English
Professor Tawney of Calcutta has rendered some of them into elegant and spirited English verse, and a few extracts will convey an idea of original to the reader — Not to swerve from truth or mercy, not for life to atoop to shame ; From the poor no gifts accepting, nor from men of evil fame ; Lofty faith and proud submission,— who on fortune's giddy ledge Firm can tread this path of duty, narrow as the sabre's edge? Digitized by Google 442 PAURANIK PERIOD [BOOK V. Abstinence from sin of bloodshed, and from speech of others' wives, Truth and open-handed largess, love for men of holy lives, Freedom from desire and avarice,— Such the path that leads to bliss, Path which every sect may travel, and the simple cannot miss. i Treachery is of crimes the blackest, Avarice is a world of vice, Truth is nobler far than penance, Purity than sacrifice. Charity 's the first of virtues, Dignity doth most adorn, Knowledge triumphs unassisted, Better death than public scorn. You are a lord of acres But we are lords of song ; And we subdue the subtle, If you subdue the strong ; The rich of you are speaking, In me the wise believe, And if you find me irksome, Why then — I take my leave, What profit are the Vedas, Or books of legal lore, Or those long winded legends Repeated o'er and e'er ? What gain we by our merits ? A dwelling in the skies— A miserable mansion, That men i f sense despise — All these are huckstering methods- Give me that perfect way Of self contained fruition, Where pain is done away. Digitized by Google CHAP. XII.] TOETRY. 443 A hermit's forest cell, and fellowship with deer, A harmless meal of fruit, stone beds beside the stream, Are helps to those who long for Siva's guidance here ; But be the mind devout, our homes will forests seem. C. H. Tawney. "Truth is nobler far than penance, purity than sacrifice," — this is the ulterior lesson which Hinduism has taught in every religious work and every literary composition, in all centuries and in all epochs. The Sutrakaras learnt this lesson from the Vedas and handed it down to the immortal Gautama Buddha who made this principle his whole religion ! And even the later Hindus of the Pauranik Period, with all their leaning towards forms and rites, never lost sight of this truth. Drunkenness and falsehood were Mah&p&takas of old ; inter-caste-marriage and widow-marriage were none. Now, the latter involve loss of caste ; the former go unpunished. Such rules are doomed ! The extracts from Bhartrihari given above will enable the reader to agree in the opinion of Professor Lassen, that it is the terse and epigrammatic character of Bhartri- hari's short poems which make them conspicuous among the productions of the Indian muse ; and the perfect art which they are composed make them worthy of being ranked among the master-pieces of Indian genius. We have seen before that a Mahakavya known as Bhattikdvya is also probably the work of Bhartrihari. It is the story of the Ramayana told briefly ; the re- Digitized by Google 444 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. markable feature of the work is that it has been written to teach grammar ! All the conjugational forms of verbs which are difficult to remember, and all other difficult derivations of words have been interwoven in melo- dious verse, so that the student who knows the poem knows Sanscrit grammar also. The poetry does not aspire to the beauty of Kilidisa's poems, or the dignity of Bhdravi's work, but the mastery of words and the art of composition are perfect and matchless, and worthy of the author of the epigrammatic Satakas. Two other Mahdkivyas are also generally studied be Hindu students ; but both these are later productions, and belong probably to the nth and 12th centuries A.D. One of them is Naishadha of Sri Harsha and the other is SistipAlavadha of M£gha. The stories of both are taken from the Mah&bha'rata. Naishadha is the well-known story of Nala and Dam- ayanti, one of the most touching episodes of the great epic. Dr. Buhler fixes the date of this poem in the 1 2th century. The poet is said by Rijasekhara to have been born in Benares, but he was certainly familiar with Bengal, and Vidy&pati, a Bengali poet of the 14th cen- tury, claims Sri Harsha to be a Bengali. It is possible as has been conjectured by some antiquarians that he migrated from the North-West to Bengal. Sisup&lavadha as its name implies is the story of the destruction of the proud king Sisup&Ia by Krishna. It is a distant imitation of Bh&ravi's Kir&t&rjuniya ; and Digitized by Google CHAP. XII.] rOETRY. 