There is another unique feature in the theme of the play Mṛcchakaṭika – it is the story of a brāhmaṇa; Cārudatta is a brāhmaṇa by birth but a trader by profession; he is like a kṣattriya in the dhārmic activities he engages himself in; he had spent all his wealth by performing dāna to those in need from time to time; Vasantasenā, who was moved by this quality, comes to him offering her love.
In these literary works, the life of Cārudatta is the central theme; the story of Āryaka is of secondary importance and only serves to bolster the main plot. The fact that Cārudatta and his associates are the focal point, is attested by the name of the play – Mṛcchakaṭika. The name refers to a toy cart made out of clay; Cārudatta’s son, Rohasena refuses this mṛcchakaṭika; the play is the story of this toy cart – it was a golden cart in the past and turned into a clay one due to a sad twist of fate; it again turns golden with time.
It is hard to say when and where Śūdraka was born. The following verses that occur at the beginning of his play, the Mṛcchakaṭika, provide us with some details about the playwright –
Dviradendra-gatiścakora-netraḥ pari-pūrṇendu-mukhaḥ suvigrahaśca |
Dvija-mukhyatamaḥ kavirbabhūva prathitaḥ śūdraka ityagādha-sattvaḥ ||
ṛg-vedaṃ sāma-vedaṃ gaṇitam-atha kalāṃ vaiśikiṃ hasti-śikṣāṃ
jñātvā śarva-prasādād-vyapagata-timire cakṣuṣī copalabhya |
Bhāsa’s plays contain quite a number of novel and fresh ideas and emotions. He also brings in proverbial statements through the dialogues of the characters; they inclusion bolsters the overall aesthetic experience. The following are examples from the Yajña-phala,
We don’t know if there are more plays written by Bhāsa. We have been able to find fourteen now. Many compendiums of poems quote quite a few verses that are supposedly penned by Bhāsa; however, they don’t appear as a part of the fourteen plays we have discussed so far. It is, therefore, possible that he had authored a few more plays and such verses were part of those. Even if it turns out that he had authored only these fourteen plays, it is quite a landmark in the history of Sanskrit literature; we say this because no other poet has single-handedly penned these many plays.
The nature of Duryodhana in Ūru-bhaṅga is different from the manner in which he is portrayed in the plays Dūta-vākya and Dūta-ghaṭotkaca. In the segment of the story captured in the Ūru-bhaṅga, we see that Duryodhana has realised his mistake and is at peace. Balarāma appears there when the gadā-yuddha, i.e., fight with mace is about to begin. He looks at Duryodhana and laments, “You have been cheated by Bhīma!” Duryodhana does not agree with his words. He says, “I feel as though Hari entered Bhīma’s mace and brought death upon me.”
Madhyama-vyāyoga, Dūta-vākya, Dūta-ghaṭotkaca, Karṇa-bhāra, and Ūru-bhaṅga are the other plays authored by Bhāsa based on the Mahābhārata. It is hard to say if there were more plays in the Bhāsa-nāṭaka-cakra. We have been able to place our hands on only these for now. In some sense, we can say that the cakra is complete with these. The Mahābhārata is the story of the kṣāttra of the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas. From a poetic perspective, the yuddha-pañcaka constitutes the heart of the epic.
Virāṭa, Uttara, Pāṇḍavas and Abhimanyu constitute the third group of people. It is almost impossible to undertake an exclusive study of their characters, values, and the episodes associated with them; their nature and character are closely knit with each others. Abhimanyu’s character is noteworthy and here is a small extract from the drama.