Venkata Ranga Rao

“ It has been my good fortune to be associated with most capable, public-spirited, and high-minded princes and noblemen such as their Highnesses the Maharaja of Travancore, and the Raja of Cochin, and the Maharaja of Bobbili, but I have numbered among my friends in India others born to high station, and possessed of very great merits, who have nevertheless had short or unsuccessful lives, owing to their neglect of some of the lessons the Maharaja essays to teach. ”

“ It is not a little extraordinary to me that the Indian Government should offer indiscriminate rewards for the extermination of one of the most beautiful, and not the least useful, of living creatures. Hardly however is the man taken seriously who deprecates the destruction of anything so distinctively Indian as the tiger, and I lifted up my voice in vain upon the great cat's behalf in the Viceroy's Legislative Council. ”

“ As to sport, I would only put in a plea for that much maligned friend of the agriculturist the tiger, who keeps down the head of crop- destroying deer, antelope and pig, and takes a comparatively moderate toll of cattle. The man-eater is a disgrace to his class and of rare occurrence. ”

“ I do not know any Indian nobleman better fitted to advise the youth of his own class, and it is with this object that he has taken his pen in hand "to prepare papers on various subjects of great importance to the landed aristocracy of India." ”

“ The Maharaja is a Hindu of the Hindus, and is no believer in the advantage of educating youths to doubt and despise the system under which they have to live their own Jives, and in which all those around them live and move and have their being. Upon the marriage question he is content with what Nature prescribes for India, and does not yearn to substitute for it systems Providence provided for wholly different circumstances. ”

“ They might be reminded with advantage, as the Maharaja takes occasion to remind the Hindus, that according to the sacred writings enjoyment of life also is a duty. Who will dare to improve upon what a Hindu Maharaja of high character and standing has to say upon the sacred theme of charity? ”

“ The Maharaja's treatment of the case must be perused to be appreciated, and like the poet and the prophet he finds untruth in words sometimes permissible. As he says, it is a most difficult question, and while no one is called upon to express concurrence with, or disapproval of, the views of individual authorities, cases in which untruth is held not only to be permissible, but obligatory, are not unknown in England, as the annals of certain of her Courts of Justice can testify. ”

“ As he truly says, a foreigner and a person of a different religion cannot advise with such good effect. Indeed, such an one would not venture to come before an Indian audience saying that the Puranas were intended for the uneducated and common classes of people, and are equal to the words of a woman. Nor indeed would every author have the courage to add, "If one entirely depends on what a woman says one knows the result well enough." ”

“ Our author points out, however, that untruths told between husband and wife in the furtherance of pleasant and charming conversation deceive no one, and says he is afraid that strict truth does not prevail in general mercantile business. Even a visit to England has not dispelled this fear. Then how wise are his observations upon the waste of time, and the vice of unpunctuality, which causes in the aggregate more unhappiness than crime, and upon the greater merit of monogamy, "in view of the demands modern civilization makes upon our energies and thoughts." ”

“ The Maharaja having devoted a chapter to courage now shows his own, by entering the nursery, wherein he wisely deprecates intellectual forcing, urges that Hindu teachers are best for Hindu girls, and that European tutors for boys, themselves need supervision. ”

“ Few Parliamentary candidates in these days dare say as much! The Maharaja deals with religious questions in a down-right practical manner, the applications of which throughout the world's history would have changed the history of the world. ”

“ Concerning Estate management the Maharaja writes with the authority of an expert, but in this country one may be allowed to doubt if "Western people reap more enjoyment from their wealth than Hindus." ”

“ Nothing can exceed the wisdom and moderation of the lecture upon money, or the charitable and responsible spirit in which it is written. He greatly praises recent legislation in Madras and indeed all who know the Presidency must rejoice that the ancient Zamindaries have received a measure of protection, such as Lord Ampthill's Government has granted. ”

“ He makes short work of the monkey folk, and the magnanimous apes, of whose proceedings I have read with wrapt attention in the Ramayana, whose route march I have followed in the field. "It is necessary that not only Hindus, but also men of other creeds should impartially throw aside any statements, or accounts made in their religious books that do not stand to reason." ”

“ Nor, when he comes back to us, will his dictum "that it is a very objectionable thing for females to smoke" be without interest and point. Writing upon moral courage the Maharaja lays it down that "politicians are considered to have the greatest courage of mind." ”