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DR. N. M. KANSARA
SAMBODHI
This book by Tarla Mehta, a well-known actress on stage and films in Bombay, i.e. Mumbai, is the result of her doctoral dissertation on the ancient Indian theatre techniques. In his learned Foreword to this excellent book, the veteran scholar K. Kunjunni Raja has welcomed it as the one which gives a masterly survey of the theory and practice of Sanskrit play production in ancient India, and as a book written in a racy, fluent style with great clarity and penetration. Besides making a clear exposition of the various features of the ancient Indian play production, the author has also made a critical analysis of a dozen important classical plays, pointing out the salient features interesting from the point of view of production. According to the Nattyaśāstra tha aim of play production was Siddhi or success in making the spectators experience the blissful rasa through the proper performance on the part of the actors.
The Appendix at the end of the book provides a list of some important authors whose works have provided literary data for this study. The Glossary gives the explanation of the technical terms of dramaturgy and dancing. The bibliography lists the authors and titles of the Sanskrit texts and commentaries that served the author as primary sources, and further gives part-wise the names of the authors and their books consulted for the study of the Nātyaśāstra that were utilized as secondary sources. The book ends with useful index. N.M.K.
Harinarayan Bhat B.R.: Visnubhatta-viracitā Anargharāghavapañcikā - The Commentary of Vişnubhatta on the Anargharāghava of Murāri, Vols. I-II, Institut Francais de Pondichery(Ecole Francaise D'extreme-orient), 1998, (Vol.I), pp. xlvi + 307, price not mentioned; (Vol. II) pp. 322, price not mentioned
This study of the Anargharāghava-pañcikā was written by the author for his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of Dr. N.V.P. Unithiri an submitted to the University ogf Calicut in 1987. Dr. Unithiri was keen to promulgate the works of Pürnasarasvati who he thought was the author of the commentary. But it tuned out at the end of the study that the pañcikā could not be attributed to that author.
In the Introduction, covering about forty-four printed pages, Dr. Bhat has provided detailed information regarding the play of Murāri and its commentary. Under the topic 1: The Anargharāghava and its Commentaries, (in 1.1) he informs us that the play in seven acts is based on the story of Rāma, that Murari the author of the play belonged to the Maudgalya gotra, and was tthe son of Bhatta Vardhamana and Tanumati, that he lived in a period later than the 9th
