Tales from the Hindu Dramatists
R >> R. N. Dutta >> Tales from the Hindu DramatistsTALES FROM
THE HINDU DRAMATISTS.
BY
R. N. DUTTA, B.A., B.L.,
_Late Officiating Head-Master, Metropolitan Institution,
Bowbazar Branch, Calcutta;_
AUTHOR OF "THE BOY'S RAMAYANA."
REVISED BY
J. S. ZEMIN,
_Professor of English Literature, Bishop's College, and
Central College, Calcutta;
Late Principal, Doveton College, Calcutta;
Hon. Fellow and Examiner, University of Calcutta_.
Calcutta.
B. BANERJEE & Co.,
26, Cornwallis Street, and 54, College Street.
1912.
[_All Rights Reserved._] Ans. 12.
CALCUTTA,
PRINTED BY K.C. DATTA AT THE VICTORIA PRINTING WORKS
203/2 CORNWALLIS STREET.
PUBLISHED BY
B. BANERJEE & Co.,
25, Cornwallis Street, and 54, College Street.
To
The Hon'ble Sir Justice
ASHUTOSH MOOKERJEE, SARASWATI, Kt.
C.S.I., M.A., D.L., D.S.C., F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E.
_Vice-Chancellor of the University of
CALCUTTA._
THIS BOOK
IS
DEDICATED
as a sincere token of the esteem and admiration of the
AUTHOR
for his eminent services to the cause of the
ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note: There are some inconsistencies in spelling and|
|punctuation which have been left as the original. |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
PREFACE.
Many educationists think that our Indian boys should be encouraged to
read the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the two great
Epics of India and Tales from the Sanskrit Dramatists when they are
recommended to read "The Boy's Odyssey," "Legends of Greece and Rome,"
"Arabian Nights' Tales" and Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare." It was
perhaps from this view of the matter that the University of Calcutta
recommended "The Boy's Ramayana" and "Tales from the Hindu Dramatists"
for the Matriculation Examination. As no books were published in time,
the University had to issue an amended notice omitting the books from
the list. To supply the want, I have ventured to write the "Boy's
Ramayana" and this humble book. I have tried my best to narrate briefly,
in simple and idiomatic English, the stories on which the chief Sanskrit
dramas are based. I hope that the University will be pleased to
re-insert "The Boy's Ramayana" and this book in the list of books
recommended for the Matriculation Examination.
BALARAMADHAM, }
4, Madan Mitter's Lane, } RAMA NATH DUTT.
Calcutta }
_1911--December._ }
TALES
FROM
THE HINDU DRAMATISTS.
SAKUNTALA OR THE LOST RING.
In ancient days, there was a mighty king of the Lunar dynasty by name
Dushyanta. He was the king of Hastinapur. He once goes out a-hunting and
in the pursuit of a deer comes near the hermitage of the sage Kanwa, the
chief of the hermits, where some anchorites request him not to kill the
deer. The king feels thirsty and was seeking water when he saw certain
maidens of the hermits watering the favourite plants. One of them, an
exquisitely beautiful and bashful maiden, named Sakuntala, received him.
She was the daughter of the celestial nymph Menaka by the celebrated
sage Viswamitra and foster-child of the hermit Kanwa. She is smitten
with love at the first sight of the king, standing confused at the
change of her own feeling. The love at first sight which the king
conceives for her is of too deep a nature to be momentary. Struck by her
beauty he exclaims:--
"Her lip is ruddy as an opening bud; her graceful arms resemble tender
shoots; attractive as the bloom upon the tree, the glow of youth is
spread on all her limbs."
Seizing an opportunity of addressing her, he soon feels that it is
impossible for him to return to his capital. His limbs move forward,
while his heart flies back, like a silken standard borne against the
breeze. He seeks for opportunities for seeing her. With the thought
about her haunting him by day and night, he finds no rest, and no
pleasure even in his favourite recreation--sporting. Mathavya, the
jester, friend and companion of the king, however, breaks the dull
monotony of his anxious time. The opportunity which the king seeks
offers itself. The hermits send an embassy to the king asking him to
come over to the hermitage to guard their sacrifices. As he was making
preparations for departure to the hermitage, Karavaka, a messenger from
the queen-mother, arrives asking his presence at the city of Hastinapur.
He is at first at a loss to extricate himself from this difficulty but a
thought strikes him and he acts upon it. He sends the jester as his
substitute to the city. He is now at leisure to seek out the love-sick
Sakuntala who is drooping on account of her love for the king and is
discovered lying on a bed of flowers in an arbour. He comes to the
hermitage, overhears her conversation with her two friends, shows
himself and offers to wed her. For a second time, the lovers thus meet.
