Sakoontala | Page 3

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 as
unknown to the European world as the gold-fields of Australia.
The earliest Sanskrit drama with which we are acquainted, the
'Clay-cart,' translated by my predecessor in the Boden Chair at Oxford,
Professor H.H. Wilson, is attributed to a regal author, King [S']údraka,

the date of whose reign cannot be fixed with any certainty, though
some have assigned it to the first or second century B.C. Considering
that the nations of Europe can scarcely be said to have possessed a
dramatic literature before the fourteenth or fifteenth century of the
present era, the great age of the Hindú plays would of itself be a most
interesting and attractive circumstance, even if their poetical merit were
not of a very high order. But when to the antiquity of these productions
is added their extreme beauty and excellence as literary compositions,
and when we also take into account their value as representations of the
early condition of Hindú society--which, notwithstanding the lapse of
two thousand years, has in many particulars obeyed the law of
unchangeableness ever stamped on the manners and customs of the
East--we are led to wonder that the study of the Indian drama has not
commended itself in a greater degree to the attention of Europeans, and
especially of Englishmen. The English student, at least, is bound by
considerations of duty, as well as curiosity, to make himself acquainted
with a subject which elucidates and explains the condition of the
millions of Hindús who owe allegiance to his own Sovereign, and are
governed by English laws.
Of all the Indian dramatists, indeed of all Indian poets, the most
celebrated is Kálidása, the writer of the present play. The late Professor
Lassen thought it probable that he flourished about the middle of the
third century after Christ. Professor Kielhorn of Göttingen has proved
that the composer of the Mandasor Inscription (A.D. 472) knew
Kálidása's Ritusamhára. Hence it may be inferred that Lassen was not
far wrong[1]. Possibly some King named Vikramáditya received
Kálidása at his Court, and honoured him by his patronage about that
time. Little, however, is known of the circumstances of his life. There
is certainly no satisfactory evidence to be adduced in support of the
tradition current in India that he lived in the time of the great King
Vikramáditya I., whose capital was Ujjayiní, now Oujein.
From the absence of historical literature in India, our knowledge of the
state of Hindústán between the incursion of Alexander and the
Muhammadan conquest is very slight. But it is ascertained with
tolerable accuracy that, after the invasion of the kingdoms of Bactria
and Afghánistán, the Tartars or Scythians (called by the Hindús
'[S']akas') overran the north-western provinces of India, and retained

possession of them. The great Vikramáditya or Vikramárka succeeded
in driving back the barbaric hordes beyond the Indus, and so
consolidated his empire that it extended over the whole of Northern
Hindústán. His name is even now cherished among the Hindús with
pride and affection. His victory over the Scythians is believed to have
taken place about B.C. 57. At any rate this is the starting-point of the
Vikrama (also called the Málava and in later times the Samvat) era, one
of the epochs from which the Hindús still continue to count. There is
good authority for affirming that the reign of this Vikramárka or
Vikramáditya was equal in brilliancy to that of any monarch in any age.
He was a liberal patron of science and literature, and gave splendid
encouragement to poets, philologists, astronomers, and mathematicians.
Nine illustrious men of genius are said to have adorned his Court, and
to have been supported by his bounty. They were called the 'Nine
Gems'; and a not unnatural tradition, which, however, must be
considered untrustworthy, included Kálidása among the Nine.
To Kálidása (as to another celebrated Indian Dramatist, Bhavabhúti,
who probably flourished in the eighth century) only three plays are
attributed; and of these the '[S']akoontalá' (here translated) has acquired
the greatest celebrity [2].
Indeed, the popularity of this play with the natives of India exceeds that
of any other dramatic, and probably of any other poetical composition
[3]. But it is not in India alone that the '[S']akoontalá' is known and
admired. Its excellence is now recognized in every literary circle
throughout the continent of Europe; and its beauties, if not yet
universally known and appreciated, are at least acknowledged by many
learned men in every country of the civilized world. The four
well-known lines of Goethe, so often quoted in relation to the Indian
drama, may here be