ma. It is,
then, easy to see why the Hindu critics should make demands upon the
art, into which only highly-trained and refined intellects were capable
of entering, or called upon to enter. The general public could not be
expected to appreciate the sentiments expressed in a drama, and thus
(according to the process prescribed by Hindu theory) to receive
instruction by means of amusement. These sentiments are termed
_r[=a]sas_ (tastes or flavours), and said to spring from the _bh[=a]vas_
(conditions of mind and body). A variety of subdivisions is added; but
the _santa r[=a]sa_ is logically enough excluded from dramatic
composition, inasmuch as it implies absolute quiescence.

Species of dramas.

The Hindu critics know of no distinction directly corresponding to that
between tragedy and comedy, still less of any determined by the nature
of the close of a play. For, in accordance with the child-like element
of their character, the Hindus dislike an unhappy ending to any story,
and a positive rule accordingly prohibits a fatal conclusion in their
dramas. The general term for all dramatic compositions is _r[=u]paka_
(from _r[=u]pa_, form), those of an inferior class being distinguished
as _upar[=u]pakas_. Of the various subdivisions of the _r[=u]paka_, in a
more limited sense, the _n[=a]t[=a]ka_, or play proper, represents the
most perfect kind. Its subject should always be celebrated and
important--it is virtually either heroism or love, and most frequently
the latter--and the hero should be a demigod or divinity (such as
_R[=a]ma_ in Babhav[=u]ti's heroic plays) or a king (such as the hero of
_S[=a]kuntal[=a]_). But although the earlier dramatists took their plots
from the sacred writings or Pur[=a]n[=a]s, they held themselves at
liberty to vary the incidents--a licence from which the later poets
abstained. Thus, in accordance, perhaps, with the respective
developments in the religious life of the two peoples, the Hindu drama
in this respect reversed the progressive practice of the Greek. The
_prakaranas_ agree in all essentials with the _n[=a]t[=a]kas_ except
that they are less elevated; their stories are mere fictions, taken from
actual life in a respectable class of society.[1] Among the species of
the _upar[=u]paka_ may be mentioned the _trotaka_, in which the
personages are partly human, partly divine, and of which a famous
example remains.[2] Of the _bhana_, a monologue in one act, one literary
example is extan