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Studies in
hero, in the second the hyperbolical statement perfectly applicable to the 'prastuta', happening in future, in the third the equivocation is conveyed in the response of the actor whose words apply not only to the immediate matter in hand but also presage the future; this Patākāsthānaka and Ganda, (the 8th Vithyanga) have much in common, but the latter is to be distinguished from the former on the ground of their respective import. The Ganda, true to its name, presages disaster while this Patākāsthānaka is propitious as it contributes towards the realization of the aim of the hero. The fourth Patākāsthānaka is characterised by paronomastic words.
This study would show that the element in dramatic design called dramatic irony by dramatic critics of the West was known to Sanskrit playwrights and was duly taken into consideration by Sanskrit dramatic critics of antiquity. It is not suggested that the Sanskrit playwrights have used the Irony of Situation or incident and Verbal Irony as copiously and variously and also as effectively as the English playwrights have done. The truth of the maxim 'Coming events cast their shadows before' is a matter of experience. In consonance with this truth every serious event, in Sanskrit plays, generally casts its shadow beforehand. The Ganda and some varieties of Patākasthānakas correspond to what is called Prophetic anticipation. Sometimes we have veiled hints or vague foreshdowings of coming things.20 The Patākāsthānakas (and Ganda too) to be artistically satisfactory must never be so mechanical as to appear unnatural. It would be evident to any careful reader of Sanskrit plays that the Sanskrit playwrights have skilfully devised the different Patākāsthānakas.
20. For example 7417: F43110T TË ARTIT |-Mfcchakațika Act 1
and पापं कर्म च यत्परैरपि कृतं तत्तस्य संभाव्यते ।-Mrcchakatika Act 1. 36d. In these lines we have an inkling of what is to come!
