नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

LII

Certainty of Attainment (niyatāpti) and Attainment of the Result (phalaprāpti). These five stages of the Plot have five corresponding Elements of the Plot (XXI. 20-21) such as, the Germ (bīja), the Prominent Point (bindu) the Episode (pātākā), the Episodical Incident (prakari) and the Dénouement (kārya). Besides these aspects of the action and the Plot of the Nāṭaka, the elaboration of the latter has been viewed as depending on its division into the following five Junctions which are as follows: the Opening (mukha), the Progression (pratimukha), the Development (garbha), the Pause (vimarśa) and the Conclusion (nirvahaṇa).

And these have been further subdivided and described to give detailed hints as to how the playwright was to produce a manageable play including events supposed to occur during a long period of time.

Kālidāsa's Śakuntalā and Bhāsa's Svapna-vāsavadattā are well-known examples of the Nāṭaka

The Prakaraṇa. The second species of Hindu play, is the Prakaraṇa which resembles the Nāṭaka in all respects except that "it takes a rather less elevated range". Its Plot is to be original and drawn from real life and the most appropriate theme is love. The Hero may be a Brahmin, merchant, minister, priest, an officer of the king or a leader of the army (XX. 49-51). The female characters include a courtezan or a depraved woman of good family (XX. 53)³. But the courtezan should not meet the Hero when he is in the company of a lady or gentleman of high family, and if the courtezans and respectable ladies must meet on any account they are to keep their language and manners undistorted (XX. 55-56). From these and other features, the Prakaraṇa has been called a bourgeois comedy or comedy of manners of a rank below royalty.

Śūdraka's Mṛcchakaṭika and Bhavabhūti's Mālatīmādhava are well-known examples of the Prakaraṇa.

The Samavakāra. The Samavakāra is the dramatic representation of some mythological story which relates to gods and some well-known Asura, who must be its Hero. It should consist of three Acts which are to take for their performance eighteen Nāḍikās (seven hours and twelve minutes).⁴ Of these the first Act is to take twelve and the second four and the third two Nāḍikās only. The subject-matter of the Samavakāra should present deception, excitement or love, and the number of characters allowed in it are twelve. And besides this, metres used in it should be of the complex kind (XX. 63-76).

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³ Wilson who did not see the N.Ś. said, "We may however observe to the honour of the Hindu drama that the parakīyā or she who is the wife of another is never to be made the object of dramatic intrigue, a prohibition which could sadly have cooled the imagination and curbed the wit of Dryden and Congreve (Select Specimens of Hindu Theatre, Vol. I. p. xiv).

⁴ See H.H. Wilson, On the Dramatic System of the Hindus, Calcutta, 1827, p. 16.