A HISTORY OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE
CLASSICAL PERIOD
VOL. I
General Editor and
Contributors to this Volume:
S. N. DASGUPTA
and
S. K. DE,
ixxxv i
INTRODUCTION
Characteristics
of
some other
forms of
the
drama.
the plot
here may be either legendary or concocted by
the poet,
It also contributes to dharma, artha and
kama, but
the characters are not taken from the higher
sphere.
There may be courtesans here or legally
married
wives or damsels in the state of courtship
but they
are all taken from the bourgeois, such as in
the
Mrcchakatika or the Malatimadhava. The natika
like the
Ratnavall or the Priyadarsika also deals with
characters
of the higher sphere and they are generally
of the
amorous type. There is not in it any attempt
to
contribute to dharma, artha and kama in mutual
consistency.
We thus find that it has not the same high
purpose as
the nataka or the prakarana. This
accounts
for the fact that natakas have been more popular
and we have
an immensely larger number of natakas
than any
other form of the drama. This is consistent
with the
ideal of the realisation of trivarga, i.e.,
dharma,
artha and kama, in dramatic performance. It
also
accounts for the fact that we have so few of the
prahasana
and the bhana, which are farces and parodies
from common
life. There may have been the earlier
forms of
popular play which gradually dwindled away
into
forgetfulness with the pronounced and pointed
development
of the ideal of trivarga among people in
general,
and we perceive that as time advanced the ideal
of dharma
as. a purpose of drama was more and more
definitely
demanded. When with the Mahomedan
occupation
the religious practices ceased to be encouraged
by kings,
people wanted to be reminded of the old
ideals of
holy characters in dramatic plays and this
explains
the fact why after the 12th or the 13th century
we have
such a superabundance of Epic kavyas and
dramas with
religious themes.
Taken at
random, of about 68 dramatic pieces after
the 12th
century A.D., we find that the plot of about
INTRODUCTION
Ixxxvii
41 of them
were taken from the religious legends and
only 27
from the secular legends, mostly built upon the
story
available from Gunacjhaya's source. Of these 41
dramatic
pieces drawn from the religious legends, 27
are
natakas, one is a prakarana, 3 are vyayogas, 2
dimas, one
Ihdmrga, 4 utsrstikahkas, 2 samavakaras.
Of the 27
dramatic pieces from secular sources, 6 are
natakas, 11
prakaranas, 3 prahasanas, 2 vtthis, 4
natikas and
one lhamrga. We thus see that the natakas
by far
exceeded all other forms of dramatic compositions
and most of
them ^were taken from religious legends.
All
vyayogas (three), dimas (two), utsrstikahkas (four)
and
samavakaras (two) are religious. There is one
secular
lhamrga and one religious. The bhana and the
prahasana
cannot by nature be religious and we have
only 4
prahasanas including the Hasyacudamani, and
there is
one bhana called the Karpuracarita. Among
those
derived from secular legends, there are some
natakas, prakaranas,
two vtthis and 4 natikas. The
dima, we
have already seen, deals with episodes of
supernatural
beings like the ghosts and goblins. The
vyayoga and
the samavakdra deal generally with dreadful
events,
battles between the demons and the gods and
it is
probable that they existed as the earlier forms
of dramatic
representations portraying the defeats of the
asuras and
the aboriginal races in their conflict with
the Aryans.
The bhana and the prahasana were
generally
comic representations from popular life of a
lower
status and they displayed no moralising tendency.
These were
the first to disappear. Those dramatic
forms of
representation like the vyayoga, dima and
samavakara
which represented military valour, anger
or
irascibility of temper, could not also stand, as with
the
distance of time actual episodes. of battles, etc.,
which had
at one time agitated the public mind and
Dominance
of
religions
motive ID
the
dramatic
literature.
Characteristics
of
different
types of
the drama.
Ixxxviii
INTRODUCTION
The
subjects
of dramas
and Epics
are mostly
taken from
religious
sources.
represented
the mock triumph of the Aryan people
over their
neighbours, ceased to interest the public
mind. The
fact that Bbasa, whose works are the
earliest
representatives of our dramatic literature now
available,
gives equal importance to these as to the
natakas
indicates the possibility of their existence in
larger
numbers in earlier times which are now lost. It
is
remarkable to note that Bhasa also draws upon
religious
legends in a large measure. Of the two
fragmentary
dramas of A^vaghosa, one is the Sariputraprakarana
and the
other is a religious allegory like the
Prabodha-candrodaya
of later times, and the religious
motive is
apparent in both of them.
In the
drama of later times, i.e., from the 12th to
the 18th
century, taking a review of about 33 dramas,
we find
that almost all of them are based on either the
Rama or the
Krsna legend. Hardly any drama had
been
written during this period which may be said to
have been
based upon the story-material of Gunacjhya
which in
the later centuries before Christ and throughout
many
centuries after the Christian era supplied
materials
to so many dramas. The same thing may be
said with
more emphasis regarding the Epic kavyas.
With the
exception of the Carita-kavyas or biographical
epics there
have hardly been any Epic kavyas throughout
the
centuries which have not been based on the religious
legends.
Valmiki's Ramayana, the Mahabharata
and the
Kj^na legends from the Puranas had stood as
inexhaustible
stores from which poets could either
borrow or
adapt legends with modifications for their
kavya. The
Prafasti kavyas were all inspired with
feelings of
loyalty to great kings or patrons and such
loyalty
could be compared only to devotion to God.
Thus, both
in the dramas and in the kavyas the scope of
the poet's
treatment was limited by the considerations
INTRODUCTION
Ixxxix
of
trivarga-siddhi. The Sanskrit poets were as a rule
very fond
of delineating the amorous sentiment or the
sentiment
of love. But they could give play to the
portrayal
of their erotic predilections only in a limited
manner in
the kavyas and the dramas so far as is consistent
with
normal, social and conjugal rules of life ;
but in this
sphere the elaborate description of feminine
beauty and
post-nuptial amorous enchantments gave the
poets
sufficient scope to indulge in their tendency to
give
expression to passions and longings. Long separations
were also
good situations for portraying amorous
longings.
