pra'crit poetry. 425 



r.ected with thd.t of his father Das'af.atha and of his 

 sons Cus'a and Lava. The three concluding cantos 

 regard the descendants of Cus'a, from Atit'hi to 

 AGxrvERTN'A, both of whom are noticed at consider- 

 able lenL'ih : each being the subject of a single canto, 

 in which their cha^^acters are stron£ily contrasted ; while 

 the intermediate princes, to the number of twenty, are 

 crowded into the intervening!: canto, which is little else 

 than a dry genealogy. 



The adventures of Ra'ma are too well known to re- 

 quire any detailed notice in this place. The poet has 

 selected the clief circumstances of his story, and nar- 

 r.ues them nearly as they are told in the mythological 

 poems and rheogonics ; but with far greater poetical 

 embellishments. Indeed the general style of the poems 

 es^^eemed sacred (not excepting from this censure the 

 Rdinavan'aoi V i\'L.y[iQi^) is fiat, diffuse, and no less 

 deficient m ornament than abundant in repetitions; 

 and it is for this reason, that examples have been se- 

 ledled, for tl^e pre.-ent essay, exclusively from the cele- 

 brated prophane poems. Ha'ma's achievements have 

 been sung by the prgphane as frequently as by the sa- 

 cred pot rs. His srory occupies a • considerable place 

 in many of the Puran'as^ and is the sole object of Va'l- 

 Mici's poem, and of another entitled Aifhyainui Ra- 

 ma'yana. whicii is ascribed to Vya'sa. A fragmeiit of 

 a it'i^'wizW/^ attributed to Baud'ha'yan a is ciyrent 

 in the southern part of the Indian peninsula ; and the 

 great pmlooophical poem, usually ci^ed under the title 

 ot Yoga '•jaiishfha, is a part of a Ra'mayana, com- 

 prising the education of the devout hero. Among 

 prophane poems on the same subject, the Raghuvansa 

 and Bhat't'icdvya^ with the liaghava panda-ciya before 

 IT entioned. are the moft efteemed in Sanscrit., as the 

 Ri'f/h/ya'i'a of Tula^'ida'sa ^.ndRa'inachaiidrica' of 

 Ce'savad a'sa are in ///Wi. The minor poets, who 

 have employed themselves on the siime topick, both 



