Nirgrantha-1

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 94

Vol. 1-1995
A Glimpse into the....
person from each family every day for his meal. The episode took place while the Pandavas were in exile. They heard the wailing of the mother and wife of a brāhmaṇa who was to be the victim of the demon. Bhima consoled them, saying that he will substitute himself for the brāhmana. In the end, after the demon had been killed, the play ends with the Bharatavākya of the brālmaņa blessing Bhima.
The Pārthaparākrama was composed by Prahalādandeva, the younger brother of the Paramāra King Dhārāvarsa of Abü, in V. S. 1226 (A. D. 1170) while he was still an heirapparent. The play was performed during the Pavitrakāropaņa festival in the Acaleśvara temple on Mt. Abū by the order of the king. Its kathāvastu (plot) is taken from the "Virāța-parva” of the Mahābhārata when the Pandavas were to remain in cognito in the last year of their exile and had sought employment with king of Virāța. The Kauravas
attempted to drive away the cows of Virāta and Arjuna defeated them, and brought the ** animals back. This vyāyoga is noteworthy from the viewpoint of the
Nātyaśāstra conventions. After the nândī sloka, usually it is the sthāpaka who first enters and recites two ślokas, and then enters a nata who addresses him as sūtradhāra. Here, however, it is the sthāpaka who enters first. But in the Natyaśāstra of Bharata, the first entry after the nāndi is made by the sūtradhāra, who performs the jarjara pūjā, etc. as a part of the pūrvaranga, alongwith pāripārsvika and the vidusaka, and after their exit enters the sthāpaka who resembles the sūtradhāra in every way and performs the sthāpanā8. The author claims to depict Dipta rasa in the play. The play ends with the Bharatavākya sung by Indra instead of the nāyaka (hero) as was the convention in the earlier Sanskrit plays.
Kavi Harihara was a brāhmaṇa from Gauda-deśa. He was on a pilgrimage to Somanātha in Gujarat, and on his way had stopped at Stambhatirtha where governed the great Vastupāla, the minister of King Viradhavala. Harihara was so impressed by Vastupāla's many fine qualities that he wrote the Sankhaparābhava-vyāyoga commemorating an important event in Vastupāla's life. The nāyaka of the play depicts how Vastupāla defeated Sankha (the chief of Lāta). The peculiarity of the play is that, like the Pārthaparākrama, the sthāpaka and the sūtradhāra are shown as unified and like the earlier-mentioned vyāyoga, the Bharatavākya śloka is sung by the śresthi (Vastupala ?) with pūjā of Bhagavati who blesses all through the Akasabhāşita.
Among the natakas, Someśvaradeva's Ullāgha-Rāghava is also a notable example, written by the hereditary rajapurohita (chief priest) of the Caulukya kings of Anahillpura - pattana'. Besides this play, he has several other Sanskrit works to his credit, among which is the Kirtikaumudi, a kavya praising his friend and patron Vastupala. Someśvaradeva praised Vastupāla not just because of his friendship and patronage but also because he was a great warrior and an equally great patron of the learned, the builder of the temples at Satruñjaya, Girnāra, and several other places, and a well known literti in his own right. In the cultural and political history of Gujarat in the 13th century,
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