Next to these great poems which are held sacred, the epic poem of Megha may be ranked. It is called Sisupala bad'ha and describes the death of Sisupala, slain in war by Crishna. In the first Canto, Nareda commissioned by Indra, like the evil dream sent by Jupiter to Agamemnon, incites Crishna to war with his cousin and enemy Sisupala, king of the Chédis. Accordingly on the first occasion which presented itself, namely, contempt shewn by Sisupala and his followers for Crishna, by withdrawing from a solemn sacrifice performed by the Rajah Yu-. dishthera, where divine honours were paid to Crishna, the hero assembles his troops, and the armies of the rivals meet, when that of Sisupala being destroyed, the two chiefs engage in single combat contending with supernatural weapons, Sisupala employing arms of fire which are overcome by the watery trisool of Crishna, who finally slays his foe with an arrow, which ends the twentieth Canto. This poem is one of the six excellent compositions in Sanscrit, which I shall name together.

The second is the Ciratarjuníya of Bharavi, and contains the history of the hero Arjuna's journey and penance on the mountain of India Keiladree, in order to obtain celestial weapons from the gods, to be employed against king Duryod❜hana. That part of his adventures which gives the title

to the poem is his wrestling with Siva, who appeared to him in the form of a Kerata or sylvan king.

The third is the Naishadhíya of Sriharsha, by some esteemed the most beautiful poem in the language. It is founded on an interesting story, which however is not related at length, but is to be found in the Nalodaya of Calidasa. It describes the marriage of Nala king of Nishada, and Damayanti daughter of Bhima king of Viderbha, and the loss of his kingdom by gambling, through the artifices of Cali in a human shape. After that misfortune he deserts his wife, and suffers a transformation, under which, after many wanderings and much distress, Damayanti discovers him; which, like the conclusion of the Fairy Tales, seems to have broken the spell which bound him to his monstrs form, for he immediately recovered, and they were restored to their kingdom.

The three other excellent works are by the poet Calidasa, and are the Cumara, Raghu, and Meghadata. Of the first of these three only a part remains; the subject is the birth or origin of Cumara the son of Parvati, but the fragment closes with the marriage of the goddess. In it all the personages not excepting her father, the snowy mountain Hymalaya, are described with the human form and human manners.

The Raghu contains the history of Rama and his predecessors, from Dilpa the father of Raghu and his successors to Agniverna. It is impossible to enumerate the poets who have celebrated Rama, both in the Sanscrit and Prácrit languages, and indeed in every Indian dialect.

The Megha-duta consists of no more than a hundred and sixteen stanzas. It supposes a Yacsha or attendant of Cuvera, to have been separated from a beloved wife by an imprecation of the god Cuvera, who was irritated by the Yacsha's negligence in suffering the heavenly garden to be trodden down by India's elephant. The distracted demigod, banished from heaven to earth, takes his abode on a hill, and intreats a passing cloud to convey an affectionate message to his wife. The great elegance and tenderness of this little poem have entitled it, notwithstanding its brevity, to a place among the six chef d'œuvres of the Hindû poets. Its author Calidasa appears to have been a most voluminous writer, for besides the three masterpieces I have just named, he has left other poems, besides a work on prosody and some dramas, one of which you are probably already acquainted with from the translations of Sir William Jones and Mr. Wilkins. The drama of Sacontala is founded on the marriage of Dushmanta, one of the an cestors of Vicramaditya, whose court Calidasa

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adorned, and before whom the prologue gives us to understand it was played. The scene opens with a hunting party of the youthful monarch, where he appears chasing the deer in a chariot drawn by horses, and guided by a young charioteer to the confines of a sacred grove. Dushmanta, in order not to violate the holy place, dismisses his charioteer and advances alone in the direction of some female voices, and discovers Sacontala, a young princess under the guardianship of the high priest of the grove, with her attendants. The Bramin being absent, the young damsels perform the rites of hospitality, and the prince and Sacontala mutually fall in love and contract a marriage unknown to any but the attendants of the latter; a few days afterwards the king being called to his capital, departs, and gives Sacontala a ring as a token of their marriage. On the return of the Bramin to the grove, he is informed by inspiration of all that has happened in his absence, and sends Sacontala to the court of Dushmanta, accompanied by proper persons to deliver her to her husband; but in the mean time Sacontala having, in the first moments of her grief for the departure of the king, neglected to perform the rites of hospitality towards a Bramin, the irritable priest pronounces a malediction upon her, by which, he on whom she was then thinking should

forget her. However her companions who alone heard the curse, rely on the ring for recalling her to his mind, but in bathing for the last time before she quits the grove of her fosterfather, she drops the ring into the water, and thus loses the talisman. When she presents herself at court, the young king, though charmed with her beauty, refuses to accept her, alleging he knows her not, and that she must be the wife of some other man. On this Sacontala faints and is conveyed to the heavenly court of Casyapa the father of the gods, where her son Bharata is born. Meantime the fatal ring is found by some fishermen in the belly of a fish, and on its being restored to Dushmanta, he remembers Sacontala and bitterly laments her loss, weeping over her picture and forgetting his pleasures and his business, till his assistance is required by the gods in quelling the demons. After having relieved the divinities from their distress, he goes to the court of Casyapa, and there meets a beautiful child dragging along a lion's whelp; this child he proves to be his own by handling a magic bracelet, which only the parents of the young prince could touch with impunity; Sacóntala then appears in a widow's garb, and being recognized by her lord, all the mysteries are explained and they return happily to earth.. Such is the outline of Sacontala; but my