SANSKRIT STUDIES
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plot at all. Accordingly, Sanskrit poets look upon any obtrusion of the plot as a sort of materialism in poetry. The restriction, however, need not be viewed as a check on the exercise of invent- ive power by the poet ; for although the stcfry is to be familiar in its outline, the special situations which a dramatic composition requires may entirely be the creation of the author’s genius, provided only the innovations introduced are necessitated by the chief aim of his art, viz., the development of rasa.
There are in the Uttara-rdmacarita some alterations in the story which, as is well-known, is taken from the last book of the Ramayana . In the epic, when Laksmana leaves Sita near Valmiki’s hermitage and returns, the pupils of Valmlki carry the news to him. The sage comes to meet the helpless queen and knowing, as he does, that she is pure and innocent, consoles her and takes her to his hermitage. There, later on, Sita gives birth to Lava and Kusa. But in the play, soon after the cruel decree of Rama drives her to the seclusion of the forest, Sita throws herself into the Ganges, and in the agony of the situation gives birth to the twins. Ganga and Bhumi intervene and lead her to their world, after entrusting the children to the care of Valmiki. In the epic story it is known to almost all* where Sita is. Satrughna, on his way to fight Lavana, halts in Valmiki’s hermitage, and it is on that very day that Sita is delivered of the twins. According to one recension of the Ramayana , Satrughna has even a talk with Sita before he leaves the hermitage. Such knowledge of Sita’s place of residence would not aid the development of pathos so well as a total ignorance of her whereabouts. In the drama her fate is all unknown, and the resulting grief is proportionately great. Witness, for instance, the helpless misery of Rama when he says to Vasanti, in reply to her question as to what had become of Sita. in the forest — kravyadbhir angalatikd niyatam mlnpla. Again in the epic, Lava and Kusa do not meet Rama in the hermitage, but in the sacrificial hall at Ayodhya, whereto they are sent by Valmiki to recite his poem— the Ramayana . Observing their features, Rama strongly suspects that they are Sita’s children, and sends for Valmiki. The sage appears with Sita. Her innocence is established on supernatural evidence, and the people’s doubts are removed. But Sita prays to her mother to relieve her of the iniquities of life ; ^he earth opens and receives her, and she disappears declaring her purity. In the play, on the other hand, she is restored to
