काव्यमीमांसा (महाकवि राजशेखर - कवि-रहस्य एवं देश-विभाग सटीक)

l. 18. The same verse युधिष्ठिर etc. may be taken to show
मध्यदेश्यश्यामता also, as poets do not differentiate the two colours कृष्ण
and श्याम according to the statement made in कविसमय. see p. 84. l. 23.
ll. 21-22. Construe:-उत्तरकोसलेन्द्रपुत्र्याः तव नवनीतपिण्डगौरे अलिके
प्रतिफलत् मृगाङ्कबिंबं मृगमदपत्रनिभेन लाञ्छनेन अवगतम् ।
Here the word नवनीतपिण्डगौरे shows the colour of a woman
belonging to मध्यदेश.
*[l. 25. कपोले जानक्याः (हनुमन्नाटक. III. 50.)] The MS. B. and
two MSS of विवेक read स्मरस्मेरः स्फारोड्डमरपुलकं वक्त्रकमलम् । The reading
of the A. MS. is adopted in the text.]
ll. 25-26. The Videha country is included in the list of
countries in the eastern part of India. The colour of Jānakī there-
fore is expected to be black or कृष्ण. But she is described here
as white or गौर because she belonged to a royal family. This
verse is also found in the drama Mahānāṭaka or Hanumannāṭaka,
and describes the state of Rāma's mind when he was awaiting the
arrival of the army of Khara and his brothers at Pañcavaṭī.
From this quotation, found originally in the Mahānāṭaka and
quoted subsequently by Rājaśekhara, it should not be presumed
that the text of the Mahānāṭaka as available to-day is the genuine
one, or was composed before the Kāvyamīmāṁsā. The drama as
at present available seems to be a compilation of verses pertaining
to the story of Rāma by a later writer who flourished in the 10th
century or later. The present drama contains verses of early
dramatists such as Bhavabhūti, Rājaśekhara and others, and it is
thus reasonable to suppose that the author flourished a little after
the time of Rājaśekhara. The verse पृथ्वि स्थिरा भव of the Bālarāmāyaṇa
(1-48) occurs in the Mahānāṭaka (1-29) and the verse चूडाचुम्बित-
कङ्कपत्र etc. of Bhavabhūti appears in the Mahānāṭaka (2-3).
It cannot, however, be denied that there was a Mahānāṭaka quite
different from the available text because some writers on drama-
turgy cite a Mahānāṭaka as one of the best dramatic compositions.
Śāradātanaya, for instance, in his Bhāvaprakāśana gives the des-
cription of the Mahānāṭaka thus:-
सर्ववृत्तिविनिष्पन्नं सर्वलक्षणसंयुतम् । समग्रं तत्प्रतिनिधि महानाटकमुच्यते ॥
P. 241-5.
तद्वामोऽहं यथैत्यादि महानाटककल्पितम् ।
P. 279-22.