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.
Page 75 of: Bhasa (critical and historical study)
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55
may find many verses common to it and Avi," which
proves nothing. Further it has not been shown that the
story of the Avi was not existing before Dandin.
Thus these arguments also fail to bring conviction
home, and hence the efforts to show Kerala influence in
these dramas and thereby indicate them as the
compositions of a Kerala dramatist are fruitless.
to "
Dr. Ganapati Sastri experienced sweetness,
directness and vigour in these dramas and he proclaimed
these as the characteristic merits of our plays; but, as
stated by Dr. Thomas, "that is not the character of the
Kerala Sanskrit in general,-witness the Nalodaya and
similar works"."
Further, these dramas are quite well known in
Kerala since the last ten centuries. Had they been the
work of any C膩ky膩r or a Kerala dramatist, the
rhetoricians or anthologists might have embodied the
names of the authors when they took verses from these
plays. This clearly shows that they are not the works of
any poet from the South.
We do not know anything definitely about the
ability of
Prof. Ote Caky膩rs to compose dramas in Sanskrit.
Prof. Otto Stein (Indoligica Pragnesia, 1, 1929, pp. 21 ff.)
has already raised doubts as to how far the C膩ky膩rs
were literary men who were capable of recasting classical
dramas by shortening them and working them up into stage
plays."
Prof. K. Rama Pisharoti, on the other hand,
declares them to be literary men and scholars, but this
does not seem to be proved. Sanskritists must really
be grateful to Prof. Pisharoti for the amount of varied
information supplied by him with regard to the Kerala
theatre." Illustrations also accompany his learned
articles published in the AUJ and therein he tells us about
the various types of the spectacular entertainments in
Kerala
under three heads, the religious, secular and
semi-religious. For the Bh膩sa controversy, we are
concerned with the last head which deals with Sanskrit
dramas especially the variety known as "Ku峁璱y膩ttam."
The number of acts in which the C膩ky膩rs can
can
train
1 Pisharotis, BSOS, 3, p. 107. 2 JRAS, 1928, p. 881. 3 Winternitz,
BRRI, 5, p. 11. Pisharoti, IHQ, 1, pp. 338-340; JBRAS, 1925, pp. 246-251;
QJMS, 12, pp. 183-195; JAU, 1, pp. 91-113; 3, pp. 141-159; ADC, pp. 48-56; BSOS,
3, pp. 111-114 (in collaboration with A. K. Pisharoti).