445 the name Mdgha, (a winter month), is probably assumed by the author to indicate that he takes away the glory of Bfidravi, (which means the sun). According to the Bhoja Pravandha he was a contemporary of King Bhoja of Dhara in the nth century. The most melodious song that has ever been written in Sanscrit is the Gtta Govinda, written by Jayadeva of Bengal in the 12th century A.D. Jayadeva was a poet of the court of Lakshmana Sena as has been proved by the colophon of an ancient copy of his poem discovered by Dr. Biihler in Kashmir, and he obtained from the king the title of Kaviraja. His poem relates to the loves of Krishna and Radh£, and has been rendered with matchless grace and beauty into English verse by Sir Edwin Arnold. One extract will suffice. It describes erring Krishna's amours with other nymphs and describes the gratification of the five senses ; smell, sight, touch, taste and hearing. One with star blossomed champac wreathed, woos him to rest his bead, On the dark pillow of her breast so tenderly outspread ; And o'er his brow with roses blown she fans a fragrance rare, That falls on the enchanted sense like rain in thirsty air ; While the company of damsels wave many an odorous spray, And Krishna laughing, toying, sighs the soft spring away. Another gazing in his face, sits wistfully apart. Searching it with those looks of love that leap from heart to heart ; Her eyes— afire with shy desire, veiled by their lashes black — Speak so that Krishna cannot choose but send the message back ; In the company of damsels whose bright eyes in the ring Shine round him with soft meanings in the merry light of spring, PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. The third one of that dazzling band of dwellers in the wood — Body and bosom panting with the pulse of youthful blood — Leans over him, as in his ear a lightsome thiDg to speak. And then with leaf-soft lip imprints a kiss below his cheek ; A kiss that thrills, and Krishna turns at the silken touch To give it back,— Ah Radha ! forgetting thee loo much. And one with arch smile beckons him away from Jumna's banks, Where the tall bamboo bristle like spears in battle ranks, And plucks his cloth to make him come into the mango shade, Where the fruit is ripe and golden, and the milk and cakes are laid ? Oh ! golden red the mangoes, and glad the feasts of spring, And fair the flowers to lie upon and sweet the dancers sing. Sweetest of all that temptress who dances for him now With subtle feet which part and me^t in the Ras measure slow. To the chime of silver bangles, and the beat of rose-leaf hands, And pipe and lute and cymbal played by the woodland bands ; So that wholly passion-laden— eye, ear, sense, soul o'ercome— Krishna is theirs in the forest ; his heart forgets its home. Digitized by Googl CHAPTER XIII. FICTION. India was not better known to the ancient nations for her science and poetry than as the birth-place of fables and fiction ! The oldest Aryan fables that are to be found anywhere are in the Jataka tales, dating from some centuries before Christ, and Dr. Rhys Davids has pointed out that many of them have tra- velled to different parts of Europe and have assumed various modern shapes. The fables of the Panchatantra were probably cur- rent in India for many centuries before they were com- piled in their present shape in easy and graceful Sans- crit prose. The work was translated into Persian in the reign of Nousharwan (531 to 572 A. D.), and it is certain therefore that the Sanscrit compilation was made in the sixth century A. D. if not earlier. The Persian translation was rendered into Arabic, and the Arabic translation was rendered into Greek by Symeon Seth about 1080 A. D. The Greek version was again rendered into Latin by Possinus. A Hebrew transla. tion of the work was made by Rabbi Joel about 1250. A Spanish translation of the Arabic version was pub- lished about 1251 A. D. The first German translations Digitized by 448 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. were published in the fifteenth century, and since then the work has been rendered into all the languages of Europe, and is known as the fables of Pilpay or Bidpai.* Thus for many centuries the juvenile population of the world was amused with the simple but ingenious tales of animals which a Hindu compiled from the current folklore of his countrymen. When we proceed from the sixth to the seventh cen- tury we find a great change in Sanscrit prose. More ambitious works were composed in a style which is more ornate and elaborate, but stilted and artificial. Dandin composed his Dasakumiracharita probably at the very commencement of the seventh century. The work, as its name signifies, is the story of ten princes who meet with various adventures, most of which are of course supernatural. The style, though sufficiently ornate and artificial, is yet less extravagant than that of K4damvari. B&nabhatta, the renowned writer of the K&damvari was, as we have seen before, a courtier of Sildditya II, and was the author of the Ratnival? drama, and of a life of the emperor called Harshacharita.