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Studies in
The five sandhis are further subdivided into sixty-four sandhyangas. Bharata lays down, among other things, that a dramatist should compose a drama having 64 sandhyangas. Some theorists take this rule literally and demand that every drama must have all these 64 angas; others, however, take a saner view and interpret it to mean that a dramatist should use only such of these angas as are essential to his purpose. The author of the RS. proudly declares that he has illustrated the sixty-four sandhyangas from the Bala-rāmāyaṇa. Dhuṇḍirāja, the learned commentator of the Mudrārākṣasa points out these from the play.
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The Abh. and the ND. clearly say that 64 angas are possible but they need not necessarily be used in every drama. The Avaloka and following it, the ND and the SD. lay down that six, five, four and five angas of the first four sandhis respectively are pradhana or avaśyambhāvi. About the angas of the nirvahana he does not specify which of them are pradhana implying thereby that all of them are pradhana."
The Sixty-Four Sandhyangas (Sub-Divisions)
The dramaturgists lay down that the dramatist should select and, if necessary. modify the story of his play, to suit his hero or the ruling sentiment of the piece. After determining on the beginning and the end of the play he should divide the story into five parts (sandhis) which, in turn, he should split into sub-divisions (sandhyangas). The first sandhi admits of twelve subdivisions.
(1) Upaksepa is the sowing of the bija (seed, germ). In the Veni 1.8 Bhima emphatically denies the possibility of the Kauravas ever resting in peace as long as he is alive and thus suggests the train of events to be afterwards developed, and the governing sentiment, namely, the vira rasa, of the play,
(2) Parikara (Parikriya) is enlarging or amplifying the blja which is indicated. earlier. Bhíma hurls defiance at his brothers. They might bring about peace. He was firmly determined to break it as soon as it was effected (Veņi I. 10.) This strengthens the idea already suggested that war is inevitable.
41 चतुष्यष्टि कलामर्मवेदिना शिङ्गभूभुजा ।
लक्षिता च चतुष्टिवलरामायणे स्फुटम् || |11. 78.
III.
42 यनूपते चतुष्वष्टवङ्गसंयुतनिति तेन सम्भवमात्रमेवामुक्त' न तु नियमः | Abh. III. p. 37.
43 of विशेषानुदानात् सर्वाण्येतानि प्रधानानि ND. D. 104.
44 Excepting the PR., the RS. and Dhuṇḍirāja, the commentator of the Mudrārākṣasa, no other authority tries to illustrate these sixty-four angas from any one play. The illustrations are usually drawn from plays like the Ratnavali, the Veņi and other later plays. Presumably, the authors of these plays were under the strong influence of the rules of the dramatic science and consciously wrote their plays in conformity with these rules. That is why the commentators like Dhanika, Abhinava and the like cite passages from these plays as illustrations.
