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or wary even after the exposure of the spies. The author's explanation prob. ahl, will be that they are also victims of an adverse fate. But this, as said outlier, is to spacious a reason to explain the actual actions of the drama. Itu characters. The action of Nala in abandoning Damayanti, her curious he allen to choose Nala at the time of the svayamvara and her tash aud unreasonable act of Sari, are all melodramatic, but psychologically uncon. vincing.
III
Rinicandra seems to have been inspired to build his plays on the classical del. The influence of the masters is unmistakable. The roman. tic lase scene, in the Nalavılāsa Nataka, is like any scene that a reader Could find in the plays of Kalidasa, Sri Harsa or Bhavabhūti. The svayamvara scene will remind us of Kalidasa's Raghuvainsa. The scene of Damayanti's abandonment is inspired by Bhavabhūti's Uttara-Rama-carita. Nala's soliJoguy is reminiscent of the speech of Rama. Even his earlier utterances in the love scene and his soliloquy after the desertion of his wife are similar to those of Bhavabhūti's Rāma and Madhava,30 Damayanti's search for Nala is like the search of Purūravas for Urvast in the Vikramorvasiya, the reference to the lion being new and added possibly to emphasise Damayanti's chante character and for an obvious theatrical effect. And if the device of a yathala is already used by Harsa or Bhavabhūti, the scene of the act of Sart very much resembles the attempt of Draupads and Yudhisthira, in the linksamhara, to burn themselves under similar circumstances of a perverse report about Bhima's death by a demon spy.
This is not to suggest that Ramacandra's composition is marred by imitation. He imitates inasters; and who could resist such a temptation ? The real weakness of Sanskrit compositions is rooted in the overpowering theory of Rasa which was mistakenly applied by many a writer. While it was intended that all elements in a literary and dramatic composition should cunserge on the priacipal Rasa, these writers subordinated every element and regarded it as only a means to depict a Rasa. The subtle difference between the two positions of the theory was either not understood or not properly appreciated. Ramacandra hinuself says:
A picturesque variety of incidents and styles) should not deserve so much praise in a dramatic composition as Rasa ought to: a beauti. fully ripened mango would cause annoyance if it were to lack tho flavour of the juice.co
This is of course true. But the representation of emotion as the principal content (Rusa) cannot mean that characters and events in a play have to be only conventional wooden frames to accomodate pictures of emotion,
| SR No. | 520752 |
| Book Title | Sambodhi 1973 Vol 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani |
| Publisher | L D Indology Ahmedabad |
| Publication Year | 1973 |
| Total Pages | 417 |
| Language | English, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Gujarati |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Sambodhi, & India |
| File Size | 14 MB |