2023-04-06 02:50:28 by ambuda-bot
This page has not been fully proofread.
viii
religion in its widest sense, the present work is as religi-
ous in tone as any other work.
The book deals with the story of the marriage of
Sri Krsna with Rukmini, and is completed in ten cantos.
Only the first two cantos are now published. I owe
to the world a word of explanation for undertaking such
a publication. The book belongs to the school of arti-
ficial poetry in India, a distinct feature in the later
stages of Sanskrit literature. It is an epic poem written
in accordance with certain standards, and with certain
set rules. The work will not at all appeal to modern
taste.
A modern mind is so much accustomed to rapid
motion in all aspects of life that it does not have patience
to keep pace with the extremely slow movement in a
classical epic in Sanskrit. The rigid metre in which the
epics are written is itself very tiresome to a modern
reader. The present work begins with what is called
the Indravajrá metre, stanzas of four lines of eleven
syllables each, each line rigidly following a definite order
of sequence of long and short as given below :
Occasionally the stanzas are intercepted by the Upendra-
vajrā metre, which may be represented as:
Sometimes these two metres are mixed together within
the same stanza. It will be noted that practically there
is very little scope for variety in these changes of
religion in its widest sense, the present work is as religi-
ous in tone as any other work.
The book deals with the story of the marriage of
Sri Krsna with Rukmini, and is completed in ten cantos.
Only the first two cantos are now published. I owe
to the world a word of explanation for undertaking such
a publication. The book belongs to the school of arti-
ficial poetry in India, a distinct feature in the later
stages of Sanskrit literature. It is an epic poem written
in accordance with certain standards, and with certain
set rules. The work will not at all appeal to modern
taste.
A modern mind is so much accustomed to rapid
motion in all aspects of life that it does not have patience
to keep pace with the extremely slow movement in a
classical epic in Sanskrit. The rigid metre in which the
epics are written is itself very tiresome to a modern
reader. The present work begins with what is called
the Indravajrá metre, stanzas of four lines of eleven
syllables each, each line rigidly following a definite order
of sequence of long and short as given below :
Occasionally the stanzas are intercepted by the Upendra-
vajrā metre, which may be represented as:
Sometimes these two metres are mixed together within
the same stanza. It will be noted that practically there
is very little scope for variety in these changes of