नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

LXXV

up individual topics and considered them in every possible detail and has found it necessary to repeat things for the completion of the matter in hand. This has given it diffuseness. But the adoption of this method was unavoidable in a technical work which aimed at completeness. This however may be said to have rendered it difficult to some extent. The difficulty with which we moderns are confronted in studying this ancient work, is however primarily due to its discussing an art which has pratically gone out of vogue for quite a long time. That the text was transmitted through a defective Ms. tradition is no less responsible for occasional difficulties it presents.

6. The Early Commentators

According to Śārṅgadeva (SR. I. 1. 9) the commentators who set themselves to the task of explaining or elucidating the Nāṭyaśāstra are Lollaṭa, Udbhaṭa, Śaṅkuka, Abhinavagupta and Kīrtidhara. Abhinava in his commentary refers in addition to Bhaṭṭa Yantra and Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka who may be taken as commentators of the Nāṭyaśāstra, and quotes from of one Bhāṣya and one Vārtika. The Vārtika however seems to be an independent treatics on drama though the Bhāṣya an old commentary. But in the absence of suitable data our knowledge about the date of these commentators and the nature as well as the value of their work, is very inadequate. We are however discussing below whatever meagre informations may be gathered about them.

(a) Ācārya Kīrtidhara and Bhāṣyakāra Nānyadeva. Abhinava has referred to Kīrtidhara only once.¹⁴ But from the special respect shown him by the commentator who calls him ācārya, it appears that Kīrtidhara was a very early commentator of the Nāṭyaśāstra, and as such he was possibly anterior to Bhaṭṭa Udbhaṭa and hence may be placed in the 6th or the 7th century.¹⁵ And Nānyadeva¹⁶ quoted by Abhinava as the author of the Bharata-Bhāṣya seems to be another early commentator of our text.

(b) Bhaṭṭa Udbhaṭa. Bhaṭṭa Udbhaṭa's¹⁷ opinion has been thrice quoted by Abhinava. As his views were controverted by Bhaṭṭa Lollaṭa who flourished in the 8th century it is possible that Udbhaṭa was a person of the early 8th or the late 7th century.¹⁸ Though it has been doubted¹⁹ whether Udbhaṭa was really a commentator of the Nāṭyaśāstra, from the reference to his work by Abhinava we may be fairly certain in this matter.

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¹⁴ Ag. I. p. 208. Cf. Skt. Poetics, Vol. I. p. 29.
¹⁵ Cf. Skt. Poetics, I. p. 39.
¹⁶ He should be distinguished from his namesake who was a king off Mithila in the 12th century (see JASB for 1915, pp. 407 ff.)
¹⁷ Ag. II. pp. 70, 441, 451, De's. Ms. pp. 392.
¹⁸ See Skt. Poetics, I. pp. 75ff.
¹⁹ Skt. Poetic, I. pp. 37 ff.