The Sanskrit drama : $b in its origin, development, theory and practiceKeith, Arthur Berriedale
History
The Sanskrit drama : $b in its origin, development, theory and practice
Keith, Arthur Berriedale
Sanskrit drama -- History and criticism
The Bālabhārata [490] is mercifully unfinished; it covers the marriage
of Draupadī, and the gambling scene with the ill usage of Draupadī. The
other two plays are really Nāṭikās, but the first, the Karpūramañjarī
[491] is classed by the theory as a Saṭṭaka, simply because it is in
Prākrit, none of the characters speaking Sanskrit. It is the old story;
here the king is Caṇḍapāla, possibly a compliment to Mahendrapāla, and
his beloved the Kuntala princess, Karpūramañjarī, who is really a
cousin of the queen. In Act I a magician, Bhairavānanda, displays the
damsel to the king and queen; the apparition tells her tale, and the
queen decides to add her to the number of her attendants. The king and
the maiden fall at once in love. In Act II a letter from the maiden
avows her passion, and the Vidūṣaka and her friend Vicakṣaṇā arrange to
let the king see her swinging and also producing by her touch the
blossoming of the Açoka. Between the Acts we must assume that the queen
has found out the love, and has confined the maiden, while the king has
secured the making of a subterranean passage giving access to her
prison. In Act III by this means the princess and the king enjoy a
flirtation in the garden, when the queen discovers them. In Act IV we
find that the end of the passage giving on the garden has been blocked,
but another passage has been made to the sanctuary of Cāmuṇḍā, the
entrance concealed behind the statue. Thus the prisoner can play a game
of hide-and-seek with the queen, and this enables her to carry out a
clever ruse invented by the magician to secure the queen’s blessing for
the wedding. The queen is induced to demand that the king shall marry a
princess of Lāṭa who will secure him imperial rank. She is still at her
home, but the magician will fetch her to the place. The wedding goes on
merrily, but the princess is no other than Karpūramañjarī, and the
queen has unwittingly accomplished the lovers’ desires.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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