OF

est Indian prince was, in the sight and ordinary speech of the rawest white subaltern, only a "nigger." This universal contempt was retorted with a hatred as universal, and threatening in the future most disastrous consequences to the British rule. Then came an unexpected and wonderful discovery. European philologists, studying the language of the conquered race, discovered that the classic mother-tongue of Northern Hindústán was the elder sister of the Greek, the Latin, the German, and the Celtic languages. At the same time a splendid literature was unearthed, which filled the scholars of Europe with astonishment and delight. The despised Asiatics became not only the blood relations, but the teachers and exemplars of their conquerors.

The revulsion of feeling on both sides was immense. Mutual esteem and confidence, to a large extent, took the place of repulsion and distrust. Even in the mutiny which occurred while the change was yet in progress, a very large proportion of the native princes and people refused to take part in the outbreak. Since that time the good will has steadily grown with the fellowship of common studies and aims. It may fairly be affirmed at this day that the discovery of the Sanskrit language and literature has been of more

1 See Michilet's "Bible of Humanity," Library of Choice Literature, Vol. III., page 89.

VOL. X.

value to England in the retention and increase of her Indian empire than an army of 100,000 men.-Popular Science Monthly, January, 1888.]

Only seventy years have elapsed since the great English Orientalist, Sir William Jones, astonished the learned world by the discovery of a Sanskrit dramatic literature. He has himself given us the history of this discovery. It appears that, on his arrival in Bengal, he was very solicitous to procure access to certain books called Nátaks, of which he had read in one of the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, written by the Jesuit missionaries of China. But, although he sought information by consulting both Bráhmans and Europeans, he was wholly unable for some time to satisfy his curiosity as to the nature of these books. It was reported to him that they were not histories, as he had hoped, but that they abounded with fables, and consisted of conversations in prose and verse held before ancient Rájás in their public assemblies. Others, again, asserted that they were discourses on dancing, music, and poetry. At length, a sensible Bráhman, conversant with European manners, removed all his doubts, and gave him no less delight than surprise by telling him that the English nation had compositions of the same sort, which were publicly represented at Calcutta in the cold season, and bore the name of plays. The same Brahman, when asked which of these Nátaks was most universally esteemed, answered without hesitation, "Sakoon talá.”

It may readily be imagined with what interest the keen Orientalist received this communication; with what rapidity he followed up the clue; and, when at length his zeal was rewarded by actual possession of a MSS. 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. Indeed, it has now been ascertained that the antiquity of some of the Sanskrit dramas thus brought to light extends back to a still more remote period than the commencement of the Christian era.

The earliest with which we are acquainted, "The Toy-Cart," translated by Professor H. H. Wilson, is attributed to a regal author, King Súdraka, whose reigu is generally fixed in the second century B. C., and it is not improbable that others, the names of which only have been preserved, may belong to a previous century.

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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.

Of all Indian dramatists, and indeed of all Indian poets, the most celebrated is Kálidása, the writer of "Sakoontalá." He comes next in date to Súdraka, the author of "The Toy-Cart ;" and although little is known of the circumstances of his life, yet there is satisfactory evidence to prove that he lived in the time of King Vikramaditya I., whose capital was Ujjayiní, now Oujein (a sacred and very ancient city, situated to the northeast of Gujarát), and who flourished in the middle of the century preceding the commencement of our

era.

From the absence of historical literature in India, our knowledge of the state of Hindústán between the incursion of Alexander and the Mohammedan 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 "Sakas") overran the northwestern provinces of India, and retained possession of them till the reign of Vikramaditya. driving back the barbaric hordes beyond the Indus, and so consolidated his empire that his dominion extended

This great monarch succeeded in

over the whole of Northern Hindústán. His name is even now cherished among the Hindús with pride and affection, and the date of his victory over the Scythians, B. C. 56, is the starting-point of the Samvat era, from which they still continue to count. There is good authority for affirming that the reign of Vikramaditya I. was equal in brilliancy to that of any monarch in any age or country. He was a liberal patron of science and literature, and gave the most splendid encouragement to poets, philologists, astronomers, and mathematicians. Nine illustrious men of genius adorned his court, and were supported by his bounty. They were called the "Nine Gems;" and Kálidása is by general consent allowed to have been the brightest of the nine. To him (as to another celebrated Indian dramatist, Bhavabhúti, who flourished in the eighth century) only three plays are attributed; and of these the "Sakoon talá," the third and fourth acts of which are here translated, has acquired the greatest celebrity.

Indeed, the popularity of this play with the natives of India exceeds that of any other dramatic, and prob ably of any other poetical composition. But it is not in India alone that the "Sakoon talá" 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.

PERSONS REPRESENTED AND REFERRED
TO IN THIS EXTRACT.

DUSHYANTA, king of INDIA.
MATHAVYA, the jester, friend and companion of the KING.
KANWA, chief of the hermits, foster-father of SAKOONTALA.
SÁRNGARAVA, two Bráhmans, belonging to the hermitage
SÁRADWATA, of KANWA.

KARABHAKA, a messenger of the queen-mother.
RAIVATAKA, the warder or door-keeper.
SAKOONTALA, daughter of the sage VISWAMITRA and the
nymph MENAKÁ, foster-child of the hermit KANWA.
PRIYAMVADA and ANASUYá, female attendants, compan-
ions of SAKOONTALÁ.

GAUTAMI, a holy matron, superior of the female inhabitants of the hermitage.

[The first act is occupied with the introduction of KING DUSHYANTA who, with numerous attendants, is on a hunting expedition, and the act finishes with the accidental meeting between the KING and SAKOONTALÁ.]

SCENE.-A plain on the skirts of the forest. Enter the Jester, MÁTHAVYA, in a melancholy mood.

HEIGH-HO! what an unlucky fellow I am! worn to a shadow by my royal friend's sporting propensities. "Here's a deer!" "There goes a boar!" "Yonder's a tiger!" This is the only burden of our talk, while in the heat of the meridian sun we toil on from jungle to jungle, wandering about in the paths of the woods, where the trees afford us no shelter. Are we thirsty? We have nothing to drink but the foul water of some mountain stream, filled with dry leaves, which give it a most pungent flavor. Are we hungry? We have nothing to eat but roast game, which we must swallow down at odd times as best we can. Even at night there is no peace to be had. Sleeping is out of the question, with joints all strained by dancing attendance upon my sporting friend; or if I do happen to doze, I am awakened at the very earliest dawn by the horrible din of a lot of rascally beaters and huntsmen, who must needs surround the wood before sunrise, and deafen me with their clatter. Nor are these my only troubles. Here's a fresh grievance, like a new boil rising upon