152nd year of birth day of Silver Tongue Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri ON 22ND SEPTEMBER 2021

Born: 22 September 1869 at Valangaiman, Tanjore district

Died: 17 April 1946 (aged 76) at Mylapore, Madras

Courtesy: Vathsala sankaran

22nd September is the birth day of Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri famously called as Silver-Tongued  Srinivasa Sastri. He was born on this Day 22nd September 1869, in an interior village Valangaiman. Born in a poor family he had his education in Kumbakonam.

Many would had the ‘story’ of a great scholar studied under the street lights. Yes. It was Srinivas Sastry only. Remembering the hard days of his students life , when he had to depend on street lights to study his lessons he spent a good portion of his earnings to poor students.

There was a strange incident during his college days in Kumbakonam. He went to class once without a shirt as he had got drenched heavily in a sudden downpour on the way.

 When he was fined eight annas for ‘without shirt’ young Srinivasan with tears in his eyes told Principal Bilderbeck, “If I had eight annas I would have bought a new shirt and come”.

Touched by the student’s pathetic words and his plight , he himself paid the fine and bought him a new shirt.

Forty years later when Sastri on a visit to London, as a Privy Councillor (a prestigious post under the British Regime), he met his old teacher & Principal Bilderbeck in his country home.

Bilderbeck threw a party for him and to the assembled friends he narrated the story of the shirt at the Kumbakonam college and proudly said ” My boy who was poor then is now a Privy Councillor. My pride knows no bounds”.

Now its  Sastry”s turn to speak. Sastry took a box he was keeping with him and opened it. He took the shirt which was presented by Bildetrbeck and showed it to all the guests to their great amazement.

He was the Headmaster of the Hindu School, Triplicane and he had a singularly impressive and attractive way of speaking English and Sanskrit. He founded “Triplicane Urban Cooperative Society  (TUCS), a pioneer in the Cooperative movement.

Sastri used his language and eloquence to present India’s case for self- Government in the Councils of Europe.  Srinivasa Satri was considered to be one among the top Five orators    ( in English ) of the world .

How the man from Kumbakonam attained this fame?

The secret was the Webster’s Dictionary which was his Gita. Sastry who was proficient in Sanskrit and English left behind a wealth of literature in the form of his speeches and writings. 

As per the suggestion of Mahatma Gandhi when he met Sastri in General Hospital, Madras, the thirty lectures on the Ramayana which he delivered in Madras Samskrit Academy were published by the Academy.

The meeting hall in Luz, Mylapore, Chennai (opposite to IOB,Mylapore Branch) was named after him as “Srinivasa Sastri Hall” .

Many cultural programmes are regularly conducted here at least remembering the great Sastri who did the Engilsh language proud.

 

 

Books that Influenced “Right Honourable” V.S. Srinivasa Sastri  By Pavithran

https://www.dharmadispatch.in/dispatches/books-that-influenced-right-honourable-vs-srinivasa-sastri

List of Books that influenced Sastri:

Ramayana

Iliad 

Edgeworth’s Moral Tales and Popular Tales

Smiles’ books Self-Help and Character

Collection of T H Huxley’s writings and speeches

Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics

Herbert Spencer's Sociology

John Stuart Mill’s Subjection of Women, On Liberty, and Three Essays on Natural Religion

Meditations of Marius Aurelius 

Kingdom of God is within You by Tolstoy

The Story of a Pure Woman by Hardy 

Les Miserables.

  

(The Iliad and the Ramayana can never die, so say our idealists.)

 

NOTE: Full essay of the books that influenced Sastri can be read by clicking the head or the link address given above. The list of the books are given hereunder for your ready reference.

The Links of the two books viz. 1.  The Lectures on the Ramayana and  2. Letters of Sastri are given below so that those who are interested can read them at their leisure.

 

Link for Book no.1:

 

https://ia601603.us.archive.org/21/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.1078/2015.1078.Lectures-On-The-Ramayana-1949.pdf

 

Link for Book No.2 

 

https://ia600701.us.archive.org/8/items/Hind.Letters.Srinivasa.Sastri/Hind.Letters.Srinivasa.Sastri.pdf

 

 

Narrations by Sastri about the books that influenced

 v Tyndall’s Lectures opened my eyes first to the true methods of science. Another book of those early days which a permanent turn to my thought was a Collection of T H Huxley’s writings and speeches containing a marvellous exposition of Man’s Place in Nature. Harder food followed in a few years from the same source. Few people will remember now that the English Men of Letters series includes a volume on Hume from the pen of Huxley.

 

v Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics added a concluding chapter to this aspect of my education. Written in his most mature and attractive style, it seems to supply a corrective to his original teachings but, properly studied, it is only a supplement thereto. From the purely literary point of view, it is a masterpiece which I would commend to my younger readers.

 

To category belong Herbert Spencer's Sociology and John Stuart Mill’s Subjection of Women, On Liberty, and Three Essays on Natural Religion. 

 

v  One immortal product of the human mind I have kept to the end. The Ramayana I hold to be almost without a rival in the world’s literature. Whether we judge by the grandeur of the theme, by the variety of characters portrayed, by the tone of its idealism, of by the appeal that it makes to the devout heart, it ranks, amongst the noblest monuments of poetic genius. To those who cannot read it in the original, I would unhesitatingly recommend resort to translations. Even through media the narrative shines with rich brilliance.

 

The foundations of my moral and spiritual nature were laid by a large number of books, of which I will select three for the depth and pervasiveness of their teaching. The Meditations of Marius Aurelius stirred me deeply by their utter sincerity and high-souled philanthropy. Curious ns it may seem, Tolstoy took me captive by his The Kingdom of God is within You. I remember how the revelation came on me with a rush. Much that I have read since in English and Sanskrit is fully on a level with it, but the way it carried the citadel of my heart is an abiding memory, which I would not lose for the world. Tess of the D'Urbervilles gave a vision, as bright as it was clear, of a problem that had long been vexing me, and for the first time in my experience, set the position of women in correct perspective. Hardy, I have no doubt, meant to startle a convention-ridden and heartless world to a consciousness of the essence of chastity by his sub-title "The Story of a Pure Woman."

 

SELECT SAYINGS OF SASTRI

 

 

Ø  An oblique measure of his prowess can be gauged from this quote from a letter that Mohandas Gandhi wrote to him:

Your criticism soothes me. Your silence makes me feel nervous.

 

 

Ø  I had intellectual pride and a firm belief that perseverance can conquer mountains.

 

 

Ø  A word of qualification is necessary before I begin an account of the sources from which flow the main elements of my build. Guidance to others is foreign to my purpose. I do not venture to suggest that you should drink from the fountains where I slaked my thirst. My amrita may be your poison.

 

E-TOUCH PROUDLY REMEMBERS SASTRI BY PUBLISHING HIS PROUD  MOMENTS AND THOUGHTS.  E-TOUCH OFFERS FLOWERS AS OUR MARK OF REMEMBRANCE AND RESPECTS OF HIM.