But whether
in literature or not, the bodily side of
the passion
or the structural conditions of feminine
beauty have
found a place of importance and except in
the works
of a few artists or poets, the representations
of the
physical side seem to our taste to be rather crude.
It does not,
of course, prove that the passion was
burning
more in the blood of the Hindus than in the
blood of
other races. It probably simply means that
kama being
one of the constituents of trivarga, voluptuousness
and
sensuality and appreciation of feminine
beauty as
sanctioned by dharma was quite innocent and
had nothing
to be abashed of. The passion of kama,
as has been
mentioned above, had two spheres, one that
was
enjoined by dharma where non-indulgence of the
passions
would be a punishable sin, and the other when
it was not
enjoined by dharma but when such indulgence
did not
transgress the limits of dharma. So the
poets also
portrayed passionate love in the latter sphere
and these
portrayals in the satakas and elsewhere form
some of the
best specimens of Sanskrit amorous poetry.
It has been
said above that the drama or Epic kQvya
was looked
upon in this country not as a portrayal of
any scene
of life or any characters that came within the
The place
of
love as a
member of
the
trivarga
in
literature.
T 1Q4QT)
XC INTRODUCTION
experience
of the poet but that they were generally
regarded as
giving an epitome of complete life either of
the great
religious heroes or of kings famous in
traditional
or legendary accounts. Evem the story of
Gunadhya
had a sanctified atmosphere about it on
account of
the fact that it was often believed that it was
originally
narrated by Lord Siva to Parvatl (haramukhodgirnd).
It is on
this account that in the great
kavyas
where royal life was depicted, wars and battles,
svayanivaras,
kingly magnanimity and royal episodes of
love were
narrated and in dramas also which were not
professedly
of a didactic character, the principal subjectmatter
was an
episode of love and on some occasions
heroism
also.
It is on
account of a loyalty ingrained deeply in the
of indUn
mental structure of Hindu life that Hindu creations
either in
art, literature or philosophy have always
followed
the course of creating types, where individuality
has always
remained shy to express itself in its full
height.
Thus, in philosophy also we do not get a free
response of
thought moving forward largely untramelled
by
conditions, but always leaning towards certain fixed
points
which are like the Cartesian co-ordinates determining
its exact
situation. Thus, almost every Indian
philosophy
should admit the validity of the Vedas, the
doctrine of
re-birth or transmigration, the possibility of
salvation
and the root-cause of the world as being some
form of
ignorance. Within these limits each system of
Indian
philosophy develops its own views and predilections.
Each system
can criticise the above concepts,
may explain
its theory of knowledge and the nature of
the world,
a concept of bondage and salvation and the
ways that
may be adopted for that. So in art also,
most forms
of pictorial or statuary art and even the
architectural
art of India would have some message tq
iNtKObtCTlON
fcci
communicate
and a physical portrayal would rather
sacrifice
its faithfulness to nature in the interest of the
message to
be communicated rather than be realistic
and devote
itself only to the delineation of beauty.
Under these
circumstances, an Epic is supposed to
have for
its hero some king or kings of the same race.
The story
must be taken from a legend. It should
include
within it deprecatory remarks about evil deeds
and the
edification of the noble, description of natural
scenes,
mountains, forests and oceans, morningr eveningA
and the
seasons.
Every kind
of human production, literature, music,
fine arts,
philosophy, science, state-craft, has for its
direct cause
a moral disposition or a combination of ?/ J
*nd
L
literature.
moral
dispositions which seems somehow internally to
determine
these products. The conditions of race,
epoch and
environmental conditions and circumstances
bring out
to prominence certain moral conditions which
are suited
to the production of particular types of architecture,
painting,
sculpture, music or poetry. Each has
its special
law and it is by virtue of this law, accidentally
as it may
appear, that development takes place
amidst the
diversion of its neighbours, like painting in
Flanders
and Holland in the 17th century, poetry in
England in
the 16th century, music in Germany in the
18th. At
such times in such countries the conditions are
fulfilled
for one art rather than for another. There is
a special
kind of psychology, a mental perspective
required
for the development of each of these arts.
There is a
peculiar inner system of impressions and
operations
which makes an artist, a believer, a musician,
a painter,
a wanderer, or a man of society. Literature
is like
living monuments of the outstanding personalities
of
different times. Literature is instructive because it
is
beautiful. Its utility depends upon its perfection.
It deals
with visible and almost tangible sentiments
and the
more a book represents the important sentiment
of the
people the higher is its place in literature. It is
by
representing the mode of being of the whole Nature
of a whole
age that a writer can collect round him the
sympathies
of an entire age and an entire nation. It is
not mere
catechisms or chronicles that can impress
upon us the
inner nature of a person or a nation. It is
the inner
movement of sentiments and interests, ideals
and
emotions made living through artistic expression,
that can
hold before us the life of a people.
It is
curious to notice that Indian life and manners
continued
to present a pattern for decades of centuries.
There was
growth and development but more or less on
the same
line. It was only after the Mahammadan
invasion
and finally with the occupation of the country
by the
British that the system of its life and manners
and even
the psychology of the people has undergone a
rude change
a change which at the first shock had
stunned the
mind of the people with the advent of the
new
sciences, new ways of thought, new perspectives
which
brought with it the whole history of Western
culture
with its massive strength hurled against the
Indian
people. During the first 130 years or so the
nerve of
the Indian mind was almost paralysed by this
rude shock
and during the past 50 years the Indian
mind is
again trying to undersfand the value of the
contribution
of this culture and has been trying to
become
self-conscious and rise above its influence a
fact which
may be well appreciated not only by the
growing
political consciousness and demand for freedom
but also
from the history of the Bengali literature,
culminating
in the literature of Poet Eabindranath in
whose
writings we find a clear and concrete method as
to how the
Western culture can be synthesised with the
tNTfcODUCilOfc
Indian
genius without submitting and drooping down
before the
former but rising above it and yet assimilating
its best
fruits and introducing such changes in our
outlook and
perspective as are consonant with our past
and yet
capable of assimilating the new for a creative
transfiguration.
