Arts

Arts Aug 01, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Śūdraka (Part 1) - The Playwright

It is hard to say when and where Śūdraka was born. The following verses that occur at the beginning of his play, the Mṛcchakaṭika, provide us with some details...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jul 26, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Bhāsa's Plays - Conclusion

Bhāsa’s plays contain quite a number of novel and fresh ideas and emotions. He also brings in proverbial statements through the dialogues of the characters; the...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jul 18, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Bhāsa's Plays - An Overview (Part 12)

We don’t know if there are more plays written by Bhāsa. We have been able to find fourteen now. Many compendiums of poems quote quite a few verses that are supp...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jul 11, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Dūta-vākya - Bhāsa (Part 11)

The nature of Duryodhana in Ūru-bhaṅga is different from the manner in which he is portrayed in the plays Dūta-vākya and Dūta-ghaṭotkaca. In the segment of the...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jul 04, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Dūta-vākya - Bhāsa (Part 10)

Dūta-vākya continued ... War was inevitable; Bhīṣma sleeps on a bed of arrows; the first ten days of the war was led by Bhīṣma. On the eleventh day, Droṇa was...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jun 27, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Madhyama-vyāyoga - Bhāsa (Part 9)

Madhyama-vyāyoga, Dūta-vākya, Dūta-ghaṭotkaca, Karṇa-bhāra, and Ūru-bhaṅga are the other plays authored by Bhāsa based on the Mahābhārata. It is hard to say if...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jun 20, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Pañca-rātra - Bhāsa (Part 8)

Continued from the previous part ... Virāṭa, Uttara, Pāṇḍavas and Abhimanyu constitute the third group of people. It is almost impossible to undertake an exclu...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jun 13, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Pañca-rātra - Bhāsa (Part 7)

The play Pañca-rātra does not contain some of the bitter episodes that are present in the original Mahābhārata; for instance, in Bhāsa’s version, Kīcaka does no...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts Jun 06, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Bāla-carita and Pañca-rātra - Bhāsa (Part 6)

The Bāla-carita is a play based on the childhood of Bhagavān Śrī-kṛṣṇa. The following is the summary of the plot: Vasudeva crosses the river Yamunā, reaches the...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts May 30, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Daridra-Cārudatta - Bhāsa (Part 5)

  The play Cārudatta (also called Daridra-cārudatta) is based on stories popular in the folk tradition. The play has a significant place in the history of...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts May 24, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Avimāraka - Bhāsa (Part 4)

As Svapna-vāsava-dattā is the most famous among Bhāsa’s plays and Pratijñā-yaugandharāyaṇa forms its prequel, we took them up for analysis first. In fact, we sh...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj

Arts May 16, 2024

Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka - Bhāsa (Part 3)

The story that began in Pratijñā-yaugandharāyaṇa continues in the play Svapna-vāsavadatta. Yaugandharāyaṇa and Vāsava-dattā work together in order to get Udayan...

A R Krishna Sastri | Trans: Arjun Bharadwaj