the Mahá bharata. offered to her, and seem quite unaware that a later age would deem her position one which required explanation.1 The struggle for the kingdom of Hastinapura forms, howThe rest of ever, only a fourth of the Mahábhárata. The remainder consists of later additions. Some of these are legends of the early Aryan settlements in the Middle Land of Bengal, tacked on to the central story; others are mythological episodes, theological discourses, and philosophic disquisitions, intended to teach the military caste its duties, especially its duty of reverence to the Brahmans. Taken as a whole, the Mahábhárata may be said to form the cyclopædia of the Heroic Age in Northern India, with the struggle of the Pándavas and Kauravas as its original nucleus; and the submission of the military power to priestly domination as its later didactic design. The Rámáyana. The second great Indian epic, the Rámáyana, recounts the advance of the Aryans into Southern India. Unlike the Mahábhárata, its composition is assigned not to a compiler (vyása) in the abstract, but to a named poet, Válmíki. On the other hand, the personages and episodes of the Rámáyana have an abstract or mythological character, which contrasts with the matter-of-fact stories of the Mahábhárata. The heroine of the Rámáyana, Sítá, is literally the field-furrow,' to whom the Vedic hymns and early Aryan ritual paid divine honour. She represents Aryan husbandry, and has to be defended gorical Character, against the raids of the aborigines by the hero Ráma, an incarnation of the Aryan deity Vishnu, and born of his divine nectar. Ráma is regarded by Weber as the analogue of Balarama, the Ploughbearer' (halabhrit). From this abstract point of view, the Rámáyana exhibits the progress of Aryan ploughhusbandry among the mountains and forests of Central and Southern India; and the perils of the agricultural settlers from the non-ploughing nomadic cultivators and hunting tribes. Its alle Its central idea · The abduction of Sitá by an aboriginal or demon prince, who carried her off to Ceylon; her eventual recovery by Ráma; and the advance of the Aryans into Southern India, form the central story of the Rámáyana. It differs therefore from the central legend of the Mahábhárata, as commemorating a period when the main arena of Aryan enterprise had extended itself far 1 The beautiful story of Sávitrí, the wife faithful to the end, is told in the Mahabharata by the sage Márkandeya in answer to Yudishthira's question, whether any woman so true and noble as Draupadi had ever beea known. Sávitrí, on the loss of her husband, dogged the steps of Yama, King of Death, until she wrung from him, one by one, many blessings for her family, and finally the reluctant restoration of her husband to life. STORY OF THE RAMAYANA. Mahá 123 beyond their ancient settlements around Delhi; and as a pro- later than duct of the Brahman tendency to substitute abstract personifica- bhárata tions for human actors and mundane events. The nucleus of Legend. the Mahábhárata is a legend of ancient life; the nucleus of the Rámáyana is an allegory. Its most modern form, the Adhyatma Rámáyana, still further spiritualizes the story, and elevates Ráma into a saviour and deliverer, a god rather than a hero.1 yana. Its reputed author, Válmíki, is a conspicuous figure in Válmíki. the epic, as well as its composer. He takes part in the action of the poem, receives the hero Ráma in his hermitage, and afterwards gives shelter to the unjustly banished Sítá and her twin sons, nourishing the aspirations of the youths by tales of their father's prowess. These stories make up the main part of the Rámáyana, and refer to a period which has been loosely assigned to about 1000 B.C. But the poem could not have been put together in its present shape many centuries, if any, before our era. Parts of it may be earlier than the Mahábhárata, but the compilation as a whole apparently belongs to a later date. The Rámáyana consists of seven books (Kándas) and 24,000 slokas, or about 48,000 lines. As the Mahábhárata celebrates the lunar race of Delhi, so Outline of the Rámáthe Rámáyana forms the epic chronicle of the solar race of Ajodhya or Oudh. The two poems thus preserve the legends of two renowned Aryan kingdoms at the two opposite, or eastern and western, borders of the Middle Land (Madhyadesha). The opening books of the Rámáyana recount the The