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.
The play Pañca-rātra does not contain some of the bitter episodes that are present in the original Mahābhārata; for instance, in Bhāsa’s version, Kīcaka does not molest Draupadī and neither does King Virāṭa strike Dharmarāja with his dice; the episode of go-grahaṇa took place not because of the jealousy of Suśarmā and Duryodhana but because of Bhīṣma who wanted a peaceful resolution for the dispute between the brothers.
The Bāla-carita is a play based on the childhood of Bhagavān Śrī-kṛṣṇa. The following is the summary of the plot: Vasudeva crosses the river Yamunā, reaches the village on the farther shore, hands over his child Kṛṣṇa to Nandagopa, and brings back the latter’s girl child, who was dead. He hands over the child to Devakī. The five āyudhas and Garuḍa serve Śrī-kṛṣṇa; Yamunā paves the way to Vasudeva on his way to Gokula and parts as he returns to Mathurā as well.