________________ The Puspadusitaka A Prakarana type of Sanskrit Rupaka called Puspadusitaka (or in some source, Puspabhusitaka) has been critically noticed or cited by some leading authorities on Poetics and Dramaurgy : Dhanika, Kuntaka, Abhinavagupta, Sagaranandin, Ramacandra - Gunacandra, Visvanatha. This shows that, that drama was highly prized by the critics. Unfortunately the work is lost to us. The following information we can derive about it form the Avaloka, the Vakroktijivita (VJ.), the Abhinavabharati, the Natakalaksanaratnakosa (NLR.) and the Natyadarpana (ND.). The Puspadustitaka (= Pd.) was a Prakarana type of Rupaka in Sanskrit. There are two main varieties of Prakarana : Suddha, with Kulaja Nayika; Samkirna, with Varangana as the Nayika. But according to Abhinavagupta the characterization of the Kulangana would be such that she comes to be wrongly considered for sometime as Mandakula, as in Pd. The Nayaka of Pd. is a merchant. PD. has six Acts. VJ. informs us about some connected incidents in each of the successive Acts, but as it has been done by Kuntaka with specific aims, the outline cannot give us a complete idea of the plot. Some details, available from the above-noted other sources, can supplement a bit, but there remain a few obscure, key-points, some tantalizing gaps, to clarify and fill up which modern scholars have had to resort to surmises. We can piece together the outline of the plot of Pd. with the help of the Nandayanti - Katha as follows: Sagaradatta was the head of a merchant-guild. His son Samudradatta, once decides to go on a long voyage for [7]
