Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/304

Rh 284 SANSKRIT [LITEKATURE, to us Kalidasa appears to be one of the earliest ; but there can be little doubt that lie was preceded in this as in other departments of poetic composition by many lesser lights, eclipsed by the sun of his fame, and forgotten. Of the six "great poems" named below the first two are those attributed to Kalidasa. (1) The Raghu- varp&a, 1 or "race of Raghu," celebrates the ancestry and deeds of Rama. The work, consisting of nineteen cantos, is manifestly incomplete ; but hitherto no copy has been discovered of the six additional cantos which are supposed to have completed it. (2) The Kumdra-sambhava* or "the birth of (the war-god) Kumara" (or Skanda), the son of Siva and Parvati, consists of eight cantos, the last of which has only recently been made public, being usually omitted in the MSS., probably on account of its amorous character rendering it unsuitable for educational purposes, for which the works of Kalidasa are extensively used in India. Nine additional cantos, which were published at the same time, have been proved to be spurious. Another poem of this class, the Nalodaya, 3 or " rise of Nala," describing the restoration of that king, after having lost his kingdom through gambling, is wrongly ascribed to Kalidasa, being far inferior to the other works, and of a much more artificial character. (3) The Kirdtdrjuntya* or combat between the Pandava prince Arjuna and the god biva, in the guise of a Kirata or wild mountaineer, is a poem in eighteen cantos, by Bharavi, probably a contemporary of Kalidasa, being mentioned together with him in an inscription dated 634 A.D. (4) The Si&tpdla-badka, or slaying of Sisupala, who, being a prince of Chedi, reviled Krishna, who had carried off his intended wife, and was killed by him at the inauguration sacrifice of Yu- dhishthira, is a poem consisting of twenty cantos, attributed to Magha, B whence it is also called Mdghakdvya. (5) The Rdvana- badha, or "slaying of Ravana," more commonly called Bhatti- kdvya, to distinguish it from other poems (especially one by Pravarasena), likewise bearing the former title, was composed for the practical purpose of illustrating the less common gram- matical forms and the figures of rhetoric and poetry. In its closing couplet it professes to have been written at Vallabhi, under Sridharasena, but, several princes of that name being mentioned in inscriptions as having ruled there in the 6th and 7th cen- turies, its exact date is still uncertain. Bhatti, apparently the author's name, is usually identified with the "well-known gram- marian Bhartrihari, whose death Prof. M. Miiller, from a Chinese statement, fixes at 650 A.D., while others make him Bhartrihari's son. (6) The Naiskadhtya, or Naishadha-charita, the life of Nala, king of Nishadha, is ascribed to Sri-Harsha (son of Hira), who is supposed to have lived in the latter part of the 12th century. A .-mall portion of the simple and noble episode of the Mahdbhd- rata is here retold in highly elaborate and polished stanzas, and with a degree of lasciviousness which (unless it be chiefly due to the poet's exuberance of fancy) gives a truly appalling picture of social corruption. Another highly esteemed poem, the Rdghava- pdndavtya, composed by Kaviraja ("king of poets"), whose date is uncertain, though some scholars place him later than the 10th century, is characteristic of the trifling uses to which the poet's art was put. The well-turned stanzas are so ambiguously worded that the poem may be interpreted as relating to the leading story of either the Rdrndyaiut or the Mahdbhdrata. A still more modern popular development of these artificial poems are the numerous so-called Cham^r&s, being compositions of mixed verse and prose. As specimens of such works may be men- tioned the Champti-lMrata in twelve cantos, by Ananta Bhatta, and the Champ&-rdmdyayM or Bhoja-champti, in five books, ' by Bhojaraja (or Vidarbharaja) Pandita, being popular abstracts of the two jjreat epics. Very similar in character to the artificial epics are the panegyrics, composed by court poets in honour of their natrons. Such pro- ductions were probably very numerous,; but only two of any special interest are hitherto known, viz., iheSrt-Ifarsha-charita, composed in ornate prose, by Bana, in honour of Siladitya Harshavardhana (c. 610-650 A.D.) of Kunyakubja (Kanauj), and the Vikramdnka- charila, 9 written by the Kashmir poet Bilhana, about 1085, in honour of his patron, the Chalukya king Vikramaditya of Kalydna, regarding the history of whose dynasty the work supplies much valuable information. In this place may also be mentioned, as composed in accordance with the Hindu poetic canon, the Rdja- larangint, 1 or chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, the only important 1 Edited, with a Latin transl., by F. Stenzler; also text, and com- mentary, by S. P. Pandit. 