वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

28 VĀSAVADATTĀ Nor does it seem to me that the ethical standard of the Vāsavadattā can be objectionable to one of healthy mind. True, the East is not as the West; and there are personal descriptions more detailed than would be desirable in Occidental literature, together with evident approval of relations and ideals which the less sensual Western mind rightly condemns. There are passages, too, which I would gladly have omitted, had I felt that a faithful translator could do so. And yet, despite all this, I find in the romance no evidence of delight in uncleanness, such as nauseates, for example, in Petronius or in Martial. It is not pornographic; it is, at worst, unmoral, though its rigid adherence to all conventions, both in letter and, I think, in spirit, renders even unmorality almost too harsh an accusation. From an Indian point of view, unlightened by the radiance of Christianity and the morality which it inculcates, I should not hesitate to term the Vāsavadattā a moral work, especially in view of the conditions of life in mediæval India. Its atmosphere, luxuriant though it be, has never seemed to me to be debasing. It is by no means impossible that some will dissent from the views here expressed regarding the literary and moral quality of Subandhu's romance. If so, they may turn from the first Western translator of the Vāsavadattā to the first Western editor of the romance, Fitzedward Hall, who, in his Introduction, has unsparingly condemned the entire production both in its literary and in its ethical aspects—a precedent followed by Krishnamachariar in his sarcastic critique of the whole plot of Subandhu's work (Introd., pp. 50–66). Outline of the Plot of the Romance. The outline of the story of the Vāsavadattā is as follows : A king named Cintāmaṇi had a son Kandarpakētu, who was, like his father, the embodiment of all virtues. Once upon a time toward dawn, when true dreams come, the young prince saw in his sleep a vision of a maiden of some eighteen years, whose loveliness could not be surpassed. Jealous sleep forsook Kandarpakētu, who, with his friend Makaranda, left the city in his love-longing for the unknown princess. In their wanderings the pair came to the