THE
SANSKRIT DRAMA
IN ITS
ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT
THEORY & PRACTICE
BY
A. BERRIEDALE KEITH, D.C.L., D.Litt.
Of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, and of the Scottish Bar
Regius Professor of Sanskrit & Comparative Philology
at the University of Edinburgh
Author of ‘Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon’, &c.
GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
PREFACE
Thirty-two years have elapsed since the appearance of Professor Sylvain
Lévi’s admirable treatise, Le théâtre indien, the first adequate sketch
of the origin and development of the Indian drama and of Indian
dramatic theory. Since then the discovery of important fragments of the
dramas of the great Buddhist poet Açvaghoṣa, and of the plays of the
famous Bhāsa, has thrown unexpected light on the early history of the
drama in India; the question of the origin of the drama has been the
subject of elaborate investigation by Professors von Schroeder,
Pischel, Hertel, Sir W. Ridgeway, Lüders, Konow, and myself; and the
real significance and value of the Indian theory of the dramatic art
have been brought out by the labours of Professor Jacobi. The time is
therefore ripe for a fresh investigation of the origin and development
of the drama in the light of the new materials available.
To bring the subject matter within moderate compass, I have confined it
to the drama in Sanskrit or Prākrit, omitting any reference to
vernacular dramas. I have also omitted from the account of the theory
of drama all minor detail which appeared to have no more than the
interest of ingenuity in subdivision and classification; I have had the
less hesitation in doing so, because I have no doubt that the value and
depth of the Indian theory of poetics have failed to receive
recognition, simply because in the original sources what is important
and what is valueless are presented in almost inextricable confusion.
In tracing the development of the drama, I have laid stress only on the
great writers and on dramatists who wrote before the end of the first
millennium; of later works I have selected a few typical specimens for
description; it seemed needless to dwell on plays which in the main
show an excessive dependence on older models and on the text-books of
dramatic theory, and whose chief merit, when they have any, lies in
skill and taste in versification. Valuable bibliographies of the dramas
are contained in Mr. Montgomery Schuyler’s Bibliography of the Sanskrit
Drama (1906), and in Professor Konow’s treatise, and it has seemed
needless to do more than refer to the most important and accessible
editions of the plays mentioned and to treatises which have appeared
since the publication of these works.
Though the limits of space available have precluded any full
investigation of the style of the dramatists, I have not followed
Professor Lévi in leaving this aspect out of consideration. The
translations given of the passages cited are intended merely to convey
the main sense; I have therefore left without discussion difficulties
of interpretation and allusion, and have resorted to prose. Verse
translations from Sanskrit sometimes attain very real merit, but
normally only in a way which has little affinity with Sanskrit poetry.
H. H. Wilson’s versions of Sanskrit dramas in his Theatre of the Hindus
for this reason, and also because the prose of the dramas is turned
into verse, thus fail, despite their many intrinsic merits, to convey
any precise idea of the effect of a Sanskrit drama.
I am indebted to my wife for much assistance and criticism.
A. BERRIEDALE KEITH.
Edinburgh University,
April, 1923.
CONTENTS
PART I. THE ORIGIN OF THE SANSKRIT DRAMA
PAGE
I. Dramatic Elements in Vedic Literature.
1. The Indian Tradition of the Origin of the Drama 12
2. The Dialogues of the Veda 13
3. Dramatic Elements in Vedic Ritual 23
II. Post-Vedic Literature and the Origin of the Drama.
1. The Epics 28
2. The Grammarians 31
3. Religion and the Drama 36
4. Theories of the Secular Origin of the Drama 49
5. Greek Influence on the Sanskrit Drama 57
6. The Çakas and the Sanskrit Drama 69
7. The Evidence of the Prākrits 72
8. The Literary Antecedents of the Drama 75