In granting, or refusing a request, A man obtains a proper rule of action No being perishes before his time, Maba-bh. XIII. 5571. Though by a hundred arrows pierced; but when Maha-bh. XIII. 7607. Before infirmities creep o'er thy flesh; Amass that wealth which thieves cannot abstract, Maha-bh. XIII. 12084. Heaven's gate is very narrow and minute 5, Mahā-bh. XIV. 2784. Just heaven is not so pleased with costly gifts, As with the merest trifle set apart From honest gains, and sanctified by faith o. Mahā-bh. XIV. 2788. 1 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. 5 Compare St. Matthew vii. 14. 6 Compare St. Matthew vi. 1-4, St. Mark xii. 43, 44. LECTURE XV. The Artificial Poems. Dramas. Purāņas. I CAN only notice very briefly the remaining classes of Indian writings which follow on the Rāmāyaṇa and Maha-bharata. 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-duta, 'cloud-messenger,' also by Kalidāsa-a poem of 116 verses, in the Mandākrānta 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 Bhāravi, in eighteen cantos, on a subject taken from the fourth chapter of Mahā-bhārata III, viz. the penance performed by Arjuna, one of the Pāṇḍava princes, and his combat with Siva disguised as a Kirāta or wild mountaineer (see p. 393); 5. the Śiśupāla-badha or 'destruction of Siśu-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-bhārata, viz. the slaying of the impious Sisu-pala by Krishna at a Rajasuya sacrifice performed by Yudhishthira (see p. 392); 6. the Naishadha or Naishadhiya, by Sri-harsha 1, on a subject drawn from an episode in the sixth chapter of the Vanaparvan of the Mahā-bhārata, viz. the history and adventures of Nala, king of Nishadha. The above six are sometimes called Mahā-kāvyas, ‘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 Kalidasa, on the six seasons of the year (viz. Grīshma, the hot season; Varsha, the rains; Sarad, autumn; Hemanta, the cold season; Sisira, 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 Bhaṭṭikavya, '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 Alankaras (see p. 454); it is divided into two great divisions, viz. Śabda-lakshana, ‘illustration of grammar,' and Kāvya-lakshaṇa, ‘illustration of poetry,' together comprising twenty-two chapters; 10. the Rāghavapāṇḍaviya, an artificial poem by Kavi-rāja, giving a narrative of the acts of both the descendants of Raghu and Pandu, in such language that it may be interpreted as a history of either one or the other family; 11. the Amaru-sataka or Amarū-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 (Premaéandra's commentary). The commentator Nārāyana 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 Sankarācārya, 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, Kumara-sambhava, Megha-dūta, and Ritu-samhara of Kālidāsa (who, according to native authorities, lived a little before the commencement of the Christian era, but is now placed in the third century 1), 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, Śiśupālabadha, 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. In fact, there is nothing in the whole range of Greek or Latin or any other literature that can be compared with these poems. Nearly every verse in them presents a separate puzzle-so that when one riddle is solved, little is gained towards the solution of the next or exhibits rare words, unusual grammatical forms, and intricate compounds, as it were twisted together into complicated verbal knots, the unravelment of which can only be effected by the aid of a native commentary. Of course, in such cases the sense, and even the strict grammatical construction are sometimes sacrificed to the display of ingenuity in the bending and straining of words to suit a difficult metre or rhyme; and this art is studied as an end in itself, the ideas to be conveyed by the language employed being quite a secondary matter. To such an extreme is this carried, that whole verses are sometimes composed with the repetition of a single consonant1, while in other cases a string of epithets is employed, each of which will apply to two quite distinct words in a sentence, and thus be capable of yielding different senses, suited to either word, according to the will of the solver of the verbal puzzle. Again, stanzas are sometimes composed so as to form fanciful shapes or figures, such as that of a lotus (padma 1 English, I fear, would be quite unequal to such a task as the production of a verse like the following from the Kirātārjunīya (XV. 14)— Na nonanunno nunnono nānā nānānanā nanu | Or the following from Magha (XIX. 114)— Dadadoduddaduddādī dādādodidadidadoḥ | Duddādam dadade dudde dadadadadadodadaḥ || Though in Latin we have something similar in Ennius, O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tyranne tulisti. It must be admitted, however, that the celebrated nursery stanza beginning Peter Piper picked a peck of pepper is an effort in the same direction. |