History of Sanskrit Poetics c6.27

c6.27

In I. H. Q. vol. 17 pp. 196-206 Dr. Wijesekera cites evidence from ancient Buddhist works for the early existence of drama. At. p. 197 he quotes a passage from theं गामणिसंयुत्त (IV. p. 306) wherein a नटगामणि (the leader of naṭas) asks the Blessed One ‘योऽसौ नटो रंगमज्झे समज्जमज्झे सञ्चालिकेन जनं हासेति रमेति &c.’ (that naṭa who on the stage or in an arena makes people laugh and delights them by a mixture of truth and falsehood). On p. 200 he quotes from the Dialogues of Buddha a passage where नृत्य, गीत, वादित, प्रेक्षा, आख्यान and शोभानगरक are mentioned. The preceding brief discussion shows that from at least 500 B. C. to 100 B. C. a great deal of poetical material of a secular character had been accumulated in classical Sanskrit. This must have naturally led to speculations about the functions and objects of poetry, the classification of different kinds of poetry and literary works like आख्यायिकाs, the enunciation of rules about the standard form of certain classes of composition, in short, to attempts, more or less crude, to establish a theory of Poetics and literary criticism. From this time forward the two processes, viz. composition of secular poetry and the elaboration of rules, must have proceeded hand in hand.