________________
INTRODUCTION
choice, were ever happy afterwards in society She should also tell of other girls who married into great families, and being troubled by rival wives became wretched and miserable, and were finally abandoned She should further speak of the good fortune, the continual happiness, the chastity, obedience, and affection of the man, and if the girl gets amorous about him, she should endeavour to allay her shame and her fear as well as her suspicions about any disaster that might result from her marriage In a word she should act the whole part of a female messenger by telling the girl all about the man's affection for her, the places he frequented, and the endeavours he made to meet her, and by often repeating, "It will be all right if the man will take you away forcibly and unexpectedly " I have quoted this passage at great length simply to make it thoroughly clear how very faithfully Bhavabhuta has followed these instructions in his Mal. Thus Kamandaki tells us that she wishes to formulate a plan for herself as a voluntary messenger', and we find her carrying out the above principles in her speech in Mal II 7/8 and in others up to the close of Act II, thereby winning the confidence of Mälati, as she tells us in III. 1. For the last line of Vätsyäyana's quotation compare Buddharaksita's speech in Mal VII 2 aha so.. saangaha-sahasena sahadhammaarinim kares, &c
XXVI
He must have also known a certain traditional collection of words like the Nighantus, for we read in Utt. aśvo 'eva str, &c., IV. 25/26, and pathitam eva, &c, IV 26/27
Mv. IV 23, and the mention of the various parts of a man's body in Mv. III. 82, V 19, may perhaps indicate that the poet had studied works of medicine.
His thorough familiarity with Pauranic literature shows itself pretty often. It would be worth while to examine his relationship with Tantric literature that he must have thoroughly studied it is proved beyond doubt by Mal V.
8. BHAVABHUTI'S DATE.
In his Indische Literaturgeschichte, p 222, Albrecht Weber places Bhavabhuti in the eighth century A.D. Leopold v. Schroder expresses himself to the same effect in his Indrens Interatur und Cultur, p. 647. Max Muller in his India, What can it teach us?, pp. 332-5, expressed a similar opinion as to the poet's date. Macdonell in his History of Sanskrit Literature, p 363, says: His patron was King Yasovarman of Kanyakubja (Kanauj), who ruled during the first half of the eighth
1 nipunam nisrstārtha-dûtī-kalpas tantrayztavyah in Mal 1. 18/19 Cf also II, 18
2 Berlin, 1876
4 London, 1888.
* Leipzig, 1887
• London, 1900.
