Page:Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama.djvu/27

Rh to be the production of King Śūdraka, but not all kings are authors, and it is thought that in this case, as probably in others, the real author, like a wise courtier, may have attributed his work to his royal master in order to gain favor. Many of the rulers of ancient India delighted in playing the part of patrons of art and literature; Śūdraka may well have been one of these. Professor Pischel, after a careful study of the material, thinks that the real author was a poet named Daṇḍin. However that may be, there is no question that the Mṛcchakaṭikā is in many respects the most human of all the Sanskrit plays. There is something strikingly Shaksperian in the skilful drawing of the characters, the energy and life of the large number of personages in the play, and in the directness and clearness of the plot itself It is a ten-act prakaraṇa, or comedy of middle-class life, and the scene is laid in the city of Ujjain. The subject of the plot is the love and marriage of Carudatta, a brahman merchant reduced to poverty by his generosity, and Vasantasenā, a rich courtesan. In the third act there is a long and humorous account of a burglary in which stealing is treated as an art or science provided with rules and conventional procedure. The chief value of the Mṛcchakaṭikā, aside from its interest as a drama, lies in the graphic picture it presents of a very interesting phase of everyday life in ancient India. The elaborate description of the heroine's palace in the fourth act gives us a glimpse of what was considered luxury in those days. The name 'Clay Cart' is taken from an episode in the sixth act, which leads to the finding of the heroine's jewels in the terra cotta cart of the hero's little son and to their use as circumstantial evidence in a trial. This complicates the plot until all is resolved in the dénouement.

The greatest name in Sanskrit literature is that of Kālidāsa who lived at the court of Ujjain, probably about the first half of the sixth century of our era, although his date is not settled and the question is still a mooted one. He is the author of three plays, Śakuntalā, Vikramorvaśī, and Mālavikāgnimitra. The first two of these compositions reach the highest level attained by the Hindu dramatists and