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We now crave their attention for a few moments longer to the last pages of our album, illustrating the social manners and civilization of the last epoch of Hindu History, anterior to the Mahommedan conquest. This last epoch divides itself into two well marked periods. The manners of the Rajputs of Delhi and Ajmir in* the nth and 12th centuries were somewhat different from those of the times of Vikramaditya and Siladitya. The Rajputs belong to modern history, Vikramaditya and Siladitya belong to ancient history. The dark ages which intervened, in the 9th and 10th Digitized by Google 456 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. centuries, divide the ancient period from the modern period in India. In the present chapter, we will confine our observa- tions therefore to the civilization of the Hindus during the early Pauranik Period from the sixth to the ninth century A. D. We will attempt to paint the social life of the Hindus of the time of K&lidasa and Bhava- bhftti ; and the immortal works of these and other poets of the period will furnish us with the materials of our picture. In the following chapter we will try to portray the civilization of the later Pauranik Period, from the tenth to the twelfth century, and we shall obtain our materials from the notes of a thoughtful, learned and symphathetic foreigner who has left us records of his impressions. K&lidasa himself has in his character of Dushyanta given us a picture of the great kings of his time, of Vikramaditya for instance. We can conceive to s ome extent the life that was led by the great emperor of Northern India in the midst of his luxurious and learned court, his guards and his soldiers. Martial in his demeanour and active in his habits, he delighted in war and in hunting, and often took his soldiers, his chariots, his horses and his elephants in great* hunting expeditions in the primeval jungles of India. A fool was as invariably the companion of Hindu kings as of European monarchs in the Middle Ages, and the Indian fool was a Brahman, whose stupid apprehen- Digitized by Google CHAP. XIV.] EARLY PAURANIK CIVILIZATION. 457 sion, gross tastes, and occasional witty sayings regaled the leisure hours of the king. Soldiers guarded his palace night and day, while in the inner apartments female guards waited on the king, and were under the orders of an aged and faithful chamberlain. To judge from the poet's account, the great conqueror of the Sakas did not dislike the company of Saka women, who guarded his palace and accompanied him in hunt- ing with bows and arrows, and gracefully decked with flowers. Indeed, if we can rely on the tales of the Katha Sarit Sagara, the emperor of Ujjayini was not very particular as to the race or caste of the lovely damsels whom he wedded one after the other, after his numerous adventures; and Madana Sundari, a Bhil princess' was one of the number, her father declaring, 11 and I, my sovereign will follow you as your slave with twenty thousand archers." The amorous emperor, we are told in the same work, fell in love with Malayavati, princess <>f Malayapura, on seeing her picture, and with Kalinga- sen£, princess of Bengal, on seeing her figure sculptured in stone in a Vihara ; and it is needless to state that both princesses eventually found admission into the great king's extensive seralio ! (K. S. S. Book XVIII.) The poet of Vikaramorvasi and Malavikagnimitra must have somewhat softened the passionate jealousies and discords which were not unoften witnessed in the royal harem. Royalty always indulged in a plurality of wives, often for political purposes ; and besides these Digitized by Google 45® PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. stately ladies, many a humble and pretty attendant of the queen won the favour of the king and was punish- ed by her mistress. In spite of all this, the chief queen was always held in^high honor and esteem ; she was the mistress of the household and the sharer of the king's glory on every state occasion. Women in humbler life had, like queens, their inner apartments separate from those of men. The same custom was observed in Europe in the olden days of Rome and Pompei, and Sanscrit poets often describe the peaceful domestic life of the fair inmates of these apartments. But the absolute seclusion of women was unknown even in the Pauranik Period. Sakuntala and Malay&vati did not precipitately retreat when strangers like Dushyanta and Jimutavdhana appeared before them. Mdlati in the bloom of her youth rode on an elephant to a temple on a festal day, in the midst of a great concourse of citizens, and there met the youth to whom she gave away her heart, and who reciprocated the feeling. In the first or introductory book of Kathd Sarit S&gara we find that K&tyiyana Vararuchi's mother received two unknown Br^hmans as her guest and freely conversed with them, and Varsha's wife too had previously received the same strangers, and had narrated to them I he story of her husband's mis- fortunes. In the numerous tales contained in this voluminous work of the 12th century A. D., we no where find any instance of women in ordinary life Digitized by VjOOQle CHAP. XIV.] EARLY PAURANIK CIVILIZATION. 