The Veṇī-sāṃhāra is, thus, a play that encompasses the story starting from Kṛṣṇa-sandhāna to Duryodhana-saṃhāra. The poet has displayed great skill in condensing this long story into a play –he has ensured that the story is engaging and that the characters are presented well. His creative talent, we may say, is on par with that of Bhāsa and Viśākhadatta in this sense – they have the skill of narrating a long tale in the form of a play. Though Bhaṭṭa-nārāyaṇa is similar to them in many cases, he is slightly inferior in certain ways. Moreover, he is a product of his times – in the times contemporary to him, certain principles of aesthetics have affected the structure and content of his play – the understanding of literature and perspective towards life was slightly different in his times than that which existed during the times of the earlier playwrights. These elements must have contributed to bringing down the quality of the play. Veṇī-sāṃhāra stands as an example of a naturally gifted poet delivering a rather mediocre product under the influence of his times.
Many treatises on dramaturgy, especially the Daśarūpaka, profusely quote the Veṇī-sāṃhāra. In Dhanañjaya’s times, plays such as Ratnāvalī, Nāgānanda, and Veṇī-sāṃhāra appear to have been celebrated. For every theoretical concept, examples could be drawn from these plays. They were composed in alignment with the śāstra; the playwrights probably consciously kept the aesthetic principles in mind and strictly adhered to them. In fact, if the playwrights had taken a little more creative liberty and had not stuck to the letter of the śāstra so stringently, the quality of the plays would have been better.
The current play under consideration, Veṇī-sāṃhāra is supposedly rooted in yuddha-vīra; however, a battle does not appear on the stage at all. Though the play begins with the valorous utterances of Bhīma, Sundaraka and Pāñcālaka, who describe the battle in the fourth and the sixth acts, brings a lot of boredom. In fact, Karṇa and Aśvatthāmā, who almost get into a duel and race against each other carrying swords, add to the valorous spirit of the play. The fifth act is the best. The poet has ably evoked karuṇa and vīra here; the kind of reverence Duryodhana had towards his aged parents, the friendly feelings towards Karṇa, the contempt towards Aśvatthāmā, and hatred for Bhīma and Arjuna are depicted well in the act. The playwright has brought together many strands of the story and put together many challenges for both parties; he vividly describes Duryodhana’s agony and problems. However, the episode connected with the Cārvāka is a misfit – it wasn’t required and it does not seem appropriate either; it feels as if the playwright included it to create awe, but the entire situation seems contrived and forced. Similarly, the episodes depicted in the second act, where Duryodhana’s apprehensions and miscalculated decisions are portrayed, appear quite inappropriate in the context of the play as well. The poet probably wanted to show the contrasting natures of Bhīma and Draupadī on one hand, and Duryodhana and Bhānumatī on the other; he must have been influenced by the tastes of his times and the prevalent literary tradition. Nevertheless, the amount of vīra that can be evoked out of vācikābhinaya has been brought out by the poet. With just a few dialogues, even secondary female characters have been established well by the poet.
The playwright of the Veṇī-sāṃhāra displays certain characteristics that are typical of Bhāsa – he brings in suggestions of future events through conversations; however, his language does not have the lucidity and felicity that Bhāsa’s language displays. While it is true that the gauḍī style goes well with vīra-rasa, if the same flavour of language dominates the descriptions of gardens, sunrise, etc, in the context of śṛṅgāra as well, it is not appropriate; this kind of language is because of the influence of Bāṇa-bhaṭṭa’s Kādambarī; even verses that are not meant to evoke the vīra-rasa are quite pedantic and bombastic in their language.
The Kannada poets Pampa and Ranna appear to have been inspired by the plot and treatment of rasas in the Veṇī-sāṃhāra for the composition of their poems. It is for this reason that the thirteenth āśvāsa of Pampa-bhārata and the majority of the segments of Gadāyuddha are richly appealing.
To be continued ...
The current series of articles is an enlarged adaption of Prof. A. R. Krishnasastri's Kannada treatise Saṃskṛta-nāṭaka. They are presented along with additional information and footnotes by Arjun Bharadwaj.
