A HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE CLASSICAL PERIOD -2

A HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE

CLASSICAL PERIOD

VOL. I

General Editor and

Contributors to this Volume:

S. N. DASGUPTA

and

S. K. DE,

1 The institution of prostitution

of higher (

or lower orders was allowed in society

without much objection. Thus when Carudatta in

Mrcchahatika was challenged that how being an

honourable man he had kept a prostitute though he

had his wife, he says,

"

yauvanamevatraparaddham na

caritraw." "It is only the fault of my youth and

not of my character.

"

In the Yajfiavalhya also we

find in the Vyavahara-adhyaya, Chap. 24, that primary

and secondary sex behaviour were only prohibited in

relation to married women, girls of higher castes

and also other girls against their wish. There was

thus a fair amount of latitude for free love and

a study of the Kuttanlmatam shows that even prostitutes

were sometimes smitten with love though it is their

profession to attract young people and deplete them of

their riches. The fact that the transgression of young

1 avaravarndsu aniravasit&su vetyatu punarbhftsu ca na rfiffo na pratisiddhah

sukharthatvat,

E 1343B

Yet in ancient

times

much wider

freedom was

recognised

for sex relatioo.

XXXIV INTRODUCTION

Latitude of

marriages

later on

ruled out

in practice

through the

influence of

the Smrti

laws.

girls with regard to the secondary sex acts such as

kissing, embracing and the like by other young men

was treated very lightly, is realised by reference to

Yajfiavalkya and Mitaksard. }

Again, it seems from

Yajfiavalkya (Acdrddhydya Vivdhaprakarana) that

transgression of married women unless it bore fruit, was

treated very lightly. Thus Yajfiavalkya (1.3.72) says,

vyabhicdrdd rtau suddhih, i.e., in the case of transgression

the woman is purified by the next menstruation.

The fact also that there were so many kinds

of marriages and particularly the existence of a

gdndharva marriage shows that life was much freer

in ancient times than in later days. As the rigours

of the Smrti advanced with time and tried to stifle

free social behaviour and as social customs became

more and more puritanic and these again reacted upon

the writers of the Smrti and influence them gradually

to tighten their noose more and more, the cifrrent of

social life became gradually more and more stagnant

and unfit for free literary productions.

This also explains why the poets so often took the

theme of their subject from older Kfwyas and Puranic

legends. In itself there may be nothing wrong in

taking themes from older legends, provided the poet

could rejuvenate the legend with the spirit of his own

times. Shakespeare also drew from the legends of

Plutarch and other older writers. But though

the general scheme of the story is the same, yet the

1 somah Saucarp dadavasdrp gandharvasca hibhdm giram I

pdvakah sarva-medhyatvam medhyd vai yositohyatah II

Yajfiavalkya, I. 3. 71,

somagandharvavahnayah strirbhuldvd yathdkramar(i tdsdm tiaucamadhura-

vacana-sarvamedhyatvani. dattavantah tasmdt striyah tarvatra

sparbalinganadiu medhydh ttuddhah smrtah II

~Mitak?ara, 1.3.71.

1NTRODUC riON XXXV

characters have become living because Shakespeare lived

through these characters in his own imagination and

his sparkling genius took the materials of his own Mfe

from the social surroundings about him which became

rekindled by his emotion and imagination and it

was this burning colour of the characters, lived through

in the mind of the poet, that was displayed in his

dramatic creations. In the case of the Indian poets,

the legend was drawn from older Kavya or Puranic

myths but the poet himself had but little life to

infuse in the story (because in the social surroundings

in which he lived, mind was not free to move) lest he

might produce any shock on the minds of his readers

who used to live a patternised life. The force of this

remark will be easily appreciated if we remember

that Sanskrit poets who deal with illicit love seldom

make it the central theme of any big Kavya and

they utilised the little affairs of illicit love only in drawing

little pictures. The writers of Alamkara tell us that

wherever such illicit love is described and howsoever

beautifully may it be done, it must be taken as

rasabhasa, i.e., semblance of literary aesthetic emotion

and not real rasa or real aesthetic amorous sentiments.

A poet like Kalidasa made a successful venture in

Abhijfiana-sakuntala, where though the love was not

illicit yet it was going to shock the mind of his audience.

In order to prevent such a catastrophe, he had to take

his heroine as the daughter of a Ksattriya and a

heavenly nymph and as Dusyanta was going to repress

his emotion because it bad no sanction of society he

was at once reminded of the fact that his mind was so

much saturated with the proper discipline of the Vedic

life that he could trust his passion as directing him

to proper action. This very passage has been quoted

by Kumarila in defence of actions that may be done

No theme

of illicit love

or love tin*

sanctioned

by the social

rules

could be described

bj

poets without

shocking

the cultivated

taste.

Kalidasa 's

treatment

of love of

romance8.

XXXVI INTRODUCTION

Gandbarva

marriages

were probably

out

of date in

Kalidasa 's

time.

