Though the limits of space available have precluded any full investigation of the style of the dramatists, I have not followed Professor Lévi in leaving this aspect out of consideration. The translations given of the passages cited are intended merely to convey the main sense; I have therefore left without discussion difficulties of interpretation and allusion, and have resorted to prose. Verse translations from Sanskrit sometimes attain very real merit, but normally only in a way which has little affinity with Sanskrit poetry. H. H. Wilson’s versions of Sanskrit dramas in his Theatre of the Hindus for this reason, and also because the prose of the dramas is turned into verse, thus fail, despite their many intrinsic merits, to convey any precise idea of the effect of a Sanskrit drama.

I am indebted to my wife for much assistance and criticism.

A. BERRIEDALE KEITH.

Edinburgh University,
April, 1923. [[7]]

[[Contents]]

CONTENTS

PART I. [THE ORIGIN OF THE SANSKRIT DRAMA]

PAGE

I. [Dramatic Elements in Vedic Literature.]
1. [The Indian Tradition of the Origin of the Drama] 12
2. [The Dialogues of the Veda] 13
3. [Dramatic Elements in Vedic Ritual] 23
II. [Post-Vedic Literature and the Origin of the Drama.]
1. [The Epics] 28
2. [The Grammarians] 31
3. [Religion and the Drama] 36
4. [Theories of the Secular Origin of the Drama] 49
5. [Greek Influence on the Sanskrit Drama] 57
6. [The Çakas and the Sanskrit Drama] 69
7. [The Evidence of the Prākrits] 72
8. [The Literary Antecedents of the Drama] 75

PART II. [THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SANSKRIT DRAMA]