Name the plays written by Vishakhadutta and Shudraka during the Gupta period.
Answers
Answer:
We know about only two plays of Vishakhadatta viz. Mudrārākṣasa and the Devichandraguptam. Out of them Mudrārāksasa is the only surviving play. Devichandraguptam is survived in fragments only. Mudrarakshasha means “Ring of the Demon”. It narrates the ascent of Chandragupta Maurya to throne. Rakshasha is the last Minister of Nandas who is lured in Chandragupta’s side, by Chanakya.
Mrichhakatika means a “little clay cart’. It is a Sanskrit play written by Shudraka in the 2nd century AD. Arthur W. Ryder translated it in 1905 as The Little Clay Cart. It’s a play full with romance, court politics and comedy. It depicts the story of a poor man Charudatta with a nagarvadhu Vasantsena. The play seems to be a reworked version of Daridracharudatta, another play. Śudraka seems to be an Abhira King Indranigupta who used Shudraka as his pen name.
There is a description of a civil court in Mrichhakatika, whose headquarters were at Nalanda.
Explanation: