A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s8.233

v3.c35.s8.233

¹ ILC., p. 563 ff., 580ff. Nisikānta Chattopādhyāya, Indische Essays, Zürich 1883, p. 4 too calls Gītagovinda "a type of yātrā in Sanskrit". Cf. Lévi, 234 ff. and preface to Courtillier's transl., p. v ff. Pischel (HL 22) says: "It is further removed from the first beginnings of drama, because the poet has left no room for improvisation, even the transition-verses having been cast by him in a firm mould" and he has called the poem a "melodrama" (KG 209). For a manuscript with very precise directions in respect of the gesticulations (movement of the hand and the head etc.) see A. C. Burnell, A Classified Index to the Sanskrit MSS in the Palace at Tanjore, London 1880, p. 157 f. One Kṛṣṇa-nāṭaka, that is a "lyrical drama", that is said to be of the type of Gītagovinda, is played in Malabar even during these days, and that not by professional actors, but by men who have been especially trained for this purpose; see K. Rāma-varma Rāja, JRAS 1910, 638.