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
though that would normally be an inauspicious beginning, indicates that
it was meant to serve both as an emotion and a transitory feeling, and
it is fully recognized by Vidyādhara, Viçvanātha, and Jagannātha,
though Dhanaṁjaya barely admits it. [687] The interrelations of the
sentiments, their possible combinations, their harmonies and conflicts,
are detailed at length.
The sentiments may all be employed in drama, but there are rules
affecting their use. In each play there should be a dominant sentiment;
in the Nāṭaka it should be the erotic or the heroic; other sentiments
are merely auxiliary, but that of wonder is especially appropriate in
the dénouement; indeed something in the way of supernatural
intervention is often convenient to extricate the plot. An excess of
sentiments is as bad as a defect; if there are too many they destroy
the unity of the whole and detach it into a series of ill-connected
fragments, while the excessive use of action and of rhetorical display
is equally destructive to the merit of a piece.
The Çakuntalā illustrates excellently the sentiment of love as the
ruling motive of the play; the heroic sentiment appears in the verses
in Act II in which the hermits extol the king; the horrible in Act VI
in the scene in which Mātali menaces the Vidūṣaka; terror is evoked by
the description of the dusk at the close of Act III; the whole play
from the arrival of Kaṇva in Act IV to the departure of Çakuntalā
produces the sentiment of pathos, while that of fury is called into
being by the close of Act VI from the despairing cries of the Vidūṣaka
to the entry of Mātali; finally wonder is aroused by the strange
incident at the close when the king picks up the bracelet fallen from
the arm of the child which, unknown to him, is his own son by the wife
whom he has in ignorance repudiated. The Nāṭikās afford excellent
examples of the erotic sentiment; Harṣa, in complete accord with the
rules of the drama, helps out his plot in both the Ratnāvalī and the
Priyadarçikā by the use of incidents evoking the sentiment of wonder;
the imprisonment of Sāgarikā in the former play evokes the sentiment of
pathos, while terror is excited by the description in Act II of the
wild confusion caused by the monkey’s escape from the royal mews. The
sentiment of fury is frequently evoked in the Mahāvīracarita and the
Veṇīsaṁhāra; the Mālatīmādhava affords excellent illustrations evoking
horror, while the Mahāvīracarita is permeated by the sentiment of
heroism. The Nāgānanda reveals heroism in another aspect, that of the
perfection of compassion and nobility, for, as we have seen,
Jīmūtavāhana is not to be regarded as a hero in whom calm prevails.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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