A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s8.232

v3.c35.s8.232

This poem has often been designated as dramatic. Lassen has called it "a lyrical drama". L. v. Schroeder has referred to it as "a lyric-dramatic poem" and a "refined yātrā"¹. That the poet himself called his poem a "kāvya", i.e. an epic poem is proved by its division into sargas or "cantos." On the other hand, he has undoubtedly interwoven in the frame of the kāvya songs composed on popular models, that cannot be conceived without music, song and dance. In one of the verses (IV, 9), in which the poet has mentioned his name, he says about himself that his song is to be staged in mind (*manasā naṭanīyam*). Hence it follows that the poet had no intention to write a dramatic poem, in no case a proper drama², but his task was to write a book in which popular dance-play with music and tunes served as a model for songs, that constitute the nucleus of the book³.