faithful ever in loyalty, will he keep his pact with me? Perplexed with these thoughts my mind revolves as on a potter's wheel.'
There is effective gravity in the manner in which the aged chamberlain handles the regular topic of his failing powers in old age:[1]
rupādīn viṣayān nirūpya karaṇair yair ātmalābhas tvayā
labdhas teṣv api cakṣurādiṣu hatāḥ svārthāvabodhakriyāḥ
an̄gāni prasabhaṁ tyajanti paṭutām ajñāvidheyāni me
nyastam mūrdhni padaṁ tavaiva jarayā tṛṣṇe mudhā tāmyasi.
'Sight, alas, and the other organs, wherewith aforetime I was wont to grasp for myself the sights and objects of desire which I beheld, have lost their power of action. My limbs obey me not and suddenly have lost their cunning; thy foot is placed on my head, old age; vainly, O desire, dost thou weary thyself.'
Rākṣasa's name inevitably demands the usual play on its sense of demoniac, but Malayaketu's feeling redeems the use from triviality:[2]
mitram mamāyam iti nirvṛtacittavṛttim
viçrambhatas tvayi niveçitasarvakāryam
tātaṁ nipātya saha bandhujanākṣitoyair
anvarthasaṁjña nanu Rākṣasa rakṣaso 'si?
'My father's mind rested secure in thy friendship; in his confidence he entrusted to thee the whole burden of his affairs; when, then, thou didst bring him low midst the tears of all his kin, didst thou not act, O Rākṣasa, like the demon whose name thou dost bear?'
The martial spirit of Rākṣasa is admirably brought out in Act II:[3]
prakārān paritaḥ çarāsanadharaiḥ kṣipram parikṣipyatām
dvāreşu dvipadaiḥ pratidvipaghaṭābhedakṣamaiḥ sthiyatām
muktvā mṛtyubhayam prahartumanasaḥ çatror bale durbale
te niryāntu mayā sahaikamanaso yeṣām abhīṣṭaṁ yaçaḥ.
'Around the ramparts be the archers set at once; station at the portals the elephants, strong to overthrow the host of the foeman's herd; lay fear aside, in eagerness to smite the host of the foe that cannot withstand us, and issue forth with me with one
