A History of Sanskrit Literature: Classical Period, Vol. I c4.29

c4.29

characters have become living because Shakespeare lived through these characters in his own imagination and his sparkling genius took the materials of his own life from the social surroundings about him which became rekindled by his emotion and imagination and it was this burning colour of the characters, lived through in the mind of the poet, that was displayed in his dramatic creations. In the case of the Indian poets, the legend was drawn from older Kāvya or Purāṇic myths but the poet himself had but little life to infuse in the story (because in the social surroundings in which he lived, mind was not free to move) lest he might produce any shock on the minds of his readers who used to live a patternised life. The force of this remark will be easily appreciated if we remember that Sanskrit poets who deal with illicit love seldom make it the central theme of any big Kāvya and they utilised the little affairs of illicit love only in drawing little pictures. The writers of Alaṃkāra tell us that wherever such illicit love is described and howsoever beautifully may it be done, it must be taken as *rasābhāsa*, i.e., semblance of literary aesthetic emotion and not real *rasa* or real asthetic amorous sentiments.