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178
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( August, 1924
"एबम्ब किं कटकपिङ्गलवाचकैस्तैः
enshot: gesparta: () यौगन्धरायण ममानय राजपुत्री
T ie CRT (A) Postat: (1) ततैव बिन्दुसारः सामाजिकीभूतः परमार्थतामाभ (मन्य) मानो धन्यां खलु प्रलापैश्च (१) सति ॥ after 11- )
"Befoancaumieregeal" इत्यादि परिमितव्यापिनो गर्मस्य नाव्यायितस्योदाहरणम् ॥ The passage deals with natydyita, a term which occurs in the Natyuidstra; but has not hitherto been properly understood. With the help of the commentary, which is unfortunately broken in a few places, and in other places misunderstood on account of the corrupt text, natydyita seems to refer to & device by which the actors in & play are represented, or are supposed to be represented, as conversing with the actors in another play, the scene and time of action of which might be far romoved from them. The device seems to have been used in a very masterly way in the work Vasavadatta-Natydd hard of the great poet (Herre) Subandhu. The work is said to have had many garbhas in it, meaning many incidents are represented in it, as in a dream, which belong to a time and soene different from that of the action proper. Thus as soon as the stage manager utters something, Bindusara is introduced and speaks. This speech of Bindusara is represented as having been heard by Udayana, the hero in the drama proper. Thinking that what Udayana heard had reference to himself, Udayana is represented as exclaiming te staa,' and as reciting the following verse :
'एडम्ब किं कटकपिङ्गलवाचकैस्तैः
mischunga : grafieserafita: () 1 यौगन्धरायण ममानय राजपुत्री
हा हर्षरक्षितगतस्त्वमपिप्रभावः (?)। Again Bindusara seems to have been represented as hearing this verse. After this & herald raient seems to be introduced into the drama with the Prakrit passage :
" effo T r ecedati" The chhdyd or Sanskrit rendering of this is uncertain. The herald, Pratihari, with this sentence seems to introduce the hero Udayana to the audience. With the appearance of Udayana on the stage the Pravesaka closes and the drama proper begins.
From the verse uttered by Udayana, which is again unfortunately corrupt, we are able to guess that, in the drama Udayanacharita or Vasavadatta-Natyadhard, Katakapingala, Yaugandharayaņa and Harsharakshita were the names of some of the characters. Of those Harsharakshita might have been the name of the herald (pratihari) who ushers in Udayana, and Kataka pingala might have been the vidushaka or the jester, the inevitable companion of the hero in Sanskrit dramas. After this Abhinavaguptapada gives another oxample of a ndgydyiţa from Balardmdyana.
The passage contains information which we have not got anywhere else in the whole range of Sanskrit literature. We do not have any other explanation of this ndgydyita, nor have we another example of a ndgyadhard. Leaving aside conjectures about what we cannot know with the limited resources now at our disposal, let us examine how this passage affects our main theme, the date of the poet Subandhu. He becomes a contemporary of the Matryan emperors, Chandragupta and Bindusara. He was the author of & work called
5 This is said to be in the garbhaika of that drame. I have not been able to locate the passage in the published drama Balaramayana of Rajasekhara.
