Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c11.s3.16

c11.s3.16

The dramatic works of Rupa Gosvamin are more serious compositions of an entirely different character, although all of them deal with certain aspects of Krsna-lila and its mystic-erotic possibilities. The old Krsna legend is daringly modified in details, in the light of the peculiar dogmas of Bengal school; and the works are deliberately composed in conformity with its Rasa-sastra, in order that they may illustrate the hundred niceties of its elaborate scheme of devotional sentiments. It is natural, therefore, that profuse quotations are given from these works in the two Rasa-treatises of Rupa himself by way of illustration. The works are rightly held in high esteem by the devotees of the faith, and are marked by considerable and careful literary effort; but there is no high merit in them as dramatic pieces, nor are they remarkably brilliant on the poetic side. Nominally dramas, they are a peculiar type of composition in which the Vidagdha and the Vidvat combine with the Rasika and the Bhakta.