महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

PREFACE
<span style="font-size: larger;">I</span><span style="font-size: smaller;">T</span> is now just a century and a quarter since Sir William Jones
published, in 1789, his translation of Kālidāsa's Śākuntala, and thereby
gave to the western world its first knowledge of the dramatic literature
of the Hindus. During these hundred and twenty-five years the Śākuntala
has been edited some thirty times, and there are over fifty translations in
as many as thirteen European tongues, to say nothing of translations into
the vernaculars of India. Its own intrinsic merits have won for it, in the
land of its birth, the title of a masterpiece, not only of Kālidāsa's plays, but
even of the Indian literature. And on the strength of these merits, and in
part perhaps on account of Goethe's lavish praise, this title has been
recognized in the Occident, and without demur.
The Hindus, on other hand, hold that our present play, Rāma's
Later History or Uttara-Rāma-charita, the masterpiece of Bhavabhūti,
surpasses in some respects even the Śākuntala. Almost a hundred years
ago, in 1827, Horace Hayman Wilson introduced it to western readers by
giving a very free version of it in his Hindu Theatre. But strangely
enough, in all this time, not a single edition of the play has appeared in the
Occident, nor even a translation that is both adequate and now obtainable.
Félix Nève's French version, long out of print, was issued in 1880. The
English version of Charles H. Tawney was twice printed, in 1871 and 1874,
but in distant Calcutta and in scant supply.
In India the Uttara-Rāma-charita is placed in the hands of almost
every college student, and he admires it and loves it ever after. It becomes
a part of his experience, 'revealing new and newer charms every moment.'¹
So at least it has been with me ever since 1899, when I made my first
acquaintance with the play. And it is as a partial return for the many
happy hours that I passed in the company of Bhavabhūti that I here
undertake to make the real genius of the author, his greatness as a
dramatic poet, known beyond the little band of zealous Indianists in
Europe and America who can study the play in the original. For there
are many, in the West as elsewhere, who are eager for an intelligent
general knowledge of the great literatures of the world, such as is
accessible, however, to no human being in the originals, so numerous
are the languages in which veritable masterpieces have been written.
¹ Kṣaṇe kṣaṇe yan navatām upaiti tad eva rūpaṁ ramaṇīyatāyāḥ.—Śiśupālavadha, iv. 17.