the Silent Woman, where Truewit, Clerimont, and Sir Dauphine
conspire to marry Morose, who cannot bear to hear a sound, to
Epicone, a silent" woman, whom he soon finds to his dismay
to be an exceedingly noisy youth.

66

The mutual relation of the chief characters of the Viddhasalabhanjikā is not readily apparent at first sight, but may be made clear by the following diagram:

Cārāyaṇa-Piñgalika Candravarman

(vidūşaka)

(king of Lata)

Kuvalayamālā and Mṛgāñkāvalī = Vidyadharamalla Madanavati (daughter of king of Kuntala) (king of Karpūravarṣa)

This general scheme of a cousin becoming the co-wife of the
queen is a favorite device in the Sanskrit comedy of court
intrigue. In the Karpuramañjarī the heroine is the queen's
maternal cousin, and the same statement holds good of Priyadar-
śikā and Queen Vasavadattā in the Priyadarsikā of Bhavabhūti,
and of Ratnavali and Queen Vasavadatta in Harsa's Ratnavali.
The time of the Viddhasalabhanjikā apparently covers about
two months. The first act opens at dawn in early spring, and
closes at noon. The second act begins in the late afternoon,
possibly on the same day as Act 1, although rātrim akhilām
tvanmärgavātāyane. . . . sthitir vartate (66, 10-11) perhaps
implies the lapse of a few days. The third act is laid some days
later, as is shown by muddhasasijāmiņīsu asamañjasam vippa-
laadi (75, 3), and takes place in the early evening of the day of
the full moon of Vaisakha (April-May). Between the third
and fourth acts a little over a month elapses, since it is laid in
the dawn and the morning of a day in the beginning of summer
(grişma), and consequently about the middle of May.

The Viddhasalabhañjikā has been criticized from a drama-
turgic point of view by Lévi, 247-248, and by Apte, 28-31.
Both unfavorable, the latter is especially severe, nor can it be
denied that his blame is altogether without justification. Allow-
ance should, however, be made for the fact, not generally recog-
nized, that a Sanskrit drama is to be compared with an opera
rather than with a play, since the main stress is laid on beauty
of diction and versification instead of action. This feature of
the Hindu drama is so emphasized in the writings of Rajasekhara
that Apte is right when in his criticism, 41-44 (comp. Pischel,

Göttingische gelehrte Anzeiger, 1883, 1227-1228), he says that he was a kavya-poet rather than a dramatist. Rajasekhara is an artistic juggler with words. He describes externals (in fluent, but somewhat shallow, verse) better than he portrays feelings, suggesting by his conventional learning and his conceits the Greek poets of the late Alexandrian period. The most serious dramaturgic fault in the Viddhaśālabhanjikā, however, is the curious ineptitude in consequence of which the heroine does not appear upon the stage until the middle of the third act, and even then does not meet the king face to face for almost a quarter of an act more. The hero's long descriptions of her are monotonous instead of stimulating, while the pravesikas, or connecting-scenes, render the baldness of the prologues of Euripides of dazzling interest by contrast. Yet, except for the delay in the introduction of the heroine, this play shows a marked advance over the Karpūramañjarī. The hypothesis of Konow, 184, that the Karpuramañjarī is the older play, seems, to my mind, to be amply confirmed by the author's progress in stagecraft as shown in the Viddhaśālabhanjika. Thus the device by which Mrgāñkāvalī is present at the court as a hostage is far more probable than the introduction of Karpuramanjari (like Helen in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus) to the hero's presence by magic arts. This hostage idea seems to have been original with Rajasekhara, and the same may be said of the device by which Vidyadharamalla first sees Mrgāñkāvalī in what he supposes to be a dream. In like manner, the double description of the heroine as swinging and playing at ball is superior in rapidity of action to the Karpuramanjari, which represents her as enjoying only the former amusement, while the dénouement, which shows the influence of the Priyadarsikā and the Ratnāvalī, has its interest heightened by the success of the royal army, a device which forms no part of Rajasekhara's earlier play.

A most interesting and distinguishing characteristic of Rajasekhara, already noted by Apte, 45, and Lanman, 205–206, is his use of proverbs, which seem to be especially frequent in the Karpuramanjari and the Viddhaṣālabhanjikā. As As a rule, they are put in the mouth of the vidūṣaka, who thus finds an interesting analogue in Nicholas Proverbs in Henry Porter's Pleasant Comedie of the Two Angry Women of Abington.

