The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c14.s3.1

c14.s3.1

It is difficult to doubt that Bhavabhūti must have been induced to write his Prakaraṇa in an effort to vie with the author of the *Mṛcchakaṭikā*. It is true that no such humour as lightens that drama is found in the *Mālatīmādhava*, but that was doubtless due to Bhavabhūti’s own temperament; conscious that he had no gift¹ in that direction, he omitted boldly the part of the Vidūṣaka which he could clearly not have handled effectively. But in doing so he lessened greatly his resources, and has to select for his theme in lieu of comic relief incidents of the terrible and horrible type blended with the supernatural. The main love-story, with the episode of the two young lovers, whose desires are thwarted by interposition of a powerful suitor, and whose affairs are mixed up with those of two other lovers, both affections ending in elopements, occurs in the *Kathāsarit-* sāgara,¹ and in that collection as elsewhere² we find the motifs of the sacrifice of a maiden by a magician and the offering of flesh to the demons to obtain their aid. But the credit is due to Bhavabhūti of combining them in an effective enough whole, and of producing in Act V a spectacle at once horrible and exciting. He has also improved his authorities in detail; the escaped tiger replaces the more conventional elephant; and the intrigue is more effectually welded together by making Madayantikā the sister of Nandana, the king’s favourite. Further, he has introduced the machinery of Kāmandakī and her assistants Avalokitā and Saudāminī. This again is taken from the romance; Daṇḍin, as Brahmanical an author as Bhavabhūti himself, adopts Buddhist nuns as go-betweens, and Kāmandakī’s offices are perfectly honourable; she merely undertakes, at the request of the parents, to subtract Mālatī from marriage with one unworthy of her and not her father’s choice. The influence of Kālidāsa explains Act IX, which is a manifest effort to rival Act IV of the *Vikramorvaçī*, which it excels in tragic pathos, if it is inferior to it in grace and charm. The same Act has a flagrant imitation of the *Meghadūta* in Mādhava’s idea of sending a cloud message to his lost love, and is full of verbal reminiscences of that text.