This explains

the

plot of the

Sakuntald.

even without the sanction of the sastra in accordance

with the customary behaviour of those whose minds

are saturated with Vedic ideas through generations of

loyal obedience to older customs. This also explains

Manu's injunction of saddcdra as being one of the

determinants of conduct.

Kalidasa al&o arranged the gandharva marriage

which was already becoming out of date at the time.

Pie had however in his mind the instinct of compunction

of a man whose mind is surcharged with sentiments

of loyalty to the Smrti-sdstras for staging such

a romance which was not customary at the time. He

therefore introduces a curse of ancient times through the

fiery wrath of Durvasa, creating a tragic episode which

he really could not bridge except by the very unreal

staging of a drama by making the king travel to heaven

and kill demons there and meet Sakuntala in the

heavenly hermitage of Marlca. For such a king who

can travel to heaven and kill demons there, one is

prepared to give any license. But Kalidasa did not

realise how unreal was this part of the drama when

taken along the natural and normal environment of the

first part. Of course Kalidasa never hesitated to be

unreal in his dramatic treatment. Sakuntala's familiarity

with nature in the poetic fancy that nature also

loved her is expressed in a technique which is wholly

unreal, viz., that of making the trees offer ornaments

for Sakuntala.

Rabindranath in his criticism of the drama

has interpreted it as embodying the conception of

Kalidasa that mere carnal love has a natural curse

with it, unless it is chastened by self-mortification

and tapasya. I would supplement it with a furthei

additional idea that this was probably Kalidasa's vievi

in the case of such weddings as are to produce grea!

INTHODtJCriON XXXVll

sons like Bharata and Karttikeya. He is not loyal to

this view either in Vikramorvasl or in Malavihagnamitra.

In Sakuntala, however, it may rightly be

argued that the conception bad taken place through

passionate love and Sakuntala was in fairly advanced

state of pregnancy when she was repulsed from

Dusyanta's court. It may further be added that there

was no wilful self-mortification and attempt to rouse

purity through a sense of value for a great love, as was

the case of Parvati's tapasya in Kumara-sambhava,

for Sakuntala lived with her mother in heaven and was

naturally pining through sorrow of separation from

Dusyanta and wearing garment for lonely ladies as

prescribed by the Sastras. Strictly speaking there

was no tapasya for love ; it was merely a suffering for

separation and as such we cannot apply the norm of

Kumarasambhava to the drama $akuntala. From this

standpoint Rabindranath's view cannot be strictly

justified. For suffering through mere separation may

chasten the mind and improve the sterner qualities of

love, but it cannot fully affect the nature of the original

worth and such occasions of suffering may arise even in

normal circumstances. We cannot also hold that

Kalidasa believed that suffering through separation

chastens love, for we do not find it in the case of

Vikramorvasl and the Mcghaduta. It seems therefore

more pertinent to hold that the veil of unreality of a

heavenly journey and meeting the son there were

conceived as improvements on the Mahabharata story

because the gandharva form of marriage had become

obsolete and to make the issue of such a wedlock

a great emperor like Bharata might not have pleased

Kalidasa's audience.

The unreality of Vilmnnorcati is so patent that it

needs no stressing. In the Raghuvamh also there

Rabindranath's

review of

Sakuntala

how far

correct.

XXXV111 INTRODUCTION

Unreality

of KilidSsa's

plots as

compared

with the

plot of

dudraka.

Overflow of

passion in

the lyrics.

Patieroisation

and

insulation

of Indian

Society.

are many episodes which are wholly of a mythical

nature. Why did this happen even with a genius like

Kalidasa ? Our simple answer is that life had begun

to bte patternised even at the time of Kalidasa. People

would swallow anything that was mythical and that was

the only place in which there was some latitude for

depicting emotions. The normal life had begun to be

undramatic and uneventful. Anything beyond the

normal would have been resented as not contributing to

good taste. But Sudraka who flourished centuries

before Kalidasa, did not feel any compunction in

making the love of a courtesan the chief theme of

his drama. There, for the first and the last time,

we find a drama which is surcharged with the

normal realities of life.

But the Sanskrit poets being thwarted in dealing

with free passionate love as the chief theme of a glorious

Kavya gave indulgence to the repressed sex-motives in

gross descriptions of physical beauty and purely carnal

side of love both in long-drawn Kavyas and also in

lyrics. It is for this reason that the genius of Sanskrit

writers in their realism of life has found a much

better expression in small pictures of lyric poems than

in long-drawn epics. The repressed motive probably

also explains why we so often find carnal and gross

aspects of human love so passionately portrayed.

I do not for a moment entertain the idea that

Sanskrit poets as a rule had a puritanic temperament

or suffered from any sense of prudery. They

regarded amorous sentiment to be the first and most

important of all rasas. Indeed, there have been

writers on Alarpkara who had held the amorous

sentiment to be the only sentiment to be portrayed.

