosop:;y. Scholarly speculations space his l~fe between 788 and 820 AD.

Lutufullah was a derk with the East India Company. He who was of humble

Origins ran away from home at a young age owing to his step father's cruelty

In the course of his run, he encountered many an adventure. All these are

recounted in his autobiography With reads like a picaresque novel

8 B.R. Nanda is a well known biographer. He has written biographers of

Gandhi, Nehrus and Gokhale.

lndian Contribution to Enalish Literature and lnd~an Wrltlna tn Enal~sh by

K.R. Sreenivasa lyengar; A Histow of lndian Enallsh Literature and

perspectives of lndian Prose in Enalish by M.K. Naik.

lo Victoria Glendinning in "Lies and Silences."

" M. Hiriyanna explains 'Brahman" as the primary prlnc~ple which is the

source of the universe (Essentials of lndian Philoso~hv 21 2)

l2 Poet lqbal advocates the celebration of the ego in his poetical work 'Asrar-

i-Khudi'. See chapter five for a discussion of Iqbal's concept of the human

personality.

l3 Singh has written biographies of Muhammed Iqbal, Raja Ram Mohan Roy

and Gautama Buddha.

l4 The first lndian ever to write and publish a book in English was Dean

Mahommed (1759-1851). His book was published in 1794, and is the only

work written by an lndian in English before the nineteenth century. Entitled,

The Travels of Dean Mahomet, the travelogue observes the British conquest

Of India from an lndian perspective, shedding light on the lndian soc~ety of the

eighteenth century.

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