We have been able to lay our hands only on two acts of his other play called Bāla-bhārata or Pracaṇḍa-pāṇḍava; it is hard to say if the poet only wrote so much. Bāla-rāmāyaṇa, as explained earlier, captures the entire epic in the form of a play; similarly, it is quite possible that Rājaśekhara intended to condense the Mahābhārata in his Bāla-bhārata.
At the beginning of the play, we see a conversation between the maharṣis Vyāsa and Vālmīki; they speak about the new work called the Mahābhārata authored by Vyāsa. It appears that Vālmīki had already watched the segment until Draupadī’s svayaṃvara, and Vyāsa tells him that he will let him witness the episodes thereafter. Draupadī’s svayaṃvara takes place in the first act. In the second act, we witness the gamble and Draupadī being disrobed; the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī leave for the forest.
With regards to the construction of the plot and the kind of descriptions brought in by the poet, we will have to admit that the observations we made with regards to Bāla-rāmāyaṇa are applicable here too. We also come across verses from the Vyāsa-bhārata as a part of the play. For instance,
युधिष्ठिरो धर्ममयो महाद्रुमः
स्कन्धोऽर्जुनो भीमसेनोऽस्य शाखाः ।
माद्रीसुतौ पुष्पफले समृद्धे
मूलं कृष्णो ब्रह्म च ब्राह्मणाश्च ॥ ६६ ॥Yudhiṣṭhira is a giant tree of dharma,
Arjuna is the trunk, and Bhīmasena is its branches
Mādrī’s sons – Nakula and Sahadeva are the bounty of fruits and flowers
Its roots are constituted by Śrī-kṛṣṇa, Brahma, and the brāhmaṇas
There is nothing special about the portrayal of characters in the play; we may quote Śakuni’s reply to Bhīmasena’s pledge as a stray example of effective characterisation –
“निर्गच्छ वनाय! को हि नाम द्यूतजितानामुद्विजते मौखर्येण!”
The second act comes to an end with the above utterance.
Vandī describes Balarāma, who is addicted to liquor. The verse goes as follows –
किं किं किं चु चु चुम्बनैर्म म मुधा वक्त्राम्बुजस्याग्रतो
दे दे देहि पि पि प्रिये सु सु सुरां पात्रेति (त्रि) रे रेवति।
मा मा मा वि विलंबनं कु कु कुरु प्रेम्णा हली याचते
यस्येत्थं मदघूर्णितस्य तरसा वाचः स्खलन्त्याकुलः॥ (1.52)
Rājaśekhara has composed this along the lines of similar instances that occur in Viddha-śāla-bhañjikā and Karpūra-mañjarī, as well as Harṣa’s Ratnāvalī and Priya-darśikā. We find such semblances even in the nāndī-śloka, vastūpakṣepa, ministers’ strategic ideas, siddhādeśa, names of characters, etc. Among these, Viddha-śāla-bhañjikā, a nāṭikā, was first penned by the author; its prastāvanā is short; the poet has not boasted about his achievements in that great detail there. The work also does not appear to be profound, nor looks like the product of a mature hand. It is said that the play was staged as per the directions of yuvarāja-deva – ‘the revered crown prince’; it is hard to say who is being referred to here – it could either be Mahīpāla or the crown prince of the Cedi kingdom. The story of the nāṭikā is as follows –
King Vidyādhara-malla of the Triliṅga province had a wife named Madanavatī. Her maternal uncle by the name Candra-varmā, the king of the province of Lāṭa, did not have male progeny. Candra-varmā had a daughter named Mṛgāṅkāvalī, whom he brought up like a son, and always dressed her in male costumes; he had left her under the care of Madanavatī. The king of Kuntala, Candramahāsena, wanted to get his daughter Kuvalayamālā married to her (i.e., Mṛgāṅkāvalī, who he thought was a man) and had left her in the close quarters of Mṛgāṅkāvalī. (Act 2).
There was a prophecy – a siddhādeśa – that the person who married Mṛgāṅkāvalī would become an emperor, i.e., a cakravartī. Bhāgurāyaṇa, a minister of the vidyādharas, knew of this prophecy; one day, he sent Mṛgāṅkāvalī through a secret passageway to the king’s sleeping chamber and made her garland the king with a pearl necklace; he had told her that the king was kāmadeva.
The king mistakes this for a dream; however, the pearl necklace remains around his neck. He goes to the garden along with vidūṣaka and notices Mṛgāṅkāvalī playing on the swing there. He eventually sees her portrait and sculpture in a mansion made of spaṭika; he also finds her in person behind shining walls, as well as when she is playing with a ball. However, in none of the instances is he able to lay his hands upon her (Acts 1 and 2). He again spots her in the garden, but then, he hears the announcement that the queen is coming there; both the king and Mṛgāṅkāvalī are a bit shocked and exercise caution. (Act 3)
The queen gets ready to have the king married to Mṛgāṅkāvalī. She wanted to play a minor prank on her husband – she had planned to dress Mṛgāṅkāvalī like a man and get her married to the king. However, the queen herself is fooled. In the meantime, Candravarmā begets a son and conveys the good news as well as the secret about his disguised daughter. The queen does not fret over her plans going astray, but instead gets Kuvalayamālā married to the king. Vīrapāla, one of the subordinate kings of Vidyādhara-malla defeats the enemies, and the latter, who was the king of the Kuntala province until then, becomes the emperor (Act 4).
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.
