नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

322 THE NATYAŚĀSTRA [ XVII. 118-

118. Besides these, other syllables in a play (lit. poetical composition) should also be made short, long or prolated (pluta) according to the Sentiments and States [they are to express].

119. The uneven and uneven metres which have been described before should also be used in composition with agreeable and soft sounds according to the meaning [intended]¹.

120. The playwright should make efforts to use in his composition sweet and agreeable words which can be recited by women. For, furnished with these (i.e. such words) a play will appear very much beautiful just as lotus-lake [will appear] adorned with swans.

121. With harsh words such as cekriḍita¹, delicate dramatic art does not appear beautiful just as a public woman does not appear well by the side of Brahmins who are clad in Ruru-skin, and are annointed with ghee and who carry the skin of black antelopes and have the Akṣa-mālā [in their hands].

122. A play abounding in agreeable sounds and senses, containing no obscure and difficult words, intelligible to country-people¹ having a [good] construction, fit to be interpreted with (lit. fit for) dances, developing Sentiments by many [characters]² and having suitable Junctures (sandhi) and their [proper] unions, becomes fit for presentation to the spectators.

Here ends chapter XVII of Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra which treats of the Characteristics of a good play in connexion with the Verbal Representation.

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118 (C.119; B.XVI.126).
119 (C.120; B.XVI.120). ¹ B. reads 120a as yac chandaḥ pūrvam evoktam viṣamārdhasame samam. B. śabdais tat kāryam tu rasānugam for kāryās te'rthavaśānugāḥ.
120 (C.121; B.XVI.121). ¹ The word cekriḍayatām occurs in the Avi. (III.18) ascribed to Bhāsa. (See A.D. Pusalker, Bhāsa, Lahore, 1940, p.131).
121 (C.122; B.XVI.127).
122 (C.123; B.XVI.128). ¹ C. budhajanaśukhayogyaṁ yuktiman.
² B. bahukṛtarasamārgam for bahurasakṛtamārgam, C.