.....Continued

Sanskrit drama has a long history tracing back to Asvaghosha (2nd century A.D.). only fragments of his three plays are available. A century later we have Bhasa who is ascribed to have written 13 plays. The conventions of Sanskrit drama are al,l observed by Bhasa. Kalidasa is the author of three outstanding plays Malavikagnimitra, Abhijnanshakuntalam and Vikramorvasiya. His treatment of the Shakuntala story in Abhijnanshakuntalam in particular reveals him as the master of dramatic art superior to all others in potraying the emotions of love. Sudraka is another important dramatist whose Mrichcha Katika is well known. Of their successors in this literary form, the more important one are Vishakadatta, Harsha, Bhavabhuti, Krishna Misra, Rajasekhra and Bodhyana.

There is also an abundance of philosophical and technical terms in Sanskrit. Of these Vedanta was to exert the most profound effect culminating in the writings of Shankara (A.D. 800) leading to further interpretation by Ramanuja nd Mahadhava. In the sphere of social and domestic conduct there evolved a body of literature known as the Dharmashstra. As regards politics and state craft Kautilya's Arthashstra is well known. Equally well known are the mathematical treartises of Aryabhatta and Bhaskara and the medical books Charaksamhita and Sasruta. The Indian tradition of Kavyashastras and applied literary criticism is by and large the Sanskrit tradition which almost all the Indian languages have adopted.

The great stalwarts Bharata, Dandin, Vamana, Anandavardhana, Kuntaka and Abhinavagupta all belong to the period covering the dark ages of Europe. These theoreticians gave us valueble concepts like rasa, guna, riti, vakrokti, dhwani, rasadhwani and auchitya. Bharata's Natyashashtra is the earliest treatise available on the subject.

Sanskrit continued to be the vehicle of literary expression even in the modern period, though it was less prolific not being the language of the common masses. Mahakavyas were composed on the Buddha, Sankaracharya, Narayana guru and Christ. There were also long poems on Mahatma Gandhi, Rajendra Prasad, Tagore, Jayadev and Jawaharlal Nehru. Quite a few books have been translated from languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam etc. into Sanskrit.

Influenced by the languages of the west and the active modern Indian languages, Sanskrit writers have written poems, biographies, short stories and novels in the contemporary period. Both in quality and quantity they may not compare favorably with similar writings in other Indian languages. But the Sanskrit muse is kept alive by the lovers of this language.