face of nature, like those stupendous mountains, majestic rivers, and boundless expanse of the country around them, the ancient Hindu standards of strength and splendour are bewildering to some critics, who are "accustomed to a more limited horizon." Their (Hindu) creations are, therefore, not only unrivalled but unapproachable in beauty, richness and grandeur. To the European everything is grand, sublime and magnificent in India, whether you look at the outward expression of nature, or at the physical and mental resources of the country. Look at the creation of God or the creation of man, you are absolutely struck with amazement and awe! The snowy peaks of her sublime Himâvat seem to raise their heads higher than the highest heaven, while before their Indra and Brahma the European Apollo and Jupiter sink into insignificance. "If we compare," says Professor Heeren, "the mythology of the Hindus with that of the Greeks, it will have nothing to apprehend on the score of intrinsic copiousness. In point of æsthetic value, it is sometimes superior, at others, inferior to the Greek: while in luxuriance and splendour it has the decided advantage. Olympus, with all its family of gods and goddesses, must yield in pomp and majesty to the palaces of Vishnu and Indra."1 "The Hindu mythology," he says, "like the sublime compositions of Milton and Klopstock, extends its poetic flight far into the regions of unlimited space." He adds: "The Hindu Epos has a greater resemblance to the religious poetry of the Germans and the English than Greeks, with this difference, that the poet of India has a 1 Heeren's Historical Researches. Vol. II, p. 285. wider range afforded to his imagination than the latter.' Some critics hold that the Ramayana is the original of the Iliad,' that the latter is only an adaptation of the former to the local circumstances of Greece, that Homer's description of the Trojan war is merely a mythological account of the invasion of Lanka by Ram Chandra. The main plot, of course, is the same. Troy stands for Lanka (Tabrobane), Sparta for Ajodhia, Menelaus for Rama, Paris for Ravana, Hector for Indrajit and Vibhishan; Helen for Sita, Agamemnon for Sugriva, Patroclus for Lakshmana, Nestor for Jamvant. Achilles is a mixture of Arjuna, Bhima and Lakshmana. Indeed, it is very improbable, if not impossible, that the Greeks should produce all at once poems which stand amongst the greatest feats of human genius, and occupy a оссиру place in literature inferior only to the Indian epics (in some respects). Anterior to Homer, Greek literature has no existence, even no name, and it is difficult to believe that, without any previous cultivation whatever, some of the highest and the noblest work in the whole range of literature should come into existence. The English literature did not begin with Milton, or the Roman with Virgil; nor does the Sanskrit with Valmiki or Vyasa, as the Greek does with Homer. Apart from external circumstances, the subject-matter lends support to the theory in a remarkable manner. The plot, the characters and the incidents resemble those of the Hindu epic poetry so strongly that it is difficult to explain this phenomenon, except by assuming that the one has drawn extensively, if not wholly, from the other. 1 Even the action of the Hindu Epic is placed in an age far anterior to historical computation." Heeren's Historical Researches. And if we consider the external circumstances, the state of civilization of the two nations, their literature, wealth and constitution, the learning and character of their creators, little doubt remains as to who were the real creators and who the adapters. M. Hippolyte Fauche, in the Preface to his French translation of the Ramayana, says that "Ramayana was composed before the Homeric poems, and that Homer took his ideas from it." Apart from the fact that the main story has been adopted, and that the underlying plot of the one (Ramayana) and the principal characters of the other (Mahabharata) have been taken and fused together into a national epic by the Greeks, it is clear that episodes and separate incidents from the Indian epics have been taken and versified in the Greek tongue. Colonel Wilford asserts that "the subject of the Dionysus of Nonnus was borrowed from the Mahabharata."1 About Ravana's invasion of the kingdom of Indra, Count Bjornstjerna says: "This myth is probably the foundation of the ancient Greek tradition of the attempt of the Titans to storm Heaven."2 Professor Max Dunker says: "When Dion Chrysostom remarks that the Homeric poems are sung by the Indians in their own language-the sorrows of Priam, the lamentations of Hecuba and Andromache, the bravery of Achilles and Hector-Lassen is undoubtedly right in referring this statement to the Mahabharata and putting Dhritrashtra in the place of Priam, Gandhari and Draupadi in the places of Andromache and Hecuba, Arjuna and Karna in the places of Achilles and Hector."3 1 Asiatic Researches, Vol. IX, p. 93. Theogony of the Hindus, p. 81. 3 History of Antiquity, Vol. IV, p. 81. DRAMA. To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, -POPE: Pro, to Addison's Cato. THE dramatic writings of the Hindus are equally remarkable. External nature, as might be expected in a country which is "the epitome of the world," is the special forte of the Hindu poets, and, in no country, ancient or modern, has Nature (in contradistinction to man) been treated so poetically or so extensively introduced in poetry. But, though outward nature must attract, by its magnificence and its beauties, the attention of a people gifted with such marvellous powers of observation and sense for beauty, yet, the Hindus being a people given more than any other nation to analyzing thoughts and feelings and investigating mental phenomena, have made explorations in the realms of mind that exact the homage of mankind and defy emulation. To this reason, therefore, is due that the internal nature man, the human mind with all its thoughts, feelings, volitions, all its desires and affections, its tendencies and susceptibilities, its virtues and failings and their developments are all drawn with a pencil at once poetic and natural. Creation in perfect harmony with nature is a feature of the Hindu drama. The characters are all creations, perfect in themselves and in their fidelity to nature. Extravagance, contradiction and unsuitability Muriay's History of India, p. 1, of in the development-either of the plot or the charactersis never permitted. The dramas hold the mirror to Nature and, in this respect, the Shakespearean dramas alone can be compared to them: while, as regards the language, Sanskrit must of course always stand alone in beauty and sublimity. With regard to the extent to which the dramatic literature has been cultivated in India, Sir W. Jones says that the Hindu theatre would fill as many volumes as that of any nation of modern Europe. The Mohamedan conquest of India resulted in the effectual repression of Hindu dramatic writings. Instead of receiving further development, the Hindu drama rapidly declined, and a considerable part of this fascinating literature was for ever lost. Professor Wilson says: "It may also be observed that the dramatic pieces which have come down to us are those of the highest order, defended by their intrinsic purity from the corrosion of time." Rupaka is the Hindu term for "Play," and " Dasa Rupaka," or description of the ten kinds of theatrical compositions, is one of the best treatises on dramatic literature and shows the extent to which dramatic literature was cultivated by the Hindus. A writer says: "We might also conveniently transfer to them (Hindu dramas) the definitions of the European stage, and class them under the head of Tragedy, Comedy, Opera, Ballet, Burletta, Melodrama and Farce." Professor Heeren says: "There are specimens of Hindu comedy still extant no way inferior to the ancient Greek." 1 Historical Researches, Vol. II, p. 191. |