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