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

on friendly terms with all sorts and conditions of men. Especially
intimate was his friendship with the actors. The Mahāvīra-charita and
Mālatī-Mādhava actually mention this friendship in the prologue; in the
Uttara-Rāma-charita it is hinted at in the account given by Lava of
Vālmīki’s play-within-the-play (act iv. 22²⁷⁻³⁵), which we may well believe
to be autobiographical. We should very much like to have some details
about this relation between the actors and the would-be dramatist, but all
is left to imagination. It is possible that Bhavabhūti began by writing
for his actor-friends prologues for other people’s plays.¹ He may even at
times have modified an earlier play. Possibly again he may have actually
taken parts in the plays.² Certain it is that he soon persuaded the actors
to stage his own plays, and though he did not immediately succeed as
a playwright, he soon got recognition, and was perhaps even able (below,
§ 13) to secure royal patronage.
5. Bhavabhūti’s personality as inferred from his writings.—Regarding
Bhavabhūti’s private life, the impression which the perusal of his plays
leaves upon us is of the most favourable kind. He was by no means
Fortune’s favourite. His was an uphill fight for fame, may be for even
food and the daily necessities of the family; and he complains very bitterly
(Māl. Mādh. i. 8) against the proverbially fickle judgements of the people.
Even his latest play (Uttara-Rāma, i. 5) is not without this pessimistic
note. It would thus seem that our poet had experienced many a reverse
of fortune ³ and had emerged triumphant from them all. What gave him
the strength to fight his unequal fight with the world, what sustained his
courage and infused a new enthusiasm in him, was the consolation of an
ideal family life such as, we must believe, was his. Love was not to him
a mere sensuous affair, as it often is with poets Sanskrit or non-Sanskrit;
it was with him a spiritual communion of souls. Of such a love he has
left us many an idealized picture which may well bear comparison with
those of other literatures. Thus he says:
Uniform in happiness and in sorrow—conformable to all the
conditions of life—in which the heart finds solace—the flavour
of which age cannot stint—which, with time, as the veil of
reserve drops away, abides as a perfect and ripened affection,—
that one supreme blessing only the fortunate among mankind,
and after a sore trial, attain. (Uttara-Rāma-charita, i. 39.)
And it is not only in the Uttara-Rāma-charita, where the theme was
exalted, and the personages ideal, that we find such lofty sentiments. We
have similar ones in the Mālatī-Mādhava: for example, vi. 18:
¹ See Appendix 8. ³ Cp. Mālatī-Mādhava, viii. 14; Uttara-Rāma-
² Cp. note to English Translation, act vii. 19⁹. charita, vii. 4ᶜ,ᵈ.