The Sanskrit Drama

by Arthur Berriedale Keith

 

THE

SANSKRIT DRAMA

 

THE SANSKRIT DRAMA in its Origin, Development Theory & Practice

BY

A. BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., D.LITT. Of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, and of the Scottish Bar Regius Professor of Sanskrit & Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh Author of Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon', &c.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4 GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA CAPE TOWN SALISBURY NAIROBI IBADAN ACCRA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG Ten FIRST PUBLISHED 1924 REPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY 1954, 1959, 1964 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE

Thirty-two years have elapsed since the appearance of Professor Sylvain Lévi's admirable treatise, Le théâtre indien, the first adequate sketch of the origin and development of the Indian drama and of Indian dramatic theory. Since then the discovery of important fragments of the dramas of the great Buddhist poet Açvaghoṣa, and of the plays of the famous Bhāsa, has thrown unexpected light on the early history of the drama in India; the question of the origin of the drama has been the subject of elaborate investigation by Professors von Schroeder, Pischel, Hertel, Sir W. Ridgeway, Lüders, Konow, and myself; and the real significance and value of the Indian theory of the dramatic art have been brought out by the labours of Professor Jacobi. The time is therefore ripe for a fresh investigation of the origin and development of the drama in the light of the new materials available.

To bring the subject matter within moderate compass, I have confined it to the drama in Sanskrit or Prākrit, omitting any reference to vernacular dramas. I have also omitted from the account of the theory of drama all minor detail which appeared to have no more than the interest of ingenuity in subdivision and classification; I have had the less hesitation in doing so, because I have no doubt that the value and depth of the Indian theory of poetics have failed to receive recognition, simply because in the original sources what is important and what is valueless are presented in almost inextricable confusion. In tracing the development of the drama, I have laid stress only on the great writers and on dramatists who wrote before the end of the first millennium; of later works I have selected a few typical specimens for description; it seemed needless to dwell on plays which in the main show an excessive dependence on older models and on the text-books of dramatic theory, and whose chief merit, when they have any, lies in skill and taste in versification. Valuable bibliographies of the dramas are contained in Mr. Montgomery Schuyler's Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama (1906), and in Professor Konow's treatise, and it has seemed needless to do more than refer to the most important and accessible editions of the plays mentioned and to treatises which have appeared since the publication of these works.

Though the limits of space available have precluded any full investigation of the style of the dramatists, I have not followed Professor Lévi in leaving this aspect out of consideration. The translations given of the passages cited are intended merely to convey the main sense; I have therefore left without discussion difficulties of interpretation and allusion, and have resorted to prose. Verse translations from Sanskrit sometimes attain very real merit, but normally only in a way which has little affinity with Sanskrit poetry. H. H. Wilson's versions of Sanskrit dramas in his Theatre of the Hindus for this reason, and also because the prose of the dramas is turned into verse, thus fail, despite their many intrinsic merits, to convey any precise idea of the effect of a Sanskrit drama.

I am indebted to my wife for much assistance and criticism.

A. BERRIEDALE KEITH.

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY,

April, 1923.

CONTENTS

 

PART I. THE ORIGIN OF THE SANSKRIT DRAMA

I. Dramatic Elements in Vedic Literature. 1. The Indian Tradition of the Origin of the Drama 12 2. The Dialogues of the Veda 3. Dramatic Elements in Vedic Ritual

II. Post-Vedic Literature and the Origin of the Drama. 1. The Epics 2. The Grammarians 3. Religion and the Drama 4. Theories of the Secular Origin of the Drama 5. Greek Influence on the Sanskrit Drama 6. The Çakas and the Sanskrit Drama 7. The Evidence of the Prākrits 8. The Literary Antecedents of the Drama

 

PART II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SANSKRIT DRAMA

III. Açvaghoṣa and the Buddhist Drama. 1. The Çāriputraprakaraṇa 2. The Allegorical and the Hetaera Dramas 3. The Language of the Dramas 4. The Metres

IV. Bhāsa. 1. The Authenticity of Bhāsa's Dramas 2. The Date of Bhāsa's Dramas 3. The Dramas and their Sources 4. Bhāsa's Art and Technique 5. Bhāsa's Style 6. The Language of the Plays 7. The Metres of the Dramas

