नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

LXIX

dependence on the Nāṭyaśāstra is apparent from his echoing of the numerous passages⁴⁶ of the latter.

(c) Nāṭyadarpaṇa. The Nāṭyadarpaṇa⁴⁷ of Rāmacandra and Guṇacandra is the next important work on dramaturgy after the Daśarūpa. Of the two joint-authors⁴⁸ of this text, who were Jains Rāmacandra lived probably between 1100 and 1175 A.C., and he was a disciple of the famous Hemacandra. Rāmacandra wrote a large number of works including many plays. But of Guṇacandra, the collaborator of Rāmacandra, very little is known except that he too was a disciple of Hemacandra. The Nāṭyadarpaṇa which is divided into four chapters, treats of dramaturgy.

This work has been composed in Anuṣṭup couplets. Its brevity of the treatment is comparable to that of the Daśarūpa, and as in the latter many of its passages cannot be fully understood unless a commentary is consulted. Fortunately for us the joint-authors of the work have left for us a very clearly written and informative vṛtti (gloss). It is evident from the metrical text that the authors had access to the Nāṭyaśāstra and exploited it very thoroughly, And whatever could not be accommodated in the text has been added in the prose vṛtti which has utilised also Abhinava's famous commentary. Besides this the authors have occasionally criticised the views of other writers among whom the author of the Daśarūpa figures most prominently.⁵⁰ All this has given the Nāṭyadarpaṇa a unique value and some superiority over the Daśarūpa.

(d) Ruyyaka's Nāṭakamīmāṁsā. Ruyyaka alias Rucaka,⁵¹ who was a Kashmirian and flourished probably in the 12th century, was a voluminous writer on poetics. It was from one of his works (a commentary of Mahima-bhaṭṭa's Vyaktiviveka) that we learn of his Nāṭakamīmāṁsā a work on dramaturgy. No Ms. of this work has so far been discovered.

(e) Bhāvaprakāśana. Śāradātanaya, who seems to have been a Southerner and flourished in the 12th century, wrote the Bhāvaprakāśana⁵³ which dealt with dramaturgy in greater detail than either the Daśarūpa or the Nāṭyadarpaṇa. And his work acquires an additional authority from the fact that Śāradātanaya had as his teacher one Divākara who was the Director of a theatre⁵⁴ and might be taken as deeply conversant with the theory and practice of Indian drama as it was current in his time. Though Śāradātanaya depends much on earlier authors for the materials of his work, yet his approach to the subject is to some extent original. As the name of his work implies, it deals with the "expression" prakāśa of the

---

⁴⁶ Printed out by M. Dillon in the margin of NL.
⁴⁷ Ed. in G.O.S. Baroda, 1929. ⁴⁸ See Introduction of ND. p.3.
⁴⁹ But they have also drawn materials from older writers like Kohala, Śaṅkuka and Ag. See ND. p. 224. ⁵⁰ See ND. Introduction p. 3. ⁵¹ Skt. Poetics, p. 190ff.
⁵² Ibid. p. 186. ⁵³ Ed. G.O.S. Baroda, 1930. ⁵⁴ BhP, p. 2 also Introduction, p.6.