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Hanumannātakam : Date and Place of Its Origin*
Vijay Pandyat
Vijay Por
The play Hanumannātakanı bristles with almost intractable problems ranging from its authorship, antiquity, genre, form to the date and the place of its origin. Hanumannātakam as its title indicates has Hanumat as its author, which is another euphemistic way of stating that its author is not known. The play has got some unique features which set it apart from any other form of Sanskrit drama prevalent in Classical Sanskrit literature. It has got another version in vogue in Bengal known as Mahānātakam the appellation more current among the scholars. This version is ascribed to Madhusudana Misra, who miglat be regarded as a redactor of the version. The version prevalent in Western india, under the name of the Hanumannātakam with which we shall deal presently in this essay, is ascribed to Damodaramisra. Apart from these two main-stream versions, there are as many versions as there are manuscipts. Pischel's remark made with regard to the Dütärigada that there are as many Dūtāngadas as there are manuscrips.' is applicable with greater force to the versions of the Hanumannātakan, So that is also one of the insurmountable problems connected with this play.
As a play it has some unique features, To mention a few, it has no prologue or prastāvanā. Though it starts with some benedictory stanzas some of which seem to have been
Paper presanted at thc 40th session of Oriental Conference,
held at Chennai, during 28 to 30 May 2000. + Reader, Dept. of Sanskrit, School of Languages, Gujarat Uni
versity, Ahmedabad-380009
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taken from earlier sources, it has no nandi in its usual sense. Morcover it has no Prakrit which has been an ubiquitous feature of the classical Sanskrit drama, it has very little dramatic form worth the name. It has very little prose by way of dialogues. It has a string of generally striking poetic verses some of which are from earlier sources and some of which are not traceable. Some of the scholars like S.K.De3 and S.P. Bhattacharya' who bave paid some attention to the play have discussed whether it would be called a chāyānāṭaka.
On account of these peculiarities, Maxmuller had opined that the work was more of an epic than a true drama and that it carries us back to the earlier stage of development of the Indian drama. But the case seems to be contrary to what Maxmuller supposes to be. The stringed verses are of a very striking nature and a result of वैदग्ध्यभणिति and hence they do not seem to be the product of the earlier stage of development. In fact this play scens to have come into existence at a time when the rigours of the classical Sanskrit drama were slackened and the cannon of the prescriptive works of dramaturgy was loosened. So this situation obtained in the second millenium A.D. So it is more plausible to date the play in the second millenium, and it should belong to the medieval times, so to say historically. We shall endeavour to narrow down the span of time of the origin of the Hanumannāṭakam.
As the legend goes the work was composed by the son of the wind (Hanumat) but was cast into the sea by Valmiki who feared that the play would eclipse his own Rāmāyaṇa. Later it was retrieved by the king Bhoja and redacted by Damodara Miśra. In his commentary on the verse incorporating this legend, Mohanadasa 'explains that Hanumat wrote this work and engraved it with his nails on
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the rocks. To allay the fears of Vālmiki who thought that it would be an excellent work which would ibrow his Rāmāyaṇa into oblivion Hanumat threw it into the sea and after many ages it was retrieved by his avatära. Bhoja with the help of fishermen.
Bhojaprabandha has one more anecdote to recount. Once some fishermen found an engraved stone in the river Narınada and brought it to Bhoja. Bhoja recognised it to be the work of Hanumat. He then got it completed by his courtpoet. In the Mahānāțaka version, at the end of the every act, it is stated that the 'work of Hanumat was rescued by Vikrama and then it was redacted with proper context by Madhusudana (Sandarbhya Sajjikste).
From these legendary accounts it emerges that certain portion was a sort of a nucleus and then either Madhusudana Miśra or Dāmodara Miśra redacted it. As S.K.De puts it 'the three versions of the story certainly suggest the redaction of an old anonymous work or al best the writing of a new work with the embodiment of old matter?. 10 And S.P. Bhattacharya interprets the legend, it is not at all strange that such a work should be associated in critical tradition with the name of king Bhoja of Dhārā, the author of Śrrgāraprakāśa, a greater name than of whom it is difficult to mention amongst the collectors of precious literary gems and of Hanumat-The monkey-warrior well-known for his devotional fervour.!!
So from this chaf of legendary accounts, a grain of historical truth that the Hanumannataka acquired the present shape, more or less in the days of Bhoja who flourished in the 11th century A.D. can be obtained. It is not unlikely that the play has gone on acquiring some more verses from the different later-day sources.
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So we can tentatively endorse the upper limit of the play Hanumannālakam as the 10th century A.D.
