310. THE TECHNIQUE OF SANSKRIT DRAMA 345

THE TECHNIQUE OF SANSKRIT DRAMA 345

The purpose of a Sanskrit drama is not merely entertainment but the preservation and raising of moral standard in the society. The maintenance of a moral standard is necessary for the healthy growth of the society, for the safety of the individual person and property and for making the attainment of the human goals, recognised by the society, as easy as possible. There are four goals which have been recognised as worthy of pursuit of human life by the Indian society from the earliest time : (i) The religious merit (Dharma), (ii) The wealth (Artha), (iii) The object of love (Kama) and (iv) The final emancipation (Moksa). History is full of instances of persons who have achieved these. In contemporary life also there are found persons ardently pursuing and attaining them. Scripture too shows the sure path to them. But the achievement of the goal through the path, pointed out by history, contemporary life or scripture, looks very difficult. It looks so full of obstacles and unmixed suffering that it scares those away, who are not heroically inclined.

The reason may be stated as follows : --

An event has a different meaning to an indifferent observer, who views it objectively, from what it has to the person, involved in it. One and the same event arouses feelings and responses in the former quite different from those in the latter. This difference is due to the difference in the subjective conditions. Have not the events, which lead a martyr to death, got a different value for him from what they have for the persecutors ? And if so, Why ? Is it not because of the difference in the subjective conditions ? Is the so called suffering of a martyr an unmixed one to him as it is to one who inflicts (it ? Does not each event, 44

346 CHAPTER VI that brings him suffering, bring also so much glory or reli- gious merit that the painful feeling pales into insignificance ? The Sanskrit dramatist, therefore, aims at the preser- vation of the existing standard of morality as also at raising it by presenting human life in its struggle for the attainment of any one of the said goals in such a manner as to make the audience, possessed of the necessary sub- jective conditions, merge their personality into that of the focus of the situation so as to have the same experience as the latter has and thus, on subsequent reflection, to feel encouraged to follow the path of morality.1 Therefore, the first thing for dramatisation of a set of events, historical, contemporary or imaginative, is to fix upon what is going to be the object of achievement, and who is to be represented to achieve it. In short, first of all the plot should be analysed with a view to fixing upon the hero of the piece and the object of the achievement. The value of such an analysis is obvious. Once the hero is chosen, he has naturally got to receive more attention and has to be kept in the forefront, relegating all others, what- ever their importance, into the back-ground. Such a question, therefore, as is generally raised in the case of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, "Who is tbe hero of the piece, Brutus or Caesar ?" cannot arise in the case of a Sanskrit drama. Once the plot has been analysed in the above manner, more attention has naturally to be given to the central theme. The main story represents the hero achieving one of the goals, recognised by the Indian society. But no achievement is possible without any serious effort on the

1. A. Bh., Vol. I. 4.