पृष्ठम्:Sanskrit Studies.djvu/५०

42 SANSKRIT STUDIES essential to remember that types are not of necessity generalized. A generalized character is one that is devoid of all individual traits, but this charge cannot be brought against the characters that appear in a Sanskrit drama for they do exhibit special traits over and above what is common to their class. Thus, while Rama and Duşyanta are both of the dhīrodātta type, they, as represented by the dramatists, possess their own individuality and are un- mistakably distinct. The qualities which we ordinarily associate with Rāma— his magnanimity, his filial piety, his kindly disposition, etc.,--are all clearly revealed during the course of the play. He is not any- where represented as a god; but his is a magnetic personality and to see him is to love him and revere him. A notable feature of his character is a high sense of duty. In him Bhavabhūti has given us a supreme example of a hero who realizes to the full what duty means, and what sacrifices it may demand of its votaries. Duty is commonly regarded as the opposite of pleasure, but often one duty conflicts with another, and problems of conflicting duties are the hardest to solve. To distinguish 'right' from 'wrong' is easy enough, but to differentiate 'ought' from 'right' is very difficult. Two calls come to Rāma and he finds himself in a moral dilemma. He has not merely to sacrifice his pleasure, but also to forget his duty to Sītā, whom he knows to be so good and great and who has, for his sake, already undergone so much suffering. When Rama once realizes that the people's suspicion, although not correct, is justifiable; and that there is no means within human reach to convince them of Sīta's innocence, he decides to exile her. That is his duty as a king, and he is first a king and then Rāma. Yet Rama's grief for Sitä cannot be greater; nor his faith in her deeper. This sternness of duty is the main moral lesson which Bhavabhūti wishes us to learn from the play-so far as a poet can be said to do that at all; for duty furnishes the keynote to the character of more than one personage whom he brings on the stage, e.g., Janaka, Candraketu, Durmukha. In all this, however, Bhavabhūti's picture of Rāma is at one with Vālmīki's picture of him. But in one respect the Rāma of the play is very different from the Rāma of the epic. The latter, although deeply grieved at the tragedy of his life, reconciles himself to it, at least outwardly, and represses his grief. But in the drama the pang of separation is intolerably acute, and Rāma actually bursts