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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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