8 Text and Latin transl. published by F. Stenzler ; an English transl. by R. T. H. Griffith. 8 Text, with comrn. and Latin transl., edited by F. Senary; Engl. transl., in verse, by Dr Taylor. 4 Editions of this and the three following poems have been pub- lished in India. 5 Bhao Daji, in his paper on Kalidasa, calls Magha "a contem- porary of the Bhoja of the llth century." fl Edited by O. Biihler. 7 Published at Calcutta; also, with a French transl., by A. Troyer. historical work in the Sanskrit language, though even here con- siderable allowance has to be made for poetic licence and fancy. The work was composed by the Kashmirian poet Kulhana, about 1150, and was afterwards continued by three successive supple- ments, bringing down the history of Kashmir to the time of the emperor Akbar. Unfortunately the two existing editions were prepared from very imperfect MS. materials ; but Dr Buhler's discovery of new MSS., as well as of some of the works on which Kalhana's poem is based, ought to enable the native scholar (Prof. Bhandarkar) who has undertaken a new edition to put the text in a more satisfactoiy condition. 4. The Drama. The early history of the Indian drama Drama, is enveloped in obscurity. The Hindus themselves ascribe the origin of dramatic representation to the sage Bharata, who is fabled to have lived in remote antiquity, and to have received this science directly from the god Brahman, by whom it was extracted from the Veda. The term bharata (?) i.e., one who is kept, or one who sustains (a part) also signifies " an actor " ; but it is doubtful which of the two is the earlier, the appellative use of the word, or the notion of an old teacher of the dramatic art bearing that name. On the other hand, there still exists an extensive work, in epic verse, on rhetoric and dramaturgy, entitled Ndtya-4dstra, and ascribed to Bharata. But, though this is probably the oldest theoretic work on the subject that has come down to us, it can hardly be referred to an earlier period than several centuries after the Chris- tian era. Not improbably, however, this work, which pre- supposes a fully developed scenic art, had an origin similar to that of some of the metrical law-books, which are generally supposed to be popular and improved editions of older sutra-works. We know that such treatises existed at the time of Panini, as he mentions two authors of Natd-sdtras, or " rules for actors," viz., Silalin and Kris'asva. Now, the words nata and ndtya as well as ndtaka t the common term for "drama" being derived from the root ndt (nart) "to dance," seem to point to a pantomimic or choral origin of the dramatic art. It might appear doubtful, therefore, in the absence of any clearer definition in Panini's grammar, whether the " actors' rules " he mentions did not refer to mere pantomimic performances. Fortun- ately, however, Patanjali, in his "great commentary," speaks of the actor as singing, and of people going "to hear the actor." Nay, he even mentions two subjects, taken from the cycle of Vishnu legends viz., the slaying of Karnsa (by Krishna) and the binding of Bali (by Vishnu) which were represented on the stage both by mimic action and declamation. Judging from these allu- sions, theatrical entertainments in those days seem to have been very much on a level with our old religious spectacles or mysteries, though there may already have been some simple kinds of secular plays which Patanjali had no occa- sion to mention. It is not, however, till some five or six centuries later that we meet with the first real dramas, which mark at the same time the very culminating point of Indian dramatic composition. In this, as in other depart- ments of literature, the earlier works have had to make way for later and more perfect productions ; and no trace now remains of the intermediate phases of development. Here, however, the problem presents itself as to whether the existing dramatic literature has naturally grown out of such popular religious performances as are alluded to by Patanjali, or whether some foreign influence has intervened at some time or other and given a different direction to dramatic composition. The question has been argued both for and against the probability of Greek influence ; but it must still be considered as sub judice. There are doubtless some curious points of resemblance between the Indian drama and the Modern Attic (and Roman) comedy, viz., the prologue, the occasional occurrence of a token of recognition, and a certain corre- spondence of characteristic stage figures (especially the