e).

II. _The Period of Decline._--This may be reckoned from about the 11th
to about the 14th century of the Christian era, the beginning roughly
coinciding with that of a continuous series of Mahommedan invasions of
India. _Han[=u]man-Nataka_, or "the great Nataka" (for this irregular
play, the work of several hands, surpasses all other Indian dramas in
length, extending over no fewer than fourteen acts), dates from the 10th
or 11th century. Its story is taken from the R[=a]ma-cycle, and a
prominent character in it is the mythical monkey-chief King Han[=u]man,
to whom, indeed, tradition ascribed the original authorship of the play.
Krishnamicra's "theosophic mystery," as it has been called,--though it
rather resembles some of the moralities,--_Prabodha-Chandrodaya_ (_The
Rise of the Moon of Insight_, i.e. the victory of true doctrine over
error), is ascribed by one authority to the middle of the 11th century,
by another to about the end of the 12th. The famous _Ratnavali_ (_The
Necklace_), a court-comedy of love and intrigue, with a half-Terentian
plot, seems also to date from the earlier half of the period.

The remaining plays of which it has been possible to conjecture the
dates range in the time of their composition from the end of the 11th to
the 14th century. Of this period, as compared with the first, the
general characteristics seem to be an undue preponderance of narrative
and description, and an affected and over-elaborated style. As a
striking instance of this class is mentioned a play on the adventures of
R[=a]ma, the _Anargha-R[=a]ghava_, which in spite, or by reason, of the
commonplace character of its sentiments, the extravagance of its
diction, and the obscurity of its mythology, is stated to enjoy a higher
reputation with the pundits of the present age than the masterpieces of
K[=a]lid[=a]sa and Babhav[=u]ti. To the close of this period, the 14th
century, has likewise (but without any pretension to certainty) been
ascribed the only Tamil drama of which we possess an English version.
_Arichandra_ (_The Martyr of Truth_) exemplifies--with a strange
likeness in the contrivance of its plot to the _Book of Job_ and
_Faust_--by the trials of a heroically enduring king the force of the
maxim "Better die than lie."

Third period (decay).

III. _Period of Decay._--Isolated plays remain from centuries later than
the 14th; but these, which chiefly turn on the legends of Krishna (the
last incarnation of Vi