TALES FROM THE HINDU DRAMATISTS - Awaken Video

his protege, Chandragupta firm upon his throne, and to bring back
Rakshasa to the service of the king who properly represented those old
masters of his to whom Rakshasa's loyalty still remained quite firm. If
the end could ever be regarded as justifying the means, it might be so
regarded in this case. And, secondly, it must not be forgotten, that the
games of diplomacy and politics have always been games of more or less
doubtful morality. When we hear of one great politician of modern days
declaring another to be a great statesman, because, as I believe he
expressed it, the latter lied so cleverly, we cannot say that the world
has risen to any very perceptibly higher moral plane in the times of
Metternich and Napoleon, than in those of Chanakya and Rakshasa. Nor are
suppressions of important passages in despatches for the purposes of
publication, or wars undertaken on unjustifiable and really selfish
pretexts, calculated to convince one, that even in Europe in the
nineteenth century, the transaction of political affairs has been purged
of the taint of immorality, however different, and I may even add,
comparatively innocent, may be the outward manifestations of that
taint."
VISAKHADATTA.
Visakhadatta or Visakhadeva is the author of Mudrarakshasa. We learn
from the Introduction to the drama that Visakhadatta was the son of
Prithu and grandson of Vatesvaradatta--a Samanta or subordinate chief
Professor Wilson was inclined to think that Maharaja Prithu might be the
Chouhan Prince Prithu Rai of Ajmir; but he himself pointed out that the
Chouhan Prince was never called Maharaja; and that the name Nateswara
Datta would present a serious difficulty in the way of identifying the
poet's father with the Chouhan Prince Prithu Rai of Ajmir. It will also
appear that the author of the drama lived in a century which is prior to
the age of Prithu Rai of Ajmir by centuries. He was in all probability a
native of Northern India. The grandson of a tributary chief and the son
of a Maharaja he was well-skilled in state-craft and made a special
study of stratagems and crooked policies; in consequence of which the
bent of his mind was mainly directed to business and did not indulge in
sentiments. The effect of it is manifest in his poetry which is
business-like and vigorous, but lacks in sweetness, beauty and the
tender emotions.
YAYATI CHARITA.
The author may possibly be Pratapa Rudra Deva, sovereign of Telingana in
the beginning of the fourteenth century.
DUTANGADA.
It is said to have been written for the yatra of Kumar Pala Deva, by
order of Tribhuvana Pala Deva, by the poet Subhata.
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