The reason
of the continuity of Indian culture is Of Indian*
7
largely to
be found in the insular character of our civicultnrelisation
and the
extreme doggedness and obstinacy
amounting
to haughtiness and national pride rising to
the level
of religion against the conscious acceptance of
any
contribution from any foreigner. This could be
possible
largely because of the fact that this national
pride had
become identified with our religion. Our
legal literature
is called Dharmat&stra or religious literature.
Manners,
customs, professions and the like, the
creation of
our social classes with their restricted duties,
divisions
of life into different stages with their ordained
duties, are
not for us mere social adjustments due to
diverse
social and environmental causes but it has been
the essence
of Hindu religion. The Smrtis or the Indian
legal
literature has codified for every member of every
social
class the nature of his duties. The law is not
merely for regulating
our conduct to our fellowbeings
but for
regulating the entire course of our
daily life,
eating, drinking and the like from birth
to death.
Though at different times people have more
or less
deviated from the strict programme laid down
by the Smrtis,
yet, on the whole, the social life has
strictly
and uniformly followed not only the general
scheme laid
by the Smrtis but also most of the
particular
details. I have said above that the stringent
grip of the
Smrtis became more and more tightened
with the
advance of centuries. Thus, for example, the
prescriptions
of the medical science aa regards food and
INTRODUCTION
drink as
found in the Caraka in the 1st century A.D,,
is found
wholly unacceptable in the legal literature of
later
times. Restrictions of food and drink and
various
other kinds of conduct and practice became
more and
more stringent, signifying thereby a
slackening
tendency in society.
Marx has
said that division of the social classes
has always
been the result of conflict between the
capitalists
and the working classes and that the
development
of social culture, the production of
literature,
philosophy, music and the like, is the result
of the
change in economic conditions and means of
production.
But both these theses seem to lose their
force in
the case of India. Here we have the development
of
philosophy, art and literature though there
has
practically been no change in the means of
economic
production. for more than 2,000 years. The
Brahmins
had a position which was even greater than
that of a
king, not to speak of a Vaisya capitalist, and
yet there
was no theocracy in India like the Papal
domination
of the West or like the system of the Caliphs
in Islam.
The Brahmins were poor and self-abnegating
persons who
generally dedicated their lives to learning
and
teaching and to the practice of religious works.
They did
not interfere with the rules of kings except when
some of
them were appointed ministers but they laid
down a
scheme of life and a scheme of conduct which
had to be
followed by all persons from the king to the
tanner. It
was this enforcement of a universal scheme
of life
that often protected the people from misrule and
tyranny on
the part of kings. It is no doubt true that
in a few
exceptions there had been tyranny and
misrule,
but on the whole the kings had to follow a
beneficent
scheme for it was the law. It is principally
at the time
of the Mauryas that we find many laws
INTRODUCTION
XCV
introduced
which were advantageous to the king but
the Mauryas
were Sudras. At the time of the Ksatriya
kings we
again find the laws of Srnjli revived. The
caste
system had already come into force in its
stringency
in the 4th century B.C. Thus, Megasthenes
says:
"No one is allowed to marry out of his own
caste or to
exchange one profession or trade for another
or to
follow more than one business/' The existence
of the
caste system means the allocation of particular
duties in
society to particular castes. The union of
the
Ksatriya and the Brahmana, of the king and the
law-giver
in the council, was at the basis of the
Hindu
Government. There was a joint-family system
very
similar to what they had in Rome, but every
individual
member bad a locus standi in the eye of the
law and the
father of the family was like the trustee
of the
family property. The king and the Brahmin
were the
trustees of society, the king by protecting and
enforcing
the laws of dharma and the Brahmin by
promulgating
them. The Brahmins, as it were, were
the
legislators, and the kings, the executives and the
former
were, so far as the legislation went, independent
of the
latter. This legislation, however, referred not
only to
ordinary juridical conduct but to all kinds of
daily
duties and conduct as well. But when the laws
were
codified, though the Brahmin as a purohita or
priest
retained his position of high honour and respect
from the
king, he was no longer a constituent of the
Government.
Thus, the seven ahgas constituting the
state
(svamya-matya-suhrt-kofa-rdstra'durga-baldni ca,
i.e., king,
councillor, allies, treasury, people and
territory,
fortresses and army), did not include
Brahmins as
a constituent. Gradually the importance
of the
king's office gained in strength as subserving the
primary
needs and interests of the people and the
Constitution
a Lid
structure
of
Hindu
Society.
XCVl
INTRODUCTION
preservation
of the society according to the principles
of dharma.
But even the king was bound to dispense
justice in
accordance with the principles of dharma*
The
dispensation of justice was not only necessary for
social
well-being but punishment was also regarded as
having a
purificatory value for a man's post-mortem
well-being.
The unrighteousness of a king destroys
dharma in
the society and creates social disturbances
as well as
physical misfortunes, such as, untimely
death,
famine and epidemic. Thus the dispensation
of justice
and its failure was regarded not only as
having
immediate but also transcendental effects.