But the patternised form of society and the unreal

ways of living where every action of life was conINTRODUCTION

XXXIX

krolled by the artificial injunction of the smrti which

always attempted to shape the mould of a progressive

society according to the pattern and model of a society

which had long ceased to exist in its natural environments

and which was merely a dream or imagination,

hampered the poet's fancy to such an extent that it

could seldom give a realistic setting to the creation of

his muse. We may add to it the fact that Sanskrit

poetry grew almost in complete isolation from any

other literature of other countries. The great poetry of

Rabindranath could not have been created if he were

imprisoned only in the Sanskritic tradition. The

society of the world and the poetry of the world in all

ages are now in our midst. We can therefore be almost

as elastic as we like, though it must be admitted that

we cannot stage all ouri deas in the present social

environment of this country. Here again, we live in a Gradual

stratificatime

when there are different strata of society stand- tion of

ing side by side. The present society has unfurled its

80Ciey<

wings towards future progress and in such a transitional

stage, the actual process of becoming and the

various stages of growth are lying one within the other.

This may be well illustrated if we take the case of men

and women living in the so-called polished and polite

society of Chowringhee and the people living in the

distant villages ofBengal. We have now in our midst an

immense number of societies having entirely different

ideals and perspectives. There must have been some

difference between people living in court atmosphere

and people living in hermitages far away from the town

such that the latter could hardly tolerate the former as

is well-expressed in the words of Sarngarava and Saradvata.

But on the whole there was a much greater

uniformity of society where all people followed the law

of smrti.

xl INTRODUCTION

Arti6ciality

and unreality

of the

life depicted

in the

Kavyaa.

Function

of poetry.

In conclusion I wish to suggest that the cause of the

artificiality and unreality of the life depicted in the

Kavyas is due to two facts : one, the gradual depletion

of life from society due to the rigour of the smrti and

absence of any intercourse with any foreign literature,

and the other, the conservatism for which whatever

foreign life was known to India could not in any way

influence the character and perspective of the Indians.

In this connection it is not out of place to mention

that the world of poetry was regarded as a new creation

different from the world of Nature. The purpose of

poetry is to give aesthetic enjoyment and not to give a

replica of the hard struggles of life, miseries and

sufferings. But I have reasons to think that this does

not imply that poetry should be divested from life but

it merely shows the spiritual nature of art which even

through the depicting of sorrows and sufferings produces

aesthetic pleasure. The object of poetry is mainly

to rouse our sentiments of joy and everything else

is to become its vehicle. This alone distinguishes

the material world from the world of art. Thus

Mammata says that the world of Nature is uniform

as it is produced by the power of destiny and is

dependent upon the material atoms, energy and the

accessory causes and is of the nature of pleasure,

pain and delusion, whereas the world of words

is a direct production of the poetic Muse and is

through and through interpenetrated with aesthetic joy.

It is also thought that poetry must carry with it the

delineation of an ideal or ideals not communicated by

way of authorisation, injunction or friendly advice, but

by rousing' our sympathy and interest, our joy and love

for them. It was therefore committed to the production

of something that would not in any way be shock*

ing to the sense of the good as conceived by the people.

INTRODUCTION xli

But the relieving feature of the Sanskrit Kavyas,

inspite of the conventional themes, subjects and

ways of description, is to be found in the fact that

most of the legends drawn from the Puranas or the

older Kavyas, were often such that the people

were familiar with them and were used normally and

habitually to take interest in the heroes and heroines

which were pretty well-known. People did not also

miss naturalness and reality because they thought that

in literature- they were entering into a new world,

which was bound to be different from the world of

Nature they knew. The majesty and the grandeur

of the Sanskrit language, the sonorousness of wordmusic,

the rise and fall of the rhythm rolling in waves,

the elasticity of meaning and the conventional atmosphere

that appear in it have always made it charming

to those for whom it was written. The unreality and

conventionality appear only to a modern mind looking

at it with modern perspectives. The wealth of

imagery, the vividness of description of natural scenes,

the underlying suggestiveness of higher ideals and the

introduction of imposing personalities often lend great

charm to Sanskrit poetry.

The atmosphere of artistic creation as displayed in

a Sanskrit play, as distinguished from the atmosphere

of ordinary reality has well been described by Abhinavagupta

in his commentary on Bharata's Natya-Sutra.

Thus, Abhinavagupta says that the constitutive words

of a Kavya produce in the mind of the proper reader

something novel, something that is over and above

the meaning of the poem. After the actual meaning of

words is comprehended there is an intuition by virtue of

which the spatio-temporal relation of particularity that

is associated with all material events disappears and a

state of universalisation is attained. When in the play of

F 1843B

Believing

features of

Sanskrit

poetry.

The transcendent

object of

literary art.

