A History of Sanskrit Literature c21.s3.18

c21.s3.18

It must not, however, be denied that we see traces here and there of the desire even in Daṇḍin to strain language. The *tour de force* by which chapter vii is spoken by Mantragupta without any labial letters ² because his loved one had bitten him so deeply on the lower lip that he could not form labials is noteworthy but hardly admirable, and in chapter ii we find a piece ³ of complex argument elliptically expressed which might do credit for difficulty of comprehension to Subandhu or Bāṇa. But in him these deviations are exceptions, and though Indian taste would never have ranked his style with that of the other great romancers it is greatly to be preferred on modern standards. In one point, however, Daṇḍin surpasses Subandhu. He obeys the rule that the perfect shall only be used in describing what is not part of one's personal experience.¹ Hence in the narratives of the princes the perfect is excluded, although it is permitted in the four short tales inserted in chapter vi; in the princes' narrative he uses only imperfects, aorists, the historical present, and participles, active and passive. His frequent use of aorists is doubtless a sign of his familiarity with grammar and his anxiety to exhibit the fact.