The king
thus had a great responsibility. The king
exists for
the discharge of dharma and not for selfgratification
(dharmaya
raja bhavati na kamaharanaya
ideal of
tu). Almost all the sciences of polity are in thorough
m iaw
fl
and
agreement with the view that a king must first of all
politl>8>
be absolutely self-controlled. But in spite of all these,
there were
teachers like Bharadvaja who would advise
any kind of
unprincipled action for the maintenance of
the king's
power. But this was not accepted by most
of the
political authorities, but Kautilya's code leaned
more or
less to this type of action. In the Mahabharata
we find
many passages in which the role of punishment
is extolled
and Brhaspati also held that view. Side by
side with
the view of divine authority of kings we have
also in the
Mah&bharata and the Buddhist canons the
view that
the king was elected by the people on the
terms of
contract which involved the exchange of the
just
exercise of sovereign power and obedience regarding
payment of
taxes on the part of the people. In
Kautilya we
find that he had due regard for the
social
order of varnaframa and he regarded the
importance
of the three Vedas, the Varta-astra and
Polity.
Kau^ilya lays great importance on the position
INTRODUCTION
XCVli
of the
king's office. The king constitutes within
himself his
kingdom and his subjects. Yet there are
many
passages in the Arthaastra to indicate that king's
authority
depends upon the will of the people whom he
,has always
to keep satisfied, and we find there that it is
the duty of
the king to promote the security and
prosperity
of the people in lieu of which the subjects
should pay
taxes to him. Kau^ilya is also mainly
loyal to
the DharmaSastra principle that the king is an
official
who is entitled to receive taxes for the service
of
protection and that he is spiritually responsible for
the
discharge of his duties. Kautilya also lays down
a very high
standard of moral life for the king. Good
education
and self-control are the first requisites of good
government.
Though there are elaborate rules of
foreign
policy, Kautilya definitely lays down the view
that no
king should covet his neighbour's territories,
and in case
of battles with other kings it is his duty to
restore to
throne the most deserving from the near relations
of the
vanquished king a policy entirely different
from that
of the imperialistic governments of to-day. A
king should
only attempt to secure safety for his kingdom
and extend
his influence on others. In later times,
between 900
and 1200 A.D., when the commentaries of
Medhatithi,
Vijnanesvara and Apararka and the Jaina
Nltivakyamrta
were written, we have the view, particularly
in
Medhatithi, that the principles of rdjadharma
and
dandaniti, though principally derived from Vedic
institutions,
are to be supplemented from other sources tbfking!*
f
and
elaborated by reason. Thus, Medbatithi would not
restrict
the office of kingship to a Ksatriya alone but
would
extend it to any one who is ruling with proper
kingly
qualities. Kalidasa also, we have seen, was
consistent
with the teaching of the old Dharmatiastra
that the
term ksatra was in meaning identical to the
XCVlli INTRODUCTION
term nrpa.
Ksatra means ksatdt trdyate and nrpa
means nrn
pati. The other aspect of the king is that
he should
be popular, and this aspect is signified by
the term
raja (raja prakrtiranjanat). But Medhatithi
uses the
term raja, nrpa or pdrthiva to mean any ruling
prince.
Medhatithi would apply the term nrpa even to
provincial
governors. The subjects have the inalienable
right of
protection by the king by virtue of the
taxes they
pay to him, and for any mischief that comes
to them,
the king is responsible. If their property is
stolen, the
king will restore the value of the articles
stolen. It
seems also that Medhatithi not only concedes
to the view
that the subjects may even in normal times
bear arms
for self-protection, but when the king is
incompetent,
they have also the right to rebel and
suspend the
payment of taxes. But during the 12th to
the 17th
century in the works of Sukra, Madhava and
Para4ara,
we find again the theory of divine right of
kings
coming to the forefront and the doctrine of the
perpetual
dependence of subjects on the king and of the
king's
immunity from harm advocated, which tended
to
contradict the earlier concept of king as the servant
of the
people.
From the
above brief review we can well understand
the light
in which the kings were held during the
really
creative period of literature beginning from the
2nd or the
3rd century B. C. to the 12th century A.D.
The ideal
of a king depicted in the Ramayana and also
in the
Mahabharata as also in the works of Kalidasa and
other
writers, reveals to us the integral relation of solidarity
between the
king and the subjects. Almost every
drama ends
with the prayer which is a sort of national
anthem
seeking the good of the king and the people. The
concept of
the king involved the principle that he would
protect the
people and be of such ideal character and
INTfiObUCTION
xcix
conduct
that he might be liked by all. The term
prakrti,
etyrnologically meaning the source or origin,
was a term
to denote the subjects. This implied that the
king drew his
authority from the subjects. This is the
reason why
the kings often excited as much admiration
as the gods
and though many panegyric verses in literature
may have as
their aim the flattery of kings for
personal
gain, yet judging from the general relation
between the
king and his subjects it can hardly be doubted
that in
most cases there was a real and genuine feeling
of sincere
admiration and love for the king. This also
gives us
the reason why royal characters were treated,
in kavya
side by aide with the characters of gods, for
the king
was god on earth not by his force or his power
of tyranny
but through love and admiration that was
spontaneous
about him on the part of the subjects.
The cordial
relation between subjects and royal
patrons
explains the origin of so many pra fasti and
carita
kdvyas,
If we take
a bird's-eye view of the Sanskrit literature
we may
classify them as Epic and Lyric kdvyas,
the carita
kavyas (dealing with the lives of kings and
patrons of
learning), the praastis or panegyrical verses,
the
different types of dramas, lyric kavyas, the century
collections
or satakas, the stotra literature or adoration
hymns, the
Campus or works written in prose and
verse, the
kathd, literature, the nlti literature, the
didactic
verses and stray verses such as are found in the
anthologies.
The sources of the materials of kavya as
held by
Raja&khara, are Sruti, Smrti, Purana, Itih&sa,
Pramanavidya,
Samaya-vidya or the sectarian doctrines
of the
Saivas, Pancaratrins, etc., the Artha6astra, the
Natyaastra and
the K&matastra, the local customs
and
matiners, the different sciences and the literature
of other
poets.
The place
of King and
in
literature.
Types of
literature.