Xlii INTRODUCTION

tfafcunfa/aking Dusyanta appeared on a chariot following

a deer for piercing it with his arrows, the deer was

running in advance, turning backward its neck from time

to time to look at the chariot following it and expecting

a stroke of the arrow at every moment, and drawing its

hind legs towards the front, twisting the back muscles

and rushing forth with open mouth dropping on the way

the half-chewed grass, we have a scene of fear ; bat our

mind does not refer it to the deer of any particular time

or place or to the particular king who was hunting the

deer, and we have no idea of any fear as being of any

particular kind or belonging to a particularly localised

animal. The absence of this particularity is manifested

in the fact that we have no feeling of sorrow or anxiety

associated with it. It is because this fear arises in a

special manner in which it is divested of all association

, of particularity that it does not get mixed up with any of

our personal psychological feelings. For this reason the

Display of aesthetic experience produced by literature, the sentiment

that is realised through delineation in art, is

devoid of any association with any particular time,

place or

person.

For this reason the aesthetic representation

of fear or any other emotion is entirely different

from any real psychological sentiment. And therefore,

it is devoid of the ordinary associates that accompany

any real psychological sentiment that is felt personally

as belonging to a real person in a particular spatiotemporal

setting. Abhinava says that in such a fear

the self is neither absolutely hidden nor illuminated in

its individual personal character (tathdvidhe hi bhaye

natyantamatma tirashrto na vitesatah ullikhitah). The

artistic creation and representation then appear in an

atmosphere of light and darkness, shadow and illumination

in which the reference to the real person and the

real time and place is dropped. As when we ipfer the

INTRODUCTION xliii

existence of fire from smoke we do not make any

reference to any special fire or any special smoke,

so here also the aesthetic sentiment has no localised

aspect. When through the gestures, of the players

different sentiments are aroused in the minds of the

observers, then the representation so intuited

^s

divested of the spatio-temporal relations .

In the external world things exist in an inter-related

manner and the negation of some of these relations

imply also a negation of the other relations. For this

reason when the mind becomes unrelated to the spatiotemporal

relations and the actual personalities then the

sentiment that is roused is divested of personalities and

the actual conditions and the importance is felt of the

roused sentiment alone.

There is in our unconscious mind an instinctive

attraction for different kinds of enjoyment as well as subconscious

or unconscious impressions of various kinds

of satisfactions. When aesthetic sentiments as dissociated

from their actual environments of the original

are roused in the mind, these become affiliated to or

reconciled to the relevant root-impressions or instincts

and that transforms the presentation into a real emotion

though they are divested from the actual surroundings

of the original. It is because the aesthetic emotion is

roused by mutual affiliation of the representation and the

in-lying dormant root-passions which are common to all

that there can be a communion of aesthetic sentiments

among observers, which is the ultimate message of artcommunication

(ata eva sarva-samajikanamekaghana*

tayaiva pratipatteh sutardm rasa-pariposaya sarve?am

anadi-vasana-citrikfta-cetasam vasanaswiivadat) .

We thus see that universalisation is of two kinds.

On the one hand, there is the universalisation of the

representation consisting of the depletion from it of the

The sort of

personality

roused in

art.

Aesthetic

emotion.

(Jnivem*

li sition in

poetrj.

xliv INTRODUCTION

actual conditions of the environment and the actual

personalities. On the other hand, there is another kind

of universalisation with reference to its enjoyment.

The enjoyment is more or less of the same type for all

qualified observers and readers. All persons have the

same type of dormant passions in them and it is by

being affiliated with those dormant passions that the

aesthetic emotions bloom forth. For this reason in the

case of all qualified observers and readers the aesthetic

emotion enjoyed is more or less of the same type

though there may be individual differences of taste on

account of the existence of specific differences in the

dormant passions and the nature of representations.

In any case, where such aesthetic emotion is not

bound with any ties and conditions of the actual world

it is free and spontaneous and it is not trammelled or

polluted by any alien feelings. The aesthetic quality

called camatkara manifests itself firstly, as an aesthetic

consciousness of beauty, and secondly, as the aesthetic

delight, .and thirdly, as nervous exhilaration,

of Abhinava is unable to define the actual mental

experience, status of aesthetic experience. It may be called

an intuition, a positive aesthetic state, imagination,

memory or a mere illumination (sa ca

sakstitkara-svabhavo manasa-dhyavasayo vd samkalpo

ud smrtirvd tathdtcena sphurann-astu

api tu pratibhdnd-para-paryydyd sdksdtktirasvabhdveyam),

Our ordinary experiences are bound

with spatio-temporal environments and conditions.

In literature there cannot be such obstacles. When

without any obstruction the rooted passions bubble

forth as aesthetic emotion we have the emotion of literature.

