ever, that Kanwa will approve of the marriage. At CHAPTER VI. this point in the story a Brahmanical incident is The curse. introduced, which mars the plot. Sakúntalá inadvertently offends an irascible sage, named Durvásas, who is paying a visit to the hermitage. In return he pronounces a curse, that her husband should forget her until he saw the ring again. The fourth act opens in the neighbourhood of The parting. the hermitage. Kanwa has returned from the pilgrimage. He fully approves of the union, and exults in the fact that Sakúntalá is about to become a mother. He proposes to send her under a suitable escort to her royal husband at the capital. She takes an affectionate farewell of the companions and scenes of her girlhood; and then leaves the hermitage in charge of Gautamí and a deputation of hermits. nounced. The fifth act opens in a room in the palace of the Sakúntalá reold capital at Hastinapur. Raja Dushyanta is sitting with the Bráhman jester. One of the queens is heard in the distance, singing some significant strains to the effect that the Raja has lately neglected her for the society of one of his other queens. The Raja sends the Bráhman to tell her that he has taken the reproof as it was intended; but Máthavya rather hesitates to enter the presence of a jealous lady. At this point the deputation of hermits arrives with Sakúntalá. They are ushered into the consecrated fire-chamber, where they are received into the royal presence. The Raja admires the graceful form of Sakúntalá, but cannot remember her. The hermits deliver a message from Kanwa, sanctioning the marriage, and delivering Sakúntalá to his charge. The Raja denies having ever been united to her. Gautamí unveils the face of Sakúntalá, but the Raja CHAPTER VI. fails to recall her features. She is beautiful and tempting, but she is about to become a mother, and must therefore be another man's wife, and he consequently refuses to take her. Sakúntalá tries to produce the ring, but discovers to her horror that she has lost it. She has, in fact, dropped it in the Ganges whilst in the act of worship. She covers her face with a mantle and bursts into tears. She is in a painful position, which can only be understood by a familiarity with Hindú ideas. If she is what the Raja proclaims her to be, she can never be received back in her father's house and home. If, on the contrary, she had been united to the Raja, she could not render herself independent of her lord; even if he condemned her to the lot of a handmaid in his household, she must accept the position. The Raja, however, refuses to accept another man's wife on any terms. At length he consults his family priest, who offers her an asylum in his house until her child is born. But at this juncture there is a miracle. A celestial nymph descends from heaven and carries her away; and it subsequently appears that she is carried away to the holy retreat of the sage Kasyapa, where she receives every attention from his wife Adití. The "lost ring" recovered. Mythical incideuts. The sixth act opens in a street. The ring has been discovered inside a fish. The ring is carried to the Raja, and he at once remembers Sakúntalá. The fisherman is dismissed with rich rewards, whilst the Raja sinks into a state of deep sorrow over the memory of his lost love. The scene changes to the garden of the palace. The nymph again descends. She has been commissioned by the mother of Sakúntalá to see how it fares with Raja Dushyanta. The Raja, in his pro- CHAPTER VI. found melancholy, has prohibited the celebration of the vernal festival. He draws the portrait of Sakúntalá from memory. At last he is honoured by Indra with being appointed to command the host of gods or Devatas in a war against the giants, and he is carried away by the charioteer of Indra. tion. The seventh act opens in the sky. The Raja has The reconciliadefeated the giants, and is proceeding through the air. The charioteer descends into the retreat of Kas yapa. The Raja sees a little boy playing with lions, and his heart yearns towards him. He discovers that the child is his own son. He meets Sakúntalá. All is explained, and the pair live happily for the rest of their days. The boy is named Bharata. He grows up and becomes a conqueror of the world. To this day the whole peninsula of India is known in popular tradition as the land of Bharata. Marriage." There is another drama, which is wanting in the The "Stolen poetry and sentiment which characterize Sakúntalá, but is more interesting from the romantic character of its incidents. It is called "Málatí and Mádhava," or the "Stolen Marriage." The idea of a stolen marriage in Brahmanical times would be regarded with a feeling of horror; and the idea of an elopement, even if it terminated in marriage, would cast a stain of infamy on the whole family. Marriage, according to Brahmanical ideas, is a sacrament. Every father is bound, by religious duty, to provide a husband for his daughter, and a wife for his son. Any failure in this respect is impious, and any attempt to render the parental arrangement nugatory is an act of disobedience and wickedness on the CHAPTER VI. part of the child. But Buddhism regards marriage in a very different light. From the monastic point of view marriage is a mistake. It serves to perpetuate existence, and retain mankind within the vortex of successive transmigrations. But Dharma looks more kindly upon married life, and the domestic relations generally. It enjoins the duties of the affections between husband and wife, parents and children, and leaves the young people in a great measure to form their own attachments. The conflict between these two conceptions of marriage was no doubt carried on during the age when the breach between Brahmanism and Buddhism was widening into antagonism, but in modern times nearly every trace has died out, excepting in Brahmanical forms of Kshatriya traditions of the Swayamvara. It forms, however, a remarkable feature of this curious drama "of Málatí and Mádhava,” which so far furnishes a picture of old Hindú life under Buddhist forms. In a word, this drama is a full expression of a revolt against the Brahmanical conception of marriage, and strangely enough it is carried to a successful issue through the persevering efforts of an old Buddhist nun. School of the The hero and heroine of the play are only a pair of youthful lovers of the ordinary type. The leading character and moving spirit is the old Buddhist nun. She is evidently the representative of a class which existed in ancient times, and has since become extinct in India. She lives in the neighbourhood of a city named Padmaváti,13 where for many years she had kept a school after the Bud 13 It is impossible to identify the city, and the identification, if possible, would lead to no result. dhist fashion. She herself is head mistress, and two CHAPTER VI. other nuns are her disciples and under-teachers. The school, however, is not for girls, but for boys; and parents in remote cities send their sons thither to learn logic and other kindred sciences. drama. In former years two boys went to this school. Story of the They became such close friends that they vowed if one had a son and the other a daughter, the two families should be united by a marriage. When they had grown to manhood, one became the minister of the Raja, and the father of the heroine Málatí; the other became a minister in a foreign state, and the father of the hero Mádhava. The Buddhist nun is the confidential nurse to Málatí; and at the same time receives Mádhava into her school. Her task is simple enough. She is to kindle a mutual passion between the heroine and the hero, and thus bring about a marriage without any appearance of design. The heroine Málatí lives secluded in her father's house; but Madhava is sent on various pretences to walk before her window; and she accordingly looks through her casement, and falls in love with him. Again Málatí is sent out with her maidens to gather flowers in the temple gardens of Káma; and Mádhava is sent to the same gardens, and there sees Málatí, and falls in love with her. But a Hindú maiden must restrain her feelings; and thus the growing passion between the two is indicated rather than described. 14 difficulty. Scarcely are the pair conscious of their mutual A marriage love when their hopes are blighted. A certain old 14 Káma is the deity of love; the Indian Eros. His bow is stringed with bees. See infra, chap. ix. |