INTRODUCTION
Apart from
the reference to poems written by Paijini
and to the
dramas referred to in the Mahabhasya,
probably
the earliest remains of good drama are the
dramas of
Bhasa, which in some modified manner have
recentty
^een discovered. In the 1st century B.C. we
and the
have the works of Kalidasa and in the 1st century A.D.
early
poetry. we
have the Buddha-carita, the Saundarananda, the
3ariputraprakarana
and an allegorical drama written
by
A6vaghoa, the Buddhist philosopher. This was the
time of the
Sungas, the Kanvas and the Andhra dynasties.
Pusyamitra
had slain his master Brhadratha
Mauryya and
had assumed sovereignty of the Mauryya
dominions
of'Upper India and of South India up to the
Nerbudda
and had repulsed Minander, king of Kabul
and the
invader was obliged to retire to his own
country.
His son Agnimitra had conquered Berar and
Pusyamitra
performed the Asvamedha sacrifice and
revived
Hinduism. The Mdlavikagnimitra of Kalidasa
gives a
glowing account of the Rajasuya sacrifice
performed
by Pusyamitra. The Buddhist writers
describe
him as having persecuted the Buddhists. The
last Bunga
king Devabhuti lost his life and throne
through the
contrivances of his Brahmin minister,
Vasudeva.
He founded the Kanva dynasty, which was
suppressed
in 28 B.C. and the last Kanva king, Su^arman,
was slain
by the Andhras, who had already
established
themselves by the middle of the 3rd century
B.C. on the
banks of the Krsna. The Andhra kings all
claimed to
belong to the Satavahana family. The name
of Hala the
17th king has come down to us because of
his
Saptaati of Prakrt erotic verses of great excellence.
It seems
that at this time Prakrt rather than Sanskrit
was the
language of poetry in the South. It is difficult
to
ascertain the dates of Hala's Saptatati (which
have,
however, in reality 430 stanzas common to all
INTRODUCTION
Cl
recensions,
the rest may be an interpolation). Judging
from the
nature of the Prakrt, one may think that the
work was
probably written about 200 A.D. though it is
difficult
to be certain of its date. In the meanwhile,
we have
some of the specimens of the earliest prose in
the
inscriptions of Kudradamana in Girnar (A.D. 150).
In the
region of Bombay we get foreign rulers like the
Kaharatas
who were probably subordinate to the Indo-
Parthian
kings in the 1st century A.D. The next
chief was
Nahapana. The Ksaharatas, however, were
extirpated
by Gautamiputra-Satakarni, the Andhra
king. His
son, Va&sthiputra Sripulumayi, had married
the
daughter of Rudradarnana I, the Saka Satrap
of
Ujjayini, but much of the territory of the son-inlaw
was
conquered by the father-in-law. As we
have just
seen, Sanskrit was the court language of
Eudradamana
and Yajfiafri, the son of Vasisthiputra
Sripulumayi,
who was a great king of military exploits
(173-202
A.D.). The fall of the Andhra kings coincides
approximately
with the death of Vasudeva, the last
great Kusan
king of North Ipdia and with the rise
of the
Sassanian dynasty of Persia (A.D. 226).
But the
history of the 3rd century after Christ is
rather very
obscure. The only important tradition
of literary
growth during the Andhras is the legend
about king
Satavahana or Salivahana, in whose court
Gunadhya
and Sarvavarmacarya are supposed to have
lived.
Gunadhya was born at Pratithana in the Deccan
on the
banks of the Godavarl. This city of Prati^hana
is the
capital of the Andhrabhrtyas, though there is
much doubt
about the location of the city. But there
is a
Pratisthana on the banks of the Gauges as mentioned
in the
Harivamta. Bana refers to Satavahana
as having
made the immortal repertory of beautiful
passages
and this seems to indicate that there was great
Political
conditions
in
the lat tnd
2nd
centuries
B.C. andibe
literature
of
tbe time.
cii
INTRODUCTION
cultivation
of Sanskrit poetry even before Satavahana. 1
According
to the legend, Satavahana's adopted father
8srvavaim&.
wftg
Dipajkarjjj an(j this indicates that he may have
belonged to
the race of the Satakarnis. The Hala
Sapta$ati
also conclusively proves that there was an
abundant
literary production in the Praki\lauguage
and we have
also strong reasons to believe that there
must have
been many dramas in Prakrt. But we do
not know
anything more about the exact time when
Hala may
have flourished. But if the legend is to
be
believed, the two great works, the K&tantra of
Sarvavarma
and the Brhatkatha of Gunacjhya were
written at
this time. That stories used by Gunadhya
were
floating about among the populace, is well evident
from
Kalidasa's statement udayana-katha-kovida-gramavrddhan
in the
Meghaduta and the utilisation of those
stories by
Bbasa. We know that in all probability,
Kalidasa
had flourished at the time of the- later Surigas
and
Patanjali the grammarian was probably engaged
as a priest
in the Horse Sacrifice of Puijyamitra. We
also know
that the Saka kings like Rudradamana had
taken to
the Sanskrit language and Vainava religion.
We also know
from the inscriptions in the Besnagar
Column that
the Greek ambassador Heliodorus had
accepted
the Bhagavata religion. It is also probable
th^Minander
the Greek king had become a Buddhist.
'Mitbradates
I, the Persian king (170-136 B.C.),
had
extended his dominions up to the Indus and this
explains
why the chiefs of Taxila and Mathura had
assumed
Persian titles in early times and we have the
remains of
Persian culture in the excavations of Taxila.
\
ratnairiva
8ubha$itafy tt
INTRODUCTION
cm
It is
possible that a Christian Mission under St.
Thomas had
come to the court of the Indo-Parthian
king
Gondophares at the beginning of the Christian
era, but
the Mission seems to have left no impression.
