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Wilson classifies under the following heads : — Yantras, implements ; Sastras, instruments ; Kshdra, alkaline solutions or caustics ; Agni, actual cautery ; Digitized by 394 PAURANIK PERIOP. [BOOK V. Salaka, pins ; Sringa horns ; Alabu, gourds used for cupping ; and Jalauka or leeches. " Besides these, we have thread, leaves, bandages, pledgets, heated metallic plates for erubescents, and a variety of astringent or emollient applications." We are told that the instruments should be of metal, always bright, handsome, polished, and sharp, sufficiently so " to divide a hair longitudinally." And the young practitioner is recommended to acquire proficiency in the use of such instruments by making incisions, not only on vegetable substances, but also on the fresh hides of animals and on the vessels of dead animals. We will conclude the chapter with the suggestive remarks of Dr. Wilson, from whom we have so often quoted. The surgical operations " were evidently bold and must have been hazardous : their being attempted at all is, however, most extraordinary, unless their oblitera- tion from the knowledge, not to say the practice, of later times, be considered as a still more remarkable cir- cumstance. It would be an inquiry of some interest to trace the period and causes of the disappearance of sur- gery from amongst the Hindus." The causes are the same which have led to the dis- appearance, or at least the decline of all sciences, all arts, and all literature in India during the past thousand years. Social and religious degeneracy paved the way to ruin, and political disaster completed it. The causes have acted and reacted on each other, and the loss of political Digitized by Google CHAP. X.] MEDICINE. 395 independence induced a grosser national ignorance, an unhealthier superstition, and a more hurtful system of social rules. It will be of some interest to Hindu readers to know, when foreign scientific skill and knowledge are required in every district in India for sanitary and medical work, that twenty-two centuries ago Alexander the Great kept Hindu physicians in his camp for the treat- ment of diseases which Greek physicians could not heal, and that eleven centuries ago Haroun ar Rashid of Bagdad retained two Hindu physicians, known in Arabian records as Manka and Saleh, as his own physicians. Digitized by Google CHAPTER XI. DRAMA. More remarkable than the progress made in science in this period is the wonderful development which poetry and drama received in this the Augustan Era of Sanscrit Literature. Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti stand higher in the estimation of the Hindus and of the world than Aryabhatta and Charakau It is neither possible nor desirable to attempt within our limits to write a history of later Sanscrit literature. All that we will attempt to do will be to indicate the names of the most illustrious writers, and describe as briefly as possible their most remarkable works. This will give our readers a bird's eye view of the literary character of the epoch ; and this is all that we can venture to attempt within our limits. We will speak of dramatic literature in this chapter, and of poetry and fiction in the following chapters. The brilliant period of which we are speaking opens with the illustrious Kalidasa, and that gifted son of the muses, although the author of several works of great excellence, is known to the civilized world chiefly as the author of SakuntalA. He who has read this drama in Sanscrit need not necessarily be a Hindu to hold the opinion that no sweeter or lovelier creation has Digitized by Google CHAP. XL] DRAMA. 397 emanated from the human fancy than the gentle and tender-souled forest maiden, SakuntalA. King Dushyanta goes on a hunting expedition, and arrives near the hermitage of Kanva. Walking in a humble attire among the groves, he espies three damsels engaged in watering plants ; needless to say that these maidens are Sakuntaia, daughter of a nymph by a human parent, and her two companions. Sakun- tala had been brought up by the sage Kanva from her infancy, and had attained the bloom of her youth- ful loveliness in these woodland retreats among her rustic companions, her plants and her pet animals. Dushyanta, accustomed to the artificial grace of court- beauties, is ravished at the sight of this simple child of nature, dressed in barks which almost heighten her charms, like a veil of leaves, unfolding a radiant flower. He finds a suitable occasion to appear before the maiden and her companions ; some words are inter- changed, and the gentle Sakuntala feels an emotion unknown to her simple life before. Love tells on her gentle frame, and when he comes to meet her again "she resembles a Madhavi creeper whose leaves are dried by a sultry gale, yet even thus transformed she is lovely and charms my soul." The lovers meet, and