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Some Remarks on the Hindu Drama
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Amongst the dramatic works of the Hindus a peculiar position is occupied by the Mudrā-Rākṣasa, the one work known under the name of Viśākhadatta. Neither the superior genius of Kālidāsa, nor the pathetic sublimity of Bhavabhūti, nor even the versatility and skill of Śrī-Harṣa has been in any way rivalled by this author, nor can he perhaps lay claim to a very high rank as a stylist, although some of his verses are certainly among the loftiest passages in the classical literature of India. But he excels them all in the marvellous power of characterizing his personages ; and, if Rāma, Jīmūtavāhana, and even Śakuntalā often appear to us, with all their praiseworthy qualities, somewhat pale and lifeless, like fair spirits from a wonderland far away from the sin-stained earth, nothing of that sort could ever be said of the figures acting the play of Viśākhadatta. For there is certainly no lack of real life either in the diabolical plotting and unbending energy of Cāṇakya, or in the noble bitterness of Rākṣasa, or the stubborn blockheadedness of Malayaketu. Besides, the whole theme of the play is political intrigue and preparations for war, the hard work of men, and there is nothing at all about love and sentimentality, except the little scene between Candanadása and his family at the beginning of the last act, which is of absolutely no importance for the development of the play. Even religion and pious feelings seem to have been looked upon by the author as rather unimportant things—his interest is politics and nothing but politics.
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page 586 note 1 A reprint of the excellent translation in Wilson's Hindu Theatre might make him somewhat better known to the English public. A Swedish translation has appeared in my book Ur Indiens klassiska litteratur (Stockholm, 1920), pp. 129–217.Google Scholar
page 586 note 2 Vaṭeśvara “ the Lord of the fig-tree ” is probably = Śiva. There is a liṅga called Vaṭeśvara in the Rāja-taraṅgiṇī, i, 194 sqq.
page 586 note 3 Curiously enough Professor Konow has not taken into consideration the able article of Mr. K. P. Jayaswal on the date of the Mudrārākṣasa (IA. xlii, 1913, 265 sq.). Mr. Jayaswal also connects this drama with the period of the great Guptas and believes the Candragupta of the bharatavākya to be Candragupta II. I am not able to follow him here as—even considering that Candragupta II subdued some Śaka satraps—the earth was certainly not during his time “ mlecchair udvejyamānā ”. But I am very glad of the consent of an able Hindu scholar as to the Gupta time. It is only unfortunate that the identifications of the names Parvataka and Malayaketu in Mr. Jayaswal's article should be wholly fanciful.
page 587 note 1 In the following the text is always quoted from the edition of Professor Hillebrandt, Breslau, 1912.
page 587 note 2 The reasons by which Mr. Antani (IA. li, 1922, 49 sq.) concludes that the M. was written in the seventh century seem to me wholly unconvincing.
page 588 note 1 The name seems to me absolutely significant; cf. Jayaswal, I A. xlii, 1913, 267.
page 588 note 2 Act v, verse 11.
page 588 note 3 Hillebrandt has given Cedi in his text; but there is in Be the reading Cīna and in L. Cīnṇa, which may perhaps represent the original text. Mr. Jayaswal takes this reading for granted without further discussion (loc. cit., p. 266).
page 589 note 1 On this compound cf. Jayaswal, IA. xlvi, 1917, p. 275, who would translate it: “he whose servant is Śrīmān Bandhu.” According to Mr. Jayaswal, Bandhu here means a certain Bandhuvarman whose father reigned in Mālwā during and after the time of Candragupta II. The suggestion is certainly an ingenious one—only I am afraid it can scarcely be ever proved.
page 589 note 2 The arguments which Mr. Jayaswal (loc. cit., p. 266) pleads for an earlier Indian knowledge of the Huns are rather weak.
page 589 note 3 The Oxford History of India, p. 163.
page 590 note 1 Cf. e.g. pp. 9 ; 38, 1 ; 42, 18; 56, 9; 86, 2–3, etc.
page 591 note 1 Cf. Konow, Das indische Drama, p. 17.
page 591 note 2 Concerning such subterraneous passages, cf. Kauṭilya Artha-śāstra, p. 40, 6; Mudrā-Rākṣasa, p. 51, 6, 8; Daśakumāra-carita, Pūrvapīṭhikā, iii, etc.
page 591 note 3 Cf. Konow, Das indische Drama, p. 2. Already Kālidāsa in the Vikramorvaśī (e.g. verse 36) speaks of Bharata as a mythic sage and the stage-manager of the gods.
page 591 note 4 Cf. Morgenstierne, Über das Verhältnis zwischen Cārudatta und Mrcchakaṭikā, Halle a. S., 1920, pp. 26, 77; Antani, I A. li, 50.
page 593 note 1 On the date of Māgha cf. now the article of Professor Jacobi in the Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin Academy, 1923, p. 214.
page 594 note 1 p. 2 sq., ed. Parab.
page 594 note 2 Cf. Lévi, Le Théâtre Indien, p. 197 ; Konow, Das indische Drama, p. 57, etc.
page 594 note 3 Cf. Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philos.-philol. u. hist. Klasse, xxix, 4 (1918), p. 83, n. 1.
page 595 note 1 Cf. Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Sprachgeschichte … E. Kuhn gewidmet 1916, p. 108 sq. ; Das indische Drama, p. 57.
