Page:Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama.djvu/29

Rh follows: King Purūravas rescues the nymph Urvaśī, who has been carried away by the demons, and his heroism wins her love. The lovers become separated by accident, but after various vicissitudes are reunited in the presence of their son when the latter is about twelve years old.

The third play of Kālidāsa, entitled Mālavikāgnimitra, or 'King Agnimitra's Love for Mālavikā,' is a conventional drama of harem intrigue at the court, and is decidedly inferior to the author's other two plays. So marked is this inferiority that some scholars have even gone so far as to question its right to bear Kālidāsa's name.

We now come to an interesting group of three plays ascribed to Harṣadeva, king of northern India, which have been the object of much discussion. As in the case of the Mṛcchakaṭikā, it is probable that they were the work of some poet who, to curry favor, ascribed their authorship to that famous patron of art and literature, Harṣadeva. These three plays are Ratnāvalī, Priyadarśikā, and Nāgānanda. The first two are dramas of harem intrigue and court life, composed, it is true, upon conventional lines, but showing some ingenuity in the manipulation of plot and the invention of incident. In the Ratnāvalī, or 'Jewel Necklace,' the subject is the story of the loves of Vatsa, or Udayana, king of Kauśāmbī, and Sāgarikā, an attendant of his wife, queen Vāsavadattā, who ultimately is discovered, by a necklace she wears, to be Ratnāvalī, princess of Ceylon, who had been shipwrecked and had found her way to Vatsa's court. The characters are clearly defined and not mere puppets, as in the case of some dramas. The poetical part is rather conventional, but there are several pretty lines descriptive of natural scenery, moonrise, and the like. The drama Priyadarśikā, named after its heroine, is much the same sort of play, but not so good. The lack of a good critical edition and English translation of this play has made it difficult for students, but this lack is soon to be overcome, and a translation by G. K. S. Nariman, with an introductory memoir from the pen of Professor Jackson, will soon be ready. The third play, Nāgānanda, 'Joy of the Serpents,' is in some respects quite unique. It is a highly-colored melodrama with a