study was undertaken by Dr. Ramaratnam, Professor of Sanskrit, Vivekananda College, Madras, for the Prahasana. The P.M. and its author Harijīvana Miśra (H.M.) deserve a special place in the history of the Prahasanas. H.M. is, in the present state of knowledge, the only writer who has composed as many as six Prahasanas including P.M., each of them endowed with some features not usually found in the Prahasanas. They form a substantial contribution to the comic theatre of India. Amongst them P.M. is on all accounts the master-piece of the author. Until the sixties H.M.'s Prahasanas were not known even to the specialists in ancient theatre as they were all available only in mss. and that too in the Anup Sanskrit Library, Bikaner, not easily accessible, and in the India Office Library, London. In the early sixties, DE. George Artola, then at the University of Hawaii, U.S.A., undertook a project of studying some unpublished Prahasanas which inclued those of H.M... In this connection he worked at Madras with Prof. V. Raghavan, whose life-long scholarly pre-occupation with the study and practice of classical Sanskrit Theatre is well known. In May 1965 Artola presented a paper on H.M. and his Prahasanas at the sixth annual meeting of the Samskrita Ranga, a unique organisation founded by Dr. Raghavan in 1958 for putting on boards authentic versions of a range of Sanskrit dramas from the ancient to the present times as available in print and in mss. In this talk Artola highlighted the variety of comic situations created by H.M. in five of his Prahasanas - the Adbhutatarahga (waves of marvel) in three acts caricaturing persons in the royal court, most probably of the author's patron king Rama Simha of Jaipur (17th iii century); the Prasangika rich in humour arising from the use of play on specific words; the Vibudhamohana providing joy for the the learned men; the incomplete Ghrtakulyavalt on the house-holder Ghṛtakulaya- kusala giving chowries to brahmins instead of the usual dakşina; and the P.M. The sixth Prahasana Sahrdayananda is somewhat scrious, as it is replete with the technical matters on the Alahkāra Šāstra. Dr. Raghavan's paper at the same meeting was on this Prahasana. The above lectures were subsequently printed in the Samskrit Ranga Annual volume IV. 1966. An edited version of the P.M. as from mss. was also successfully staged on 12th May 1966 at Madras as directed by Dr. Raghavan with the assistance of Dr. C.S. Sundaram and myself. A couple of photographs from this presentation as from the Samskrita Ranga photo album are included in the present edition of P.M. Two of H.M.'s. Prahasanas, namely the Vibudhamohana and P.M. were published by Dr. Raghavan through the issues (I. 1966 and III. 1973) of the Bulletin Malayamãruta sponsored by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Samsthan. Although efforts were taken by the two scholars as seen above to bring to light all of H.M.'s Prahasanas, the authorities of the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute though it would be worthwhile to publish P.M. alone with an additional English translation along with its text and the critical information already available. The early issues of the Samskrita Ranga Annuals are not available for purchase. Also the bulletin Malayamaruta has become defunct after bringing out usefully some minor unpublished Sanskrit compositions through its