It may not
be out of place here to mention that neither
Alexander's
conquest nor the association with Bactrian
kings,
seems to have left any permanent impression
on the
Indian mind. The Punjab or a considerable
part of it
with some of the adjoining regions remained
more
or"less under Greek rule for more than two centuries
(190 B.C.
to iiO A.D.), but except the coins bearing
Greek
legends on the obverse, hardly any effect of
Hellenisation
can be discovered. It is surprising that
not a
single Greek inscription is available. There is
no evidence
of Greek architecture. The well-known
sculptures
of Gandhara, the region around Peshawar,
are much
later indeed and are the offsprings of cosmopolitan
Graeco-Roman
art. The invasions of Alexander,
Antiochus
the Great, Demetrios, Eukratides and
Minander
were but military incursions which left no
appreciable
mark upon the institutions of India. The
people of
India rejected Greek political institutions
and
architecture as well as language.
During the
2nd and the 3rd century, Saivism had
established
itself very firmly in South. The Siva
cult had
long been in existence among the Dravidians
and by the
3rd century A.D. it attained almost its
finished
character in the noble and devout writings of
Manikkavachakara
in Malabar. The Vasudeva cult
had already
penetrated into the south and by the 3rd
and the 4th
century A.D. the earliest Alwar thinkers
had started
the Bhakti literature.
In the
meanwhile, the Yueh-chis being attacked by
their foes,
the Sakas, rushed forward and after subjugating
Kabul,
entered ioto India and conquered the Punjab
Military
occupations
of the
Greeks Ifft
but little
influence
on
Indian
culture and
literature.
Saiva and
Vai^nava
cults
in the
early
centuries
fo
the Chris.
Man era.
A career of
the Sakat.
CIV
INTRODUCTION
Extension
of Indian
Empire up
to Khotan
and in the
west to
Afghanistan
converted
to
Baddbiara.
under
Kadphises I. His son Kadphises II not only
established
his power in the Punjab but in a considerable
part of the
Gangetic plain in Benares (A.D. 45).
But these
parts were probably governed at this time
by military
Viceroys. In the meanwhile, the Yuehchis
were being
attacked by the Chinese. Kani?ka
tried to
repel the Chinese but his army was totally
routed and
he had to send several embassies to China
to pay
tributes. The conquest of Kabul by the Yuehchis
opened the
land route towards the West and
Roman gold
of the early Roman Emperors, such as
Tiberius
(A.D. 14-38) began to pour into India
in payment
for eilk, spices, gems and dye-stuff.
Southern
India at the same time was holding an active
maritime
trade with the Roman Empire and large
quantities
of Roman gold poured into India. Now,
Kadphises
II was succeeded by Kaniska (58 B.C.).
His
dominions extended all over North-Western India
as far as
the Vindhyas. A temporary annexation of
Mesopotamia
by Trajan, the Roman Emperor, in 116
A.D.
brought the Roman frontier within 600 miles
of the
western limits of the Yueh-chi Empire.
Kar\iska
had also conquered Kashmir and attacked
the city of
Pataliputra from where he took away the
Buddhist
saint A^vaghosa. His own capital was
Purugapur
or Peshawar. Kaniska had also conquered
Kashgar,
Yarkand and Khotan. Thus the limits of
the Indian
Empire extended up to Khotan, a fact
which
explains the migration of Buddhist culture and
Indian
works which are being occasionally discovered
there. The
most important thing about him for our
purposes is
that he was converted to Buddhism, as
may be
known from his coins. Buddhism had in
his time
developed into the Mahayana form of which
Avaghoa was
such an important representative and
INTRODUCTION
CV
the image
of Buddha began to be installed in different
parts of
his Empire, taking a place with the older gods,
such as
Siva or Visnu and an elaborate mythology
of Buddhism
developed. It is at this time in the 2nd
century
A.D. that we have the style of sculpture
described
as the Gandhara school which was a branch
of the
cosmopolitan Graeco-Roman art. This style
of art,
which is much inferior to the indigenous Indian
art, soon
lost its currency. Kaniska called a council
for the
interpretation of Buddhist scriptures and about
500 members
of the Sarvastivada school met in
Kashmir and
the Buddhist theological literature underwent
a thorough
examination and elaborations were
made in
huge commentaries on the Tripitaka. This
included
the Mahavibhasa which still exists in its
Chinese
translation and it is said that these commentaries
were copied
on sheets of copper and these were
deposited
in a stupa near Srlnagar. From the time of
Kaniska we
have the golden age of the development of
Buddhist
Mahayana and Sarvastivada literature as also
the
codification of most of the Indian philosophical
sutras. The
first five or six centuries of the Christian
era were
also the age of great philosophical controversy
between the
Buddhists, the Hindus and the Jainas.
Asvaghosa
himself had written the tfraddhotpada-sutra
and the
Mahayana-sutralahMra. It has been urged
by Cowell
that Kalidasa had borrowed from the
Buddhacarita.
But this point is very doubtful and
the
position may be reversed. The similarity of a few
passages in
the Kumarasambhava and the Raghuvarfifa
does not
prove any conscious indebtedness on any side,
so far as
A6vaghoa's Buddhacarita is concerned. A6vaghosa
also wrote
a book pf Buddhist legends called the
Sutralahkara
and also the Vajrasucl. More or less about
this time
we had also the poet Matrceta and also the
Else of the
Mahayana
literature
and the
Gandhara
art.
Rise of the
philosophical
literature.
Literature
of the
timei
CV1
INTRODQCTION
Buddhist
poet Arya-gura who wrote the JatakamalU
in
imitation of ASvaghosa's Sutralankara. His diction
in prose
and verse was of the kavya style. Some of
the
important Avadanas were also written during the
1st or the
2nd century A.D. The Aokavadana was
actually
translated into Chinese in the 3rd century A.D.
