630 BLOOMFIELD— CHARACTER AND [April i8. 



Hindu counsel of perfection — this is about what it amounts to — 

 on such a stage and from such mouths. The way these people de- 

 claim on, and really seem honestly to admire " virtue," fits vice- 

 crusaders better than denizens of the lower world. Aside from this 

 paradox the happenings of the story, event by event, are sheer 

 romance, strangely uncongenial to an Acta Sanctorum. 



The purpose of the Jinist writer is served thus: Muladeva's for- 

 tunes sink to a very low ebb indeed, because of his passion for 

 gambling, and the rivalry of a rich suitor for the favor of Devadatta, 

 named Ayala. In the end he manages by dint of a frankly selfish 

 act of piety to obtain success through the favor of the gods. He 

 gives his own scant food, which he has just obtained by begging, to 

 a saintly ascetic who has come to a certain village, in order to break 

 a month's fast. In consequence thereof he obtains the kingship of 

 Bennayada. The point is, that it pays to serve holy ascetics. I must 

 say, I like Devendra, the story-teller, better than Devendra, the 

 theologian. 



Something needs to be said about the remaining characters of this 

 story. The heroine, Devadatta,^^ belongs to the type of the beautiful 

 and noble hetasra, gifted with every grace of heart and mind. How- 

 soever difficult we may find it to adjust this conception to our ideas, 

 the fact is that with the Hindus this is a settled conception, and a 

 settled type in fiction. The system of the erotic books deals with 

 various grades of hetseras; the first grade, called ganika, standing 

 for the type of noble hetsera.^*' We need not try the hopeless task 

 of appreciating such distinctions. Taken in bulk they are in the 

 main the product of the naive schematism of the Hindu mind. Yet 

 there is an appreciable sediment of reality as regards the beginning 

 and end of the classification: there are vile and noble hetseras. For 

 an extreme example of the former class see the parallel stories, 

 Kathasaritsagara 58; Kathakoga, p. 128 fif. ; Kalavilasa (Meyer's 



25 A commentator of Siibandhu's Vasavadatta substitutes the name 

 Nagaramandana, stating that a hetasra of that name was captivated by 

 Muladeva's superior intellectual qualities. See Weber, " Indische Streifen," 

 I., 383, note 2. 



26 See Schmidt, "Beitrage zur Indischen Erotik," pp. 278 ff., 788 fif. ; Meyer, 

 Dagakumaracarita, p. 41 ff. ; Samayamatrka, pp. ix ff. ; Cukasaptati 45. 



