A History of Sanskrit Literature: Classical Period, Vol. I c5.47

c5.47

¹ The last voluptuous king Agnivarṇa meets with a premature death; but he is not childless; one of the queens with a posthumous child is said to have succeeded. The Purāṇas speak at least of twenty-seven kings who came after Agnivarṇa, and ther is no reason why the poem should end here suddenly, but not naturally (see S. P. Pandit, Preface, P. 15 f. Hillebrandt, *Kālidāsa*, p. 42 f.). It has been uged that the poet's object is to suggest a moral on the inglorious end of a glorious line by depicting the depth to which the descendants of the mighty Raghu sink in a debauched king like Agnivarṇa, who cannot tear himself from the caresses of his women and who, when his loyal subjects and ministers want to have a sight of him, puts out his bare feet through the window for them to worship! Even admitting this as a not unnatural conclusion of the poem, the abrupt ending iş still inexplicable.—C. Kunhan Raja (*Annals of Orient. Research*, Univ. of Madras, Vol. V, pt. 2, pp. 17-40) even ventures to question the authenticity of the entire second half of the *Raghu*, starting with the story of Daśaratha; but his reasons are not convincing.