English
True Sakuntala, of Kusika's high race, bestowed her love on a self-chosen lord— the king Dushyanta, A bright nymph of heaven espoused a mortal monarch Pururavas, and the fair princess, Vasavadatta scorned the husband of her father's choice, and fled with prince Udayana. So poets tell, but these were desperate acts.— Wilson. It is quite apparent that the priestess, or rather the poet refers here to his great predecessor K&lidasa's two works, and also to the story of Vasavadatta which was so popular a theme of fiction and drama in the court of Siladitya II. The Buddhist priestess, however, had made up her mind to help Malati and Madhava. They have an in- terview in the house of the priestess, but Malati is torn away thence by the order of the queen. M&dhava in despair determines to apply to mysterious rites for gaining his end, and this leads us to a scene of awful TAntrika worship. The genius of Bhavabhuti never appears to greater advantage than when depicting a scene of magnificence or terror. In a field in which dead bodies are burnt is situated a temple of the terrific goddess Chamunda, and the malignant priestess Kapala Kundala with her necklace of skulls (as her name implies) is engaged in worship. There goes Madhava with his offering of raw flesh, to obtain from ghosts some help towards the attainment CHAP. XI.] DRAMA. 415 of his end. He offers the flesh to ghosts and goblins and exclaims — Now wake the terrors of the place, beset With crowding and malignant fiends ; the flames From funeral pyres scarce lend their sullen light, Clogged with their fleshly prey, to dissipate The fearful gloom that hems them in. Pale ghosts Sport with foul goblins, and their dissonant mirths In shrill respondent shrieks is echoed round. Well, be it so. I seek and must address them. Demons of ill, and disembodied spirits, Who haunt this spot, I bring you flesh for sale ; The flesh of man, untouched by trenchant steel, And worthy your acceptance. {A great noise) How the noise, High, shrill and indistinct, of chattering sprites Communicative, fills the charnel ground ! Strange forms like foxes flit along the sky : From the red hair of their lank bodies darts The meteor blaze ; or from their mouths that stretch From ear to ear, thickset with numerous fangs, Or eyes or beards or brows, the radiance streams. . And now I see the goblin host : * * • * * * They mark my coming, and the half chewed morsel Falls to the howling wolf,— and now they fly. (Pauses , and looking round,) Race, dastardly as hideous ! All is plunged In utter gloom. The river flows before me, The boundary of the funeral ground, that winds Through mouldering bones its interrupted way. Wild raves the torrent as it rushes past And rends its crumbling banks ; the wailing owl Hoots through its skirting groves, and to the sounds The loud long moaning jackall yells reply. Wilson, Digitized by Google 416 PAURANIC PERIOD. [BOOK V. Suddenly M&dhava hears the voice, musical and wild of a young woman in distress. — Ah cruel father ! She you meant an offering To the king's favour, now deserted dies. — Wilson. That voice is not unfamiliar to Midhava's ear ; he bursts into the temple and finds Mdlati dressed as a victim and about to be sacrificed by Aghoraghanta, the terrible priest of Ch&mundl Some Tdntrika rites require the sacrifice of a virgin, — and the sweetest and purest virgin in PadmavatJ town had been selected and kid- napped for this sacrifice. M&lati herself does not know- that she was stolen ; " I reposed " she says " At eve upon the terrace : when I woke I found myself a prisoner. " — Wilson. Mddhava rescues his beloved and slays the malignant priest. But the more malignant priestess Kapila Kun- dal£ vows revenge. We pass by a great many minor incidents. A friend of M&dhava, Makaranda by name, who is in love with Nandana's sister, disguises himself as Mctlati, and is married to the king's favorite Nandana. The amorous husband comes to court his bride, but meets with rough usage which, a maiden arm could scarcely inflict ! Nan- dana's sister then comes to teach her sister-in-law better manners, but finds her own beloved Makaranda as the pretended bride. An elopement follows; the king sends his guards to arrest the culprits; but Madhava and his friend Makaranda beat back the guards, and the Digitized by Google CHAP. XI.] DRAMA. king generously forgives them in consideration of their valour. Here the play might happily have ended with the marriage of the two pair of lovers with the king's sanc- tion ; but Bhavabhuti prolongs the story to bring in some powerful description of nature and of human feel- ings. His incidents and plot, as usual, are unnatural and extravagant, but his descriptions are matchless in power. Malati is once more