At the time of knowing ordinary objects we

have the objects as actually transcending our knowledge

which have an objective reality and which cannot be

INTRODUCTION xlv

caught within the meshes of knowledge. When I see

a tree standing before me I can only see certain colours

spatially distributed before me but the actual tree itself

is beyond that knowledge of colour. Being connected

with an object which exists transcending my colourperception

and which cannot be exhausted within that

colour-perception, our knowledge cannot stand by itself

without that object. For this reason perceptual experience

cannot wholly discover for us the object. So

in our inner perception of pleasure or pain there is the

ego within us which is unknown in itself and is known

only so far as it is related to the emotions through

which we live. For this reason here also there is the

unknown element, the ego, which is not directly

known. Our experiences of pleasure and pain being

integrally related to it, we have always an undiscovered

element in the experience of ordinary pleasure and

pain. Pleasure and pain, therefore, cannot reveal themselves

to us in their entire reality or totality. Thus,

both our inner experiences of pleasure and pain and our

objective experience of things being always related to

something beyond them cannot reveal themselves in

their fulness. Our knowledge thus being incomplete in

itself runs forth and tries to express itself through

hundreds of relations. For this reason our ordinary

experience is always relative and incomplete. Here our

knowledge cannot show itself in its wholeness and selfcomplete

absolute totality. Our knowledge is always

related to an external object the nature of which

is unknown to us. Yet it is on the basis of that

unknown entity that knowledge manifests itself. It

is therefore naturally incomplete. It can only express

itself in and through a manifold of relations.

But the aesthetic revelation is manifested without

involving the actual object within its constituent

xlvi INTRODUCTION

Idealistic

outlook of

Indian

Aesthetics.

Concept of

Indian

drams.

content. It is, therefore, wholly unrelated to any localised

object or subject. The aesthetic revelation is thus

quite untrammelled by any objective tie.

I do not wish to enter any further into the

recondite analysis of the aesthetic emotion as given

t>y the great critic of literature, Abhinavagupta.

But what I wish to urge is that the writers of Indian

drama had not on the one hand the environment consisting

of a social life that was progressive and free

where concussions of diverse characters could impress

their nature on them and on the other hand they

regarded that the main importance of literature

was not the actuality and concreteness of real life

but they thought that the purpose of literature was

the creation of an idealised atmosphere of idealised

emotions divested from all associations of concrete actual

and objective reality. Thus, Dr. De says :

"

Sanskrit

drama came to possess an atmosphere of sentiment and

poetry which was conducive to idealistic creation at the

expense of action and characterisation, but which in

lesser dramatists overshadowed all that was dramatic

in it/'

According to the Sanskrit rhetoricians, Kavya is

divided into two classes drsya and sravya, i.e., what can

be seen and what can be heard. Neither the Sanskrit

rhetoricians nor the poets made any essential distinction

between Kavya and drama, because the object of

them both is to create aesthetic emotion by rousing

the dormant passions through the aesthetic representation

or the art-communication. Our modern conception

that drama should show the repercussions of

human mind through a conflict of action and*re-action

in actual life cannot be applied in^ judging the Indian

dramas. The supreme creator of the world, Brahman,

produces the world out of Him as the* representation of

INTRODUCTION xlvii

magical hallucination which has order and uniformity

as well as unchangeable systems of relations, but

which is all the same a mirage or mayd and is relatively

-temporary. The poet also moves his magic wand

and drawing upon the materials of the world, weaves

a new creation which possesses its own law but which

is free from any spatio-temporal bondage of particularity

in the objective world. It becomes spread out in our

aesthetic consciousness where the aesthetic delight

may show itself without being under the limitation

of the objective world and the ordinary concerns and

interests of the subjective mind. Yet there are some

dramas at least like the Mrcchakitika and the

Mudrardksasa which satisfy our modern standards of

judgment about drama.

Consistent with the view that drama was not

regarded by the Sanskrit poets as a composition in

which the conflict of action and re-action and the

struggle of passions are to be delineated, the Sanskrit

poets as a rule abstained from showing any violent

action or shocking scenes or shameful episodes or

gross demonstration of passion or anything revolting

in general on the stage. They had a sense of perfect

decorum and decency so that the total effect intended

by the drama might not in any way be vitiated. Consonant

with this attitude and with the general optimism

of Indian thought and philosophy that the worldprocess

ultimately tends to beatitude and happiness

whatsoever pains and sufferings there may be in the

way that Indian drama as a rule does not end

tragically ; and to complete the effect we have often a

benedictory verse to start with or a verse of adoration,,

and a general benediction for all in the end so that

the present effect of the drama may leave a lasting

impression on the mind, Indian culture as a rule

The idea

behind the

happy

ending of

Indiao

dramas.

Xlviii INTRODUCTION

does not believe that the world is disorderly and that

accidents and chance-occurrences may frustrate good

life and good intentions, or that the storms and stress

of material events are purposeless and not inter-related

with the moral life of man. On the other hand, the

dominant philosophical belief is that the whole

material world is integrally connected with the destiny

of man and that its final purpose is the fulfilment of

the moral development of man.

% Even the rigorous

SmrtUastra which is always anxious to note our

transgressions has always its provisions for the expiation

of our sins. No sins or transgressions can be strong

enough to stick to a man ; it may be removed either by

expiation or by sufferings. Freedom and happiness

are the birth-right of all men. The rigorous life

imposed upon an ascetic is intended to bring such

beatitude and happiness as may be eternal.

