A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.316

v2.c19.s3.t2.316

The legend is related in 786 stanzas with all the prolixity of an epic. The description of Vessantara's departure into banishment recalls vividly that of Rāma in the Rāmāyaṇa. The many and long descriptions of nature, such as the description of the forest and of the hermitage, also remind us of the Rāma epic. The poet lingers with especial pleasure over the story of the giving up of the children, who are treated so cruelly by the wicked Brahman, over the plaints of the little ones and the description of the mother's grief, how she seeks her children in vain. No wonder that, at the recitation or representation of these scenes—for in Tibet and Burma the Vessantara legend forms the subject of dramatic representations—the audience are dissolved in tears.[^1)