Xll NOTES. 



object,) external nature exereises an undivided sovereignty, but the descriptive 

 'portion is based on more scientific and more local observation. Among the 

 great poems belonging to this epoch is the Bnatti-kavya (or Bhatti's poem), 

 which, like the Kamayana, has for its subject the exploits and adventures of 

 "Rama, and in which fine descriptions of a forest life during banishment, of the 

 sea and of its beautiful shores, and of the breaking of the day in Ceylon 

 (Lanka), occur successively. (Bhatti-kavya, ed. Calc. P. i. canto vii. p. 432 ; 

 canto x. p. 715 ; canto xi. p. 814. Compare also Schiitz, Prof, zu Biele- 

 feld, fiinf Gesange des Bhatti-kavya, 1837, S. 118.) I would also refer to 

 an agreeable description of the different periods of the day in Magha's 

 Sistifialabdha, and to the Naischada-tscharita of Sri Harscha. In the last- 

 named poem, however, in the story of Nalus and Damayanti, the expression 

 of the feeling for external nature passes into a vague exaggeration, which 

 contrasts with the noble simplicity of the Ramayana, where Visvamitra leads 

 Ms pupil to the shores of the Sona. (Sisupaladha, ed. Calc. p. 298 and 372; 

 compare Schiitz, fiinf Ges. des Bhatti-kavya, S, 25 28 ; Naischada-tscharita, 

 ed. Calc. P. 1, v. 77129 ; Ramayana, ed. Schlegel, lib. 1, cap. 35, v. 

 15 18.) Kalidasa, the celebrated author of Sacontala, represents, with a 

 master's hand, the influence which the aspect of nature exercises on the minds 

 and feelings of lovers. The forest scene pourtrayed by him in the drama of 

 Vikrama and Urvasi is one of the finest poetic creations of any period. 

 (Vikramorvasi, ed. Calc. 1830, p. 71 ; see the English translation in Wilson's 

 Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, Calc. 1827, Vol. ii. p. 63.) 

 tn the poem of " The Seasons," I would particularly refer to the rainy season 

 and to that of spring (RituSanhara, ed. Bohlen, 1840, p. 1118, and 

 3745, S. 8088, and S. 107114, of Bohlen's translation). In the 

 '"Cloud Messenger," also by Kalidasa, the influence of external nature on 

 human feeling ig also the leading subject of the composition. This poem 

 (the Meghaduta, or Cloud Messenger, which has been edited by Gildemeister 

 and translated both by Wilson and by Chezy) describes the grief of an exile 

 on the mountain Ramagiri, longing for the presence of his beloved from 

 whom he is separated : he entreats a passing cloud to convey to her tidings 

 of his sorrows ; he describes to the cloud the path which it must pursue, and 

 paints the landscape as reflected in a mind agitated with deep emotion. 

 Among the treasures which the Indian poetry of the third period owes to the 

 influence of nature on the national mind, the Gitagovinda of Dschayadeva 

 deserves the highest praise. (Riickert, in the Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des 

 Morgenlandes, Bd. i. 1337, S. 129173; Gitagovinda Jayadevse poewe 