Further it is to be noted that the play Hanumannatakam devotes one entire act i.e. Vill act to the episode in which Angada goes as a messenger of Råma to the assembly of Rāvana and very hot exchanges take place beiween Angada and Rāvana. Now this act has a close resemblance to the Dūtāriyadan a one-act-play, thematically but there are centain verses which are also found in the Dūtārigadam. Dūtāngadam is also culpable of borrowing the verses from its preceding sources, but the Hanumannātakam is a wholesale borrower. And the verses found in the Hanumannāțakam in the eighth act are also found in the assembly-scene of the Datangadam, which has elicited a high encomium from his junior contemporery Someśvara, who stated
सुभटेन पदन्यासः सः कोऽपि समितौ कृतः । येनाधुनापि धीराणां रोमाञ्चो नापचीयते ।।
(Kirtikaumudi 1-24) In the assembly Subhata planted his foot (arranged his words) in such a way that even now the horripilation on the part of the brave people (also learned people) does not subside.
The verse, by way of pun, clearly alludes to the Datārgada play and the remarkable assembly scene in the Rāvana's Lankā.
Subhata, the playwright of the Dūtăngadam was connected with the literary circle of Vastupāla, a minister of the king Viradhavala, a feudatory of the king Bhimadeva II of Caulukya dynasty of Anhilvad Pātan, in the first half of the 13th century A.D.
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And the Hanumannātakam in the VIII aci draws very heavily upon the Dutángada play. So it can be safely surmised that, Hanumannātakam followed Dūtāngada in time and the date of the Hanumannātakam is around the 13th century.
Further this Hanumannātakan apart from the Dūtāngadam bcars some affinity with some of the plays composed during this period in Gujarat. Candralekhāvijayaprakarana by Devacandragani, a disciple of Hemacandrācărya, a multi-splendoured personality of the medieval Gujarat and India, is one of them. Another play by the same author Mānamudrābhanjikā, still in a manuscriptural form has also a resemblance to this Hanumannātakam. Then there is one more play Ullāgharāghava by Someśvara who flourished in the second half of the 12th century and probably beyond the first half of the 13th century, during the reign of the Caulukua kings of Anahilvād Pātan in Gujarat. So these three plays viz. Candralekhāvijayaprakarana, Manamudrabhañjika and Ullāgharāghava along with the Dūtangada form a homogenous group of plays having the close resemblance with the play Hanumannātakanı under discussion.
As noted above there are some peculiar features of the Hanumannātakam. Hanumannätakam has very long stage directions, at times turning into descriptions and verses. Sometime there is a mix-up between a stage-direction and a description. To illustrate, in the Hanumannātakam 1-19, there is a stage-direction श्रीरामः नाट्यन् and then what does Srirama nātayan is described in a verse. The entire passage runs like this:
श्रीरामः नाटयन् कपोले जानक्या: करिकलभदन्तद्युतिमुषि स्मरस्मेरं गण्डोडुमरपुलकं वक्त्रकमलम् ।
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मुहुः पश्यन् शृण्वन् रजनिचरसेनाकलकलं
जटाजूटग्रन्थि रचयति रघूणां परिवृढः ॥१-१९
Looking to his own image of his lotus-like face in the cheeks of Jānaki, which excel the lustre of the tusk of the elephant-cub bloomed open and horripilated, on the other hand, listens to the tumultous noise of the armies of the demons, Rama is tying the not of his matted locks.
In the Candralekhāvijayaprakarana, the character Vijayendra speaks.
___प्रिये निशीथसमयप्रवृत्तो वर्ततेऽत: सौधमलंक्रियताम् इति वदन् प्रियां हस्ते विधृत्य तत्त्वप्रपञ्चनेन समं सपरिवार: परिकामति क्षणान्तः सोपानमलंकुर्वाण: सौधमधिरोहति ।
One more curious feature of the Hanumannātakam is that there is a proseportion in the form of an explanation, a sort of a tikā. The proseportion gives itself out when, like usual tīkā, it ends with the word scufura: as in a passage which purports to explain the preceding verse 14. Similarly in the Candralekhāvijayprakaraņa, some verse like 3fa
aasta: (2-28 and 5-46 of the Candralekhāvijayaprakaraņa) is a IG or health and there is a sort of commentary explaining the verse in the body of the play itself.
Further we must also remember that Hanumannātakam is also called a chāyānātaka. Now the Dutangada play, the oldest chāyānāțaka available hails from Gujarat as noted above. Moreover, Ullāgharāghava by Someśvara is also referred to as chāyānătaka in the play itself.
Ramaji Upadhyaya has observed that, that age i.e. of the 12th and 13th century A.D. was the age of chāyānāțaka. Hanumannātakam is also termed as chayānāțakam. The two inost genuine chāyānațakas i.e. Dūtāligada and Ullagha
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rāghava have originated in Gujarat and during the 12th and 13th century. And so, Hanuniannātakan also must have originated during this time, perhaps following Dūtangada, as it incorporates in the VIII act, a scene from the Dūtārigada, as remarked carlier.
Then I have received further succour in this matter from an unexpected quarter, a source which would not normally be available to the scholars not knowing Gujarati language.
