SANSKRIT STUDIES
6
utilises both nature and what I may call the ‘outer man’ as aids in revealing to us the inmost working of the human heart. The material to be poetised remains the same as before but it ceases to be the object of the poet’s first regard. I shall illustrate my point by considering the place of nature in the later poetry. Since emotion is its exclusive theme, nature becomes a mere setting for it, instead of itself occupying the focus of the picture as it did in the Veda. The Indian poet does not indeed grow less sensible to the beauty of nature, nor does nature, in practice, figure less in the later poetry. But it ceases to be described for its own sake and becomes the means of attuning our mind to the emotion depicted. The details of nature chosen for portraying are determined, not by the requirements of an objective representation but by the character of the emotion to be subserved. The splendid and lavish descrip- tions of nature in the Meghaduta of Kalidasa, for example, fully bear out this statement. Or take again the description of Kanva’s hermitage in the first act of the same author’s Sakuntala. As a picture of nature it can stand comparison with any of its kind. But the chief object of the poet in this description is not to afford us an external picture of the hermitage but to give us an insight into the inner feeling of serenity which reigns in the hearts of Kanva and his hermit disciples. So profound is this serenity that wild nature itself seems to have grown tame under its influence. If, as occasionally is the case, nature is pictured for its own sake, it is reckoned as svabhdvokti , an alamkdra — a mere embellishment which may, if required, be dispensed with. Thus what would be great poetry according to standards once prevalent is now relegated to quite a secondary place. What I have said of nature applies equally well to human thought and action in the later poetry. Like nature, they also constitute the outer vesture of poetry while the substance they clothe is Feeling. In fact Hindu critics group together everything other than emotion under the single head of Vibhavas [and anubhavas ] or adjuncts to emotion. Beauty of nature, and beauty of human thought and action are found in both types of poetry but while the earlier points to these as its aim, the later points from them to something which lies deeper yet, viz., Feeling. Since Feeling may be regarded as the very fabric of our souls, we may designate the latter as ‘Soul-poetry’ in order to contrast it with the ‘Nature-poetry’ of the earlier stage.
This shifting of the poet’s attention from the external to the
