The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c13.s6.1

c13.s6.1

Almost a contemporary to a day of Harṣa was Mahendravikramavarman, son of the Pallava king Siṃhaviṣṇuvarman, and himself a king with the styles of Avanibhājana, Guṇabhara, and Mattavilāsa, all alluded to in his play,¹ who ruled in Kāñcī, the scene of his drama, in the first quarter of the seventh century A.D.² Chance rather than any special merit has preserved for us his Prahasana,³ which is so far the only early farce published, and which has special interest as it comes from the south, and, as we have seen, shows signs of the same technique as that of Bhāsa. Thus the play is opened by the director at the close of the Nāndī, which is not preserved, and the prologue is styled Sthāpanā, and not, as usual, Prastāvanā. We have also a reference to Karpaṭa as the writer of a text-book for thieves, as in the Cārudatta of Bhāsa, but there is an essential difference in the fact that great care is taken in the prologue to set out at length the merits of the author as well as the name of the drama.