वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

2 VĀSAVADATTĀ darśikā, and Tāpasavatsarāja,¹ the ultimate source probably being the lost Bṛhatkathā. With the Vāsavadattā of these latter works Subandhu's heroine has only her name in common, nor is any other story concerning her known to exist in Sanskrit literature (cf. Krishnamachariar, Introd., pp. 48–50; Lacôte, Essai sur Guṇāḍhya et la Bṛhatkathā, pp. 15–16, Paris, 1908). Though sleeping on the stage is forbidden by Sanskrit drama- turgy, the hero of the Svapnavāsavadattā dreams of the heroine, an episode imitated, I would suggest, by Rājaśēkhara in his Viddhaśālabhañjikā and Karpūramañjarī. In similar fashion Subandhu seems to have derived from this play ² both the dream- episode and the name of his heroine, who was indeed a 'dream- Vāsavadattā' ; and it would then appear that he invented the remainder of the romance. This is also the opinion of Krishna- machariar (Introd., pp. 48, 50), who suggests, however, that Subandhu may have adapted some old wives' tale. Author. The author of the Vāsavadattā was the only Suban- dhu to win for himself a name in Sanskrit literature, unless exception be made in favour of Subandhu, son of Gōpāyana or Lōpāyana, who, according to the Sarvānukramaṇī (ed. Macdonell, p. 19, Oxford, 1886), was one of the four authors of Ṛg-Veda 5. 24 (cf. the legend concerning him in Bṛhaddēvatā, 7. 84–102, ed. and tr. Macdonell, Cambridge, Mass., 1904). The name, however, occurs with tolerable frequency in Sanskrit (cf. Böhtlingk and Roth, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch, 7. 1086, St. Petersburg, 1875), and it would even seem to be found, under the form Šu-ba-an-di, or Šu-ba-an-du, in one of the Tell-el-Amarna Tablets, dating approxi- mately from the fourteenth or fifteenth century B.C. (Winckler, Thontafeln von Tell-el-Amarna, Nos. 224–229, Berlin, 1896). ¹ To this list Krishnamachariar (Introd., p. 37) adds the lost drama Udayanacarita (cf. Lévi, Théatre indien, 1. 92; 2. 39, Paris, 1890; Schuyler, Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama, p. 90, New York, 1906). ² In May, 1910, the Svapnavāsavadattā and nine other dramas of Bhāsa were dis- covered near Padmanābhapura by Gaṇapati Śāstrī, who later found another manu- script containing, among other plays, a second copy of the Svapnavāsavadattā. These dramas were edited, after this introduction was already in type, in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series.