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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, . . CHAPTER Xi. 4 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 Bhavabhiti stand higher in the estimation of the Hindus and of the world than Aryabhatta and Charaka, 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 Sakuntalé. We who has read this drama in Sanscrit need not necessarily be a Hindu to hold the opinion that no sweeter or lovelier creation has 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 Sakuntald, 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 woodiand 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 ate inter- changed, and the gentle Sakuntald 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 ‘MAdhavt 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 Gandharva rite, seals their union.. Dushyanta leaves, leaving a, ‘signet ring with his bride, and promising to convey her to his capital almost immediately after. 398 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK Vv. Then‘ begins the interest of the drama. Sakunfala 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 Sakuntald, then gone with child, pines and droops in her lonely retreat. 7 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 Sakuntala’s parting with her companions and pets in the peaceful hermitage where she had lived so long. The heart of IXanva himself is big with grief and his eyes overflow with tears. The invisible wood nymphs bid hera sad adieu; the two gentle companions of Sakuntala can scarcely tear them- - selves from their loved and departing friend. Sakuntalé herself is almost overpowered, as she takes her farewell from all she had so long loved and cherished so well. Sak. Father! when yon female antelope, who now moves slowly from the weight of the young ones with which she is pregnant, shall be delivered of them, send me, I beg, akind message with tidings of her safety-~-Do not forget. Kanva, My beloved, T will not forget it. Sak, (Advancing and then stopping) Ab! what is it that clings to the , skirts of my robe and detains me? (She turns round and looks.) CHAP. XI] DRAMA. 399 Xanva, It is thy adopted child the little fawn whose mouth, when the sharp point of the kusa grass has wounded it, has been so often smeared by thy hand with the healing oil of Ingudt ; 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 thon 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 barsts into tears.) Sir William Jones. 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 quatters ate 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 indeéd. OF . 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 Sakuntala 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 Sakuntala 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 ue 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 Danavas. 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 veflection makes me once more soft hearted. Jones. The reader no doubt perceives that the boy was the king’s son. Sakuntal4 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 Sakuntala. The reconciled pair are then taken with the boy to the i CHAP. XI] DRAMA. 40t divine pair Kasyapa and Aditi, and the play closes with the blessings of those holy personages. Two other dramatic works of Kalidasa are left to us. Vikramorvast describes the loves of the hero Purdravas and the celestial nymph Urvast. We knaw that the story is as old as the Reg Veda, and is in its first conception a myth of the Sun (Purfravas=bright-rayed), pursuing the Dawn (Urvast= wide expanding). But the origin of the story has long since been lost to the Hindus, ‘and - Purdravas of Kalidasa and the Puranas is a mortal king who’ resened a celestial nymph named Urvas? from demons, and felt for her a tender love which was reci- procated. So smitten was the gentle nymph with the charms of the mortal that when she appeared in the court of Indra to enact a play, she forgot her part and betrayed the secret of her heart by uttering the name of the mortal she loved. Urvast played Lakshmi,, Menaka was Varunt, The latter says: Sd Lakshmi, the mighty powers that rule the spheres Ave all assembled ; at their head appears’ The blooming Kesava ; confess, to whom oclines your heart? ‘Hex reply should have been— To Purushottama ; but instead of that To Purftravas escaped her lips. Wilson's translation. For this érror the gentle nymph was punished ; but Indra with considerate care modified the punishment into. a blessing, and directed the nymph to go and RC. D., ALT: | 26 402 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK v. live with her beloved | mortal ane he beheld an off- spring born by her. Purfiravas vainly tried to conceal his new love from his own queen, and vainly expressed a penitence he did not feel by falling at her feet. The queen somewhat unceremoniously replied. You make, my lord, an awkward penitent ;' I cannot trust you. Wilson. _ And she left the king to the very cruel but very wise reflection, I might have spared myself the pains. A woman is clear-sighted, and mere words touch not her heart. Passion must give them credit, The lepidary, master of his craft, with cold indifference eyes the spurious gem, i Wilson. _ But the queen soon perceived that her husband’s love was beyond control and her resentment was unavail- ing.