rama
which fulfils the spirit of the drama of invention, as defined by the
Sanskrit canons of dramaturgy. The plot of the "Malati and Madhava,"
or of the "Mallika and Maruta," is in no true sense the invention
of the author; and The Little Clay Cart is the only drama
of invention which is "full of rascals."[10]

But a spirit so powerful as that of King Shudraka could not be
confined within the strait-jacket of the minute, and sometimes
puerile, rules of the technical works. In the very title of the drama,
he has disregarded the rule[11] that the name of a drama of invention
should be formed by compounding the names of heroine and hero.[12]
Again, the books prescribe[13] that the hero shall appear in every act;
yet Charudatta does not appear in acts ii., iv., vi., and viii. And
further, various characters, Vasantasena, Maitreya, the courtier,
and others, have vastly gained because they do not conform too
closely to the technical definitions.

The characters of The Little Clay Cart are living men and women. Even
when the type makes no strong appeal to Western minds, as in the case
of Charudatta, the character lives, in a sense in which Dushyanta[14]
or even Rama[15] can hardly be said to live. Shudraka's men are better
individualized than his women; this fact alone differentiates him
sharply from other Indian dramatists. He draws on every class of
society, from the high-souled Brahman to the executioner and the
housemaid.

His greatest character is unquestionably Sansthanaka, this
combination of ignorant conceit, brutal lust, and cunning, this greater
than Cloten, who, after strangling an innocent woman, can say:[16]
"Oh, come! Let's go and play in the pond." Most attractive characters
are the five[17] conspirators, men whose home is "east of Suez
and the ten commandments." They live from hand to mouth, ready
at any moment to steal a gem-casket or to take part in a revolution,
and preserving through it all their character as gentlemen and their
irresistible conceit. And side by side with them moves the hero
Charudatta, the Buddhist beau-ideal of manhood,

_A tree of life to them whose sorrows grow_,
_Beneath its fruit of virtue bending low_. (_i. 48_)

To him, life itself is not dear, but only honor.[18] He values wealth
only as it supplies him with the means of serving others. We may,
with some justice, compare him with Antonio in The Merchant
of Venice. There is some inconsistency, from