Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works | Page 4

despised love;
that on the contrary he moved among men and women with a serene
and godlike tread, neither self-indulgent nor ascetic, with mind and
senses ever alert to every form of beauty. We know that his poetry was
popular while he lived, and we cannot doubt that his personality was
equally attractive, though it is probable that no contemporary knew the
full measure of his greatness. For his nature was one of singular
balance, equally at home in a splendid court and on a lonely mountain,
with men of high and of low degree. Such men are never fully
appreciated during life. They continue to grow after they are dead.
II
Kalidasa left seven works which have come down to us: three dramas,
two epics, one elegiac poem, and one descriptive poem. Many other
works, including even an astronomical treatise, have been attributed to
him; they are certainly not his. Perhaps there was more than one author
who bore the name Kalidasa; perhaps certain later writers were more

concerned for their work than for personal fame. On the other hand,
there is no reason to doubt that the seven recognised works are in truth
from Kalidasa's hand. The only one concerning which there is
reasonable room for suspicion is the short poem descriptive of the
seasons, and this is fortunately the least important of the seven. Nor is
there evidence to show that any considerable poem has been lost,
unless it be true that the concluding cantos of one of the epics have
perished. We are thus in a fortunate position in reading Kalidasa: we
have substantially all that he wrote, and run no risk of ascribing to him
any considerable work from another hand.
Of these seven works, four are poetry throughout; the three dramas, like
all Sanskrit dramas, are written in prose, with a generous mingling of
lyric and descriptive stanzas. The poetry, even in the epics, is stanzaic;
no part of it can fairly be compared to English blank verse. Classical
Sanskrit verse, so far as structure is concerned, has much in common
with familiar Greek and Latin forms: it makes no systematic use of
rhyme; it depends for its rhythm not upon accent, but upon quantity.
The natural medium of translation into English seems to me to be the
rhymed stanza;[3] in the present work the rhymed stanza has been used,
with a consistency perhaps too rigid, wherever the original is in verse.
Kalidasa's three dramas bear the names: _Malavika and Agnimitra,
Urvashi_, and Shakuntala_. The two epics are _The Dynasty of Raghu
and The Birth of the War-god_. The elegiac poem is called The
Cloud-Messenger_, and the descriptive poem is entitled The Seasons. It
may be well to state briefly the more salient features of the Sanskrit
genres to which these works belong.
The drama proved in India, as in other countries, a congenial form to
many of the most eminent poets. The Indian drama has a marked
individuality, but stands nearer to the modern European theatre than to
that of ancient Greece; for the plays, with a very few exceptions, have
no religious significance, and deal with love between man and woman.
Although tragic elements may be present, a tragic ending is forbidden.
Indeed, nothing regarded as disagreeable, such as fighting or even
kissing, is permitted on the stage; here Europe may perhaps learn a

lesson in taste. Stage properties were few and simple, while particular
care was lavished on the music. The female parts were played by
women. The plays very rarely have long monologues, even the
inevitable prologue being divided between two speakers, but a Hindu
audience was tolerant of lyrical digression.
It may be said, though the statement needs qualification in both
directions, that the Indian dramas have less action and less individuality
in the characters, but more poetical charm than the dramas of modern
Europe.
On the whole, Kalidasa was remarkably faithful to the ingenious but
somewhat over-elaborate conventions of Indian dramaturgy. His first
play, the Malavika and Agnimitra, is entirely conventional in plot. The
Shakuntala is transfigured by the character of the heroine. The Urvashi,
in spite of detail beauty, marks a distinct decline.
The Dynasty of Raghu_ and _The Birth of the War-god belong to a
species of composition which it is not easy to name accurately. The
Hindu name kavya_ has been rendered by artificial epic, épopée
savante, Kunstgedicht_. It is best perhaps to use the term epic, and to
qualify the term by explanation.
The kavyas_ differ widely from the _Mahabharata_ and the
_Ramayana, epics which resemble the Iliad_ and _Odyssey less in
outward form than in their character as truly national poems. The kavya
is a narrative poem written in a sophisticated age by a learned poet,
who possesses all the resources of an elaborate rhetoric