a marriage ceremony, the G&ndharva rite, seals their union. Dushyanta leaves, leaving a signet ring with his bride, and promising to convey her to his capital almost immediately after. Digitized by 398 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. Then begins the interest of the drama. Sakuntala when deeply musing on her absent lord forgets to pay proper homage to an irritable sage, who utters a curse that he, of whom she thinks so abstractedly, will forget her. Pacified by the entreaties of her companions the sage modifies his sentence and says that he will call her back to mind on her shewing the signet ring. Dushyanta accordingly forgets his rustic love, and poor Sakuntali, then gone with child, pines and droops in her lonely retreat. Her foster father Kanva comes to know all, and arranges to send the girl to her lord. Touching as this drama is throughout, there is no part of it so truly tender and touching as Sakuntal&'s parting with her companions and pets in the peaceful hermitage where she had lived so long. The heart of Kanva himself is big with grief and his eyes overflow with tears. The invisible wood nymphs bid her a sad adieu ; the two gentle companions of Sakuntald can scarcely tear them- selves from their loved and departing friend. SakuntalA herself is almost overpowered, as she takes her farewell from all she had so long loved and cherished so well. Sa/:. Father ! when yon female antelope, who now moves slowly from the weight of the young ones wiih which she is pregnant, shall be delivered of them, send me, I beg, a kind message with tidings of her safety— Do not forget. Kanva, My beloved, I will not forget it. Sdk. (Advancing and then stopping) Ah ! what is it that clings to the skirts of my robe and detains me ? (She turns round and looks.) Digitized by Google CHAP. XL] DRAMA. 399 Kanva* It is thy adopted child the little fawn whose mouth, when the sharp point qf the kusa grass has wounded it, has been so often smeared by thy hand with the healing oil of Ingudl ; who has been so often fed by thee with a handful of Syamaka grains, and now will not leave the footsteps of his protectress. Sak, Why dost thou weep, tender fawn, for me, who must leave our common dwelling place ? As thou wast reared by me when thou hadst lost thy mother, who died soon after thy birth, so will my foster father attend thee, when we are separated, with anxious care —Return, poor thing, return. We must part. (She bursts into tears.) Sir William Jonts. The plot thickens. Sakuntala's lord has forgotten her, and the ring which would alone have called her back to his mind is lost in the way. Dushyanta receives Sakuntala and her party politely, but declines to receive as a bride a woman whom he can not recognize and who is with child. Poor Sakuntala almost sinks under this calamity, for she knows not its cause. She did not hear the curse which was uttered by the sage, nor the partial modification of it to which he consented on the entreaty of her companions. She tries in vain to bring to Dushyanta's recollection those too well re- membered events which marked their brief days in the hermitage, and at last breaks out in mortification, grief, and anger. Her companions leave her in the pa- lace, and separate quarters are allowed to her, but she is saved further humiliation by a miracle. A celestial nymph descends in the form of light, and carries her away from the earth where her fate had been sad and bitter indeed. Digitized by 400 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. An accident now brings the past to the king's recol- lection. A fisherman caught a fish which had swal- lowed the ring, which Sakuntald had dropped in a stream ; and on sight of that gem, the past comes thronging into the king's recollection ! The love he bore for Sakuntald flames forth tenfold, and the cruel injustice he had done to that gentle and loving and confiding soul maddens him with pain. He relinquishes his royal duties, forgets food and sleep, and loses himself in bitter agony. He is roused from his stupor by the god Indra's charioteer who on behalf of Indra asks the king's suc- cour against D&navas. The king mounts the celestial car and conquers, and is then taken to the celestial hermitage of Kasyapa, father of the gods, residing there in holy retirement with his consort Aditi. | While waiting there the king sees a powerful little boy playing with a lion's whelp. Ah ! (he thinks) what means it that my heart incline to this boy as if he were my own son ? (meditating) Alas ! I have no son, and this reflection makes me once more soft hearted. Jones. The reader no doubt perceives that the boy was the king's son. Sakuntald had been carried away by the pitying gods and kept here until the king's clouded recollection was clear again. And when Sakuntala appears, Dushyanta craves her forgiveness on his knees and is forgiven by the too loving Sakuntall.