48 THE MODERN LITERARY HISTORY OF HINDUSTAN. [§ 128. 
Regarding his poetic powers I think it is difficult to speak too 
highly. His characters live and move with all the dignity of a 
heroic age. Has’rath, the man of noble resolves which fate had 
doomed to be unfruitful; Ram, of lofty and unbending rectitude, 
well contrasted with his loving but impetuous brother Lachhman; Slta, 
the ‘perfect woman nobly planned;’ and Raban, like Has’rath, predes¬ 
tined to failure, but fighting with all his demon force against his fate, 
almost like Satan in Milton’s epic, the protagonist of half the poem,— 
all these are as vividly before my mind’s eye as I write as any 
character in the whole range of English literature. Then what a 
tender devotion there is in Bharat’s character, which by its sheer truth 
overcomes the false schemes of his mother Kaakeyi and her maid. 
His villains, too, are not one black picture. Each has his own 
character, and none is without his redeeming virtue. 
For sustained and varied dramatic interest I suppose the Ram- 
Charit-Mdnas is his best work ; but there are fine passages in his 
other poems. What can be more charming than the description of 
Ram’s babyhood and boyhood in the commencement of the Gltaba/1, 
or the dainty touches of colour given to the conversation of the 
village women as they watch Ram, Lachhman, and Slta treading 
their dreary way during their exile. Again, what mastery of words 
is there in the Sundar Kand of the KabittabalJ throughout the 
description of the burning of Lagka. We can hear the crackling 
of the flames and the crash of the falling houses, the turmoil and 
confusion amongst the men, and the cries of the helpless women as 
they shriek for water. 
Still even Tul’sl Has was not able to rise altogether superior to the 
dense cloud which fashion had imposed upon Indian poetry. I must 
confess that his battle descriptions are often luridly repulsive, and 
sometimes overstep the border which separates the tragic from the 
ludicrous. To Native minds these are the finest passages which he has 
written ; but I do not think that the cultivated European can ever find 
much pleasure in them. He was hampered, too, by the necessity of 
representing Ram as an incarnation of Vishnu, which leads him into 
what, although only meet adoration to the pious believer, sounds to us 
Mlechchhas as too gross hyperbole. 
The reasons for the excellence of this great poet’s work are not 
far to seek. The most important of all was the great modesty of the 
man. The preface to the Ram-Charit-Manus is one of the most remark¬ 
able portions of the book. Kalidasa may begin his Raghuuamca with 
