पृष्ठम्:Sanskrit Literature.djvu/१०१

ĀRYA ÇŪRA AND LATER POETRY rodisyati ciram nūnam ambă çünye tapovane putraçokena krpaṇā hataçāveva cātakī. asmadarthe samãhṛtya vanăn mülaphalam bahu bhavisyati katham nv ambă dṛṣṭvā çünyam tapovanam? ime nav açvakās tāta hastikā rathakāç ca ye ato'rdham deyam ambayai çokam tena vineşyati. 69 ""Tis not so much that the Brahmin beats me that causes me sorrow, but that I have not seen my mother to-day pierces my heart. Long will my mother weep in the penance grove, now lonely, sorrowing for the woes of her children, like a cuckoo whose young are slain. She has gathered for our sake many a fruit and root from the forest; how then will she feel when she sees the penance grove left lonely? Here, daddy, are our toy horses, our elephants, our cars; give a half to mother; thus will she assuage her grief.' But he is equally happy in more elaborate themes, as in the description of the rule of the just king : samaprabhāvā svajane jane ca: dharmānugă tasya hi danda- nitih adharmyam avṛtya janasya mărgam: sopānamāleva divo babhūva. 'Impartial to kin and stranger alike, his rule followed in the steps of righteousness; blocking the path of unrighteousness to men, it was as a ladder to raise them to the sky.' No doubt in his language there are traces here and there of Palicisms,¹ but these do not seriously detract from Ārya Çūra's claim to correct- ness of language, and his metrical skill is considerable. The form of his tales as composed of prose with verses inter- mingled, now singly, now in larger numbers, is of historical interest. It is not, of course, an invention of Arya Çūra, who followed Kumāralāta and doubtless many others in the employ- ment of this style. But its origin is disputed. Oldenberg 2 developed with his usual skill the thesis that the original form of literature in India, as perhaps elsewhere, was prose, with verses rposed at those points where the primitive mind naturally tends to give utterance to its feelings in verse form, as when ¹ He is praised in the Saduktikarṇāmṛta, ZDMG. xxxvi. 365. For his Pālicisms. see Franke, IF. v. Anz. 31. 2 GGA. 1909, pp. 66 ff.; GN. 1911, pp. 459 ff.; 1919, pp. 79 ff. Cf. Winternitz, WZKM, xxiii. 102 ff.