PREFACE
The drunken revelry of a Kāpālika with his female companion, his falling out with a hypocritical Śākyabhikshu believing him to have stolen his Kapāla (alms-bowl) which had been carried away by a dog, his having recourse to a degenerate Pāśupata for the settlement of disputes and finally the recovery of the Kapāla from a madman are in brief the incidents that make up the plot of the Prahasana. The style is simple and beautiful and is suited to the humorous character of the play.
It is evident from the Sthāpanā of the play that it was written by a King of the Pallava dynasty named Mahendravikrama Varma, son of Siṁha Viṣṇu Varma. This Mahendravikrama Varma can be identified with the Mahendra Varma I, mentioned in a number of South Indian Pallava inscriptions as the son and successor of the early Pallava king Siṁhaviṣṇu (575–600 A.D.) and as having borne a number of titles. For, we know from the Mahendra-Vādi inscription that Guṇabhara built a cave temple “Murāri-gṛha”,* and from the Vallam inscription that Guṇabhara is known by the name “Mahendra Pōttrayan”. The two cave inscriptions at Trichinopoly† disclose that Guṇabhara was a Pallava king and had the title Śatrumalla. Rao Bahadur Venkayya M. A., in his article “Inscriptions in the Trichinopoly cave” contributed to the Director General’s Archaeological Survey Annual for 1903–04 (pp. 270 ff.) gives the contents of a damaged inscription which consist of the titles Mahendravikrama, Mattavilāsa and Avanibhājana which were held by Guṇabhara. Of these titles held by one and the same person, Mahendravikrama evidently seems to be his own name, and Guṇabhara and others his titles. Mahendra is a shortened form of Mahendravikrama Varma. The title Śatrumalla might
- Vide Epigraphia Indica Vol IV. p 152, Inscriptions Vol. I. pp. 29-30
