1917.] The Drama* of Bhasa : A literary study. 273 



supernatural influence of the Rishi's curse. Sakuntala is just a 

 beautiful flower, very fragrant and lovely, but only a flower. 

 Vasavadatta is a woman, chaste yet passionate, devoted yet 

 able to understand that she can show her devotion best bv 

 leaving her husband. 



I certainly do not wish to detract from the beauty of 

 Kalidasa's master-pieces. He will always remain the unsur- 

 passed master of the word. But he is a born lyric, and hi 

 dramas are a sort of string to keep together the splendid pearls 

 of his lyrics. They lack action, they are stationary. The 

 language of our author is simple, his colour-scheme is poor. He 

 is terse and sparse in his expression. He tells us more by the 

 things he does not say, than by the things he says. He is the 

 Master of Silence. His style has few descriptions and similes. 

 His comparisons are not elaborate ; and yet these dramas have 

 the same charm which holds us captive before the frescoes of 

 Fra Angelico even after we have satiated our eyes with the rich 

 tints of Raphael or Titian. 



This seeming defect is made up for by the dramatic life 

 which pulses in these plays. Everything is action ; action in 

 the widest sense. In Yaugandharayana it is more external. A 

 swift movement towards the final goal, hardly stopping to 

 throw in a moral maxim for the benefit of the public. Even 

 the report of the messenger which informs Yaugandharayana of 

 Udayana's capture, is instinct with this dramatic force. One is 

 reminded of the famous message in Aeschylus' " Persians." 

 In " Vasavadatta " where the action is psychological there i 

 also no stopping, no delay. 



The language of our poet is simple and easy. It is remark- 

 ably free from conventionalities, and has the natural charm of a 

 living language. The persons of these dramas speak as we 

 expect them to speak, in a natural realistic manner. The next 

 approach to the language of our plays is the Sanskrit used in 

 the epics. I do not wish to anticipate the results of a future 

 research ; but if Kalidasa's poetrv has been justly connected 

 with the elegant, somewhat effeminate, art of the Gupta period 

 I am inclined to see in our poet the same traits of manliness 

 and force, combined with simplicity and realism, which are 

 characteristic of the art of the Kushana period To put the 

 respective position of Kalidasa and our poet into the form ot an 

 antithesis : Kalidasa is classical elegance and lyricism, our poet 



is realistic simplicity and dramatism. 



"Pratijnavaugandharayanam" and ■ Svajnavasayadat- 

 tam" serve in a marked degree to illustrate this thesis but not 

 they alone. In other dramas of our collection we find the same 

 distinguishing qualities. Six plays take their subject-matter 

 from the " Mahabharata." Five of them are one-Acters one, 



.. 



three 



Three 



Gatot- 



