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 same motif is repeated in the Viddhaçālabhañjikā, [492] which is a
regular Nāṭikā. Act I tells us that Candravarman of Lāṭa, vassal of
Vidyādharamalla, has sent to the court of his overlord his daughter
Mṛgān̄kāvalī in the guise of his son and heir. The king,
Vidyādharamalla, recounts a dream in the truthful hours of the morning,
in which a beautiful maid had cast a collar of pearls round his neck;
he is haunted by her, and next finds her in sculptured form
(çālabhañjikā) in the picture gallery. He has a further glimpse of her
in the flesh but no more, before the heralds announce midday. In Act II
we learn that the queen proposes to marry Kuvalayamālā of Kuntala to
the pretended boy, while the Vidūṣaka has been promised by her
foster-sister, Mekhalā, marriage with a lady of the seductive name of
Ambaramālā, Air Garland. Imagine his disgust when she turns out to be a
mere slave; the king has to calm him, and together they watch in hiding
Mṛgān̄kāvalī playing in the garden, and hear her reading a letter of
love. The heralds proclaim the evening hour. In Act III we are told
that the dream of the king was reality, devised by Bhāgurāyaṇa, his
minister, who knew that the husband of the heroine would attain
imperial rule. The Vidūṣaka punishes Mekhalā’s ruse by another; he bids
a woman hide herself and call out a warning to Mekhalā of evil to
befall her unless she crawl between a Brahmin’s limbs. The queen begs
the Vidūṣaka to permit this ceremony, and, it over, he avows the plot
to the great indignation of the queen. The Vidūṣaka and the king then
have an interview with the heroine. In Act IV we learn of a plot of the
queen to punish the king. She induces him to agree to marry the sister
of the pretended boy, meaning that he should find that he has married a
boy. The king agrees; the marriage is completed; news comes from
Candravarman that a son is born, begging the queen to dispose in
marriage of his daughter, who may resume her sex. The queen, tricked
and deceived, makes the best of her situation; with dignity and hauteur
she bestows on her husband both Mṛgān̄kāvalī and Kuvalayamālā, while
news is brought that the last rebels are subdued and the king’s
suzerainty is recognized everywhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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