Page:Works of Tagore from the Modern Review, 1909-24 Segment 1.pdf/125

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Ramayan has conquered for ever the devoted heart of India.

The race that adores partial truth, that pursues material truth with tireless energy, that regards poetry as the mirror of Nature,—such a race is achieving many things in the world; it is peculiarly successful; the whole human kind is indebted to it. But, on the other hand, those who have said, "The Great (Bhumá) is the only happiness; the nature of the Great is the only proper object of inquiry,"—those who have directed their devotion to realise the beauty of all parts, the harmony of all conflicts, amidst the fulness of MATURITY;—their debt, too, the world can never repay. If their memory is lost, if their teaching is forgotten, then human civilisation, oppressed and withering in the close and polluted atmosphere of its dusty, smoky, densely crowded factory, will die inch by inch. The Ramayan is ever showing us a picture of those (ancients) who thirsted for the nectar of the FULL, the UNDIVIDED. If we can preserve our simple reverence and hearty homage for the brotherliness, love of truth, wifely devotion, servant's loyalty depicted in its pages, then the pure breeze of the Great Outer Ocean will make its way through the windows of our factory-home.

2em

NDIA as she is is a problem which can only be read by the light of Indian history. Only by a gradual and loving study of how she came to be, can we grow to understand what our country actually is, what the intention of her evolution, and what her sleeping potentiality may be.

We are often told that Indian literature includes no histories. It is said that the Rajatarangini in Kashmir, the Dipawamsa and Mahawamsa in Ceylon, and the records made after their accession to power by the Mohammedans are the only real works of history which she possesses. Even if this be true—and we shall be better able to discuss the question, in a generation or two—we must remember that India herself is the master-document in this kind. The country is her own record. She is the history that we must learn to read. There are those who say that history as a form of literature can never survive the loss of political power, and that this is the reason