30 Fragments of three early Hindu, dramatists. [No. 1. 



'The sun, like the vile, keenly annoys for a brief season. The 

 deer easts his horns, as the ungrateful man forsakes a friend. 

 Water becomes serene, as does the thought of active duties to the 

 holy sage. The moist soil dries up, as does the wretched lover.' 



Ramila and Somila, wherever they have been found mentioned, 

 are mentioned in conjunction ; the Beaumont and Fletcher, perhaps, 

 of the elassical Indian theatre. Only a single stanza of theirs is 

 accessible to me. 



*reir$: sjiOTT ^w ^f*rc ^&m w^rref?r: 

 .i j 



' In one who has been ill, there is emaciation ; when one is wound- 

 ed, effusion of blood ; and, in the case of a person bitten by a 

 venomous animal, flow of saliva. There is nothing, however, of 

 these in this instance. How, then, did the wandering self-styled 

 ascetic die ? Indeed, it is surmised that the rash man cast his eyes 

 on the opening buds of the mango-tree, newly resonant with bees 

 transported with aroma: and so he perished.'' 



The spring-time is here suggested. The general purport of the 

 stanza is, that the memory of the poor devotee, a mere neophyte, 

 was carried back, by the humming of the bees, to other and more 

 genial circumstances ; that the reminiscence was too much for his 

 acute sensibility ; and that the shock deprived him of existence. 

 Kalidasa himself would not have been disgraced by this conceit. 



* S'drdulavilcrtdita. 



