Page:The Sanskrit Drama.djvu/262

Rh Rather less commonplace is Mathurādāsa's effort in the Vṛṣabhānujā to make a Nāţikā of the love of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā. He was a Kāyastha of Suvarnaçekhara on the Ganges and Yamunā, and he uses the motive of the jealousy of Rādhā for a portrait of a lady which Kṛṣṇa has, but which turns out to be one of herself. A philosophic play is Narasiṅha's Çivanārāyanabhañjamahodaya, in honour of a prince of Keonjhor.

The Saṭṭaka with its demand for Prākrit was too exacting for the average poet; we have only the Ānandasundarī of the tedious Ghanaçyāma, minister of the Marāṭha Tukkojī and the Cṛn̄gāramañjari of the Almora poet Viçveçvara of the eighteenth century.

5. The Prakarana

The example of the Mṛcchakaṭikā induced few imitations, doubtless because would-be imitators had the sense to realize the appalling difficulties of producing anything worthy of setting beside that masterpiece. There is, however, a servile redaction of the same idea as that of the Mālatimādhava of Bhavabhūti in the Mallikāmāruta of Uddaṇḍin or Uddaṇḍanātha, who has had the quite undeserved honour of being taken for Daṇḍin, but who was really no more than the court poet of the Zemindar of Kukkuṭakroḍa or Calicut in the middle of the seventeenth century. The plot follows that of Bhavabhūti's play almost slavishly. The magician Mandākini is eager to arrange a marriage between Mallikā, daughter of the minister of the Vidyādhara king and Māruta, son of the minister of the king of Kuntala. She arranges an interview between the two, who fall in love, but the match is disturbed by the desire of the king of Ceylon for Mallikā's hand. Māruta's friend Kalakaṇṭha is also in love with Ramayantikā. In Act III there is the usual temple scene, and a couple of elephants are let loose to frighten the two maidens and cause two rescues. Then Māruta is told by an emissary of the king of Ceylon that Kalakaṇṭha is dead, and is only saved from suicide by his friend's appearance. In