Page:The Sanskrit Drama.djvu/235

230 sound in effective metrical forms. His knowledge of the lexica is obvious, while his love of the recondite in grammar has won him the fame of being used to illustrate rare forms by the author of the Siddhāntakaumudī. These linguistic merits have secured him the preference shown for him by modern taste. Nor indeed can his power of expression be justly denied:

dṛçyante madhumattakokilavadhūnirdhūtacūtān̄kura –

prāgbhāraprasaratparāgasikatādurgās taṭibhūmayaḥ

yāḥ kṛcchrād atilan̄ghya lubdhakabhayāt tair eva reṇūtkarair

dhārāvāhibhir asti luptapadavīniḥçan̄kam eṇīkulam.

'There are seen the towering slopes as of sand where the pollen tilts off from the mango shoots, shaken by the female cuckoos, maddened by the intoxication of spring; scarce can the antelopes in their fear of the hunter leap over them, but the dust which they raise in showers accords them security by concealing the path of their flight.' The idea is certainly trivial enough, but the expression, which defies reproduction in English, is in its own way a masterpiece of effect.

A pretty erotic verse is found in Act VII:

anena rambhoru bhavanmukhena: tuṣārabhānos tulayā dhṛtasya

ūnasya nūnam pratipūraṇāya: tārā sphuranti pratimānakhaṇḍāh.

'When the moon is placed in the scales, fair-limbed one, against thy face, assuredly it is found wanting, and to make good the deficit the stars must shine as make-weights.'

Not a bad example of more elaborate, yet graceful, eulogy is found in the following stanza:

gotre sākṣād ajani bhagavān eṣa yat padmayoniḥ

çayyotthāyaṁ yad akhilam ahaḥ prīṇayanti dvirephān

ekāgrāṁ yad dadhati bhagavaty uṣṇabhānau ca bhaktim

tat prāpus te sutanu vadanaupamyam ambhoruhāṇi.

'Since manifestly in their family has been born the blessed one, sprung from the lotus; since all day long they delight the bees as they rise from their bed; since their whole faith they devote to the blessed lord of the sharp rays, thus, O lovely one, the flowers that spring from the water attain the likeness of thy face.'