A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.638

c5.638

HANUMĀN-NĀTAKA. A long drama by various hands upon the adventures of the monkey chief Hanumān. This drama is fabled to have been composed by Hanumān, and inscribed by him on rocks. Vālmiki, the author of the Rāmāyana, saw it and feared that it would throw his own poem into the shade. He complained to the author, who told him to cast the verses into the sea. He did so, and they remained concealed there for ages. Portions were discovered and brought to King Bhoja, who directed Dāmodara Misra to arrange them and fill up the lacunæ. He did so, and the result was this drama. “It is probable,” says Wilson, “that the fragments of an ancient drama were connected in the manner described. Some of the ideas are poetical, and the sentiments just and forcible; the language is generally very harmonious, but the work itself is, after all, a most disjointed and nondescript composition, and the patchwork is very glaringly and clumsily put together.” It is a work of the tenth or eleventh century. It has been printed in India.