He enquires of her parentage to see if there is any obstacle to their
being united in marriage; whereupon Sakuntala asks her companion
Priyambada to satisfy the king with an account of her birth. The king
hearing the story of her birth asks the companion to get the consent of
Sakuntala to be married to him according to the form known as
_gandharva_.
Sakuntala requests the king to wait till her foster-father Kanwa, who
had gone out on a pilgrimage, would come back and give his consent. But
the king, becoming importunate, she at last gives her consent. They are
married according to the _gandharva_ form, on the condition that the
issue of the marriage should occupy the throne of Hastinapur. She
accepts from her lord a marriage-ring as the token of recognition.
The king then goes away, after having promised to shortly send his
ministers and army to escort her to his Capital. When Kanwa returns to
the hermitage, he becomes aware of what has transpired during his
absence by his spiritual powers, and congratulates Sakuntala on having
chosen a husband worthy of her in every respect. Next day, when
Sakuntala is deeply absorbed in thoughts about her absent lord, the
celebrated choleric sage Durvasa comes and demands the rights of
hospitality. But he is not greeted with due courtesy by Sakuntala owing
to her pre-occupied state. Upon this, the ascetic pronounces a curse
that he whose thought has led her to forget her duties towards guests,
would disown her.
Sakuntala does not hear it, but Priyambada hears it and by entreaties
appeases the wrath of the sage, who being conciliated ordains that the
curse would cease at the sight of some ornament of recognition.
Sakuntala becomes quick with child and in the seventh month of her
pregnancy is sent by her foster-father to Hastinapur, in the company of
her sister Gautami, and his two disciples Sarngarva and Saradwata.
Priyambada stays in the hermitage. Sakuntala takes leave of the sacred
grove in which she has been brought up, of her flowers, her gazelles and
her friends.
The aged hermit of the grove thus expresses his feelings at the
approaching loss of Sakuntala:--
"My heart is touched with sadness at the thought, "Sakuntala must go
to-day"; my throat is choked with flow of tears repressed; my sight is
dimmed with pensiveness but if the grief of an old forest hermit is so
great, how keen must be the pang a father feels when freshly parted from
a cherished child!"
Then he calls upon the trees to give her a kindly farewell. They answer
with the Kokila's melodious cry.
Thereupon the following good wishes are uttered by voices in the air:--
"Thy journey be auspicious; may the breeze, gentle and soothing, fan the
cheek; may lakes, all bright with lily cups, delight thine eyes; the
sun-beam's heat be cooled by shady trees; the dust beneath thy feet be
the pollen of lotuses."
On their way, Sakuntala and her companions bathe in the Prachi
Saraswati, when, as Fate would have it, she carelessly drops the ring of
recognition into the river, being unaware of the fact at the time. At
last they arrive at Hastinapur, and send words to the king.
The king asks his family priest Somarata to enquire of them the cause of
their coming. Whereupon the priest meets them at the gate, knows the
objects of their coming and informs the king of it. The curse of Durvasa
does its work. The king denies Sakuntala. At the intercession of the
priest, she and her companions are brought before the king. The king
publicly repudiates her. As a last resource, Sakuntala bethinks herself
of the ring given her by her husband, but on discovering that it is
lost, abandons hope. Sarnagarva sharply remonstrates against the conduct
of the king and presses the claim of Sakuntala.
Gentle and meek as Sakuntala is, she undauntedly gives vent to her moral
indignation against the king. The disciples go away saying that the king
would have to repent of it.
Sakuntala falls senseless on the ground. After a while, she revives, the
priest then comes forward and asks the king to allow her to stay in his
palace till her delivery. The king consents, and when Sakuntala is
following the priest, Menaka with her irradiant form appears and taking
hold of her daughter vanishes and goes to a celestial asylum. Everyone
present there is astonished and frightened.
After this incident, one day while the king is out on inspection, a
certain fisherman, charged with the theft of the royal signet-ring which
he professes to have found inside a fish, is dragged along by constables
before the king who, however, causes the poor accused to be set free,
rewarding him handsomely for his find.
Recollection of his former love now returns to him. His strong and
passionate love for Sakuntala surges upon him with doubled and
redoubled-force.
Indulging in sorrow at his repudiation of Sakuntala, the king passes
three long years; at the end of which Matali, Indra's charioteer,
appears to ask the king's aid in vanquishing the demons. He makes his
aerial voyage in Indra's car. While he is coming back from the realm of
Indra, he alights on the hermitage of Maricha.
