ARTOLA - PALANDUMANDANA circus; as in the first and third acts of the Adbhutataranga, the final scenes of the Palandumandana are coarse and slapstick, against the serenity of the beginning of the play. Certain themes of standard farces are found in all of these prahasanas of Harijivana Misra. The change of sex motif (Jambhaka disguised as a woman), the difference of age motif (Lasuna Panta is to marry Raktamulika), the animal as lover motif (the monkey seduces Prakṛtipriya)-all these are utilised by Harijivana Miśra in order to obtain the maximum comic effect. That he was successful in producing some fine humorous plays cannot be denied. That he knew what would be a good subject for satire and that he knew how to satirise skilfully cannot be denied either. His satire on hypocrites and medical quacks may not be as detailed and as ruthless as that of his contemporary in France, Moliere, but for his similarly sophisticated audience it was equally as effective. VIBUDHAMOHANA In my discussion of the prahasanas of Harijivana Mišra, I have purposely omitted a summary of the Vibudhamohana until now, for as I have said previously the Vibudhamohana is not strictly speaking a prahasana. However, the play is of sufficient interest for me to discuss it briefly: The scene once again is a royal court and what takes place in the play could easily have been witnessed by Harijivana Miśra. The piece begins media res, without the nandi and the prastāvanā which are usually present to introduce the play; they do not come until later. Puşpakalikā, daughter of a retired pandit Sakalāgámācārya, visits the palace of king Pratapa Märtanda and she rejoices at the sight of its beauty. In her admiration she cites, among others, two verses, one from Harsa's Ratnavali and the other from Bhavabhūti's Matati-Madhava. She sees the king and falls at his feet. Then she displays before him her learning in courteous behaviour, quoting authorities for each of her actions. She leaves the ARTOLA - VIBUDHAMOHANA stage and later returns to recite the nändi-stanza before the entrance of the sutradhāra. The sutradhāra says that Sakalagamacarya has left the burden of his household on his sons, each of whom is specialising in his own branch of sastras. His daughter Sahityamala is to be married to Akhandananda, but the marriage and the maintenance of the family will not be possible without the efforts of his sons to secure by reason of their knowledge the favour of the king. The father urges his sons to go to the royal court for at this moment the king wishes to engage in a discussion with his pandits. When they finally appear before the king, each one pronounces in favour of his own sastra, but in the end it is Akhandananda who fascinates all present by his knowledge of poetics. The king agrees to grant him all favours, but he wants neither silver, nor gold nor an elephant; he wants only Sahityamala, for she has stolen his heart. The brothers are at first dejected, but then the king assures them of enough money so that the family will be maintained and Sähityamala may be given in marriage. 15 Harijivana Miśra demonstrates with much ability his knowledge of all the sastras, especially alarkkara sastra, and once again plays on the names of his characters; each one of the brothers has a first name which indicates his special branch of knowledge (Tarkakarkasa, Patanjalanätha, Vaiseşikabhaṭṭācārya,Bhattamimämsä, Pancaratrika, etc.). Unfortunately the present state of the manuscript, the only one we possess, does not permit a detailed study of the play and at this moment it is not possible to state in any definitive way the purpose for which Harijivana Miśra composed it. One may even doubt whether it was written for a court performance. What I have said about it, in a general and superficial way, may also be said about the Sahrdayananda. But us hear from Prof. Raghavan about this play.
