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INTRODUCTION
Parasurāma in Acts II and III, yet, on the whole, his attempt is a failure It is only a sort of meek heroism which he succeeds in painting. The speeches of Indra and Citraratha in Act VI, which describe the various incidents witnessed by them on the battlefield, create an impression of dull monotony and may suit a poem rather than a drama, inasmuch as they fail to create any dramatic effect. They have been eked out by the poet to a tiresome length simply to parade his knowledge of versification.
In his delineation of the karunā rasa, the felicitous expression of pathos, however, he is always at home Still the passages in Mv. V 1 appear undoubtedly to be the attempts of a novice. They lack that refinement and finish which are perceptible even to a superficial reader in his Utt.? (particularly in Act III), and that tenderness which characterizes even his Māl., Act IX
His delineation in Mal, of the sentiment of love, passing through the different stages of its development, particularly of the vpralambha singāra in Act IX, his skill in depicting the raudra and būbhatsa rasas as exemplified in Act V, are sufficient to justify the claim to a high rank among great poets, but, notwithstanding that, we cannot fail to mark the looseness with which the two Acts V and IX hang upon the general plot of the drama They look like awkward and inharmonious additions to the rest of the plot, introduced more for the express purpose of exhibiting his mastery in portraying the above-mentioned sentiments
Bhavabhūti fails to draw different types of character His dramatis personae are the common set of people who recur in nearly all the plavs. and though in their portraiture there are some very original touches here and there, yet one sadly misses the master-hand of the author of the Mrcchakatoka.
(6) His humour and wrony. There is one element which Bhavabhūtı entirely lacks. its absence in his compositions distinguishes him from Kālıdāsa, that is, humour His three plays are characterized by the absence of the figure of the Vidûsaka, who plays so important a part in all the three dramas of Kālıdāsa Bhavabhūtı loves earnestness He likes to be serious to a remarkable degree, so much so that not a single instance of a hearty joke or a flash of wit is to be met with in any of his three works Whether the omission was intentional or whether he was incapable of portraying a humorous character, it is very difficult to say. When we remember that he was to some extent influenced by the writings of
1 Vide particularly V 28, 56, 61, also IV 11
The main sentiment aimed at in this work is karuna Vide III 1, and the words
of the stage-manager in VII 1/2. Karunadbhuta-rasam ca kapicad upanıbaddham
9 Vide I 6, where the authoi mentions what he aims at in the play.