459 being kept in such absolute and unhealthy seclusion as become the custom in later times under the rule of the Moslems. In Mrichchhakati, Charudatta's virtuous and modest wife freely converses with Charudatta's friend Maitreya, and in K&damvari, in Na^nanda, in Ratnd- vali and in every other classical work we find the heroine frequently conversing with the friends of her husband. Ladies of the royal household were of course kept under a greater degree of restriction ; but even they were allowed to see the friends of the king. When the ministers of Narav&hana Datta came to see his new queen Ratnaprabha, they were announced before they were admitted to her presence. The queen rebelled even against this necessary formality and said, " The door must not again be closed against the entrance of my husband's friends, for they are as dear to me as my own body." (K. S. S. Chap. 36.) Marriage was arranged by the parents of the bride and the bridegroom. Thus when an offer of marriage was made to Jimtitavaiiana, his companion said, " Go to his parents and ask them," and the parents gave their consent without consulting the young man's inclinations. If, however, we can trust the poets of the period, the ceremony was often performed at a proper age. Malatf, the heroine of Bhavabhtiti's drama was still a maiden after she had reached her youth, Malavikd and Malay&vati and Ratndvali were unmarried even when they were in the bloom of their beauty, and the pious Digitized by Google 4^0 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. Rishi Kanva did not think of giving Sakuntali in marriage until in youth she met Dushyanta and lost her heart. No doubt the custom of early marriage, of which we find sanction in the later Dharma Sistras prevailed in many cases ; but the custom had not become universal, and it was not considered a sin to keep a girl unmarried until she had attained her youth. The ceremony of marriage was the same as it was in ancient days, and as it continues to the present day. The stepping round the fire, the offering of grain as sacrifice, and the utter- ance of some promises by the bride and the bridegroom were considered the essential rites. Girls were taught to read and to write, and there are numerous examples in the classical works of girls writing and reading epistles. In Mrichchhakati, Maitreya says he always laughs when he hears a woman reading Sanscrit or a man singing a song ; and however much Maitreya may have disliked it, there can be little doubt from the passage itself that women did often read Sans- crit as men did often learn to sing. Music is frequently alluded to as a female accomplishment. In one re. markable passage in Nig&nada we are told that the princess Malay&vati sang a song, possessing the treble and bass tones duly developed ; and soon after we learn that she played with her fingers, keeping good time in due divisions of slow, medium and quick, the three pauses rendered in proper order, and the three modes of playing shewn in the slow and quick accompaniments. Digitized by Google CHAP. XIV.] EARLY PAURANIK CIVILIZATION. 461 In the Kath4 Sarit Sagara (Chapter IX) we learn that the princess Mrig&vati attained wonderful skill in dancing, singing and other accomplishments before she was given in marriage. Numerous such passages are to be found in classical literature. Painting too is frequently alluded to as an accomplish- ment possessed both by men and women ; and we have already alluded to a passage in NagAnanda shewing that coloured earth was used for painting in ancient India, as in ancient Pompei. Uttara Rama Charita opens with an account of some paintings which Lakshmana shewed to Sita: and we learn from the Kath& Sarit Sagara (Chap- ter 1 22) that Nagara Svimin was the Painter- Laureate of the court of Vikra.iiciditya, and presented the king with pictures illustrating different types of female beauty. Connubial love has never been described with deeper feeling than by the poets of India. We have already quoted the passage from Uttara Rlma Charita describing the tender love of Rlma for Sfta" ; and the reader familiar with Sanscrit literature will no doubt call to mind hun- dreds of such passages pourtraying the regard and love of Hindu husbands and the devotion of Hindu wives. # * 14 The Hindu poets rarely dispraise their women ; they almost invari- ably represent them as amiable and affectionate. In this they might give a lesson to the bards of more lofty nations, and particularly to the Greeks who both in tragedy, and comedy pursued the fair sex with implaoable rancour.