पृष्ठम्:Sanskrit Literature.djvu/१३७

KĀLIDĀSA'S STYLE AND METRE 105 it is normal to have each verse complete in itself, a single verb serving to support a number of adjectives and appositions, though relative clauses with verb expressed or implied are not rare. The compounds are normally restricted in length, but this is less closely observed in the Mandākrāntā metre, though even then clearness is aimed at and normally achieved. The order of words is very free, partly no doubt by reason of metrical neces- sity. Of the figures those of sound are employed not rarely but usually with skill. Beside the ordinary forms of alliteration as in nirmame nirmamo 'rtheşu, we find the more important Yamaka, in which the same syllables are repeated, in the same or inverted order, but with different sense. There is a certain liberality in the process; thus Kālidāsa is able to match bhuja- latām with jadatām, for I and d, like r and 1, b and v, are admitted as similar, and the same principle is clearly to be seen in cakāra să mattacakoranetrā: lajjāvatī lājavisargam agnau. 'She with the eyes of the intoxicated Cakora, in modesty (lajjā) made offering of fried rice (lāja) in the fire.' In Canto ix of the Raghuvança Kalidasa deliberately shows his skill in Yamakas; there is no doubt that this offends the sound rule of Ananda- vardhana that to seek deliberately such a result destroys the function of poetry which is to suggest-or express-not merely to exhibit form, and we can only conjecture that in this canto, which also is marked out by the amazing number of metres employed, Kālidāsa was seeking to prove that he could vie with any rival in these niceties. In Canto xviii also, Yamakas are superabundant. Throughout, however, we feel Kālidāsa seeking for the matching of sound and sense, to which the Indian ear was clearly more susceptible than our own. Of figures of sense Kālidāsa excels in Indian opinion in the simile, and the praise is just. The Indian love of simile appears freely in the Rgveda, and is attested by the elaborate subdivisions of Indian poetics. The width of Kalidasa's knowledge and the depth of his observation of nature and life are here shown to the highest advantage. But his world is not ours, and doubtless at ¹ As distinct from alliteration the repetition should be in corresponding parts of the verse (Jacobi, ZDMG. lxii. 303, n. 1).