and of their own attainments [१]. Some of them, again, Bhavabhûti for example, are defiant, and challenge the public in their introductions. It may also be observed that the Nândî, or the opening and benedictory part, is characteristically short, consisting of one stanza only, in dramas that belong to Kâlidâsa, while that of other dramatists is extravagantly long, consisting often times of three, four or five stanzas, and full of metaphysical and mythological nonentities. We may add, further that the introduction of the dramas of Kâlidâsa, as these are easy and temperate in their style, and were probably on that account intelligible to a majority of their audiences, never contains any explanation of their plots or subjects, and they always guide imperceptibly,as it were, from the reality of the stage-manager and his assistant into the scenic commencement of the play. Other authors, on the contrary, with little good taste, give a summary of the play's contents in their introductions, and end them abruptly, or, at least, so as clearly to show where the introduction ends and the play begins. We must not forget also that Kâlidâsa is more fond of the arya metre in his plays than other dramatists. This arya metre is of as frequent occurrence in the Mâlavikâgnimitra as in the Śâkuntala and the Vikramorvaśî.
These and other analogies will strike any careful reader of the three plays. The reader will in vain seek for
- ↑ See Bhavabhûti’s introduction to his Mâhavîracharita or to his Mâlaîtmâdhava, and also the Uttararâmacharita ; also Rajaśekhara's Viddhaśâlabhanjikâ.
