TALES FROM THE HINDU DRAMATISTS - Awaken Video
TALES FROM THE HINDU DRAMATISTS - Awaken Video
TALES FROM THE HINDU DRAMATISTS - Awaken Video
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The play is wholly of a political character, and represents a series of<br />
Machiavellian stratagems, influencing public events of considerable<br />
importance.<br />
The Mudrarakshasa is, in sundry respects, a very unique work in Sanskrit<br />
literature. Its plot is not a pure invention, but on the other hand, it<br />
is not derived from the usual storehouse of legends on which Sanskrit<br />
authors have generally drawn for their materials. It has no female among<br />
its prominent _dramatis personae_, and the business of the play,<br />
accordingly, is diplomacy and politics, to the entire exclusion of love.<br />
There is, in truth, but one female character, with one little child,<br />
introduced into the play, and these are Chandanadasa's wife and son, who<br />
come in at the beginning of the last act. But even their appearance<br />
introduces no passages suggestive of tenderness or the purely domestic<br />
virtues, but only of sacrifice--a stern sense of duty.<br />
In the minor characters we see the principle of faithfulness to one's<br />
lord, adhered to through good report and evil report. In the more<br />
prominent ones, the same principle still prevails, and the course of<br />
conduct to which it leads is certainly quite Machiavellian. And all this<br />
is brought out in a plot put together with singular skill.<br />
In the seventh act we have a remarkable stanza, in which the conduct of<br />
Chandanadasa, in sacrificing his life for his friend Rakshasa, is stated<br />
to have transcended the nobility even of the Buddhas. It seems that<br />
this allusion to Buddhism belongs to a period long prior to the decay<br />
and ultimate disappearance of Buddhism from India. In the time of<br />
Hionen-Tsang--_i.e._ between 629-645 A.D.--it was, however, still far<br />
from being decayed, though it appears to have fallen very far below the<br />
point at which it stood in Fa-Hian's time, to have been equal in power<br />
with Brahminism only where it was supported by powerful kings, and to<br />
have been generally accepted as the prevailing religion of the country<br />
only in Kashmir and the Upper Punjab, in Magadha and in Guzerat. In this<br />
condition of things, it was still quite possible, that one not himself a<br />
Buddhist--and Visakhadatta plainly was not one--should refer to Buddhism<br />
in the complimentary terms we find in the passage under discussion.<br />
The late Mr. Justice Telang observes:--"The policy of Chanakya is not<br />
remarkable for high morality. From the most ordinary deception and<br />
personation, up to forgery and murder, every device is resorted to that<br />
could be of service in the achievement of the end which Chanakya had<br />
determined for himself. There is no lack of highly objectionable and<br />
immoral proceedings. It must be admitted that this indicates a very low<br />
state of public morality, and the formal works on politics which exist<br />
certainly do not disclose anything better. With reference to the<br />
criticisms which have been based on these facts, however, there are one<br />
or two circumstances to be taken into account. In the first place,<br />
although this is no excuse, it may be said to be an extenuation, that<br />
the questionable proceedings referred to are all taken in furtherance of<br />
what is, in itself, a very proper end. Chanakya's ambition is to make<br />
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