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Vol. XXIII, 2000 REVIEW
137 makes use of various technics to explain the ticklish events of Rāmāyaṇa, such as the conduct of Kaikeyi, Mantharā etc., as also a number of pleasant ones.
Dr. Raghavan has been a scholar of multi-dimensional activities. His contributions to the Alamkāra Šāstra, Manuscriptology, original writings in Sanskrit, music, dance and drama, besides staging Sanskrit dramas and establishing a Research Institute, reveal his mutlifaced scholarship which received great acclaim both in India and abroad. This volume serves to present some of his studies on Ramayana, such as the conduct of Kaikeyi, Mantharā etc., as also a number of pleasant events, particularly in the Viläsa and the Vivāha Kändas, to justify its name. Philosophical and moral advice have also been incorporated in this digest.
Mehta, Tarla: Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India, (Performing Arts Series, Vol. V) Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, (revised Edition), 1999, pp.xxxii + 446, Rs.595/-.
As has been observed by Farley P. Richmond, the General Editor of the Performing Arts Series, comprising seven very rich volumes, being published by MLBD, India is one of the great repositories of performing arts, particularly those of the classical, folk/popular, devotional and modern traditions. The sheer enormity and diversity of its cultural expressions in music, dance/drama and theatre are the envy of many nations around the world. And, this series intends to assemble some of the best books now available on these subjects.
This book contains thirteen chapters distributed into five parts: Part I provides the backdrop (spectator, performance, play-house) and contains three chapters with the titles (1) Sanskrit play production - a frame work of interdependence, (2) Siddhi - spectaor-performer-rapport, and (3) Ranga - the playhouse. Part II has two chapters, viz., (4) Rasa Bhäva - essene of Sanskrit, dramas, and (5) Vrtti-pravstti. Part III contains three chapters on (6) Abhinaya - performance, (7) Dharmīs - practices of staging, and (8) Svara, Gāna, Ātodya. Part IV has two chapters pertaining to (9) evience of survival in India, (10) in South East Asia, China and Japan. Part V contains three chapters entitled (11) scenes/ 'sequences from Bhasa's Unrubhangam, Kalidāsa's Vikramorvašīyam, Sūdraka's Mrcchakatikam VI, and Sri Harsa's Ratnávali, (12) Viśākhadatta's Mudrārāksasam VII, Bhavabhūti's Uttararāmacaritam III, Mahendra's MattavilāsaPrahsana, and Vararuci's Ubhayābhisārikā, and (13) dealing with the tasks before a modem producer.
