ter of the world. This extraordinary mode of combination still exists in the greatest part of the east, from the Indus to Pegu, in dialects now apparently unconnected, and in characters completely dissimilar; but is a forcible argument that they are all derived from the same source. Another channel of speculation presents itself in the names of persons and places, of titles and dignities, which are open to general notice, and in which, to the farthest limits of Asia, may be found manifest traces of the Sanscrit."*

Dramatic poetry must have been immemorially ancient in the Indian empire: the invention of it is commonly ascribed to Bheret, a sage, believed to have been inspired, who invented also a system of music, which bears his name; but this opinion of its origin is rendered very doubtful by the universal belief, that the first Sanscrit verse, ever heard by mortals, was pronounced in a burst of resentment by the great Valmic;

* Halhed's Gram. of the Bengal Lang. Pref. p. iii. iv.

who flourished in the silver age of the world, and was author of the epic poem on the war of his contemporary, Rama, king of Ayodhyà."

A modern epigram was lately repeated to me, which does so much honour to the author of Sacontalá, that I cannot forbear exhibiting a literal version of it: Poetry was the sportful daughter of Valmic, and, having been educated by Vyasa, she chose Calidas for her bridegroom, after the manner of Viderbha: she was the mother of Amara, Sundar, Sanc'ha, Dhanic; but now, old and decrepit, her beauty faded, and her unadorned feet slipping as she walks, in whose cottage does she disdain to take shelter?”

"All the other works of this illustrious poet, the Shakspeare of India, that have yet come to my knowledge, are a second play, in five acts, entitled Urvasi ;* an

* Urvasi Vicrama, or the Heroism of Urvasi, is to be found in the Royal Library at Paris, No. 85.-In the Catalogue of Sanscrit Manuscripts, above referred to, it is said: “Ourvâsi Vikrama (l'Heroisme d'Ourvâsi,) pöeme Samskrit, par Kâlidâsa, en Samskrit et en Pra

heroic poem, or rather a series of poems in one book, on the Children of the Sun; another, with perfect unity of action, on the Birth of Cumara, god of war; two or three love tales in verse; and an excellent little work on Sanscrit Metre, precisely in the manner of Terentianus ;* but he is believed by some to have revised the works of Valmic and Vyasa, and to have corrected the perfect editions of them which are now current: this at least is admitted by all, that he stands next in reputation to those venerable bards; and we must regret, that he has left only two dramatic poems, especially as the stories in his Raghuvansa would have supplied him with a number of excellent subjects. Some of his contemporaries, and other Hindu poets, even to our own times, have composed so many tragedies, comedies, farces, and musical pieces,

krit. C'est une suite de pöeme sur les enfans du soleil, en forme de dialogues, ce qui fait une espèce de drame en cinq actes."

*Terentianus Maurus was the author of a poem, "De literis, syllabis, pedibus, et metris."

that the Indian theatre would fill as many volumes as that of any nation in ancient or modern Europe: all the Pandits assert that their plays are innumerable; and, on my first inquiries concerning them, I had notice of more than thirty, which they consider as the flower of their Natacs; among which, the Malignant Child, the Rape of Usha, the Taming of Durvasas, the Seizure of the Lock, Malati and Madhava, with five or six dramas on the adventures of their incarnate gods, are the most admired after those of Calidas. They are in verse, where the dialogue is elevated; and in prose, where it is familiar; the men of rank and learning are represented speaking pure Sanscrit, and the women Pracrit, which is little more than the language of the Brahmins melted down by a delicate articulation to the softness of Italian; while the low persons of the drama speak the vulgar dialects of the several provinces which they are supposed to inhabit.

The play of Sacontalá must have been

very popular when it was first represented;

for the Indian empire was then in full vigour, and the national vanity must have been highly flattered by the magnificent introduction of those kings and heroes in whom the Hindus gloried; the scenery must have been splendid and beautiful; and there is good reason to believe, that the court at Avanti* was equal in brilliancy during the reign of Vicramaditya, to that of any monarch in any age or country. Dushmanta, the hero of the piece, appears in the chronological tables of the Brahmins among the children of the moon, and in the twenty-first generation after the flood; so that, if we can at all rely on the chronology of the Hindūs, he was nearly contemporary with Obed, or Jesse; and Puru, his most celebrated ancestor, was the fifth in descent from Buddha, or Mercury, who married, they say, a daughter of the pious king, whom Vishnu preserved in an ark from the universal deluge: his eldest son Bheret was the illustrious progenitor of

* Now named Oujein, see p. 3 of this volume.