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JAINISM AND DEMOCRACY
Poetry:
Poetry is not an exception to the above. The poems of Valmiki, Asvaghosa and Kalidasa present a realistic picture. The description of beauty by Kalidasa is really inspiring. It puts a lasting impression on the heart. On the contrary, the later descriptions are merely figurative. The description of the speed of Dushyanta's horses in Abhijyana Sakuntalas is not unrealistic. We observe the same view even now while sitting in a running train. But Sriharsa, while describing it says that the sand particles around the feet of Nala's horse were not sands but atomic minds which have assembled there to learn speed. This description merely shows a height of fancy on the part of the poet. It does not present a picture of the speed. The description of female beauty has become stereotyped and uninspiring. The eyes are described as extending upto ears. The lips are as thin as the leaf of a tree. The breasts were like jars or trunks of the lel elephant. The waist could be grapsed into a fist and so on. We need not mention that these pictures in spite of their humour do not carry any poetic value. They fail to generate the sentiments of pathos which is the essence of poetry.
In this mediaval period the poets hankered after royal patronage and as a result of it their main purpose was confined to please the patron or to deg defeat a rival in the royal court. For this purpose exaggerations and sayings with crude or far-fetched meanings came into practice. Poetry in this time is not a spontaneous expression of sympathetic heart but a display of dry wits and scholarship.
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