Consonant with such a view the ideal of art should be

not one of laying emphasis on the changeful and

accidental occurrences but on the law and harmony

of justice and goodness and ultimate happiness. When

we read the dramas of Shakespeare and witness -the

sufferings of King Lear and of Desdemona or of Hamlet,

we feel a different philosophy. We are led to think

that the world is an effect of chaotic distribution and

redistribution of energy, that accidents and chance

occurrences are the final determinants of events and the

principle of the moral government of the world is only

a pious fiction. But Indian culture as a rule being

committed to the principle of the moral fulfilment of

man's values as being ultimate does seldom allow

the poets and artists to leave the destiny of the world

to any chance occurrence. Chance occurrences and

accidents do ipdeed occur and. when the whole is

not within" our perspective they may seem to rule

INTRODUCTION xlix

the world. But this is entirely contrary to Indian

outlook. Granting that in our partial perspective this

may appear to be true, yet not being reflective of the

whole it is ugly, unreal and untrue and as such it is

not worthy of being manifested through art, for the

final appeal of art lies in a region where beauty,

goodness and truth unite. The genuine art is supposed

to rouse our sattva quality. It is these sattva qualities

which in their tripartite aspects are the final source

from which truth, goodness and beauty spring.

According to the Hindu theory of Art, there cannot

be any impure aesthetic delight and all aesthetic

delight beautifies and purifies our soul. It is for this

reason that even when the drama has a tragic end the

effect of the tragic end is softened and mellowed by other

episodes. Thus in the Uttaracarita the pivot of the

drama is the desertion of Slta. But the effect of this

desertion is more than mollified by the episode of the

third act in which Rama's passionate love for Sita is so

excellently portrayed and by the happy manner in

which the drama ends.

We may regard the Mahabharata and the Rdmdyana The ,

bhdrata9

as the earliest specimens of great works written in the its dynamic

kdvya style. Though the Mahabharata underwent

probably more than one recension and though there

have been many interpolations of stories and episodes

yet it was probably substantially in a well-formed

condition even before the Christian era. I have

elsewhere tried to prove that the Bhagavadgita was

much earlier as a specimen of the Vdkovdkya literature

which was integrated in the Mahabharata as a whole.

It is of interest to note that the whole tone of the

Mahabharata is in harmony with that of the Gtta. The

Mahabharata is not called a kdvija, it is called an itihdsa

and judged by the standard of a kavya it is unwieldy,

1343B

1 INTRODUCTION

massive and diffuse. It does not also follow any of

the canons prescribed for a mahakavya by later

rhetoricians. But it is thoroughly dramatic in its

nature, its personages often appear with real characters

and the conflict of actions and re-actions, of passions

against passions, of ideals and thoughts of diverse

nature come into constant conflict and dissolve

themselves into a flow of beneficent harmony. It is a

criticism of life, manners and customs and of

changing ideals. It is free, definite and decisive and

the entire life of ancient India is reflected in it as in a

mirror. It contains no doubt descriptions of Nature,

it abounds also in passages of love, but its real

emphasis is one of life and character and the conflict of

different cultures and ideals and it shows a state of

society which is trying to feel its course through a

chaotic conflict of different types of ideas and customs

that mark the character of a society in a state of

transition. Various stereotyped ideals of old are

discussed here and dug to the roots as it were for

discovering in and through them a certain fundamental

principle which could be the basis of all morality and

society. The scheme of the VarnaSrama-dharma was

still there and people were required to do their duties

in accordance with their own varnas. To do good

to others is regarded in the Mahabharata as the solid

foundation of duty. Even truth had its basis in it.

But still in the cause of one's duty and for the cause

of right and justice the Ksattriya w?}s always bound

to fight without attaching any personal interest in the

fruits of his actions.

These and similar other principles as well as moral

stories and episodes are appended with the main story

of the Mahabharata and thus it is a great store-house

which holds within it at least implicitly a large part

INTRODUCTION li

of ancient Indian culture and history of thoughts. The

style of the whole is easy and flowing and there is seldom

any attempt at pedantry or undue ornamentation. The

style of the Ramayana, however, is much more

delightful and it reveals genuine poetry of the first

order. It is for this reason that the Ramayana has

always been looked upon as unapproachable model not

only by lesser poets but also by poets like Kalidasa

and Bhavabhuti.

Bhamaha and other writers think, however, that

the essential condition that contributes to the charm

of alamkara and kavya as well is atifayokti or the

over-statement of the actual facts. This over-statement

does not only mean exaggeration but a new way of

approach to things, a heightening of value which

also constitutes the essence of vakrokti. In whatever

way one may heighten the value of that which

was a mere fact of Nature it would contribute to poetry.

In every type of poetry, even in svabMvokti, the poet

has to re-live within him the facts of Nature or the

ordinary experiences of life and it is by such an inner

enjoyment of the situation that the poet can contribute

a part of his own inner enjoyment and spiritual perspective

to the experiences themselves.1 Mere statement

of facts in which there is no sign that the

poet lived through it cannot make literature. "The

sun has set, the birds are going to their nests

"

are mere informations. They do not constitute

kavya.* Thus the so-called alanikaras are often but

1 said sarvaiva vakroktiranaydrtho vibhavyate I

yatno'syarp kavind kdryah ko'larpkaro'nayd vind II

-Bhamaba, II. 85.

