39 articles
Abhishekanataka
Abhishekanataka, the Play of the Coronation, is a Sanskrit drama attributed to the ancient poet Bhasa, adapting the Ramayana from the Vali-Sugriva conflict to Rama's coronation.
Adipurana
Adipurana (आदिपुराण) is the name of two Jain narrative classics on the first Tirthankara Rishabhanatha: Jinasena's ninth-century Sanskrit epic and Pampa's Kannada rendering of 941.
Agnipurana
The Agnipurana (अग्निपुराण, Agni Purana) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a Sanskrit encyclopedic text of over 10,000 verses covering mythology, poetics, ritual, and statecraft.
Anargharaghava
Anargharaghava, also known as Anargharāghava or the Murari Nataka, is a seven-act Sanskrit drama by Murari, probably of the ninth century, retelling the Ramayana up to Rama's coronation.
Avadana
Avadana (Sanskrit: अवदान) is a Buddhist narrative genre in which stories of an individual's religiously significant deeds demonstrate karma and faith, composed in India from about the second century BCE.
Avadanashataka
Avadanashataka (Avadānaśataka, "century of noble deeds") is a Sanskrit collection of 100 Buddhist avadāna legends in mixed prose and verse, affiliated with the Sarvāstivāda school and probably composed around the 2nd century CE.
Avimaraka
Avimaraka (अविमारकम्) is a six-act Sanskrit play attributed to the ancient dramatist Bhāsa, a folk-based love story of prince Avimaraka and Kurangi, dominated by the erotic sentiment.
Balaramayana
Balaramayana (Bālarāmāyaṇa) is a ten-act Sanskrit drama by the poet Rājaśekhara, generally regarded as his first play, retelling Rama's story from Valmiki's Ramayana and first staged at Mahendrapāla's court.
Bhagavadajjukam
Bhagavadajjukam, also rendered Bhagavadajjuka, is a 7th-century Sanskrit farce usually attributed to Bodhayana, whose plot turns on the exchange of souls between a wandering ascetic and the courtesan Vasantasena.
Bharat Durdasha
Bharat Durdasha (भारत दुर्दशा, "The Plight of India") is an allegorical Hindi play by Bharatendu Harishchandra portraying India's misery under British rule through personified characters.
Bhojaprabandha
Bhojaprabandha (भोजप्रबन्ध) is a 16th-century Sanskrit narrative in prose and verse by Ballāla, collecting 85 legendary stories about the 11th-century Paramara king Bhoja of Dhārā and his patronage of poets and scholars.
Carita
Carita (Sanskrit चरित) is a genre of South Asian narrative literature recounting a central figure's life and deeds, composed from the 1st century CE onward.
Chandakausika
Chandakausika (चण्डकौशिकम्, "The Fierce Kauśika") is a Sanskrit drama in five acts by Kṣemīśvara, a tenth-century court poet at Kanauj, dramatizing the Hariścandra legend as told in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, one of his two extant plays.
Charudatta
Charudatta (Cārudatta, चारुदत्त) is the virtuous but impoverished Brahmin hero of two related Sanskrit dramas, Bhāsa's four-act Cārudatta and Śūdraka's ten-act Mṛcchakaṭika, both set in Ujjayini.
Dhvanyaloka-locana
Dhvanyaloka-locana is the traditional pairing of two Sanskrit works on poetics: Anandavardhana's ninth-century Dhvanyaloka, which made suggestion the soul of poetry, and Abhinavagupta's Locana commentary.
Duryodhan Vadh
Duryodhan Vadh (दुर्योधन वध) is the climactic episode of the Mahabharata war in which Bhima kills Duryodhana in a mace duel on the eighteenth day.
Hitopadesha
The Hitopadesha is a Sanskrit collection of animal fables and didactic tales compiled by Narayana Pandit, most likely between 800 and 950 CE, as a reworking of the Panchatantra.
Iraiyanar Akapporul
Iraiyanar Akapporul, also known as the Kalaviyal, is a Tamil treatise of sixty sūtras on akam love poetics, traditionally attributed to the god Śiva and probably from the fifth or sixth century.
Kalyanasaugandhikam
Kalyanasaugandhikam (കല്യാണസൗഗന്ധികം) is a Malayalam literary and performance subject based on the Mahabharata episode in which Bhima seeks the Saugandhika flower for Draupadi and meets Hanuman, treated in Kerala art forms including Kathakali and thullal.
Kannada literature of the Mysore court
Kannada literature of the Mysore court is the Kannada-language writing sponsored by the Wodeyar kings of Mysore, southern India, from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries.
Karnabhara
Karnabhara (कर्णभारम्, "Karna's burden") is a Sanskrit one-act play attributed to the early dramatist Bhāsa, showing Karna giving away his divine armor and earrings to a disguised Indra before battle.
Karpuramanjari
Karpuramanjari is a Prakrit-language drama (sattaka) written around 900 CE by the poet Rajashekhara, telling how King Candapala wins and marries Princess Karpuramanjari.
Lalitamadhava
Lalitamadhava (Lalita-madhava, ललितमाधव) is a Sanskrit drama by Rupa Gosvami, written in sixteenth-century Vraja, that depicts Krishna's pastimes in Dvaraka rather than his boyhood in Vrindavana.
Locana
Locana (लोचन, "the Eye") is the Sanskrit commentary written by the Kashmiri philosopher Abhinavagupta on the Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, the ninth-century treatise establishing dhvani, or poetic suggestion.
Mahaviracharita
Mahaviracharita (Mahāvīracarita) is a seven-act Sanskrit drama by the 8th-century playwright Bhavabhuti, based on the early life of Rama and commonly regarded as his first play.
Malatimadhava
Malatimadhava (मालतीमाधवम्, also romanized Mālatīmādhava) is a ten-act Sanskrit social drama by the 8th-century poet Bhavabhuti, telling how the lovers Malati and Madhava are united after many perils.
Malavikagnimitram
Malavikagnimitram (मालविकाग्निमित्रम्) is a five-act Sanskrit love play by Kalidasa, probably his earliest work, telling of the Shunga king Agnimitra's love for the dancer Malavika.
Pancharatra
Pancharatra (पञ्चरात्रम्, "Five Nights") is a three-act Sanskrit drama attributed to the ancient playwright Bhāsa, based on the Pandavas' year in disguise in the Mahābhārata's Virāta Parva.
Prabodhacandrodaya
Prabodhachandrodaya (प्रबोधचन्द्रोदय, "The Rise of the Moon of Knowledge") is an eleventh-century Sanskrit allegorical drama by Kṛṣṇamiśra, the earliest known complete play of its kind.
Pratijna Yaugandharayana
Pratijna Yaugandharayana is a Sanskrit play of the Trivandrum corpus ascribed to Bhasa, in which the minister Yaugandharayana vows to free his captive king, Udayana, who never appears on stage.