Sakoontala | Page 2

upon the mind, it is that our age is turning its back on time-honoured creeds and dogmas. We are hurrying forward to a chaos in which all our existing beliefs, nay even the fundamental axioms of morality, may in the end be submerged; and as the general tenor of Indian thought among the educated community is to reject everything that is old, and equally blindly to absorb everything new, it becomes more and more an urgent question whether any great intellectual or moral revolution, which has no foundations in the past, can produce lasting benefits to the people.
'"I desire no future that will break the ties of the past" is what George Eliot has said, and so it is highly necessary that the Hind��s should know something of their former greatness.
'The songs in [S']akoontal��, one in the Prologue and another in the beginning of the fifth Act, very easily adapted themselves to Hind�� tunes.'
Towards the end of his letter Mr. Aiyar intimated that he himself took the part of M��[T.]Havya. He also mentioned that a few modifications and additions were introduced into some of the scenes.
In a subsequent letter received from Mr. Keshava Aiyar, the Secretary of the Society, I was informed that my version of the Play was acted again at Trivandrum in 1894.
These descriptions of the successful representation of the [S']akoontal�� in Travancore justified me in expressing a hope that, as K��lid��sa has been called the Shakespeare of India, so the most renowned of his three dramatic works might, with a few manifestly necessary modifications, be some day represented, with equal success, before English-speaking audiences in other parts of the world and especially here in England. This hope has been realized, and quite recently my translation has been successfully acted by amateur actors before a London audience.
I venture, therefore, to add the expression of a further hope that with the daily growth of interest in Oriental literature, and now that the [S']akoontal�� forms one of Sir John Lubbock's literary series, it may be more extensively read by the Rulers of India in all parts of the Empire. Those who study it attentively cannot fail to become better acquainted with the customs and habits of thought, past and present, of the people committed to their sway.
And it cannot be too often repeated that our duty towards our great Dependency requires us to do something more than merely rule justly. We may impart high education, we may make good laws, we may administer impartial justice, we may make roads, lay down railroads and telegraphs, stimulate trade, accomplish amazing engineering feats--like that lately achieved at Periyar--increase the wealth and develop the resources of our vast Eastern territories; but unless we seek to understand the inhabitants, unless we think it worth while to study their ancient literatures, their religious ideas, and time-honoured institutions, unless we find in them something to admire and respect, we can never expect any reciprocity of esteem and respect on their part--we can never look forward to a time when the present partition-wall, which obstructs the free Interchange of social relations between European and Asiatic races, will be entirely removed.
MONIER MONIER-WILLIAMS, _December, 1898_.

INTRODUCTION
About a century has elapsed since the great English Orientalist, Sir William Jones, astonished the learned world by the discovery of a Sanskrit Dramatic Literature. He has himself given us the history of this discovery. It appears that, on his arrival in Bengal, he was very solicitous to procure access to certain books called N��taks, of which he had read in one of the 'Lettres ��difiantes et Curieuses' written by the Jesuit Missionaries of China. But, although he sought information by consulting both Br��hmans and Europeans, he was wholly unable for some time to satisfy his curiosity as to the nature of these books. It was reported to him that they were not histories, as he had hoped, but that they abounded with fables, and consisted of conversations in prose and verse held before ancient R��j��s, in their public assemblies. Others, again, asserted that they were discourses on dancing, music, and poetry. At length, a sensible Br��hman, conversant with European manners, removed all his doubts, and gave him no less delight than surprise, by telling him that the English nation had compositions of the same sort, which were publicly represented at Calcutta in the cold season, and bore the name of 'plays.' The same Br��hman, when asked which of these N��taks was most universally esteemed, answered without hesitation, '[S']akoontal��.'
It may readily be imagined with what interest, the keen Orientalist received this communication; with what rapidity he followed up the clue; and, when at length his zeal was rewarded by actual possession of a MS. copy of one of these dramas, with what avidity he proceeded to explore the treasures which for eighteen hundred years had remained