*

gato'stamarko bhattndurydnti vdsdya pakqinah I

ityevamddi fettp kdvyavp vdrttdmendip pracakfate II

Bhftmaha, II. 87.

The essence

of K&vja as

the heightened

ezpres.

sion of

experience.

Ill

the signs which show that the poet has re-lived

through his ordinary experiences with his aesthetic

functions and has thus created art. An over-emphasis

of them, however, or a wilful effort at pedantry which

does not contribute to beauty is indeed a fault. But

in a poet like Bana we find the oriental grandeur

of decoration which,, though majestic and pompous, is

nevertheless charming.

SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF LITERATURE

The choice if we take a review of the subject matter of the

of subjects.

'

various kavyas and dramas, we find that the plots

are mostly derived from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana

and sometimes from some of the Puranas, sometimes

from the stories of great kings, or religious and

martial heroes, or sometimes from floating stories or from

the great story-book of Gunadhya and its adciptations,

and sometimes from the traditional episodes about kings

and sometimes also from stories invented by the poet

himself. But as we move forward through the

centuries, when the freedom of thought and views and

ideas became gradually more and more curbed, the choice

of subjects on the parts of the poets became almost wholly

limited tp the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

This would be evident to anyone who will read

the history of Sanskrit literature as presented here

together with editorial comments at the end of the book.

Works of literature are not mere plays of imagination

or of solitary caprices of the brain, but they may

be said to be transcripts of contemporary manners or as

representing types of certain kinds of mind. It is sometimes

held that from the works of literature one might

form a picture of the modes of human feelings and

thoughts through the progressive march of history.

iNTftODUCTION liil

Maramata in his Kavyaprakasa says that krivya produces

fame, one can know from it the manners and customs of

the age and that it produces immediate artistic

satisfaction of a transcendent order both for the reader

and for the writer and it is also instructive by the

presentation of great ideals in a sweet and captivating

manner like that of one's lady love.

We can understand the history of literature of

any country only by regarding it as being merely a

product, a flower as it were, of the entire history

rising upwards towards the sun like a gigantic tree

with outspreading branches. 'It may be difficult to

follow the tree from branch to branch and from leaf

to leaf, but the tree has left its mark, the type to

which it belongs, in its flowers. One can classify

the histories of the various people by comparing

the essential characteristics of the literature as much

as one can classify the trees through the flowers./ It is

indeed true that an individual poet, though he may

belong to his age, may have his own peculiarity of

temperament and interest by which he may somewhat

transcend the age. But such transcendence cannol

altogether change the character of his mind whict

is a product of his society.

Genuine history does not consist of the wars and History

battles that are fought, the accession and deposition

of kings ; so if we judge of literature, it is not mere

mythology or language or dogmas or creeds which may

be discovered from certain documents that constitute

literature, but it is the men that have created it. The

general characteristics of an age can also become vivid

if we can portray before our mind the individual men.

Everything exists only through the individuals and we

must become acquainted with the typical individual. We

may discover the sources of dogmas, classify the poems,

llV INTRODUCTION

realise the political constitution of the country or

analyse the language in accordance with the linguistic

principles and so far clear the ground. But genuine

history is brought to light only when the historian

discovers and portrays across the lapse of centuries the

living men as to how they worked, how they felt, how

they are hemmed in by their customs, so that we may

feel that we hear_ their voice, seeTBelr gestures, postures

and features, their dress and garment, just as we can do

of friends whom we have visited in the morning or seen

in the street.

If we want to study a modern French poet

like Alfred de Musset, or Victor Hugo, we may

imagine him, as Taine says,

"

in his black coat and

gloves, welcomed by the ladies and making every

evening his fifty bows and his score of bon-mots

in society, reading the papers in the morning,

lodging as a rule on the second floor ; not overgay

because he has nerves and specially because

in this dense democracy where we choke one another,

the discredit of the dignities of office has exaggerated

his pretensions while increasing his importance and

because the refinement of his feelings in general

disposes him somewhat to believe himself a deity."

Then again, if we take a poet like .Racine of the 17th

century, we can imagine him to be elegant, courtierlike,

a fine speaker, with a majestic wig and ribbonshoes,

both Koyalist and a Christian, clever at entertaining

a prince, very respectful to the great, always

knowing his place, assiduous and reserved, at Marly

as at Versailles, among the regular pleasures of a

polished society, brimming with salutations, graces,

airs and fopperies of the Lords, who rose early in

the morning to obtain the promise of being appointed

to some office, in case of the death of the present holder,

INTRODUCTION 1\T

and among charming ladies who can count their

genealogies on the fingers in order to obtain the right

of sitting at a particular place in the court. So also

when we read a Greek tragedy we must be able to

imagine of well-formed beautiful figures living halfnaked

in the gymnasia or in the public squares under

the most enchanting panorama of views ; nimble and

strong, conversing, discussing, voting, yet lazy and

temperate, waited on by slaves so as to give them

leisure to cultivate their understanding and exercise

their limbs and with no desire beyond attending to

what is beautiful. We can get a picture of such

a Greek life from thirty chosen passages of Plato

and Aristophanes much better than we can get from

a dozen of well-written histories.

