SANSKRIT POETRY: A HISTORICAL RETROSPECT
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internal world has its exact parallel in the history of Indian Philo- sophy and Religion. Indian philosophic thought began with the conception of Brahman as the first principle so far as it is compre- hended in the outer universe and reached its culmination in identi- fying Brahman with Atman , the first principle so far as it is known in the inner self of man. Similarly in Religion the old word for the god-head- ‘deva’, which means ‘shining’, indicates that the early conception of divine power was derived from the luminous manifestations of outward nature while the later term lid or Isvara signifies the antarydmin who guides us from inside. This with- drawal from the outer reality to the internal is well illustrated by the following episode of Balaki and Ajatasatru which is preserved in the Upanisads. Balaki was a learned but proud man. He once approached Ajatasatru, king of Benares, and offered to teach him Brahman. Ajatasatru was well pleased to have him at his court, for all the wise men were then going to Janaka, king of Mithila, and settling at his court. He accordingly said to Balaki, offering a gift as an inducement to stay — ‘We give you a hundred cows for that speech of yours, for verily all people run away saying Janaka is our patron’. Balaki in course of time began to instruct the king and endeavoured several times in succession to define Brahman as the essence of the sun, the moon, lightning, wind, fire and so on, but in each case the king confuted his definition and said, ‘This does not suffice to know the true Brahman’. Balaki was silenced at last and the king, himself proceeding to instruct, took Balaki by the hand and rose. The two together came to a person who was in deep sleep. The king called him by his name but he did not rise. Then he pushed him by the hand and woke him, pointing out to Balaki at the same time, ‘That in which the vital breaths were dormant in sleep is the Brahman’. The moral of this episode is the same as that implied by the change in the poet’s attitude, viz., that as the Indian view of life deepened in course of time, the earlier naturalism yielded place to idealism.
To resume my subject after this digression. The new poetry is seen in its best form in the works of Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti. But the Meghaduta of the former to which I have already referred represents to us the very acme of it. Here the poet describes the frustrated love between a Yaksa and his consort and his thoughts are so much engrossed with that feeling that he ignores almost everything else. The plot all but reaches the vanishing point,
