Page:Love in Hindu Literature.djvu/22

 I. TAGORE.

instructed to understand the play in the light of the preface. Nor is it necessary to do so. We are to take the composition as it is without reference to the preface, without the context of the Hindu tradition in literature or life. And the reader is presented with the following episodes. Chitra finds out the identity of the hermit-hero, " the one great idol of her dreams." " Then by the boon of gods I obtained for a year the most radiant form that a mortal ever wore." And the very first overture on the great warrior tells its tale. He is compelled to accept " his. rebellion "^s sentence " at her hand. His vow of chastity crumbles away at the first touch of beauty. The lovesick hero confesses to Chitra's " superbly beautiful " disguise : " Ah, I feel how vain is fame, the pride of prowess ! Everything seems to me a dream. You alone are perfect ; you are the wealth of the world, the end of all poverty, the goal of all efforts, the one woman ! " Mars submits to Cupid. The vow of the sternest and auslerest of all Kshatriyas has been dissolved ' ' even as the moon dissolves the night's vow of obscurity." The triumph of Love is complete. Arjuna henceforth lives, as it were, in a dream, a life of trance ; and till the close of the story he has to admit the spell of Chitra on his life : " You seem to me like a goddess hidden within a golden image. I cannot touch you, I cannot pay you my dues in return for your priceless gifts." This is the " mys- tery " of love, and what are those priceless gifts ? Chitra explains the great " riddle of the universe : " "The gift that I proudly bring you is the heart of a woman." And certainly the proudest and mightiest of heroes is too poor to offer anything in return for that.