Death carries off the weak and strong alike,
The brave and timorous, the wise and foolish,
And those whose objects are not yet achieved.
Therefore delay not; Death may come to-day.
Death will not wait to know if thou art ready,
Or if thy work be done. Be active now,
While thou art young, and time is still thy own.
This very day perform to-morrow's work,
This very morning do thy evening's task.
When duty is discharged, then if thou live,
Honour and happiness will be thy lot,
And if thou die, supreme beatitude1.

Maha-bh. XII. 6534.

The building of a house is fraught with troubles,

And ne'er brings comfort; therefore, cunning serpents
Seek for a habitation made by others,

And creeping in, abide there at their ease.

Maha-bh. XII. 6619.

Just as the track of birds that cleave the air
Is not discerned, nor yet the path of fish
That skim the water, so the course of those
Who do good actions, is not always seen.

Maha-bh. XII. 6763, 12156.

Let none reject the meanest suppliant
Or send him empty-handed from his door.
A gift bestowed on outcasts or on dogs
Is never thrown away or unrequited.

Maha-bh. XIII. 3212.

Time passes, and the man who older grows
Finds hair and teeth and eyes grow ever older.
One thing alone within him ne'er grows old-
The thirst for riches and the love of gold.

Maha-bh. XIII. 3676, 368.

This is the sum of all true righteousness—
Treat others, as thou would'st thyself be treated.
Do nothing to thy neighbour, which hereafter
Thou would'st not have thy neighbour do to thee.

In causing pleasure, or in giving pain,

In doing good, or injury to others,

1 The order of the text has been slightly changed in this translation,

and a few liberties taken in the wording of it.

1

In granting, or refusing a request,

A man obtains a proper rule of action
By looking on his neighbour as himself1.

No being perishes before his time,

Mahā-bh. XIII. 5571.

Though by a hundred arrows pierced; but when
His destined moment comes, though barely pricked
By a sharp point of grass, he surely dies 2.

Mahā-bh. XIII. 7607.

Before infirmities creep o'er thy flesh;

Before decay impairs thy strength and mars
The beauty of thy limbs; before the Ender,
Whose charioteer is sickness, hastes towards thee,
Breaks up thy fragile frame and ends thy life 3,
Lay up the only treasure: do good deeds;
Practise sobriety and self-control;

Amass that wealth which thieves cannot abstract,
Nor tyrants seize, which follows thee at death,
Which never wastes away, nor is corrupted *.

Mahā-bh. XIII. 12084.

Heaven's gate is very narrow and minute3,
It cannot be perceived by foolish men,
Blinded by vain illusions of the world.
E'en the clear-sighted who discern the way,
And seek to enter, find the portal barred
And hard to be unlocked. Its massive bolts
Are pride and passion, avarice and lust.

Mahā-bh. XIV. 2784.

Just heaven is not so pleased with costly gifts,
Offered in hope of future recompense,

As with the merest trifle set apart

From honest gains, and sanctified by faith o.

Maha-bh. XIV. 2788.

Compare St. Matthew xxii. 39, St. Luke vi. 31.

2 This occurs also in Hitopadeśa II. 15.

4

3 Compare Eccles. xii. 1. Compare St. Matthew vi. 19, Job xxi. 23.

Compare St. Matthew vii. 14.

• Compare St. Matthew vi. 1-4, St. Mark xii. 43, 44.

LECTURE XV.

The Artificial Poems. Dramas. Purāņas. Tantras. Niti-śāstras.

I

CAN only notice very briefly the remaining classes of Indian writings which follow on the Rāmāyaṇa and Maha-bhārata. In their religious bearing, as constituting part of Smriti, and as chiefly drawn from the two great Epics, the eighteen Purāņas possess the next claim on our attention. It will be convenient, however, to introduce here an enumeration of some of the more celebrated artificial poems and dramas, which are connected with the Epics, adding a few explanations and examples, but reserving the fuller consideration of these and other departments of Sanskrit literature to a future opportunity.

The Artificial Poems.

Some of the best known of the artificial poems are:

1. The Raghu-vansa or 'history of Raghu's race,' in nineteen chapters, by Kalidasa, on the same subject as the Rāmāyaṇa, viz. the history of Rāma-candra, but beginning with a longer account of his ancestors; 2. the Kumāra-sambhava, by Kālidāsa, on the 'birth of Kumāra' or Kārttikeya, god of war, son of Siva and Pārvatī,—originally in sixteen cantos, of which only seven are usually edited, though nine more have been printed in the Pandit at Benares; 3. the Megha-dūta, 'cloud-messenger,' also by Kālidāsa a poem of 116 verses, in the Mandākrāntā metre (well edited by Professor Johnson), describing a message sent by a banished Yaksha to his wife in the Himalayas; a cloud being personified and converted into the messenger; 4. the Kirātārjuniya, 'battle of the Kirāta and Arjuna,' by Bharavi, in eighteen cantos, on a subject taken from the fourth chapter of Mahā-bhārata III, viz. the penance performed by Arjuna, one of the Pandava princes, and his combat with Siva disguised as a Kirāta or wild mountaineer (see p. 393); 5. the Sisupāla-badha or 'destruction of Sisu-pāla,'

