2023-03-26 16:28:59 by ambuda-bot
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relief when he comes to the actual narration in the
words, "There is a city called Dvārakā," and so on,
only to be disappointed at the next step when the
author begins his cold, dead, unmoving description of
the city. After stating in the fifty-fourth stanza that
there is a city, the narration is arrested for thirty
stanzas, in which the city is described. In the eighty-
fifth stanza comes the statement again that Sri Krsna
lived in that city. Then comes an apology from the
poet for his impudence in attempting a description of
the Lord Himself. After this apology the narration
continues and it is stated that Sri Krsna once visited
his pleasure garden with Daruka. Thence to the end
of the canto, it is a description of the garden. Thus
in the whole of the first canto, the only narrative
portion is this: "There was a city called Dvaraka, in
which lived the Lord Sri Krsna. Once he visited
the pleasure garden with Daruka." In the second
canto there is no narration at all. In the garden Sri
Kṛṣṇa begins to think of his beloved, Rukmini. The
whole canto is taken up with a description of the
mental affliction of Sri Krsna at the thought of his
beloved.
The descriptions are unreal to an extreme, full of
fancies, stuffed with conventional notions, the same idea
presented over and over again twisted and bent in
various ways. There is nothing that may be called an
original idea. All the ideas are what had been available
for a long time as ready-made articles in the market, cut,
finished and fashioned, the only labour involved for the
relief when he comes to the actual narration in the
words, "There is a city called Dvārakā," and so on,
only to be disappointed at the next step when the
author begins his cold, dead, unmoving description of
the city. After stating in the fifty-fourth stanza that
there is a city, the narration is arrested for thirty
stanzas, in which the city is described. In the eighty-
fifth stanza comes the statement again that Sri Krsna
lived in that city. Then comes an apology from the
poet for his impudence in attempting a description of
the Lord Himself. After this apology the narration
continues and it is stated that Sri Krsna once visited
his pleasure garden with Daruka. Thence to the end
of the canto, it is a description of the garden. Thus
in the whole of the first canto, the only narrative
portion is this: "There was a city called Dvaraka, in
which lived the Lord Sri Krsna. Once he visited
the pleasure garden with Daruka." In the second
canto there is no narration at all. In the garden Sri
Kṛṣṇa begins to think of his beloved, Rukmini. The
whole canto is taken up with a description of the
mental affliction of Sri Krsna at the thought of his
beloved.
The descriptions are unreal to an extreme, full of
fancies, stuffed with conventional notions, the same idea
presented over and over again twisted and bent in
various ways. There is nothing that may be called an
original idea. All the ideas are what had been available
for a long time as ready-made articles in the market, cut,
finished and fashioned, the only labour involved for the