The Dramaturgy of Bhasa set of 2 Vols. (भास नाट्यमञ्जरी 2 भागो में)

Description

भास नाट्यमञ्जरी 2 भागो में (The Dramaturgy of Bhasa set of 2 Vols.) Among the thirteen plays brought out by T. Ganapati Shastri six are based on the episodes from the Mahābhārata. They are : Madhyama Vyāyoga which portrays the encounter of Bhima, the Pandavamadhyama, with his son Ghatotkacha born out of his marriage to the demoness Hidimbā Pancharatram which deals with the events that occur in the last day of the exile of the Pandavas in the kingdom of Virăța; Dutavākyam in which Krishna appears before Duryodhana as an envoy of the Pändaväs to negotiate a truce between the two camps; Dutaghatotkacham in which Ghatotkacha the de- mon son of Bhima meets Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana as the envoy of Krishna after the treacherous killing of Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu; Karnabhāram which portrays the first appear- ance of Karņa in the battlefield as commander-in-chief of the Kauravās, when he makes a gift of his protective Kavacha and Kundala to Indra, the father of Arjuna and marches forward to meet the latter in a fatal encounter and Urubhangam which depicts the plight of Duryodhana after his fall in the battle- field due to his thighs broken by Bhima.

Two other plays Abhishekanātakam and Pratimānātakam draw upon the Ramayana, the former dealing with the coronations of Sugriva, Vibhishana and Rama while the latter focusing on the episodes of Valkal and Pratima. Another play Balacharitam deals with the exploits of Krishna in the childhood. Svapnavāsavadattam, the most famous play of Bhasa and Pratijnā Yaugandharāyanam portray the events which led to the marriage of Udayana, the king of Vatsas, to Vāsavadattā in the first instance (the later play) and then to Padmavati (the former play). The part played by a shrewd minister of Udayana in bringing about both marriages (which motivated by the minister’s desire to strengthen kingdom) and patient suffering undergone by Väsavadatta in order to facilitate the marriage of her husband to Padmavati, make these two plays quite interesting.

In Avimārakam, Bhāsa has dramatized a protracted love story based on an ancient tale from Somadeva’s Kathāsaritasägaram. Charudattam is different from all the other plays in that it deals with a social theme, that of the of a poor Brahmina Charudatta and the secret love bestowed on him by an unself- ish courtesan named Vasantasena; the story of which appears in another Sanskrit play, Sudraka’s Mricchhakatikam.

All the plays ascribed to Bhāsa, mentioned above, show similarities in treatment of narrative, dramatic structure, in style and the techniques employed, though they differ from the most of the well known Sanskrit plays both in content and form and do not conform all the norms generally fol- lowed in Sanskrit plays. These plays are highly stage worthy. This one quality marks them apart from many other Sanskrit plays which is evident from the fact that they have inspired a number of directors from the various parts of the country and abroad to present them in both traditional and modern styles during last fifty years.

It is also true that while the whole world of Sanskrit drama was searching for these plays, they were very much alive and active on the Kutiyāyam stage of Kerala where the Chäkyärs were enacting them by the name of various acts without know- ing that the author of these plays was supposed to be Bhasa as unlike the Sanskrit scholars, they were more interested in drama and its potential of stage presentation than the name of the author, his life or times.