Sanskrit Drama (Natya): Prescribed Plays and Characterization
Nāṭya questions test the prescribed plays as theatre, not only as literature. You must know plot, act-structure, source, playwright, and the function of stage conventions. Character questions often ask you to justify a label-nāyaka, nāyikā, vidūṣaka-with evidence from action and speech.
Playwrights and plays to keep straight
- Bhāsa: Svapnavāsavadattā, Cārudatta.
- Kālidāsa: Abhijñānaśākuntala, Mālavikāgnimitra, Vikramorvaśīya.
- Śūdraka: Mṛcchakaṭika.
- Viśākhadatta: Mudrārākṣasa.
- Bhavabhūti: Uttararāmacarita.
Conventions that carry marks
- Sūtradhāra opens the play; nāṭī assists; vidūṣaka is the comic confidant, not the hero.
- Aṅka = act; arthopakṣepa = inter-act indication; vṛtti = style of dramatic action.
- Rasa is produced by vibhāva, anubhāva, and vyabhicāribhāva.
Worked example: Why is Śakuntalā a dhīrā-śāntā nāyikā rather than a passive victim? In the rejection scene she answers Duṣyanta with controlled firmness, demands recognition, and produces evidence (the ring) when it returns. Her grief is shown through physical and verbal anubhāvas, but she does not lose agency. The recognition turns on the ring, a dramatic token, not on chance.
Traps: attributing Mṛcchakaṭika to Kālidāsa; treating the vidūṣaka as a hero; and forgetting that the sūtradhāra belongs to the frame, not the main plot. Also do not confuse the play's source with its title.