Page:The Sanskrit Drama.djvu/216

Rh accord, all to whom glory is dear.' The burden of duty is expressed admirably:

kiṁ Çeṣasya bharavyathā na vapuṣi kṣāṁ na kṣipaty eṣa yat

kiṁ vā nāsti pariçramo dinapater āste na yan niçcalaḥ

kiṁ tv an̄gīkṛtam utsṛjan kiraṇavac chlāghyo jano lajjate

nirvyūḍhiḥ pratipannavastuṣu satām ekaṁ hi gotravratam.

'Is it because Çeṣa feels not the pain of the burden of the earth that he flings it not aside? Is it that the sun feels no weariness that he does not stand still in his course? Nay, a noble man feels shame to lay aside the duty he has taken on him, like a meaner creature; for the good this is the one common law, to be faithful to what one has undertaken.' The minister's resolve to save his friend is forcibly put:

audāsīnyaṁ na yuktaṁ priyasuhṛdi gate matkṛtām eva ghorām

vyāpattiṁ jñātam asya svatanum aham imāṁ niṣkrayaṁ kalpayāmi.

'Indifference is impossible since my dear friend has fallen into this disaster for my sake; I have it: my own life do I set as ransom for his.' There is grim humour in the command of the infuriated Malayaketu: Those who desired my land, take and cast into a pit and cover with dust; those two who sought my army of elephants slay by an elephant,' and in the Caṇḍāla's remark when he bids his friend impale Candanadāsa: 'His family will go off quickly enough of their own accord.' The revelation of Jīvasiddhi's treachery wrings from Rākṣasa the cry: 'My very heart has been made their own by my foes (hṛdayam api me ripubhiḥ svīkrtam).' Proverbs are aptly used, as in the same context the Sanskrit equivalent for an accumulation of evils (ayam aparo gaṇḍasyopari sphoṭaḥ).

3. The Language and the Metres of the Mudrārākṣasa

The Sanskrit of the Mudrārākṣasa is classical, and the Prākrits number three, for, in addition to the normal Çaurasenī and Māhārāṣṭrī, Māgadhī is used by the Jain monk, by Siddhārthaka and Samiddhārthaka as Caṇḍālas, by a servant and an envoy. We may take it that Viçākhadatta wrote from the grammars, and this is confirmed by the fact that we find in some