Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s1.t8.5

v2.c11.s1.t8.5

From the extant documents, we can see that Indian classical Sanskrit drama went into prosperity after the beginning of the Christian era. The earliest extant scripts are fragments of three plays written by Buddhist poet and dramatist Maming in about first and second century. The *Sariputta Biography* is a nine-act play, the content is about a story that two Buddha's disciples Sariputta and Moggallana converted to Buddhism. These three plays fragments were discovered in the early 1900s in China's Xinjiang. Temples in South India have tradition of performing dramas. In 1910, an Indian scholar found 13 plays in a library of a temple near Bodemopa City in South India, which was considered to be written by the famous Sanskrit dramatist Bhasa in about second or third century. This is a major event in the history of Indian drama. Bhasa’s 13 plays were mainly drawn from two Sanskrit epics of India and other legends. Sanskrit drama *Mricchakatika* written by Sudraka putatively is a realistic drama that reflects common people's lives and struggles. There are as many as 34 characters in the play, the plot goes up and down, and changes delicately. Poet and dramatist Kalidasa's creation makes Indian ancient drama reach the pinnacle of glory. His major plays include *Sakuntala*, *Vikramorvasiya* (also translated as: *Urvashi*) and *Malavikagnimitra*. Their plots go up and down with beautiful language and artistic charm, and thus become a diamond of Indian models and the world drama collections. Bhavabhuti who was active approximately in the 8th century, was the most important classical Sanskrit dramatist after Kalidasa. His three famous plays are *Jasmine and Youth*, *Daxiong Biography* and *Later Luomo Biography*. They insinuate reality by historical legends and