________________
Dhiralalita, Dhirodatta and Dhiraprasanta taken over in succeeding works, as it is given in the Natyaśāstra has little to do with the Hero of the erotic emotion. Again, Bharata's fivefold division of the man, based on his behaviour towards the women, is a division of Purusa and not that of the Hero. And even the list of general and popular classification into Uttama, Madhyama and Adhama, as given by Bharata, is, in fact, concerned with man and woman. 185
The anonymous author of the Agnipuraṇa, a work of doubtful authenticity and date, makes certain innovations of considerable significance in the conceptual outlook on the subject of the hero and the heroine of a Sanskrit play. In this work we find that (1) the subject has been brought topically under the Śrngārarasa, thus bringing it under the discussion of the Heros and the Heroines as the Alambanavibhāvas of the erotic sentiment. (2) There is a new fourfold classification of the Hero into Anukula, Dakṣina, Śatha and Dhṛṣṭa, with clear affiliation with the subject of erotics, and for which reason, it is adopted in later works down to our own times. This new orientation given to the subject of the Hero and the Heroine results in a double conception of the Hero, firstly as Dhiroddätta etc. and again as Anuküla etc., in later theory in total disregard of Bharata's original conception of the Hero of a drama, and not the Alambanavibhāva of the Sṛngararasa.
Rudrața and Rudrabhaṭṭa 'wisely' eliminate the classification of the Hero into Dhirodatta etc. and retain the only other classification into Anuküla etc. Further, Rudrata defines these last four types viz. Anukula etc. and Rudrabhatta defines as well as illustrates them. 186 Referring to the sixteen qualities of the hero, mentioned in Rudrata's Kavyalaṁkāra XII. 7-8, Namisādhu observes that, as the erotic sentiment is dependent on the hero, his qualities are detailed.
The next important theorist, the most authoritative writer Dramaturgy after Bharata, who exercised considerable influence on later works on Dramaturgy including the present
on
Jain Education International
405
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