page 595 note 2 Cf. Fleet, JRAS. 1905, p. 568.
page 595 note 3 Recorded by Bhau Dājī, J. Bo. Br. RAS. viii, 240 sq., and Professor Jacobi, Ind. Stud. xiv, 147 sq.
page 595 note 4 Cf. Wilford, Asiatic Researches, ix, 107; Wilson, Works, ix, 194, n. 1.
page 596 note 1 Cf. Ind. Stud., xiv, 151.
page 596 note 2 The explanation of Pṛthvīdhara dvija-mukhyatamaḥ kṣatra-jāti-śreṣthaḥ trayo varṇā dvijātaya iti smṛteḥ kṣatriyo ’pi dvija-prayogaḥ ‖ is scarcely very well founded.
page 596 note 3 Cf. Der griechische Einfluss im indischen Drama, p. 70.
page 596 note 4 Cf. Daśa-kumāra-carita, p. 100, 5–9, ed. Bühler-Peterson-Agashe, Bombay, 1919.
page 597 note 1 Cf. Rudraka's Śṛṅgāratilaka und Ruyyak's Sahṛdayalīlā, Kiel, 1886, p. 20. Cf. also Lindenau, Bhāsa-Studien, Leipzig, 1918, p. 14.
page 597 note 2 Cf. Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India, iii, 306 sqq.
page 598 note 1 Cf. Thurston, loc. cit., p. 320.
page 598 note 2 Cf. Smith, The Oxford History of India, p. 216.
page 598 note 3 Cf. Le Théátre Indien, p. 198.
page 598 note 4 JA. 1902, i, p. 123 sq.
page 598 note 5 Cf. also Morgenstierne, loc. cit., p. 76.
page 598 note 6 It would be no valid reason against this that Aśvaghoṣa is also not mentioned by Kālidāsa. For Aśvaghosa was a Buddhist and wrote Buddhist dramas which would certainly not be mentioned by Kālidāsa, whose Brahmin orthodoxy may scarcely be doubted.
page 599 note 1 Tagore Law Lectures, 1883, p. 68 sq.
page 599 note 2 Daśarūpa, ed. K. P. Parab, p. 90.
page 599 note 3 Cf. Bhandarkar Commemorative Volume, p. 367 sqq.
page 599 note 4 The verse Yāsām baliḥ, etc., which is in the Cārudatta I, v, 2, and in the Mṛc-chakaṭikā, i, v. 9.
page 600 note 1 Cf. Konow, Aufsätze hellip; E. Kuhn gewidmet, p. 107; Das indische Drama, p. 55 ; Morgenstierne, loc. cit., p. 67 ; Mehendale, loo. cit., p. 369.
page 601 note 1 Even the words of the Śakāra (p. 226, ed. Parab)—dalidde kkhu śe | taśśa śavvaṃ, sambhāvīadi—need not be taken as an allusion to this passage (cf. also sambhāvyate in Act IX, v. 37).
page 601 note 2 Cf. the words of Āryaka : evam punardarśanāya in Mrc-chakaṭikā, ed. Parab, p. 182, 17.
page 601 note 3 Cf. the introductory words of the fifth act: unnamaty akāladurdinam.
page 602 note 1 Cf. Morgenstierne, loc. cit., p. 69.
page 602 note 2 Daśarūpa, ed. Parab, p. 90.
page 602 note 3 In the tenth act a considerable interpolation is said to have been made by a certain Nilakaṇṭha; cf. Morgenstierne, loc. cit., p. 69.
page 603 note 1 MṛC-chakaṭikā, notes, p. 4.
page 603 note 2 Except in these acts the Śakāra does only produce himself in the first act. But there he is only a ridiculous braggart and a still more ridiculous coward, and does not show any of the real wicked qualities that constitute a khala, a rogue.
page 604 note 1 Ed. Parab, p. 65, 5–8.
page 604 note 2 Ibid., pp. 112–13.
page 604 note 3 Act X, v. 46.
page 604 note 4 Specimens of the Hindu Theatre, i, 158, n. ; cf. Lévi, JA. 1902, i, 123.
page 605 note 1 Artha-sāstra, p. 220, 3 ; cf. Mrc-chakaṛikā, Act IX, v. 39, etc. Cf. Abhiṣeka-nātaka, p. 34, 9–10: sarvāparādheṣv avadhyā khalu dūtāḥ; Brahmins certainly have often been used as ambassadors and messengers on behalf of their sacrosanctity.
page 602 note 2 Cf. the beginning of Act VIII.
page 602 note 3 Act X, v. 50.
page 602 note 4 Berichte der Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wiss., 1885, p. 439 sq.
page 606 note 1 Das indische Drama, p. 57.
page 606 note 2 Cf. Lacôte, Guṇādhya et la Bṛhalkathā, p. 153 sq.
page 606 note 3 It were perhaps possible that Śūdraka alluded here also to the Pratijñāyaugandharāyaṇa, but this is not proved by the tenor of the verse.
page 607 note 1 Professor Konow seems to hint at something like this, cf. Das indische Drama, p. 57.
page 607 note 2 Aufsätze zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte … E. Kuhn gewidmet, 1916, p. 299 sqq.
page 607 note 3 ii, 68, 41 sqq.
page 608 note 1 dvijāḥ is apparently a misprint of the edition.