नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

XLV

rigidly then no theatrical performence of any value, may be possible. Neither the Hindus nor the Greeks ran after this kind of absurdity. Critics of ancient Indian dramas will do well to remember this and to take care to understand the scope and necessity of various conventions relating to the production, so that they may better appreciate the art of great play-wrights like Bhāsa, Kālidāsa, Śūdraka and Viśākhadatta.

3. Time and place in Drama

Hindu playwrights, unlike the majority of Greek tragedians, did never make any attempt to restrict the fictional action to a length of time roughly similar to that taken up by the production of a drama on the stage. In developing plots they had not much restriction on the length of time, provided that individual Acts were to include incidents that could take place in course of a single day, and nothing could be put in there to interrupt the routine duties such as saying prayers or taking meals (XX. 23), and the lapse of time between two Acts, which might be a month or a year (but never more than a year)⁷ was to be indicated by an Introductory Scene (praveśaka) preceding the last one (XX. 27-28).

Similarly there was almost no restriction about the locality to which individual Actors, and gods in their human roles were to be assigned, except that the human characters were always to be placed in India i.e. Bhāratavarṣa (XX. 97).

4. The Unity of Impression

In spite of having no rules restricting the time and place relating to different incidents included in the plot of a drama, the playwright had to be careful about the unity of impression which it was calculated to produce. For this purpose the Nāṭyaśāstra seems to have the following devices :

The Germ (bīja) of the play as well as its Prominent Point (bindu) was always to relate to every Act of the play and the Hero was sometimes to appear in every Act or to be mentioned there (XX. 15, 30).

An Act was not to present too many incidents (XX. 24), and such subsidiary events as might affect the unity of impression on their being directly presented, were merely to be reported in an Introductory Scene. Besides this, short Explanatory Scenes were sometimes put in before an Act to clarify the events occuring in it (XXI). 106-111. All these, not only helped the play to produce an unity of impression but also imparted to its plot a rapidity of movement which is essential for any kind of successful dramatic presentation.

5. Criticism of Drama

Indians from very early times considered plays to be essentially 'spectacle' (prekṣā) or 'things' to be visualised; hence persons attending

---

⁷ Bhavabhuti however violates the rule in his Uttara. in letting many years pass between Acts I and II.