Page:The Sanskrit Drama.djvu/183

178 is admirable, while a delicate perception is evinced in the line describing the king's success in soothing the wounded queen:

savyājaiḥ çapathaiḥ priyeṇa vacasā cittānuvṛttyādhikam

vailakṣyeṇa pareṇa padapatanair vākyaiḥ sakhīnāṁ muhuḥ

pratyāsattim upāgatā na hi tathā devī rudatyā yathā

prakṣālyeva tayaiva bāṣpasalilaiḥ kopo 'panītaḥ svayam.

'It was not so much by my false oaths of devotion, my loving words, my coaxing, my depths of dejection, and falling at her feet, or the advice of her friends, that the queen was appeased as that her anger was wiped away by the cleansing water of her own bitter tears.'

Pretty, if not appropriate, is the king's address to the fire:

virama virama vahne muñca dhūmānubandham: prakaṭayasi kim uccair arciṣāṁ cakravālam?

virahahutabhujāhaṁ yo na dagdhaḥ priyāyāḥ: pralayadahana- bhāsā tasya kiṁ tvaṁ karoṣi?

'Stay, stay, fire; cease thy constant smoke; why dost thou raise aloft thy circle of flames? What canst thou avail against me, whom the fire of severance from my beloved, fierce as the flame that shall consume the universe, could not consume?' There is excellent taste and propriety in Vatsa's address to the dead Kosala king: mṛtyur api te çlāghyo yasya çatravo 'py evaṁ puruṣakāraṁ varṇayanti. 'Even death for thee is glorious when even thy foes must thus depict thy manly prowess.' Such a phrase may reveal to us the true Harṣa himself, the winner of many victories, and the hero of one great disaster.

The Nāgānanda strikes varied notes; there is fire and enthusiasm in the assurances which Mitrāvasu gives the prince of the swift overthrow of his enemy, Matan̄ga, at the hands of his faithful Siddhas, will he but give the word:

saṁsarpadbhiḥ samantāt kṛtasakalaviyanmārgayānair vimānaiḥ

kurvāṇāḥ prāvṛṣiva sthagitaravirucaḥ çyāmatām vāsarasya

ete yātāç ca sadyas tava vacanam itaḥ prāpya yuddhāya siddhāḥ

siddhaṁ codvṛttaçatrukṣayabhayavinamadrājakaṁ te svarājyam.

'With their chariots, meeting together and o'erspreading the whole surface of the sky as they speed along, darkening the day