Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1873.
Man is a brute, a plant, & mineral: Ench hopeful part must love cach hopeless one; The hopeless ones around the hopeful spin, Just as the hopeful ones these do attract. The Lover, straw-attractor,t needs no shapeThe straw contends on that far distant way. Abandon this.--Mute adoration's love Into the heart of God most brightly shines; His mercy pitics human creatures all, His glory from this perfect grace will shrink. Man's reason is astonished to know: Is this attraction human or divine ? CHAND'S MENTION OF SRI HARSHA AND
KALIDASA. It may safely be said that there is not a single date in Sanskrit chronology which is not, or has not been, disputed. Not many years ago, if the question had been asked, When did the famous poet Kalidas a live ? the unhesitating answer would have been, At the time when Vikram Aditya established his era, about 50 years before Christ' and probably this is still the Hinda belief. But all modern scholars are unanimous in concluding that he must be referred to a much later period, and that the king Bhoja, at whose court he flourished, was the second of that name, whose reign is fixed as commencing in 483 and termin. ating in 538 A.D. This shows how desirable it is to abstain from any positive assertion in matters of the kind until every particle of evidence has been carefully collected and weighed. It is deci. dedly premature for B&bd Ram Das Sen to state doginatically that the king of Kanauj under whose patronage Sri Harsha wrote the Naishadha, was evidently a contemporary of Prithiraj: for if the evidence to the fact were generally accepted as conclusive, the controversy, which has now filled some pages of the Antiquary, could never have arisen. The lines which I quoted à propos to the previous discussion bring forward Chand as a perfectly new and independent witness, and his testimony cannot be so summarily set aside.
I am convinced that no unprejudiced person can read his list of elder authors without recognising that it is intended to be arranged in chronological order. The names are only eight in number, viz. Sesh-nag, Vishnu, Vyâsa, Suka-deva, Sri Harshs, Kalidasa, Danda-máli and Jayadeva. No orthodox Hindu will deny that the first four are correctly so placed at the head of the list. Similarly the two that he names last are unmistakeably modern writers; for Danda-mali is referred, at earliest, to the end of the tenth century, and Jayadeva to a still more recent date. Wilson
Hopeful=immortal, hopeless=mortal; i.e. spiritas! and material
This is the literal translation of the Persian word for amber, which, together with Lover in the simile, stands
even took him to be a disciple of Rå månandan extreme theory which cannot now be maintained, since we find him mentioned by Chand, who on the most moderate computation preceded R månand by a full century. There remain only the two names of Sri Harsha and Kálid & sa: the latter, as observed above, flourished at the beginning of the 6th century after Christ; he thorefore preceded the two last names in the catalogue and came after the first fonr, and is so far unquestionably placed in his proper chronological rank. Thus the sole exception-if it is an exception-to the correct sequence is in the case of Sri Harsha, whose precise date is the very matter in dispute.
The most natural conclusion to Le drawn from the passage is that in Chand's opinion Sri Har. sha was a writer of considerable antiquity. It is possible that he may have been in error in placing him before Kalidasa; but he clearly indicates that he was by no means a contemporary writer, and this is a point about which he could not possibly be mistaken. His attribution of the Bhojaprabandha to Kalidasa is of course not strictly correct. The work, as we have it, is known to have been compiled by BallAla Misra, who at least supplied the prose framework. But a great part of the poetical extracts which form the bulk of the work, may with considerable probability bo ascribed to Kalid å sa.
Mr. Beames' letter scarcely needs a reply; and he admits that I have succeeded in explaining the allusion in both the passages I quote, which is the matter of most importance. And until some reasonable explanation can be given of the two forms naramráva and shaddha-a contingency which I do not regard as imminent-I shall continve to look upon both as mere clerical errors, and read for the one naramrúpa, and for the other buddha. The literal translation of the couplet is: * Fifth, the excellent Sri Harsha, paragon of men, who dropt the ennobling wreath on king Nala's neck.' This is identical with my metrical version, since the excellence intended is clearly excellence as a poet. In the line referring to Kálid Aba, the phrase setabandhyan-literally, built up the pile'--means nothing more than constructed.' It was selected by Chand solely on account of its similarity in sound to the name of the book, Bhoja-prabandha. A similar alliterative phrase in English would be composed a posy of sweet song. The only difficulty in the line is the word ti, which I take to be a mere expletive.
F. S. GROWSE. Mathura, N. W. P., July 31, 1873. for God, and straws for man, to express the attraction ererted by the Creator on the creature. There occur figures of speech still more strange and incongruous to our notions ; the translator has accordingly omitted four lines hero,