In Gujarati, there is a Rāmāyana in a versified form composed by a certain Giradhara who flourished in the eighteenth century A.D. The remarkable thing about this Rāmāyana is that it constantly draws upon the Hanumannātakanı. He acknowledges two sources for his Rāmāyaṇa, viz. Vālmiki Rāmāyaṇa and the play Hanumannátakam. He says in the beginning of the Giradhara-rāmāyana
वाल्मीकि रामायणनो अर्थ मांहे नाटक कृत हनुमंतजी । ते थकी भाषाग्रंथ को छे, लेई दृष्टान्त अनंत जी ||
Further in the Aranyakända of the Giradhararāmāyaṇa, also, the poet says
आधार रामायण तणो वाल्मीकि जेनुं नाम । 6146-127-17 772 H Hoa 3114 || (3-1-5)
ए अर्थ वाल्मीकि तणो हनुमाननाटक सार । T he Hodata faran I (3-77-79)
Then in the Yuddhakāņda also the author says वाल्मीकि रामायण थकी प्राकृत को विस्तार ।
64aare Hoch Tray AT HTL II (--)
Apart from this candid admission on the part of the poet, even in some specific instances also, he indicates that the source of this episode is Hanumannātakam or for example the episode of the confrontation of Rāma and Parasurama.
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भृगुपतिमृत्युनिरोधकृत रघुपति भाण विचित्र |
ए कथा छे हनुमाननाटक, विशे परम पवित्र ॥ १-४६-७ Further Giradhara-Rāmāyaṇa has a very curious puspikä, at the end of every capter
इति श्रीरामचरित्रे वाल्मीकिसम्मत नाटकधारायां बालकाण्डे प्रथमोऽध्यायः । (Kanda and adhyāya will change)
Giradhara, of course, has been influenced by that epoch-making work Ramacaritamanasa by Tulsidasa, Anandarāmāyaṇa and Bhavartha-Rāmāyaṇa in Marathi as well. However, nowhere, he mentions these works by name, except the Hanumannātakam.
Can this deep influence of the Hanumannāṭakam be not attributed to the geographical proximity of the play Hanumannāṭakam, which in all likelihood, must have originated in the land of Gujarat or in the vicinity of Gujarat and it was easily accessible to the poet Giradhara who profitably utilised the play.
The relationship between the Giradhara-Rāmāyaṇa and the Hanumannaṭakam and other Rāmāyaṇas require further probings.
But for the present, in all probability I think, the Hanumannāṭakam originated in Gujarat during the 12th or 13th century A.D.
1.
References
In the Histories of Sanskrit Literature, the play is discussed under the title of Mahānāṭakam as in Sanskrit Drama by Keith, History & Sanskrit Literature by De and so on. The scholars like De and S.P. Bhattacharya have also discussed the play under the title of Mahānāṭaka. See their articles entitled 'The problem of Mahānāṭaka' by De and 'The Mahānāṭaka Problem' by S.P. Bhattacharya in Indian Historical quarterly, September 1931 and September 1934 rcspectively.
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________________ 3. 54 Quoted by S.P. Bhattacharya, Indian Historical Quarterly. September 1934. As referred to in the first til. Ibid रचितमनिलपुत्रेणाथ वाल्मीकिनाब्धी निहितममृतबुद्धया प्राङ् महानाटकं यत् / सुमतिनृपतिभोजेनोद्धतं यत्क्रमेण ग्रथितमवतु विश्वं मिश्रदामोदरेण // (Hanumannatakam, 14-96) Hanumannatakam ed. by Pt. Jagadisha Mishra in Hindi, published by Chowkliainba Sanskrit Series officc, 1998. This edition is referred to in this article. 6. अत्रेयं कथा- पूर्वमेतेन-नखरटद्देगिरिशिलासु विलिखितं तत् तु वाल्मीकिना दृष्टं तदेतस्यातिमधुरत्वमाकर्ण्य रामायणप्रचाराभावशङ्कया हनुमान् प्रार्थितस्त्वमेतत् समुद्रे निधेहीति / तथेति तेनाब्धौ प्रापितं तदवतारेण भोजेन सुमतिना जालिकैरुद्धृतमिति / 7. Bhojaprabandha with Gujarati translation, Sastun Sahitya Vardhak, Third Edn. 1981. 8. The whole verse restored runs like this शिवशिरसि शिरांसि यानि रेजुः शिव शिव तानि लुठन्ति गृध्रपादैः / अयि खलु विषमः पुराकृतानां भवति हि जन्तुषु कर्मणां विपाकः / Ibid p. 305 9. Mahanataka ed. by Pandit Jibananda Vidyasagar, Calcutta 1874. 10. De, The Problem of Mahanataka, Indian Historical Quar terly, 1931, p. 540. 11. S.P. Bhattacharya, Mahanataka problem, Indian Historical Quarterly, 1934 p. 505 Ramaji Upadhyaya, Madhyakalin Sanskrit Nataka, 1974,p. 313. 12.