A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.s9.43

c11.s9.43

Kālidāsa’s metrical skill is undoubted. In the *Ṛtusaṁhāra* he used normally the Indravajrā and Vaṁçasthā types, with Vasantatilaka and Mālinī; one stanza only in Çārdūlavikrīḍita occurs. The *Meghadūta* shows the more elaborate Mandākrāntā used without variation; a few slight roughnesses as regards caesura may be adduced as proof of the relatively early date of the poem, but the evidence is too slight to weigh seriously in itself. In the *Kumārasambhava* we find the normal rule that the canto is written in a single metre with change, as the writers on poetics require, at the close. Thus i, iii, and vii are written in the Indravajrā; ii and vi in the Çloka, iv in the Vaitālīya, and v in the Vaṁçasthā, while viii is in the Rathoddhatā. The closing changes are furnished by Puṣpitāgrā, Mālinī, and Vasantatilaka. The *Raghuvaṁça* follows on the whole this principle, but exhibits greater variety, suggesting later date. The Indravajrā type serves for ii, v–vii, xiii, xiv, xvi, and xviii; the Çloka for i, iv, x, xii, xv, and xvii; the Vaitālīya for viii, and the Rathoddhatā for xi and xix. Canto ix is orthodox up to v. 54, being in Drutavilambita, then it deliberately displays the poet’s skill in new metres, each with a verse or so, Aupacchandasika, Puṣpitāgrā, Praharṣiṇī, Mañjubhāṣiṇī, Mattamayūra, Vasantatilaka, which is also used for 11 verses in v, Vaitālīya, Çālinī, and Svāgatā. There occur also odd verses in Toṭaka, Mandākrāntā, Mahāmālikā, and iii is written in Vaṁçasthā, with a concluding verse in Hariṇī. There are thus nineteen metres in all to eight in the earlier epic. Detailed efforts to find some sign of development in any of the metres in respect of caesuras &c. have failed to yield any results worthy of credence.²