For these proverbs I have naturally sought to give in my notes. what parallels I could find, also adding such analogies with other Sanskrit dramas as are presented by the Viddhasalabhanjikā.

In his diction Rajasekhara affected unusual words and meanings, as has already been noted by Apte, 30, and Lanman, 201. In addition to the material there given, the following words and meanings may be noted as supplementary to the Petersburg dictionaries anakara, having no mine' (63, 6), not in lexicons with this meaning; asitavasanata, state of being clothed in black' (89, 4), not in; ārabhaṭī, ‘exhibition of bravery' (100, 1; omitted by Vidyāsāgara), not in with this meaning; ās+vyapa, to take one's seat at a distance' (18, 8), not in ; kukūla, ‘husk' (38, 10; Nārāyaṇa and Vidyāsāgara read dukula), only lexicographers cited for this meaning; kelipañkaja play-lotus' (61, 12; comp. kelikamala, kelikadamba, and kelivṛksa), not in; gonasa, kine-snouted' (4, 2; comp. Apte, 6), only lexicographers cited for this meaning; nrpuri, name of a city (128, 17; comp. Apte, 46), not in; pracayavant, heaped, copious' (66, 8), not in; prākārāgra, 'coping of a wall' (26, 2), only lexicographers cited for this word; māṁsalatā, ‘thickness, fullness' (97, 1), not in with this meaning; mumsaliky, to thicken' (24, 9), not in; rohinivallabha, moon' (1, 2), only lexicographers cited for this word; lap+ud, 'to whisper' (18, 1), not in; śvetatā, whiteness' (109, 2), not in.

In my translation, the numbers in parentheses refer to the pages of Arte's edition, and those in brackets to the second text of Vidyasagara. My thanks are due to Prof. Lanman for his courtesy in lending me his copy of Apte's pamphlet, which otherwise would have been inaccessible to me, and to Prof. Jackson for pointing out the reference in Hultzsch.

THE VIDDHAŚĀLABHANJIKĀ.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

In the Induction

The Stage-Manager.

In the Play

Vidyadharamalla, King of Karpūra varṣa, husband to Madanavati, and in love with Mṛgāūkāvalī and Kuvalayamālā. Bhagurāyaṇa, a Brahman, Prime Minister to Vidyadharamalla. Cārāyaṇa, a Brahman, buffoon to Vidyadharamalla.

Haradasa, Pupil to Bhagurāyaṇa.

Kurangaka, a Messenger from Vatsa, General to Vidyadharamalla.

Messenger, from Candravarman, King of Lāṭa.

Man-Servant to Madanavati.

Madanavati, Queen to Vidyadharamalla, and niece to Candravarman, King of Lata.

Mrgānkávali, Daughter of Candravarman, King of Lata, and beloved by Vidyadharamalla.

Kuvalayamālā, Daughter to Caṇḍamahāsena, King of Kuntala, and beloved by Vidyadharamalla.

Pingalika, Wife to Carayana.

(2)

(Induction)

(Invocation)

Lo, unto him that teacheth tender youth
Entrancing knowledge of impassioned bliss,
That is the dearest friend the moon doth have,
Unarmed, yet conquering e'en the God of Gods'
With arrows flower-tipped, and through his might
Ruling the drama that mankind call Love,
To him, aye, Kāma, be all glory given !

(3) And furthermore,

Oh, gentle maiden-eyes! to you I bow,
Ye that subdue the Lord of Triple Sight,
And by your glances soft bring back to life.
The God of Love whom Śiva's gaze hath slain.

(4) [2] (Meditatively)

(5)

And o'er you, gentles all, may she' e'er watch

2

Girt round with powder 'gainst the snake kine-snouted,
With magic herbs that fright the serpent-brood;
Aye, bearing in her hands those jewels of might
That quench the venom-fire in Siva's throat,
Well knowing mystic mantras muttered low
By matrons of her kin to guard her safe
From all the demon-rout about her lord,
E'en while in ecstasy of bliss and fear
She trembleth at the coming of her

4

spouse.

(End of the invocation)

1 Alluding to Kāma's victory over Šiva, in which, however, the lovegod was reduced to ashes by the flame from the defeated deity's third eye. For the association of Kama with the sentimentalizing moon see Indische Sprüche, No. 6145.

2 Indische Sprüche, No. 2926.

3 Durga, the wife of Śiva, in her stern aspect.

4 Śiva's constant attendants are various sorts of demons, while he wears a necklace of serpents.