The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c15.s6: 6. The Language and the Metres of the Veṇīsaṃhāra.
The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c15.s6
- Language
- English
6. The Language and the Metres of the Veṇīsaṃhāra.
c15.s6.1
The Sanskrit and the Prākṛits offer no special features of interest. The latter is mainly in Çaurasenī, but the speeches of the Rākṣasa and his wife at the beginning of Act III are clearly in Māgadhī; they show the characteristic signs of *e* for the nominative singular, both masculine and neuter, of *a*-stems; *l* for *r*, and *ā* in the vocative of *a*-stems. The suggestion of Grill² that the dialect is more precisely Ardha-Māgadhī is not necessary, for the points enumerated—the presence of *s* beside *ç*, the variation of *o* and *am* in the nominative for *e*, and the use of *jj* for *ry*, and not *yy*—can be explained readily by the error of the scribes or the mistakes of the author. The freedom with which those worthies acted is seen clearly enough in the fact that one representative of the Bengālī as opposed to the Devanāgarī recension of the text has systematically rewritten the Prākṛit into Çaurasenī.
c15.s6.2
² pp. 139, 140.
c15.s6.3
The metrical treatment is noteworthy for the almost equal use of Vasantatilaka (39), Çārdūlavikrīḍita (32), Çikhariṇī (35), and Sragdharā (20). There are 53 Çlokas, and a few stanzas of Mālinī, Puṣpitāgrā, Praharṣiṇī, and one each of Aupacchandasika, Vaitālīya, Indravajrā, and Drutavilambita, with 6 Āryās, and 2 Prākṛit Vaitālīyas. The versification is thus decidedly of the later type.