12 Vestiges of Three Eoyal Lines of Kanyakubja, Sfc. [No. 1, 



in dramatic representation. Any one particular of these is a source 

 for the attainment of whatsoever aspiration. What, then, can be 

 sftid, when, owing to my affluent good fortune, this entire category 

 of excellencies is presented in combination ?"* For Vatsardja we 

 have, in the Nagananda, Siddharaja, a descriptive epithet of the hero 

 of the play, Jimutavahana. 



Now, both the Ratnavali and the Nagananda are dedicated to 

 Harsha : for so we are to understand their being attributed to him, 

 as if he were author of them ; a custom by no means unprecedented 

 in the annals of Indian literature. The writer of the Ratnavali was 

 a Hindu ; that of the Nagananda,^ a Bauddha. The latter may 



but not a man. See the preface to the Vdsavadattd, p. 4, foot-note ; and the 

 Haima-Jcos' a, IV., 41. 



See the printed Ratnavali, p. 2. My text, for which I have collated several 

 manuscripts, punctually agrees with it, as concerns this extract. The manager is 

 here conciliating the favour of the audience on behalf of the troop of players, 

 himself, &c. 



Professor Wilson says, respecting his English recension — as it really is — of the 

 'Ratnavali, that it may " serve to convey some idea, how far the translator may 

 be suspected of widely deviating from his text in the preceding dramas ;" where 

 verse is rendered in verse. The passage just given is professedly reproduced, by 

 him, in this strange manner : " S'ri Harsha is an eminent poet ; the audience are 

 judges of merit ; the story of Vatsa is current in the world ; and we, the actors, 

 are experienced in the histrionic art ; and 1 hope, therefore, that, with so pre- 

 cious a poem, and such means of doing it justice, the opportunity afforded me of 

 appearing before so distinguished an assembly will yield me the fruit of all my 

 desires." Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, second edition, Vol. II., 

 pp. 261 and 265. 



f It is somewhat singular, that this play should have escaped the questing of 

 Professor Wilson ; as it is not very extraordinarily rare, and as it is more than 

 once referred to, and extracted from, in the Das'arupdvaloka. I have, among 

 my private manuscripts, two copies of it, a complete one, and one broken. It is 

 in five acts, and is of no great length. Its fable is the story of Jimutavahana, 

 now rendered familiar by the publication of the first volume of the Kathd-sarit- 

 sdgara. 



Of its two benedictory stanzas the first is subjoined : 



W W^W^fafCcqfaf?lTT ^%T fm^'' TTTcT ^: II 



" ' With eyes unclosed for a moment, on what female art thou ruminating, 

 under pretext of pious contemplation ? Behold these persons, ourselves, vexed 