local legend. wondrous birth and boyhood of Ráma, eldest son of Dasaratha, King of Ajodhya; his marriage with Sítá, as victor at her swayam-vara, or tournament, by bending the mighty bow of Siva in the public contest of chiefs for the princess; and his appointment as heir-apparent to his father's kingdom. A zanána intrigue ends in the youngest wife of Dasaratha obtaining this appointment for her own son, Bharata, and in the exile of Ráma, with his bride Sítá, for fourteen years to the forest. The banished pair wander south to Prayág (Allahábád), already a place of sanctity; and thence across the river to the hermitage of Válmíki, among the Bánda jungles, where a hill is still pointed out as the scene of their abode. Meanwhile Ráma's father dies, and the loyal youngest brother, Bharata, although the lawful successor, refuses to enter on the inherit 1 The allegorical character of the Rámáyana has allowed scope for various speculations as to its origin. Such speculations have been well dealt with by Mr. Káshináth Trimbak Telang in his Essay, Was the Rámáyana copied from Homer? (Bombay, 1873.) The of Sítá. ance, but goes in quest of Ráma to bring him back as rightful heir. A contest of fraternal affection takes place. Bharata at length returns to rule the family kingdom in the name of Ráma, until the latter shall come to claim it at the end of the fourteen years of banishment appointed by their late father. So far, the Rámáyana merely narrates the local chronicles of abduction the court of Ajodhya. In the third book the main story begins. Rávana, the demon or aboriginal king of the far south, smitten by the fame of Sítá's beauty, seizes her at the hermitage while her husband is away in the jungle, and flies off with her in a magical chariot through the air to Lanka or Ceylon. The next three books (4th, 5th, and 6th) recount the expedition of the bereaved Ráma for her recovery. He makes alliances with the aboriginal tribes of Southern India, under the names of monkeys and bears, and raises a great army. The Monkey general, Hanumán, jumps across the straits between India and Ceylon, discovers the princess in captivity, and leaps back with the news to Ráma. The Monkey troops then build a causeway across the narrow sea,—the Adam's Bridge of modern geography, by which Ráma marches across and, after slaying the monster Rávana, delivers Sítá. The rescued wife proves her unbroken chastity, during her stay in the palace of Ravana, by the ancient ordeal of fire. Agni, the god of that element, himself conducted her out of the burning pile to her husband; and, the fourteen years of banishment being over, Ráma and Sítá return in triumph to Ajodhya. There they reigned gloriously; and Ráma celebrated the great horse sacrifice (aswa-medha) as a token of his imperial sway over India. But a famine having smitten the land, doubts arose in Ráma's heart as to his wife's purity while in her captor's power at Ceylon. He banishes the faithful Sítá, who wanders forth again to Válmíki's hermitage, where she gives birth to Rama's two sons. After sixteen years of exile, she is reconciled to her repentant husband, and Ráma and Sítá and their children are at last reunited.1 Her rescue. Later San The Mahabharata and the Rámáyana, however overladen with skrit epics. fable, form the chronicles of the kings of the Middle Land of the Ganges, their family feuds, and their national enterprises. In the later Sanskrit epics, the legendary element is more and more overpowered by the mythological. Among them the Raghu - vansa and the Kumára - sambhava, both assigned to Kálidása, take the first rank. The Raghu-vansa Raghu vansa. 1 Respectful mention should here be made of Growse's translation of the Hindi version of the Rámáyana by Tulsí Dás. (4to. Allahábád, 1883.) LATER EPICS: THE SANSKRIT DRAMA. 