A History of Sanskrit Literature c14.18

c14.18

The *Raghuvaṁça*, or "Race of Raghu," which consists of nineteen cantos, describes the life of Rāma together with an account of his forefathers and successors. The first nine cantos deal with his nearest four ancestors, beginning with Dilīpa and his son Raghu. The story of Rāma occupies the next six (x.–xv.), and agrees pretty closely with that in the *Rāmāyaṇa* of Vālmīki, whom Kālidāsa here (xv. 41) speaks of as “the first poet.” The following two cantos are concerned with the three nearest descendants of Rāma, while the last two run through the remainder of twenty-four kings who reigned in Ayodhyā as his descendants, ending rather abruptly with the death of the voluptuous King Agrivarṇa. The names of these successors of Rāma agree closely with those in the list given in the *Vishṇu-purāṇa*.