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K R Chandra
2 Ciradattam of Bhāsa
In this drama three Sanskrit speaking characters have to their sbare 137 granth'tgras of speech whereas eight characters speaking Prakrit have 294 granthigras of speech to their share, ie in thts drama Sanskrit is 32% and Prakrit 18 687
3 Mrochakatikam of Sūdraka
It has eight Sanskrit speaking characters with a total speech of 721 grantbagras and twentythree Prakrit speaking characters with a total speech of 1159 granthagras, le ibis drama bas 38% Sanskrit and 62% Prakrit
4 Malavikāgnimitram of Kalidasa
There are six characters who speak a total of 294 granthagras of Sanskrit and the rest of the 14 characters speak a total of 345 granthagras of Prakrit It reveals that there is in this drama 46% Sansknt and 54% Prakrit 5 Ratnival of Sribarsadeva
Five of its Sanskrit speaking characters have a total share of 292 granthgras and its ten Prakrit speaking characters have a total share of 374 grapthagras It is clear that this drama has 44% Sanskrit and 56% Prakrit
6 Priyadarsikā of Sribarsadeva
This drama bas five Sanskrit speaking characters whose total speech us 251 granthagras and seven Prakrit speaking characters whose total speech is 256 granthagras, 1e 49 5% Sanskrit and 50 5 % Prakrit
lo view of this comparative strengtb and quantity of Sanskrit and Prakrit in the above mentioned plays how far it would be correct to continue to call them Sanskrit plays and in the name of which how far it seems to be proper when we see that Prakrit portions of the plays are altogether dropped out from our study and are even replaced by Sapskrit in the revised editions-appearing these days
Now let us examine our ancient classical plays from the second point of view as mentioned above Our dramas have dialogues, descriptions (of persons, objects, situations, emotions etc) and expressions of maxims, Proverbs and saying. The fundamental difforence between a work of drama and that of poetry is that the former is made up of action and dialogues whereas the latter has descriptions Action constitutes the pivotal