The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c9.s2.5

c9.s2.5

The other drama gives us more interesting matter. It is one in which figures a hetaera named Magadhavatī, a Vidūṣaka named Komudhagandha, a hero styled only Nāyaka, but probably named Somadatta, a Duṣṭa, rogue, without further name, a certain Dhānaṃjaya, who may possibly be a prince if the term ‘king’s son’ (*bhaṭṭidālaka*), which is recognized in the *Nāṭyaçāstra* as the style of the younger princes of the blood, applies to him, a maid-servant, and Çāriputra and Maudgalyāyana. The drama was doubtless intended for purposes of religious edification, but what we have is too fragmentary to do more than show that the author was possessed of humour and that the Vidūṣaka was already a hungry soul. The drama alludes to an old garden as the place where part of the action passed, as in the *Mṛcchakaṭikā*, and also as in that drama the house of the hetaera served as the scene of another part of the action. The characters are often introduced as entering in vehicles (*pravahaṇa*), a further point of