s which the virtuous,
the wise, the venerable, the learned and the Brahmans require in a
drama?" "Profound exposition of the various passions," is the reply,
"pleasing interchange of mutual affection, loftiness of character,
delicate expression of desire, a surprising story and elegant language."
"Then," says the manager (for the Indian dramatists, though not, like
Ben Jonson, wont to "rail" the public "into approbation," are unaffected
by _mauvaise honte_), "I recollect one." And he proceeds to state that
"Babhav[=u]ti has given us a drama composed by him, replete with all
qualities, to which indeed this sentence is applicable: 'How little do
they know who speak of us with censure! This entertainment is not for
them. Possibly some one exists, or will exist, of similar tastes with
myself; for time is boundless, and the world is wide!'" This disregard
of popularity, springing from a consciousness of lofty aims, accounts
for much that is characteristic of the higher class of Indian plays. It
explains both their relative paucity and their extraordinary length,
renders intelligible the chief peculiarity in their diction, and
furnishes the key to their most striking ethical as well as literary
qualities. Connected in their origin with religious worship, they were
only performed on solemn occasions, chiefly of a public nature, and more
especially at seasons sacred to some divinity. Thus, though they might
in some instances be reproduced, they were always written with a view to
one particular solemn representation. Again, the greater part of every
one of the plays of Northern India is written in Sanskrit, which ceased
to be a popular language by 300 B.C., but continued the classical and
learned, and at the same time the sacred and court form of speech of the
Brahmans. Sanskrit is spoken by the heroes and principal personages of
the plays, while the female and inferior characters use varieties, more
or less refined, of the Prakrit languages (as a rule not more than
three, that which is employed in the songs of the women being the poetic
dialect of the most common Prakrit language, the Sauras[=e]n[=i]).
Hence, part at least of each play cannot have been understood by the
large majority of the audience, except in so far as their general
acquaintance with the legends or stories treated enabled them to follow
the course of the action. Every audience thus contained an _inner_
audience, which could alone feel the full effect of the dra