Here he sees a young boy tormenting a lion-whelp. Taking his hand,
without knowing him to be his own son, he exclaims:--"If now the touch
of but a stranger's child thus sends a thrill of joy through all my
limbs, what transports must be awakened in the soul of that blest father
from whose loins he sprang!"
From the vaunting speeches of the boy, the king gathers that the boy is
a scion of the race of Puru. His heart everflows with affection for him.
A collection of circumstantial evidence points the boy to be his son.
The amulet on the boy indicates his parentage.
But while he is in a doubtful mood as to the parentage of the refractory
boy, he meets the sage Maricha from whom he learns everything. The name
of the boy is Sarvadamana, afterwards known as Bharata, the most famous
king of the Lunar race, whose authority is said to have extended over a
great part of India, and from whom India is to this day called Bharata
or Bharatavarsa (the country or domain of Bharata.)
Soon after, he finds and recognises Sakuntala, with whom he is at length
happily re-united.
VIKRAMORVASI OR URVASI WON BY VALOUR
OR
THE HERO AND THE NYMPH.
In the Himalaya mountains, the nymphs of heaven, on returning from an
assembly of the gods, are mourning over the loss of Urvasi, a
fellow-nymph, who has been carried off by a demon. King Pururavas enters
on his chariot, and on hearing the cause of their grief, hastens to the
rescue of the nymph. He soon returns, after having vanquished the
robber, and restores Urvasi to her heavenly companions. While carrying
the nymph back to her friends in his chariot, he is enraptured by her
beauty, falls in love with her and she with her deliverer. Urvasi being
summoned before the throne of Indra, the lovers are soon obliged to
part. When they part, Urvasi wishes to turn round once more to see the
king.
She pretends that a straggling vine has caught her garland, and while
feigning to disengage herself, she calls one of her friends to help her.
The friend replies:--
"I fear, this is no easy task. You seem entangled too fast to be set
free: but, come what may, defend upon my friendship." The eyes of the
king then meet those of Urvasi. They now part.
The king is now at Prayag, the modern Allahabad, his residence. He walks
in the garden of his palace, accompanied by a Brahman who is his
confidential companion, and knows his love for Urvasi. The companion is
so afraid of betraying what must remain a secret to everybody at court,
and in particular to the queen, that he hides himself in a retired
temple. There a female servant of the queen discovers him, and 'as a
secret can no more rest in his breast than morning dew upon the grass,'
she soon finds out from him why the king is so changed, since his return
from the battle with the demon, and carries the tale to the queen. In
the meantime, the king is in despair, and pours out his grief. Urvasi
also is sighing for him. She suddenly descends with her friend through
the air to meet him.
Both are at first invisible to him, and listen to his confession of
love.
Then Urvasi writes a verse on a birch-leaf, and lets it fall near the
bower where her beloved reclines.
Next, her friend becomes visible, and at last, Urvasi herself is
introduced to the king. After a few moments, however, both Urvasi and
her friend are called back by a messenger of the gods, and the king is
left alone with his jester. He looks for the leaf on which Urvasi had
first disclosed her love, but it is lost, carried away by the wind. But
worse than this the leaf is picked up by the queen, who comes to look
for the king in the garden. The queen severely upbraids her husband,
and, after a while, goes off in a hurry, like a river in the rainy
season.
When Urvasi was recalled to Indra's heaven, she had to act before Indra
the part of the goddess of beauty, who selects Vishnu for her husband.
One of the names of Vishnu is Purushottama.
Poor Urvasi, when called upon to confess on whom her heart was set,
forgetting the part she had to act, says "I love Pururavas," instead of
"I love Purushottama."
Her teacher Bharata, the author of the play, is so much exasperated by
this mistake, that he pronounces a curse upon Urvasi. "You must lose
your divine knowledge." After the close of the performance, Indra,
observing her as she stood apart, ashamed and disconsolate, calls her
and says:--
"The mortal, who engrosses your thoughts, has been my friend in the days
of adversity; he has helped me in the conflict with the enemies of the
gods, and is entitled to my acknowledgements. You must, accordingly,
repair to him and remain with him till he beholds the offspring you
shall bear him." The god thus permits her to marry the mortal hero.
After transacting public business, the king retires to the garden of the
palace as the evening approaches. A messenger arrives from the queen,
apprising his Majesty that she desires to see him on the terrace of the
pavilion. The king obeys and ascends the crystal steps while the moon is
just about to rise, and the east is tinged with red.
As he is waiting for the queen, his desire for Urvasi is awakened again.
On a sudden, Urvasi enters on a heavenly car, accompanied by his friend.
They are invisible to the king as on the previous occasion. The moment
that Urvasi is about to withdraw her veil, the queen appears. She is
dressed in white, without any ornaments, and comes to propitiate her
husband, by taking a vow.
