The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c15.194

c15.194

About the time of Kālidāsa flourished another dramatist who wrote the Mṛcchakaṭikā, which has a family resemblance with Bhāsa's Cārudatta. The work is ascribed to a king named Śūdraka but the remarks on Śūdraka in the play point to some court poet as its author. Śūdraka himself, in spite of Konow's brilliant hypothesis, must remain a legendary figure.¹ Śūdraka is represented by the Sūtradhāra in the customary prologue as endowed with many of the qualities which the Hindu ideal of kingship demanded. He had knowledge, religious as well as secular. He was versed in the Sāmaveda, in mathematics and in arts. He was warlike and energetic and the delight of those who knew the Vedas.² The plot of the play displays a wicked brother-in-law of the king intimidating officers and the court. The picture of the court itself is interesting. Witnesses are summoned and cross-examined; the final judgment is pronounced by the judge who is supposed to represent the king. In Act IX, the magistrate asks the beadle to go to the court-room and make the seats ready (p. 132) When the seats are ready, the judge enters, accompanied by a gild warden, a clerk and others. The judge laments the difficulties of his position:—