125 sambhava. celebrates the solar line of Raghu, King of Ajodhya; more particularly the ancestry and the life of his descendant Ráma. The Kumára-sambhava recounts the birth of the War-god.1 KumáraIt is still more didactic and allegorical, abounding in sentiment and in feats of prosody. But it contains passages of exquisite beauty of style and elevation of thought. From the astrological data which these two poems furnish, Jacobi infers that they cannot have been composed before 350 A.D. The name of Kálidása has come down, not only as the Kálidása. composer of these two later epics, but as the father of the Sanskrit drama. According to Hindu tradition, he was one of the Nine Gems' or distinguished men at the court of Vikramaditya. This prince is popularly identified with the King of Ujjain who gave his name to the Samvat era, commencing in the year 57 B.C. But, as Holtzmann points out, it may be almost as dangerous to infer from this latter circumstance that Vikramaditya lived in 57 B.C., as to King Vikplace Julius Cæsar in the first year of the so-called Julian ramaditya. Calendar, namely, 4713 B.C. Several Vikramádityas figure in Indian history. Indeed, the name is merely a title, 'A very Sun in Prowess,' which has been borne by victorious monarchs of many of the Indian dynasties. The date of Vikramaditya has been variously assigned from 57 B.C. to 1050 A.D.; and the works of the poets and philosophers who formed the 550 A.D.? 'Nine Gems' of his court, appear from internal evidence to have been composed at intervals during that long period. The Vikramaditya, under whom Kálidása and the 'Nine Gems' are said to have flourished, ruled over Málwá probably from 500 to 550 A.D. Sanskrit In India, as in Greece and Rome, scenic representations Age of the seem to have taken their rise in the rude pantomime of a very drama. early time, possibly as far back as the Vedic ritual; and the Sanskrit word for the drama, nátaka, is derived from nata, a dancer. But the Sanskrit dramas of the classical age which have come down to us, probably belong to the period between the 1st century B.C. and the 8th century A.D. They make mention of Greek slaves, are acquainted with Buddhism in its full development, and disclose a wide divergence between Sanskrit and the dialects used by the lower classes. The Mahá 1 Translated into spirited English verse by Mr. Ralph T. H. Griffith, M.A., who is also the author of a charming collection of 'Idylls from the Sanskrit,' based on the Mahábhárata, Rámáyana, Raghu-vansa, and Kálidása's Seasons. Sakuntalá. Other dramas ; bharata and Rámáyana appear in the Sanskrit drama as part of the popular literature,-in fact, as occupying very much the same position which they still hold. No dramas are known to exist among the works which the Hindus who emigrated to Java, about 500 A.D., carried with them to their new homes. Nor have any dramas been yet found among the Tibetan translations of the Sanskrit classics. The most famous drama of Kálidása is Sakuntalá, or the 'Lost Ring.' Like the ancient epics, it divides its action between the court of the king and the hermitage in the forest. Prince Dushyanta, an ancestor of the noble Lunar race, weds by an irregular marriage a beautiful maiden, Sakuntala, at her father's hermitage in the jungle. Before returning to his capital, he gives his bride a ring as a pledge of his love; but smitten by a curse from a holy man, she loses the ring, and cannot be recognised by her husband till it is found. Sakuntalá bears a son in her loneliness, and sets out to claim recognition for herself and child at her husband's court. But she is as one unknown to the prince, till, after many sorrows and trials, the ring comes to light. She is then happily reunited with her husband, and her son grows up to be the noble Bharata, the chief founder of the Lunar dynasty whose achievements form the theme of the Mahábhárata. Sakuntalá, like Sitá, is the type of the chaste and faithful Hindu wife; and her love and sorrow, after forming the favourite romance of the Indian people for perhaps eighteen hundred years, have furnished a theme for the great European poet of 'Wouldst thou,' says Goethe, our age. 'Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms, and the fruits of its decline, Sakuntala has had the good fortune to be translated by Sir William Jones (1789), and to be sung by Goethe. But other of the Hindu dramas and domestic poems are of almost equal interest and beauty. As examples of the classical period, may be taken the Mrichchakatí, or 'Toy Cart,' a drama in ten Sanskrit, acts, on the old theme of the innocent cleared and the guilty punished; and the poem of Nala and Damayanti, or the 'Royal Gambler and the Faithful Wife.' Such plays and poems frequently take an episode of the Mahábhárata or Rámáyana for their subject; and in this way the main incidents in the two great epics have been gradually dramatized or reduced to the still more popular form of household song. The modern |