Then she, calling upon the god of the moon, performs her solemn vow and
retires.
Urvasi, who is present, though in an invisible state, during this scene
of matrimonial reconciliation, now advances behind the king and covers
his eyes with her hands. The king says:--
"It must be Urvasi; no other hand could shed such ecstasy through my
emaciated frame. The solar rays do not wake the night's fair blossom;
that alone expands when conscious of the moon's dear presence."
She takes the resignation of the queen in good earnest and claims the
king as granted her by right. Her friend takes leave and she now remains
with the king as his beloved wife in the groves of a forest.
Subsequently the lovers are wandering near Kailasa, the divine mountain,
when Urvasi, in a fit of jealousy, enters the grove of Kumara, the god
of war, which is forbidden to all females. In consequence of Bharat's
curse she is instantly metamorphosed into a creeper. The king beside
himself with grief at her loss, seeks her everywhere. The nymphs in a
chorus deplore her fate. Mournful strains are heard in the air.
The king enters a wild forest, his features express insanity, his dress
is disordered. Clouds gather overhead. He rushes frantically after a
cloud which he mistakes for a demon that carried away his bride.
He addresses various birds and asks them whether they have seen his
love,--the peacock, 'the bird of the dark-blue throat and eyes of
jet,'--the cuckoo, 'whom lovers deem Love's messenger,'--the swans, 'who
are sailing northward, and whose elegant gait betrays that they have
seen her,'--the chakravaka, 'a bird who, during the night, is himself
separated from his mate,'--but none responds. He apostrophises various
insects, beasts and even a mountain peak to tell him where she is.
Neither the bees which murmur amidst the petals of the lotus, nor the
royal elephant, that reclines with his mate under the Kadamba tree, has
seen the lost one.
At last he thinks he sees her in the mountain stream:--
"The rippling wave is like her frown; the row of tossing birds her
girdle; streaks of foam, her fluttering garment as she speeds along; the
current, her devious and stumbling gait. It is she turned in her wrath
into a stream."
At last the king finds a gem of ruddy radiance. He holds it in his
hands, and embraces the vine which is now transformed into Urvasi. Thus
is she restored to her proper form, through the mighty spell of the
magical gem. The efficacious gem is placed on her forehead. The king
recovers his reason. They are thus happily re-united and return to
Allahabad.
Several years elapse. An unlucky incident now comes to pass. A hawk
bears away the ruby of re-union. Orders are sent to shoot the bird, and,
after a short while, a forester brings the jewel and the arrow by which
the hawk was killed. An inscription on the shaft shows that its owner is
Ayus. A female ascetic enters, leading a boy with a bow in hand.
The boy is Ayus, the son of Urvasi, whom his mother confided to the
female ascetic who generously brought him up in the forest and now;
sends him back to his mother. The king who was not aware that Urvasi
had ever borne him a son, now recognises Ayus as his son. Urvasi also
comes to embrace her boy. She now suddenly bursts into tears and tells
the king:--
"Indra decreed that I am to be recalled to heaven when you see our son.
This induced me to conceal from you so long the birth of the child. Now
that you have accidentally seen the child, I shall have to return to
heaven, in compliance with the decree of Indra."
She now prepares to leave her husband after she has seen her boy
installed as associate king. So preparations are made for the
inauguration ceremony when Narada the messenger of Indra, comes to
announce that the god has compassionately revoked the decree. The nymph
is thus permitted to remain on earth for good as the hero's second wife.
Nymphs descend from heaven with a golden vase containing the water of
the heavenly Ganges, a throne, and other paraphernalia, which they
arrange. The prince is inaugurated as Yuvaraj. All now go together to
pay their homage to the queen, who had so generously resigned her rights
in favour of Urvasi.
MALAVIKAGNIMITRA,
OR
AGNIMITRA AND MALAVIKA.
We learn a wise sentiment from the prologue. The stage-manager,
addressing the audience, says:--"All that is old is not, on that
account, worthy of praise, nor is a novelty, by reason of its newness,
to be censured. The wise do not decide what is good or bad till they
have tested merit for themselves: a foolish man trusts to another's
judgement."
Puspamitra was the founder of the Sunga dynasty of Magadha kings, having
been the general of Vrihadratha, the last of the Maurya race, whom he
deposed and put to death: he was succeeded by his son Agnimitra who
reigned at Vidica (Bhilsa) in the second century B.C. King Agnimitra has
two queens Dharini and Iravati. Malavika belongs to the train of his
queen Dharini's attendants. The maid was sent as a present to the queen
by her brother, Virsena, governor of the Antapala or barrier-fortress on
the Nermada.
