5. Literary estimate of the Purnapurusarthacandrodaya

The dialogues in the drama [purnapurusarthacandrodaya] are neither lively nor crisp. They are dull and lengthy in the first act while in the second act, they are stereotyped. In the third and fourth acts, the dialogues are scholarly and pedantic. The fifth act mostly contains descriptions of the goddess at Muktisthala. The poetry in the drama though not of a high order is simple and appealing. The following is a description of the sacrifice of a Kapalika.

708 nrasthisrajam vahati, hanta, juhoti vada madyena mamsanicayena ca bhuritrsnah ! sesam priyananahapibati prabhuta- mavyaktavaniratha nrtyati vismrtatma || 37 708 "He wears a garland of human bones. Alas! he gives offerings of heaps of flesh and liquor to the fire. After that, he of great avarice drinks enough looking at the face of his beloved and forgetting himself and speaking incoherently dances. Here another sense is also implied namely a soul due to nescience enjoys the material pleasures and consequently forgets its true self. In the following verse, he describes the goddess at Muktisthala. taranikiranajalai candramacandrikabhih madhuramadhurabhava pritidabhiisubhabhih ! samyam tejaso nasya manye ahamiva khalu klu punaruduganasah ka katha hanta samye || 38 "The clusters of the rays of the Sun and Moon which are beautiful and which give immense pleasure rival each other in trying to bear comparison with this lustre. But I believe that they cannot (compared with it). Alas ! (then ) what to speak of scores of stars and the possibility of their comparison with it!" Here is suggested the extraordinary brilliance of the light which turns out to be the goddess at Muktisthala. It can be seen that the poet sometimes shows a tendency towards verbal alliteration. 37. Ibid., Act. III, p.38. 38. Ibid., Act.V, p.76-77.