kidnapped by the foul priestess Kapala Kundala, and Madhava goes in search of her among the Vindhya mountains. Saudamini who was a Buddhist priestess before, but has now acquired supernatural powers by the practice of Yoga, resolves to help Madhava ; and from her lips we have a powerful description of the locality. How wide the prospect spreads,— mountain and rock, Towns, villages and woods, and glittering streams ! There where the P&ra and the Sindhu wind, The towers and temples, pinnacles and gates, And spires of Padmdvati, like a city Precipitated from the skies, appear, Inverted in the pure translucent wave. There flows Lavana's frolic stream, whose groves By early rains refreshed, afford the youth Of Padmavatt pleasant haunts, and where Upon the herbage, brightning in the shower, The heavy uddered kine contented brouse. Hark ! how the banks of the broad Sindhu fall, Crashing, in the undermining current, Like the loud voice of thunder-laden clouds, R. C. D. A. I.— Ill 27 Digitized by Google 418 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. The sound extends, and like Heramba's roar. As deepened by the hollow echoing caverns, It floats reverberating round the hills. Those mountains, coated with thick clustering woods Of fragrant sandal and ripe Malura Recall to memory the lofty mountains That southward stretch, where Godavari Impetuous flashes through the dark deep shade Of skirting forests, echoing to her fury. Wilson. Sauddmini by her magical powers rescues Malati, and Malati and Nandana's sister are happily wedded to Madhava and Makaranda. The other two plays of BhavabhOti are taken from the Ramayana. One of them the Mahdvtra Charita narrates the story of Rama from his boyhood to his con- quests in Ceylon and return with Sita to his native country. This play is decidely inferior to the other plays of Bhavabhuti, but nevertheless contains passages of great power. There is a ring of true poetry in the passage in which the ancient king Janaka, (the pro- mulgator of the Upanishads and the proud asserter of Kshatriya equality with Brahmans in learning) is roused to indignation by the pretentions of Parasurdma, the son of Jamadagni. The old king indignantly exclaims : " Although he hates us, still we have had patience with him so long. When he shakes us again like a blade of grass, then let the bow be bent against him, although he be a Brahman. " Equally appropriate is the proud contempt with Digitized by Google CHAP. XI.] DRAMA. 419 which the mighty Rlvana listens to proposals to avoid hostilities with Sita. The source of the Godavari, — in the poet's own native land, — is thus described. Where, amid Janasthana's frowning woods, The tall Prasravana uprears his head, Dark tinctured in the clouds, and bathes his brow With their descending dews ; thence through his caves, He calls the oozing moisture, and sends forth The pure Godavari to win her way, Stately and clear, through ancient trees that shade, Impervious tangling, her majestic course. Wilson. The other play JJttara Rdma Charita continues the story of the Ramayana to Sita's exile, and to the recon- ciliation of Rama with his children Lava and Kusa. In power and vigour, and in graphic and forcible des- cription, this play is equal to the Malati Madhava, while in pathos and tenderness it will compare with anything in the whole range of Sanscrit literature. The story is the story of the Ramayana and need not be told in detail. The play opens with a conversation of Rama and Sita now returned from Ceylon, and seated on the throne of Ayodhya or Oude. In the second scene Lakshmana exhibits to them a series of paintings representing the past occurrences of Rama's life, and the gentle Sita can scarcely look over the scenes of her past sufferings without sorrow. The poet of course has a word to say about his beloved Godivari which Bursts forth, and down the mountain wends her way Through gloomy shades and thick entangling woods. Wilson, 420 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. and Rama reminds Sit£ of their happy days passed there in touching lines,— Recall'st thou, love, our humble happy dwelling Upon the borders of the shining stream Where every hour in fond endearments wrapped, Or in sweet interchange of thought eugaged, We lived in transport, not a wish beyond Each other, reckless of the flight of time ? Wilson. The languid Sita, then gone with child wants repose, and Rdma lovingly addresses her— Be these arms thy pillow, Thine, ever since the nuptial knot united us, Thine, in the days of infancy and youth, In lonely thickets and in princely palaces, Thine, ever thine. Sttd< True, true, my ever kind and cherished lord. Sleeps. Rdma, Her latest waking words are words of love, And naught of her but is mos dear to me.