The queen jealously keeps her out of the king's sight on account of her
great beauty. The king, however, accidentally sees the picture of
Malavika, painted by order of the queen for her _chitrasala_, or
picture-gallery. The sight of the picture inspires the king with an
ardent desire to view the original, whom he has never yet beheld.
Hostilities are about to break out between Agnimitra and Yajnasena, king
of Viderbha (Berar). The first, on one occasion, had detained captive
the brother-in-law of the latter, and Yajnasena had retaliated by
throwing into captivity Madhavasena, the personal friend of Agnimitra,
when about to repair to Vidisa to visit that monarch. Yajnasena sends to
propose an exchange of prisoners, but Agnimitra haughtily rejects the
stipulation, and sends orders to his brother-in-law, Virasena, to lead
an army immediately against the Raja of Viderbha. This affair being
disposed of, he directs his attention to domestic interests, and employs
his Vidushaka or confidant, Gotama, to procure him the sight of
Malavika. To effect this, Gotama instigates a quarrel between the
professors, Ganadas and Haradatta, regarding their respective
pre-eminence.
They appeal to the Raja, who, in consideration of Ganadasa's being
patronised by the queen, refers the dispute to her. She is induced to
consent reluctantly to preside at a trial of skill between the parties,
as shown in the respective proficiency of their select scholars. The
queen is assisted by a protege, a _Parivrajaka_, or female ascetic and
woman of superior learning.
The party assembles in the chamber where the performance is to take
place, fitted up with the _Sangitarachana_, or orchestral decorations.
The king's object is attained, for Ganadasa brings forward Malavika as
the pupil on whom he stakes his credit. Malavika sings an _Upanga_ or
prelude, and then executes an air of extraordinary difficulty.
Malavika's performance is highly applauded, and, of course, captivates
the king and destroys his peace of mind; the Vidushaka detains her
until the queen, who has all along suspected the plot, commands her to
retire. The warder cries the hour of noon, on which the party breaks up,
and the queen, with more housewifery than majesty, hastens away to
expedite her royal husband's dinner.
There stands an _asoka_ tree in the garden. The Hindus believe that this
tree, when barren, may be induced to put forth flowers by the contact of
the foot of a handsome woman. The tree in question does not blossom, and
being the favourite of Dharini, she has proposed to try the effect of
her own foot. Unluckily however, the Vidhushaka, whilst setting her
swing in motion, has tumbled her out of it and the fall has sprained her
ankle, so that she cannot perform the ceremony herself: she therefore
deputes Malavika to do it for her, who accordingly comes to the spot
attired in royal habiliments, and accompanied by her friend Vakulavali.
In the conversation that ensues, she acknowledges her passion for the
king, who with his friend Gotama has been watching behind the tree, and
overhears the declaration; he therefore makes his appearance and
addresses a civil speech, to Malavika when he is interrupted by another
pair of listeners, Iravati and her attendant. She commands Malavika's
retreat, and leaves the king, in a violent rage, to inform Dharini of
what is going forward. The King never behaves as a despot but always
with much consideration for the feelings of his spouses.
The Vidushaka now informs the king that Malavika has been locked in the
_Sarabhandagriha_ or the store or treasure room by the queen. The room
was no enviable place, as the Vidusaka compares it to Patala, the
infernal regions. He undertakes, however, to effect her liberation; and
whilst he prepares for his scheme, the Raja pays a visit to the queen.
Whilst the Raja is engaged in tranquil conversation with Dharini, and
the parivrajaka, the vidushaka rushes in, exclaiming he has been beaten
by a venomous snake, whilst gathering flowers to bring with him as a
present on his visit to the queen, and he exhibits his thumb bound with
his cord, and marked with the impressions made by the teeth of the
reptile. The parivrajaka, with some humour as well as good surgery,
recommends the actual cautery, or the amputation of the thumb; but the
vidushaka pretending to be in convulsions and dying, the snake-doctor is
sent for, who having had his clue refuses to come, and desires the
patient may be sent to him: the vidushaka is accordingly sent. The queen
is in great alarm, as being, however innocently, the cause of a
Brahman's death. Presently the messenger returns, stating that the only
hope is the application of the snake-stone to the bite, and requesting
the Raja to order one to be procured: the queen has one in her
finger-ring, which she instantly takes off and sends to the vidushaka.
This is his object, for the female jailor of Malavika has, as he has
ascertained, been instructed to liberate her prisoner only on being
shown the seal ring or signet of the queen, and having got this in his
possession, he immediately effects the damsel's release, after which the
ring is returned to the queen, and the Vidushaka is perfectly recovered.