G g

a poem in twenty cantos, by Magha, on a subject taken from the seventh chapter of the Sabha-parvan of the Maha-bharata, viz. the slaying of the impious Sisu-pala by Krishna at a Rājasūya sacrifice performed by Yudhishṭhira (see p. 392); 6. the Naishadha or Naishadhiya, by Sri-harsha', on a subject drawn from an episode in the sixth chapter of the Vanaparvan of the Maha-bhārata, viz. the history and adventures of Nala, king of Nishadha.

The above six are sometimes called Maha-kavyas, 'great poems,' not with reference to their length (for they are generally short), but with reference to the subjects of which they treat. To these may be added:

7. The Ritu-samhāra or 'collection of the seasons,' a short but celebrated poem by Kālidāsa, on the six seasons of the year (viz. Grīshma, the hot season; Varshā, the rains; Śarad, autumn; Hemanta, the cold season; Śisira, the dewy season; Vasanta, the spring); 8. the Nalodaya or 'rise of Nala,' an artificial poem, also ascribed to one Kālidāsa, but probably not the composition of the celebrated poet of that name, on much the same subject as the Naishadha, and describing especially the restoration of the fallen Nala to prosperity and power; 9. the Bhattikāvya, 'poem of Bhatti,' according to some the work of Bhartri-hari or his son, on the same subject as the Rāmāyaṇa, written at Valabhi (Ballabhi) in the reign of Sridhara-sena (probably the king who reigned in Gujarāt from about A.D. 530-544); its aim being to illustrate the rules of Sanskrit grammar, as well as the figures of poetry and rhetoric, by introducing examples of all possible forms and constructions, as well as of the Alan-karas (see p. 454); it is divided into two great divisions, viz. Sabda-lakshana, 'illustration of grammar,' and Kavya-lakshana, 'illustration of poetry,' together comprising twenty-two chapters; 10. the Raghavapandaviya, an artificial poem by Kavi-raja, giving a narrative of the acts of both the descendants of Raghu and Pāṇḍu, in such language that it may be interpreted as a history of either one or the other family; 11. the Amaru-śataka or Amaru-śataka, 'hundred verses of Amaru,' on erotic subjects, to which a mystical interpretation is given, especially as they

1 He is supposed to have lived about the year 1000 (cf. note, p. 486). This Sri-harsha was the greatest of all sceptical philosophers, and wrote a book called Khandana-khanda-khadya for the refutation of all other systems. It is alluded to in Naishadha VI. 113 (Premaćandra's commentary). The commentator Nārāyaṇa does not seem to have understood this. There are some philosophical chapters in the Naishadha.

are supposed to have been composed by the great philosopher Sankaracārya, when, according to a popular legend, he animated the dead body of king Amaru, his object being to become the husband of his widow, that he might argue on amatory subjects with the wife of a Brahman, named Mandana; 12. the Gita-govinda or 'Krishna in his character of Govinda (the Cow-finder or Herdsman) celebrated in song,' by Jaya-deva, a lyrical or erotic poem, thought to have been composed about the twelfth or thirteenth century of our era; it was written nominally to celebrate the loves of Krishna and the Gopis, especially of Krishna and Rādhā; but as the latter is supposed to typify the human soul, the whole poem is regarded as susceptible of a mystical interpretation.

Some of these poems, especially the Raghu-vansa, Kumāra-sambhava, Megha-dūta, and Ṛitu-samhāra of Kālidāsa (who, according to native authorities, lived a little before the commencement of the Christian era, but is now placed in the third century1), abound in truly poetical ideas, and display great fertility of imagination and power of description; but it cannot be denied that even in these works of the greatest of Indian poets there are occasional fanciful conceits, combined with a too studied and artificial elaboration of diction, and a constant tendency to what a European would consider an almost puerile love for alliteration and playing upon words (wort-spiel); Some of the other poems, such as the Kirātārjunīya, Šiśupālabadha, Nalodaya, Naishadha, and Bhaṭṭi-kavya, are not wanting in occasional passages containing poetical feeling, striking imagery, and noble sentiment; but they are artificial to a degree quite opposed to European canons of taste; the chief aim of the composers being to exhibit their artistic skill in bringing out the capabilities of the Sanskrit language, its ductility, its adaptation to every kind of style from the most diffuse to the most concise, its power of compounding words, its intricate grammatical structure, its complex system of metres, and the fertility of its resources in the employment of rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration.

1 Professor Weber places him either in the third or sixth century.