Essay name: Bhasa (critical and historical study)
Author: A. D. Pusalker
This book studies Bhasa, the author of thirteen plays ascribed found in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series. These works largely adhere to the rules of traditional Indian theatrics known as Natya-Shastra.
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improvements and removing the crudities wherever
necessary, and adding something to the original work for
the purpose of making a popular appeal. We have dealt
in detail in a separate chapter with the relationship of
Bh膩sa's Carudatta and Sudraka's Mrcchakatika from all
aspects of the problem.
In saying that K膩lid膩sa has taken ideas from Bh膩sa
we do not intend to detract from the merits of the Prince
among Sanskrit dramatists. K膩lid膩sa seems to be such a
close student of Bh膩sa, that knowingly or unknowingly,
there appear in his plays many ideas and conceptions from
Bh膩sa; but he presents them in quite a different garb
stamping his individuality on them and thus changing
their whole outlook. Dr. S. Krishnaswami Iyengar, in his
Presidential Address at the Mysore Oriental Conference,
has rightly sounded a note of warning as to the necessity
and desirability of changing the whole outlook of the
matter as to the relationship and nature of indebtedness
from stray quotations from different works. Some striking
instances of parallelisms between Bh膩sa and K膩lid膩sa from
among a number of others which appeal to us as showing
the relationship and the nature of indebtedness between
the two dramatists have been given in an appendix; they
may be taken for what they are worth. To us, of course,
they convey the impression that Bh膩sa is the source.
Various incidents from the Prat (valkala incident,
the watering of plants, etc.), poetic imageries from the
Svapna, and the erotic element from the Avi are to be
seen united admirably in the Sakuntala. The tapovana
scene in the Svapna as well as that between Kurangi,
Nalinik盲 and Magadhik膩 in the Avi are the prototypes of
the similar scenes in the S膩kuntala in Acts I and III and
of the Vikrama. The incidents and verbal similarities
between S膩kuntala, Act III, and Avi, Act III as well as
the changed order of genealogy in the Raghuvamsa on the
model of the Prat, show Bh膩sa's influence on K膩lid膩sa.
The Avi seems to have supplied Bhavabh奴ti with
many incidents and ideas for his Malati-Madhava. In
both, the plot is taken from folklore and the sameness of
style is evident in their descriptions of nature. The
1 p. 29, Presidential Address at the Eighth All India Oriental Conference
held at Mysore.