It is
curious to notice that these Avadanas which were
written in
Sanskrit, more or less at the time when
the
Brhatkathd of Gunadhya was written in Pai&icl,
were seldom
utilised by the Sanskrit writers. Many of
the Avadana
legends are found in Ksemendra's work so
far as the essential
part of the tales is concerned. But
the
didactic element is preponderatingly much greater
in the
Buddhist treatments. The great Mahayan a
writers
Nagarjuna, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Candragomin,
Santideva
and others began to follow in close succession.
The
Mahayana literature gradually began to model
itself on
the Puranas and the introduction of the
Dharanis
and other cults and rituals as well as the
personification
of powers into deities led to the rise of
the
Buddhist Tantras. The Lahhavatara, a semi-philosophical
and
semi-Tantrik work, was written probably
sometime in
the 4th century and later on the Yoga
doctrine
modified according to the psychology of the
different
people among the Tibetan, the Chinese and the
Japanese
assumed diverse forms. The stotra literature
also formed
the model of the Buddhist stotras and
through
this the theatre of the mental operation extended
not only
from the Hindukush to Cape ComDrin but it
extended
also to Further India, Tibet, China, Japan,
Korea, the
Malay -Archipelago and many islands in the
Indian and
the Pacific Ocean and also to Central Asia,
Turkistan,
Turfan and other places.
The reign
of Kaniska terminated in or about 123 A.D.
After him
Vasiska and Huviska succeeded and Huviska
INTRODUCTION
CV11
was
succeeded by Vasudeva I. The name signifies that
he was
converted into Hinduism and his coins exhibit
the figure
of Siva attended by the bull, Nandi and the
trident.
Coins are found during the period 238-269
A.D. where
a royal figure clad in the garb of Persia (an
imitation
of the effigy of Shahpur I, the Sassanian) is
found,
which indicates Sassanian influence in India.
But we have
no more details of it from any inscriptions
of literary
eminence. Probably numerous Rajas in India
asserted
their independence as may be inferred from
muddled
statements in the Puranas, such as the
Abhlras,
Gardabhilas, Sakas, Yavanas, Vahlikas and
the
successors of the &ndhras. The imperial city of
Pataliputra
maintained its influence as late as the 5th
century
A.D. but we practically know nothing about
the
condition of the interior of India at this time.
The local
Raja near Pataliputra called Candragupta
married a
Licchavi princess named Kumaradevi about
the year
308 A.D. We do not hear much of the
Licchavis
in the intervening period of history since the
reign of
Ajata&itru. Candragupta was strengthened
by this
alliance and he extended his dominion
along the
Gangetic Valley as far as the junction of the
Ganges and
the Jamuna, about 320 A.D. Between 330
and 335
A.D. he was succeeded by his son Samudragupta
who
immediately after his succession plunged
himself
into war. The multitude of praSastis in the inscriptions
have
immortalised his reign in Indian history.
The
elaborate composition of Harisena with its contents
is a
historical document which is remarkable also
as a
linguistic and literary landmark. Samudragupta's
Empire
extended on the North and the East from Kamarflpa
to
Tamralipti including the modern site of Calcutta
and
extended westwards in a straight line across the
Vindhyas to
Guzerat and Sauratra later on acquired
Uncertain
political
conditions
after
Rise of th
Gaptas.
cViii
INTRODUCTION
by his son
Candragupta II and on the north
to the
borders of .Nepal up to the banks of the
Cbenab
river in the Punjab. He performed an
Atvamedha
ceremony and is reputed to have been
an adept
not only in music and song but it
is said
that he had also composed many metrical works
of great
value and was called a King of Poets. He
allowed the
Buddhist king Meghavarna of Ceylon to
erect a
monastery and temple in Buddhagaya. In the
7th century
when Hiuen-Tsang visited it, it was a
magnificent
establishment which accommodated
1000 monks
of the Sthavira school and afforded
hospitality
to monks from Ceylon. Samudragupta
had also
received Vasuvaridhu. Throughout his
conquests
he secured submission of the various
chiefs but
he seldom annexed their territory. He
had removed
his capital to Ayodhya from Pataliputra.
Thus when
Hiuen-Tsang came in the 7th century,
he found
Patalipufcra in ruins but when Raja&khara
mentions
the glory of Pataliputra, he refers to
Upavarsa,
Varsa, Panini, Pingala, Vyadi, Vararuci
and
Patanjali as having been tested according to the
tradition
in Pataliputra.
1 His
successor Candragupta,
who had
assumed the title of Vikramaditya, led
bis conquests
to the Arabian Sea through Malwa,
Guzerat and
Kathiuwad, which had been ruled for
centuries
by the Saka dynasty. We know that the
capital of
Castana and his successors was Ujjayim.
Vidisa was
also the important centre of Agnimitra.
But
Samudragupta and his successors had made their
capital in
Ayodhya. It will therefore be wrong to
suppose
that one should make Kalidasa a resident of
Ujjayini
and yet make him attached to the court of
, p. 55,
INTRODUCTION
C1X
Candragupta
II. KaufiambI, which stood on the high
road to
UjjayinI and North India, had the Asoka pillar
on which
there is inscribed an inscription of Samudragupta
and it has
been argued that Kausamb! also
formed his
temporary place of residence. Candragupta
II
destroyed the Saka Satrapy by first dethroning
and then
executing Rudrasena. Though he was tolerant
of Buddhism
and Jainism he was an orthodox
Hindu and
probably a Vaisnava. From Fa Hien's
accounts
(405-411 A.D.) we find that people were
enjoying
good government and abundant prosperity at
the time of
Vikramaditya.
Still then
there were monasteries in Pataliputra
whereabout
six to seven hundred monks resided, and Fa
Hien spent
three years there studying Sanskrit. At his
time
"charitable institutions, were numerous. Rest
houses for
travellers were provided on the highways
and the
capital possessed an excellent free hospital
endowed by
benevolent and educated citizens hither
come all
poor helpless patients suffering from all kinds
of
infirmities. They are well taken care of and a
doctor
attends them. Food and medicine are supplied
according
to their wants and thus they are made quite
comfortable
and when they are well they may go
away."
