Bhāsa

Bhāsa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about him.

Kālidāsa in the introduction to his first play "Malavikagnimitram" writes - "Shall we neglect the works of such illustrious authors as Bhāsa, Saumilla, and Kaviputra? Can the audience feel any respect for the work of a modern poet, a Kālidāsa?"

So we know he lived before Kālidāsa. As the date for Kālidāsa varies from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE, Bhāsa is dated between the 2nd century BCE and 2nd century CE. Based on the language used, his date is also supposed to be around 5th century BC. The plays of Bhāsa had been lost for centuries. He was known only from mention in other works like the famous text on poetics Kavyamimamsa written during 880-920 AD by Rajashekhara a famous poet, dramatist and critic. In the Kavyamimamsa, he attributes the play Svapna-vasavadatta (Swapnavāsavadatta) to Bhāsa.

Discovery of his plays

In 1912, the late Mahamahopadhyaya Ganapati Sastri came upon 13 Sanskrit plays in Trivandrum that were used in the Koodiyattam plays. Unlike other classical plays, none of them mentioned the author, but one was the Svapna-vasavadatta. Comparing the style of writing and techniques employed in these plays and based on the knowledge that Svapna-vasavadatta was Bhāsa's work, all of them were credited to him. Some scholars have disputed Bhāsa's authorship of all the plays but over the years the plays have generally come to be ascribed to Bhāsa.

Plays of Bhāsa

Bhāsa does not follow all the dictates of the Natya Shastra. This has been taken as a proof of their antiquity as post-Kālidāsa, no play that did not adhere to the Natya Shastra's rules has been found. Bhāsa allows scenes that contain signs of physical violence to be shown on stage in plays like "Uru-Bhanga".This is strictly frowned upon by Natya Shastra.

The "Uru-Bhanga" and "Karna-bhara" are the only known tragic Sanskrit plays in ancient India. Though branded the villain of the Mahabharata, Duryodhana is the actual hero in "Uru-Bhanga" shown repenting his past as he lies with his thighs crushed awaiting death. His relations with his family are shown with great pathos. The epic contains no reference to such repentance. The "Karna-bhara" ends with the premonitions of the sad end of Karna, another epic character from Mahabharata. Early plays in India, inspired by Natya Shastra, strictly considered sad endings inappropriate.

The plays are generally short compared to later playwrights and most of them draw the theme from the Indian epics, "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana".Though he is firmly on the side of the heroes of the epic, Bhāsa treats their opponents with great sympathy. He takes a lot of liberties with the story to achieve this. In the "Pratima-nataka", Kaikeyi who is responsible for the tragic events in the Ramayana is shown as enduring the calumny of all so that a far noble end is achieved.

Plays based on Ramayana

* "Pratima-nataka": The statues
* "Abhisheka-natka": The coronation

Plays based on Mahabharata

* "Panch-ratra": The five-nights
* "Madhyama-vyayoga": The middle one
* "Duta-Ghattotkacha": Ghattotkacha as envoy
* "Duta-Vakya" : The envoy's message
* "Uru-bhanga": The broken thigh
* "Karna-bhara": Karna's burden
* "Harivamsa" or "Bala-charita": Hari's dynasty or the tale of Childhood

The "Duta-Vakya" and "Bala-charita" are perhaps the only Sanskrit plays by a famous playwright with Krishna as the central character.

His other plays are not epic based. "Avimaraka" is a fairy tale. The unfinished "Daridra-Charudatta" (Charudatta in poverty) tells the story of the courtesan Vasantasena and is interesting for the same story was developed by Śhudraka into the more famous "Mrichakatika" on which 1984 film, Utsav by Girish Karnad is based.

His most famous play "Swapna-vasavadatta (Swapnavāsavadatta)"(Vasavadatta in the dream) and "Pratijna-Yaugandharayana" (the vow of Yaugandharayana) are based on the legends that had grown around the King Udayana, a contemporary of the Buddha. The first tells the story of how the king lost his kingdom and regained it with the help of his loyal minister Yaugandharayana and the latter of how he married the princess Vasavadatta.

Though his plays were discovered only in the 20th century, two of them "Uru-Bhanga" and "Karna-bhara", have become popular due to their appeal to modern tastes and performed in translation and Sanskrit.

Many of Bhasa's plays are staged in Koodiyattams even now, like parts of "Pratijna-Yaugandharayana","Abhisheka-nataka" etc. The legendary Natyasastra scholar and Koodiyattam maestro Guru Mani Madhava Chakyar choreographed and started to perform "Swapnavāsadatta" and "Pancharātra" for the first time in the history of Koodiyattam.

References

* Thirteen Trivandrum plays ascribed to Bhāsa( 2 Vols), translated by H.C.Woolner, Lakshman Sarup, 193
* Harvard reference
Author=Māni Mādhava Chākyār
Last=Chākyār
First=Māni Mādhava
Title=Nātyakalpadruma
Publisher=Kerala Kalamandalam, Vallathol Nagar
Year=1975
ID=

Further reading

*A.D. Pusalker : Bhasa - a study. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India 1968

ee also

* Sanskrit literature
* Sanskrit drama