महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

A Method for citing Sanskrit Dramas [xxii]
It even happens that a bit of prose intervenes¹ between two fractions
of a pāda: so between the first and second words of pāda d of Mahāvīra-
charita vi. 7 (durgo, &c.). Here the line of prose may be cited as vi. 7ᵈ¹.
For prose-passages, the second element of the citation should be the
number of the stanza immediately preceding.—This solution of the matter
is not obvious, and that is the reason why different editors use so per-
plexingly different methods.—The indication of the prose-passage ought to
be logically parallel with the indication of the stanza. This rule requires
that each prose-passage, like each stanza, be regarded as a unit and be
numbered from the beginning of the act. Editors have not usually treated
each prose-passage as a unit,—apparently for the entirely invalid reason
that a prose-passage unit often consists of two or more speech-units, and
perhaps also because they did not see how to indicate typographically the
numbering of units so complex and of such irregular length.
Act i of the Śākuntala begins with a stanza. This is followed by
a prose-passage unit consisting of several speeches; but there is no difficulty
in citing them all as ‘act i, prose-passage 1’. And since each one of stanzas
1–9 of act i is followed by a prose-passage, it is evident that each of these
nine prose-passages may be cited by the number of the stanza immediately
preceding it. The like is true of the remaining twenty-three prose-passages
which follow stanzas 11–33 (st. 33 is the last of act. i in Pischel’s posthumous ed.).
There is no prose-passage immediately following stanza 10. But it is not
necessary on this account to give to the twenty-three prose-passages which
follow stanzas 11–33 the numbering 10–32 just for the sake of a strict
arithmetical sequence, since this produces a discord through most of the act.
It is simpler to number them as 11–33, that is, to skip the number 10. In
this way there is no need of any special or separate typographical indication
of the number of a prose-passage. In short, it suffices to give to any prose-
passage the number of the stanza immediately preceding.
For prose-passages, the citation should always contain a third
element, an Arabic numeral, that is, an element which will distinguish
a prose-citation from a stanza-citation. A stanza-citation consists of an
act-numeral (Roman) and stanza-numeral (Arabic), followed, if necessary
by a letter (a, b, c, or d) to indicate the quarter or pāda. The distinguishing
element of a prose-citation should therefore be an Arabic number (1, 2, 3,
4, 5, &c.). Thus i. 5 means act i, stanza 5; and i. 5ᵈ means act i, stanza 5,
¹ Since the citations of the system here pro- bare name of a dramatis persona) from a
posed are intended to show on their face line which contains a verse-portion. Thus
whether they refer to prose or to verse, the stage-direction after iii. 39 of this play
it is necessary that an editor should should not be printed in the same line
rigorously exclude all prose (except the with iii. 39ᵈ.