1 In
describing the state of the country Fa
Hien speaks
of the lenience of the criminal law. He
further
says : "throughout the country no one kills
any living
thing, or drinks wine or eats onions or
garlic.
They do not keep pigs or fowls, there are no
dealings in
cattle, no butchers' shops or distilleries in
the market
places. Only the candalas, hunters and
fishermen
lived a different way of life. The only source
of revenue
was rent on crown lands.'2-2- Fa Hien never
Vikramaditya
Candragupta
II.
Fa Hien 'B
evidence
regarding
the
condition
of the
country.
Smith'
Early
History of India, pp. 296-296.
CX
INTRODUCTION
speaks of
brigands or thieves. At the death of Candragupta,
Kumaragupta
I ascended the throne in 413 A.D.
It will be
wrong to suppose that Saivism spread
from the
South to the North for even Kadphises II, the
Kusana
conqueror, was an worshipper of Siva and put
the image
of Siva on his coins and during the whole"
period when
Buddhism acquired ascendency in India,
Literature
worship of Hindu gods had continued unabated. The
of the
time. .
only
distinctly Buddhist coins were those that
were struck
by Kaniska but the next king Vasudeva
had been a
Hindu, cis has already been mentioned, and
the Saka
Satraps were also Hindus. The Pali language
of the
Buddhists were reserved only for Buddhist religious
works. No
kavya or drama were written in Pali
and after
A3oka it was seldom used as the language of
inscriptions
and even the language of Asoka's inscriptions
was not
Pali. Though we are unable to place
Kalidasa in
the Gupta period there was undoubtedly a
great
enlightenment of culture during the Gupta period
which went
on till the llth or the 12th century. We
have not
only at this time Vatsabhatti and Harisena
but a
galaxy of other writers. The panegyrics of both
Harisena
and Vatsabhatti illustrate the highest style that
Sanskrit
had attained at this period. Bharavi also
probably
lived in the 5th century and Bhat^i also in all
probability
lived somewhere during the 5th or the 6th
century. It
has been suggested that Sudraka may also
have lived
at this time, but we really know very little
about
Sudraka. Aryabhata,{the celebrated astronomer,
also
probably lived towards the end of the 5th or the
middle of
the 6th century. The laws of Manu as we
find it and
also of Yajnavalkya probably belong to
this age.
But as regards the poets, it will be- rash to
say that
they were invariably attached to courts of
kings. They
probably lived well to be able, to turn to
INTRODUCTION
CXI
their
vocation of writing poetry, but it may be supposed
that they
had always some patrons among the rich
people.
Art and
architecture, both Buddhist and Brahminical,
flourished
during the 5th and the 6th century
and though
by the ravages of Moslem army almost
every Hindu
building was pulled to pieces and all large
edifices of
the Gupta age had been destroyed, yet recent
researches
have discovered for us a few specimens of
architectural
compositions of a considerable skill in out
of the way
places. The allied art of sculpture attained
a degree of
perfection, the value of which is being
recently
recognised. Painting as exemplified by the
frescoes of
Ajanta and the cognate works of Sigiria in
Ceylon
(479-97) are so many best examples of Indian
art.
Colonisation of the Malayan ATchipelago, Java
and Sumatra
had begun probably at least in the early
centuries
of the Christian era and- Indian civilisation,
particularly
Brahminic, had already been established in
the
Archipelago by 401 A. D. By the middle of the
7th
century, according to the report of I-Tsing,
Buddhism
was in a flourishing condition in the island
of Sumatra
and it grew side by side with the Hindu
culture. The
study of Sanskrit was so much current
there that
I-Tsing spent about 6 months in order to
acquaint
himself with Sanskrit grammar. The earliest
Sanskrit
inscriptions, however, are found in Borneo
and during
the 4th century A.D. Borneo was being
ruled by Hindu
kings, such as A^vavarman, Mulavarman,
etc.
Already in the 5th century we hear of
Purnavarman
in Western Java and the worship of
Visnu and
Siva was prevalent in those parts. Mahayana
forms of
Buddhism also flourished in the country in
the 8th and
9th centuries. In India we find the
Vaisnava
and the Saiva worship flourish side by side
Gupta
civilisation
and
colonisation
by Indians
during the
early
centuries
of
the
Christian
era.
cxn
INTRODUCTION
Contact
with China
daring the
later
Guptas.
ValabbI and
Anhilwara
the centres
of learning
from the
5th to the
15th
century.
with
Buddhism. But the golden age of the Guptas
lasted
for^t century and a quarter (330-455). Skandagupta
came to the
throne in 455 A.D. He successfully
resisted
thePusyamitras from the South and drove away
the Huns.
But in the second invasion of the Huns he
was
defeated, as we know from an inscription dated
458 A.D. He
appointed - Parnadatta Viceroy of the
West who
gave Junagad or Girnar to his son. At
about 465
and also in 470 the Huns began to pour in.
Skandagupta
probably died in 480 A.D. With his
death the
Empire vanished but the dynasty remained.
After his
death Puragupta succeeded who reigned from
485 to 535
A.D. The importance of Magadha, however,
and the
University of Nalanda survived the downfall
of the
Guptas. We have the account of a Chinese
Mission
sent to Magadha in 539 A.D. for the collection
of original
Mahayana texts and for obtaining services of
scholars
capable of translating them into Chinese.
During the
reign of Jlvitagupta I, Paramartha was sent
to China
with a large collection of manuscripts. He
worked for
23 years in China and died at the age of 70
in 569.
During his reign Bodhidharma also went to
China
(502-549).
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations to Sreeman S N Dasgupta ji and Sreeman S
K De ji for the collection)
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