^^-"^ACVAGHOSA'S STYLE AND LANGUAGE 61
Acvlighosa's style is simple. Nor may we deny it the epithets of sensuous and passipnate ; the picture of the pleasures of love drawn by Acvaghosa is~already marked by that wealth of
by Acvaghosa is~already marked by e detail which appeals to all Indian p
^intimate detail which appeals' to all Indian poets, but proves
a grave stumbling MDlock to critics who find matter for offence even in the charming picture of the deceiving Zeus in the Iliad and reprobate in the_author of the Odyssey the' episode of the amour of Ares and Aphrodite. But still more sincere is the burning emnusi&sm of the poet for his own ideal, not the Arhat,
^contented to seek his own freedom from rebirth in this world of misery, but the Bodhisattva, the Buddha to be, who delays, how- ever, his entering into Nirvana until he has accomplished his view
of freeing all other creatures from the delusion which makes
Uhem cling throughout the ages to mortal life and its woes.' This is a new note in Sanskiit poetry; Valmlki has majesty and a calm seriousness, but he is fr&^£ rom passion like his hero, who though he experiences vicissituaes yet stands apart from them, and of whose ultimate success we never doubt. Nanda's rejection of Sundarl may seem to us heartless enough ; his transference of his fickle affection to the Apsarases has its comic side, but in the end he seeks the welfare of others, even as does tire Buddha ; Rama on the contrary in his rejection of Slta aft(*r the long agony of separation from him has no warmer motive than obedi- ence to the doctrine that Caesar's wife must be above- suspicion. As Cuddhodana reminds us— of Dacaratha, so Sundarl has traces of Slta, but with a vehemence of passion unknown to that queen, and without her dignity and steadfast courage. Nor is it in theme and character-drawing alone that Valmlki is laid under contribution ; the metaphors and similes of the Ramayana x appear in more refined form ; the king, hearing of his son's final
' resolve, falls, smitten by sorrow as Indra's banner is lowered when the festival is over {Qaclpater vrttfl ivotsave dhvajah) ; the maidens stand drinking in the prince's beauty with eyes that stay wide-open in joy {nfycalaih prltivikacaih pibantya iva loca- naik) ; they display their bosoms that are like bowls of gold {suvarnakalagaprakhyan dargayantyah payodfiaran). The epic speaks of the ocean laughing with the foam of its waves, the poet embodies the idea in the picture of a sleeping beauty of the 1 Cf. Walter, Indica, iii. 1 1 ff. /
