रत्नावली नाटिका (सम्राट हर्षवर्धन - शास्त्रीय नाटिका रत्न सम्पूर्ण ४ अङ्क सान्वय सटीक)

INTRODUCTION Drama.—‘Drama’ is derived from the root ‘Dráo’ (Greek)—which means ‘to act’ or ‘to do’. The term ‘Drama’ is used to indicate those works of art which do imitate or represent actions by pro- ducing personage taking part in them as real. In spite of the different varieties of the drama as to their objects imitated and matter represented, what is essential to all successful dramas is the imitation of action. With this in view the author of Daśa- rupaka, gives the definition of the dramatic art as “अवस्थानुकृतिर्नाट्यम्” (The dramatic art is the imitation of circumstances or action). The same author does not forget to style it as a representative art—रूपं दृश्यतयोच्यते (the art which is called रूपम् on account of its दृश्यता, i.e., what is capable of being seen and represented by personage called actors). **Action.—**Action is the thing represented as done in a drama. The event or series of events real or imaginary governing the subject-matter of a drama is styled as action. The imitation of an action as set forth through proper characterization is the foundation-stone upon which the whole structure of the drama is constructed. ‘It is action which connotes character and implies it. Through the very movement of a story and particularly through its great crises and situations, the larger intellectual and moral qualities of the persons who take part in it are necessarily im- pressed upon us. We know them by what they do, as the tree is known by its fruit’. So imitation which is the first step in the drama, does not mean the imitation of person but the imitation of action as set forth through the actors of the play who carry the action. In a good play the question of successful plot comes first and this plot again really rests upon character which evolves “as a