The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c20.s8.10

c20.s8.10

More complex still is the question of the Nāndī or benediction. Most Sanskrit dramas open with a verse or verses of this type, followed by the remark, ‘At the close of the Nāndī the Sūtradhāra enters,’ but in Bhāsa’s dramas, in old manuscripts of the *Vikramorvaçī*, and now and then in South Indian manuscripts of such plays as the *Nāgānanda*, the *Mudrārākṣasa*, and other more modern dramas,² we find the play begun with these words, and a verse or verses following. We have also the direct testimony of Viçvanātha, who tells us that some authorities held that the introductory verse in the *Vikramorvaçī* which normally passes for the Nāndī was not that at all, but was the Raṅgadvāra, with which, according to the *Nāṭyaçāstra*, the play properly begins, as in it we first find acting in the shape of a combination of speech and action; that verse, they argued, could not be reconciled with the definition of the extent of the Nāndī given in the *Nāṭyaçāstra*; others, however, on the authority of Abhinavagupta repelled this objection. Viçvanātha adopts as the definition of Nāndī what is recited in praise of a deity, Brahmin, king