Sanskrit Drama and Dramaturgy: Natyashastra and the Ten Rupakas
What the exam tests
Items test the Natyashastra's categories, the ten rupakas, conventions of the Sanskrit stage, and identification of plays by type and author.
Natyashastra framework
Attributed to Bharata (roughly 200 BCE–200 CE), it covers rasa, abhinaya, stage architecture, music, and dramatic structure. Four abhinaya are angika (gesture), vacika (speech), aharya (costume), and sattvika (emotional states). Plot moves through five avasthas and five sandhis, supported by arthaprakritis and natyalakshanas.
Ten rupakas
Nataka, prakarana, bhana, vyayoga, samavakara, dima, ihamriga, anka, vithi, prahasana. Nataka draws on legend with a noble hero; prakarana invents a plot with a middle-class hero; bhana is a monologue; prahasana is farce.
Stage conventions
Nandi, prastavana, sutradhara, vidushaka, and bharatavakya frame the play. Women and lower-status characters speak Prakrit; Sanskrit is for kings and Brahmins. Tragedy is avoided and the ending is auspicious.
Canon
Bhasa's Svapnavasavadatta, Shudraka's Mrichchhakatika (prakarana), Kalidasa's Abhijnanashakuntala (nataka), Vishakhadatta's Mudrarakshasa (political intrigue), Bhavabhuti's Uttararamacharita, Harsha's Ratnavali.
Worked example
Mrichchhakatika features Charudatta, a poor merchant, and a courtesan, with an invented plot. That combination makes it a prakarana, not a nataka, despite its length. The reasoning uses hero type and plot source.
Traps
Shakuntala is a nataka, not a prakarana; don't force Mudrarakshasa into the prakarana slot, since its hero is a minister and its matter political; and the Natyashastra is a treatise, not a play. The Dasharupaka is Dhananjaya's later handbook, not Bharata's.