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INTRODUCTION
pronounced Buddhistic tendency, as Buddha is invoked in the nāndī, and the hero himself is a Buddhist. In this respect the Nāgānanda stands alone among the extant Sanskrit plays, although we know that there were other Buddhist dramas which have not been preserved. Such was the Lokānanda of Candragomin, of which there is a Tibetan translation. The Nāgarāja and Śānticarita are, perhaps, imitations of the Nāgānanda or even identical with it. In the Avadānaśataka (75) there is a record of the representation of a Buddhist drama, according to Oldenburg.[1] Several Jain plays are also known.[2]
The dramatist Bhavabhūti, who lived during the first half of the eighth century, was a native of Vidarbha, the Province of Bhavabhūti. Berar, in south-central India, and he wrote under the protection of king Yaśovarman of Kanauj. He is the author of three plays, the Mālatīmādhava, Mahāvīracarita, and Uttararāmacarita, which are distinguished by great poetic beauty and feeling, exquisite verse, polished style, but little humor or wit (the jester being absent from all), and only moderate dramatic power. They are, perhaps, dramatic poems rather than dramas. Bhavabhūti's home in the mountain regions of south-central India doubtless gave him a love of the grand and titanic aspects of nature instead of the mild and gentle phases described by the other Hindu authors. His characters have much grace and tenderness and also possess energy and life. His most popular play is the ten act prakaraṇa, or melodrama, Mālatī-mādhava, the scene of which is laid in Ujjain. It is the story of the love of Mālatī, daughter of a cabinet minister, and Mādhava, a young student. This charming play is often called the Romeo and Juliet of India, but it has a happy ending, as all Sanskrit plays must have. The whole drama is a succession of contrasted situations, first of love and then of the weird incantations of the terrible priestess of Durgā, scenes which are used to heighten the dramatic effect as well as to contribute to
