A History of Sanskrit Literature c23.s2.2

c23.s2.2

Moreover, the love of double meanings, which is essential in Subandhu and Bāṇa and much loved by many other poets, is perplexing, and demands from us an intellectual strain which was doubtless not exacted from the select coteries who admired the poems when they were first produced. Nor is it easy for us to appreciate the constant effort slightly to improve on phrases and ideas which have been given currency by an earlier poet, an attempt which is unquestionably apt to lead to forced uses of language and lack of simplicity. Still less of course can we appreciate those tricks in poetic form and grotesque experiments in the use of but one or two letters to make up the consonants in a line which Bhāravi and Māgha, not to mention minor poets, were willing to carry out. Nor does the elaboration of the poetic vocabulary, based largely on the free use of poetical dictionaries, appeal to us, and the rich variety of conventional ornaments unquestionably soon palls.