V. The Precursors of Kālidāsa and Çūdraka. 1. The Precursors of Kālidāsa 2. The Authorship and Age of the Mṛcchakaṭikā 3. The Mṛcchakaṭikā 4. The Prākrits 5. The Metres

VI. Kālidāsa. 1. The Date of Kālidāsa. 2. The Three Dramas of Kālidāsa 3. Kālidāsa's Dramatic Art 4. The Style 5. The Language and the Metres

VII. Candra, Harṣa, and Mahendravikramavarman. I. Candra or Candraka 2. The Authorship of the Dramas ascribed to Harṣa 3. The Three Dramas 4. Harṣa's Art and Style 5. The Language and the Metres of Harṣa's Dramas 6. Mahendravikramavarman

VIII. Bhavabhūti. 1. The Date of Bhavabhūti 2. The Three Plays 3. Bhavabhūti's Dramatic Art and Style 4. The Language and the Metres

IX. Viçākhadatta and Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa. 1. The Date of Viçakhadatta. 2. The Mudrārākṣasa 3. The Language and the Metres of the Mudrārākṣasa 211 4. The Date of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa 5. The Veṇīsaṁhāra 6. The Language and the Metres of the Veṇīsaṁhāra 219

X. Murārī, Rājaçekhara, their Predecessors and Successors. 1. The Predecessors of Murārī 2. Murārī 3. The Anargharāghava . 4. The Date of Rājaçekhara 5. The Dramas of Rājaçekhara 6. Bhīmaṭa and Kṣemīçvara

XI. The Decline of the Sanskrit Drama. 1. The Decadence of the Drama 2. The Nāṭaka 3. The Allegorical Nāṭaka 4. The Nāṭikā and the Saṭṭaka 5. The Prakaraṇa 6. The Prahasana and the Bhāṇa 7. Minor Dramatic Types 8. The Shadow Play 9. Dramas of Irregular Type

XII. The Characteristics and Achievement of the Sanskrit Drama

 

PART III. DRAMATIC THEORY

XIII. The Theory of the Dramatic Art. I. The Treatises on Dramatic Art. 2. The Nature and the Types of the Drama 3. The Subject Matter and the Plot 4. The Characters 5. The Sentiments . 6. The Dramatic Styles and Languages. 7. The Dance, Song, and Music 8. The Preliminaries and the Prologue 9. The Types of Drama. 10. The Influence of Theory on Practice II. Aristotle and the Indian Theory of Poetics

 

PART IV. DRAMATIC PRACTICE

XIV. The Indian Theatre. 1. The Theatre 2. The Actors 3. The Mise-en-scène and Representation of the Drama 4. The Audience

English Index

Sanskrit Index

AID. AJP. AP. BI. BS. BSS. CHI. DR. EI. GGA. GIL. GN.. GOS. GSAI. HOS. IA. ID. IS. JA. JAOS. JBRAS. JPASB. JRAS. KF. KM. N. R. SP. SD. TI. ABBREVIATIONS TSS. VOJ. ZDMG. Über die Anfänge des indischen Dramas, Munich, 1914. American Journal of Philology. Agni Purāṇa, ed. BI. Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta. Bhasa-Studien, Leipzig, 1918. Bombay Sanskrit Series. Cambridge History of India. Daçarūpa, cited from Hall's ed. BI. Epigraphia Indica. Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen. Geschichte der indischen Litteratur, by M. Winternitz, Leipzig, 1904-22. Nachrichten der königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Gaekwad's Oriental Series. Giornale della Società Asiatica Italiana. Harvard Oriental Series. Indian Antiquary. Das indische Drama, Berlin, 1920. Indische Studien. Journal Asiatique. Journal of the American Oriental Society. Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Sprachgeschichte Ernst Kuhn gewidmet. Breslau, 1916. Rasainavasudhakara, ed. TSS. 1916. SBAW. Sitzungsberichte der königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Kavyamālā series, Bombay. Nāṭyaçastra. Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics, I, London, 1923. Sahityadarpaṇa, cited by the sections of the BI. ed. Le théâtre indien, Paris, 1890. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series. Vienna Oriental Journal. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.