A History of Sanskrit Literature c15.s4.7

c15.s4.7

The art of the poet displays itself effectively in the mode in which song and recitative are blended and the skill with which monotony of form is avoided by not restricting the recitative to mere introductory verses explaining the situation, while the songs express in their turn the feelings of the personnel of the poem, Kṛṣṇa, his favourite Rādhā, and the faithful friend, who is the essential confidante of every Indian heroine. Recitative is used for occasional narrative verses to explain the situation, but also in brief descriptions, and, as a mode of securing variety, in speeches which serve as an alternative to songs as the mode of intimating the sentiments of the characters. There is thus no stereotyped form; the recitative and the song, narrative, description, and speeches are cunningly interwoven, all with deliberate purpose. The first canto, which contains four of the twenty-four Prabandhas, songs, into which the poem is also divided, exhibits in perfection the complex structure. The poet begins with four verses, in the last of which he celebrates himself and his fellow-poets; then the first Prabandha begins, consisting of a hymn in eleven stanzas sung in honour of the ten incarnations of Viṣṇu, and ending with a mention of the author, whose hymn Kṛṣṇa is entreated to hear; each stanza ends with the refrain, ‘Conquer, o lord of the world, o Hari.’ This closes the Prabandha, and a single stanza, doubtless recited, follows, in which the poet sums up the forms of Viṣṇu which the hymn has glorified. Prabandha ii opens with another hymn in nine stanzas sung in honour of the god, each ending with the refrain, ‘Conquer, conquer, o god, o Hari.' At the close of the Prabandha and before the next is a recited stanza invoking a benediction from Kṛṣṇa. Prabandha iii consists of a recited verse telling how Rādhā's friend spoke to her in the spring and then sings in eight stanzas¹ how Kṛṣṇa is dancing with the cowherdesses in the groves. Three stanzas in recitative follow, describing the spring, and ending with the statement that Rādhā's friend once more addressed her, and Prabandha iv consists of a song in eight stanzas in which she describes how the loving maidens flock to Kṛṣṇa and embrace him in their passion. Then three stanzas of recitative follow, the first two descriptive, the last a benediction. Canto ii tells us first of Rādhā's dejection and gives her song of complaint against her lover (Prabandha v), followed by a stanza of recitative, introducing another song (vi) in which she expresses her deep longing for the god. Then in two recited stanzas she celebrates the god, while the poet in the last stanza invokes the usual benediction.