A SANSCRIT POEM BY SHRI HARSHA. 



321 



the temple, his hours for bathing, worship, repasts, and amusements. In 

 the twenty-second an account is given of his evening devotions, together 

 with a description of the beauties of a summer's eve, of the moon and 

 starry heavens ; but with these exceptions, all the books are amatorial, or 

 such as are connected with the marriage of the king. 



In order to form a correct estimate of the nature and value of this 

 poem, it is necessary that the reader should have a correct knowledge, 

 not only of the subject discussed, but of the different metres employed by 

 the poet. The metres used ill the Naiskad/ia are numerous; each book 

 commences in general with a metre differing from the one immediately 

 preceding it ; besides being diversified by the introduction of other metres 

 at the close. These, it is true, are of the first class, and, with one exception, 

 of the first order, while the genera and species employed are common and 

 not difficult to be ascertained ; but though they present little or no per- 

 plexity to the reader, it must be allowed that they display the powers of 

 the writer. A few specimens of what may be denominated the generic 

 metres used in this work, without descending to specific ones, will be 

 sufficient to shew that Shri Harsha was capable, if he chose, of writing in 

 metre of any description. In addition to the Anushtuhh,^ or common 

 heroic measure used in Sanscrit poetry, consisting of 8 syllables to the 

 p&da or 32 to the stanza, the following generic metres are commonly 

 employed in the Naishadha. 



(1st) Class Order iETTT Genus ^ircfl Species ^^j^rf^^ as 



The flowing stream of history like his, 

 Removes the guilty stains of this dark age, 

 And how much more the poor composer's faults. 



* For examples of this see the seventeenth and twentieth books. 



U 



