नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

364 THE NATYASASTRA [ XX. 55-

caravan stay in their family circle, no courtezan should be brought in there¹.

55. [In the Prakaraṇa] when a person is in the company of a courtezan there should not be [at the same time] his meeting with any respectable woman (lit. woman of good family), and while he is with a person of high family no courtezan should meet him then.

56. If out of necessity (lit. reason) there occurs a meeting¹ of courtezans and respectable ladies in [any scene of] a Prakaraṇa their language and manners should be kept undistorted.

57. In the Nāṭaka and the Prakaraṇa the playwrights should have the number of Acts as not less than five and not more than ten¹; and this should be furnished with the various Sentiments and the States².

58. After considering the need and action of the plot one should place between two Acts the Introductory Scenes which are to compress the events in the Junctures (sandhi)¹.

The Nāṭikā

59. In a play of the Nāṭikā (Nāṭī) class producers are to recognise a more or less well-known variety of these two (the Nāṭaka and the Prakaraṇa)¹.

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¹ See 56 below.
55 (C.56; B.XVIII.52).
56 (C.57; B.XVIII.53). ¹ The nature of the necessity, and the language which the author of the NŚ. had in view in formulating this rule, has probably been indicated in the following couplet. शिल्पादिव्यपदेशेन भवेद्वेश्यासमागमः। भाषेत प्राकृतं वेश्या संस्कृतं कुलनायिका. Bh. P.p. 242
57 (C.58; B.XVIII.29). ¹ Read daśa parā for daśaparā.
² B. reads the second hemistich as अङ्गान्तरसन्धिषु च प्रवेशकास्तेषु तावन्तः.
59 (C.59; B.XVIII.56). ¹ Read this couplet as follows: अङ्कान्तरालविहितः प्रवेशकोऽर्थक्रियां समभिवीक्ष्य। संक्षेपार्थं सन्धिबन्धानां संविधातव्यः. Cf. DR. I.118 (ed. Haas, pp. 34-35) and SD. 302. The Introductory Scene cannot be placed in the beginning of a play and it must be in Pkt.
59 (C.60a-61b; B.XVIII.57). ¹ Read nāṭīsañjñāśrite kāvye for nāṭakayoge prakaraṇe. See Avaloka on DR. (ed. Nirnayasagar) III.43. Description of the Nāṭikā given here (59-63) has been rightly suspected as an interpolation, though Keith is for rejecting this suspicion. See Skt. Dr. p. 349.