If we wish to picture before our mind the life of a city

beau in jmcient India we cnn imagine him as having a

house beside a lake with a garden beside it, having many

rooms for his works, for meeting people, for sleep and

for bath a house divided into an external and internal

part, the internal part for the ladies. His bed is

covered with a white sheet made fragrant with incense,

pillowed on both sides, the head and the feet, and

very soft in the middle, with a seat for an idol or image

of a deity at the head-side of the bed, a small table

with four legs of the same height as the bed on which

there are flower-garlacds, sandal-paste, a little wax

in a vesseI7~~a little fragrant fan, spices; there is

a spitoon on the grouncTTThe

' Vina '

is hanging on

a peg in the wall; there is a number of pictures

hanging in proper positions in the wall, articles for

painting on a table, some books of poems and some gar-

IanJsT The seats inTfie room are covered with beautiful

covers ; outside in the verandah there are probably

birds in a cage and arrangements of diverse sports in

Ivi INTRODUCTION

the yard, ajwing baggingjp a shady ^ place ; and an

elevated quadrangle for sitting at pleasure.

The beau rises in the morning, performs his

morning ablutions, offers his morning prayers and other

i^IigqusJdufi'^T^besmears himself faintly with sanjialpaste

and wears clothes fragrant with the smoke

of aguru, wears a garland on his hair^ slightly paints

hisTipsfwith red, chewTbetel leaves, and looking at his

face at a mirror, ~^T~gb out to perform his daily

duties. He takes his bath everyday, cleanses.his Jyjdy

with perfumes, gets himself massaged, sometimes

takes vapour-baths, shaves generally every three da^s,

takes his meals in the middle of the day, in the

afternoon and also in the night; after meals he would

either play or go to sleep and in the evenings gojput

tojbe clubs for sport. The early part of the niight

maybgipent in musicjmd the night in love-making of

j receiving ladies and attending to them.

He arranges^ fg&tivities on the occasions of worship of

particular godjs; in_ the clubs he talks about literature

in small groups, he sits together and drinks, goes out

to gardens and indulges in sports. On festive occasions

in the temple of Sarasvat! dramatic performances are

held^jand actors and dancers from different temples

come and meet together for the performance. Guests

are received and well attended to. The clubs were

generally located in the houses of courtesan^ or in

special houses or in the houses of some members of the

club: These clubs were often encouraged by the kings

and in such places men more or less of the same age,

intelligence, character and riches, met and spent their

time in mutual conversation or conversation with

courtesans. There they discussed literature, or practised

dramatic art, dancing, singing, etc. They would

often drink wines at each other's houses,

INTRODUCTION Ivii

Raja^ekhara describes the daily Jifej>f a poet. He

rises in the morning, performs his morning duties

including religious practices. Then sitting at leisure

in his study-room, he studies books relevant to poetry

for about three hours and for about another three hours

he engages himself in writing poetry. Towards midday,

he takes his bath and meals, after which he again

engages himself in literary conversations and literary

work. In the afternoon, in association with chosen

friends he criticises the work done in the morning.

When a person writes something under the inspiration

of emotion he cannot always be critical. It is therefore

desirable that he should criticise his own work and

try to better the composition in association with chosen

friends. He then re-writes the work. JJ ^ sleeps

for six hours and in the early hours of the morning

he reviews the work of the previous day. There are,

however, poets who have no restrictions of time and

are always engaged in writing poetry. Such poets

have no limitations of time as those engaged in services

of some kind or other. Well-placed women such as

princesses, daughters of high officials and courtesans as

well as the wives of gay people became often highly

learned and also poets.

It is the business of the king to establish an

assembly of poets. When the king himself is a poet,

he would often make assembly halls for the poets

where all learned people assemble as well as musicians,

actors, dancets and gingers. lbe kings Vasudeva,

Satavahana, Sudraka, probably all had established such

academies/) It is for this reason that in the capitals

of great kings learning bad so often flourished. Thus,

Kalidasa, Mentha, Amara, Rupa, Sura, Bharavi,

Bhattara Haricandra and Candragupta flourished in

Ujjayini. So also Upavarsa, Varsa, Panini, Pingala,

Life of

poet aftc

RajaSekban

Early

academies.

1V111 INTRODUCTION

Vyacji, Vararuci, Patanjali and others flourished in

Pataliputra.

 

Om Tat Sat
                                                        
(Continued...) 

(My humble salutations to Sreeman S N Dasgupta ji and Sreeman S K De ji for the collection)