of justice in Hindoostan. It only remains, to explore the field of their lighter literature, and transfer some of its most elegant flowers to a European soil.

The Drama of Sacontala, and the songs of JAYADEVA, have prepared the readers of the West for the character of Sanscrit Poetry. To those who know how much poetical beauty depends upon poetical expression, it is needless to observe, that these works have been much injured by a translation into prose, although that prose proceeded from the elegant pen of Sir Wм. JONES. Even in this state, however, they have received the admiration of the scholars of Europe;* even in their present dress it is impossible to avoid discovering, that they teem with fanciful imagery and natural feeling, and that beyond the pale of mythological allusion, they offer little to offend the most fastidious taste.

It has been observed by Mr. COLEBROOKE,† and

* See the Appendix to Robertson's Disquisition on India. + Essay on Sanscrit and Pracrit Prosody, Asiatic Researches, vol. 10.

higher authority cannot be desired, that the profane Poetry of the Hindus affords better specimens of style and taste, than are to be found in the poems which are considered by them as sacred. Such are the Puránas, the Mahabharat, and the Rámáyana: the portions of these works, therefore, which, on various occasions, have appeared before the public, cannot be allowed to detract from the general merits of Sanscrit composition, even though it should appear that they have more charms in the eye of literary curiosity than of public taste. They are recommended to the Hindus themselves, not by their beauty or sublimity, the conduct of the story, or the elegance of the style; but they owe their celebrity to their traditionary divineness, to the force of habit, and the power of religious faith. The stories related in them, the followers of BRAHMA' have been accustomed to venerate, and the excellence of the compositions it would be sacrilege in them to deny: at the same time, there are few Pandits of real learning who would not rather peruse the Mégha Dúta than the Rámáyana; there are few who, in the

sincerity of unbiassed delight, do not transfer the palm of poetical pre-eminence from VALMICI* to CALIDA'SA.

Of the latter of these eminent Bards little is ascertained by history, though much is detailed by tradition. He is the real or supposed author of a number of poetical works, each of which is of the highest merit. The Drama of SACONTALA is attributed to him, and the text of another of his works, the Ritu Sanhára or Assemblage of the Seasons, has been printed under the inspection of Sir WM. JONES. The present poem is believed to be the offspring of his fertile imagination; and to the same source are ascribed the Raghu Vansa or Race of RAGHU, an epic poem; Cumára Samb'hava, the birth of the deity CUMARA, a poem chiefly mythological; a regular Drama entitled URVASI, the name of one of the courtezans of Swerga; and a farce called Hásyárnava, or the Sea of Laughter; the Sringára Tilaca and Prasnóttara Mála, two short amatory poems, and a

* Author of the Rámáyana.

small treatise in verse upon poetical metre, calledSruta Bód'ha. Several other works are said to be the compositions of CA'LIDA'S A, many of which it has been conjectured are attributed to him, merely in consequence of the reputation derived from those of which he was really the author.

The æra of CALIDA'S A is generally asserted to be that of VICRAMA'DITYA, in whose court he formed one of the nine illustrious writers, characterised by the epithet of the Nine Gems. As the name VICRA'MADITYA, however, has been undoubtedly applied to more than to one monarch, the establishment of this fact leads us to no satisfactory result, with respect to the age of the poet. Sir WM. JONES* conceiving the VICRAMADITYA mentioned, to be the same as the sovereign from whom the present Hindu year, 1870, is dated, places the poet in the century preceding the Chris tian æra. Mr. BENTLEY,† trusting the Bhoja Prabandha and Ayeen Acbery, conceives VICRA

*Preface to Sacontala.

+ Essay on Hindu Chronology, Asiatic Researches, vol. 8.

MADITYA to have been the same as Raja VICRAMA, successor to Raja BHOJA, and places the Nine Gems in the court of this monarch, in the end of the 11th, or the beginning of the 12th century after CHRIST; and Mr. COLEBROOKE,* relying chiefly upon the testimony of an inscription found at Buddha Gayá is inclined to consider the age of AMERA SINHA, author of the Amera Cósha, to be at least 900 years; and AMERA SINHA was also one of the Nine Gems, and consequently a contemporary of CALIDA'SA. This last opinion seems entitled to the preference.

To whatever name or period the Cloud Messenger may be assigned, it is the production of a poet. The circumstances of eastern society and climate tend, in a great measure, to exclude sublimity, either moral or physical, from their literary compositions; but the same circumstances are favourable to the less awful graces of poetry, to the elegantly minute observation of nature, and the tender expression of natural sensibility.

* Preface to the Amera Cósha with Translation.