Page:Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama.djvu/31

Rh the plot. In the fifth act the scene is laid in the field where the bodies of the dead are burned. The two other plays of Bhavabhūti form a history of the deeds of the hero Rama, and are based on the epic poem Rāmāyaṇa. I shall omit a detailed description of these.

The next dramatist, Rājaśekhara, who lived about the year 900 A. D., is the author of four plays which have come down to us. Two of them are much like the comedies of Harṣadeva in construction and subject. These two are the Viddhaśālabhañjikā, or 'The Lady of the Statue' and the Karpūramañjarī, or 'Camphor Cluster.' They are both dramas of harem and court life. The chief interest of the Karpūramañjarī, which has been admirably edited in the Harvard Oriental Series by Dr. Sten Konow with a translation by Professor Lanman, consists in the fact that it renders accessible the only extant example of the kind of drama called saṭṭaka. The saṭṭaka is nearly the same as the nāṭikā, or minor heroic comedy, except that it is composed entirely in Prākrit. Of the Viddhaśālabhañjikā I had hoped to publish a translation, upon which I was engaged, but the pressure of other duties has prevented me, and the work has now been done by my friend and fellow-student, Dr. Louis H. Gray.

One of the few historic plays of India is the Mudrārākṣasa by Viśākhadatta. The scene of this elaborate drama is laid in the city of Pāṭaliputra during the reign of Candragupta, or shortly after the invasion of India by Alexander. The time of composition of the play, however, is probably to be placed about the year 1000 A. D. The plot deals with the story of the founding of a new dynasty by Candragupta who had deposed the former ruler. The latter's minister Rākṣasa refuses to recognize the new monarch. Candragupta's minister tries to win Rākṣasa over to his own political plans, which are well conceived, and he at last succeeds. The drama gives us a remarkable picture of the political conditions of the time in which the author has placed its action, centuries before his own.