रत्नावली नाटिका (सम्राट हर्षवर्धन - शास्त्रीय नाटिका रत्न सम्पूर्ण ४ अङ्क सान्वय सटीक)

INTRODUCTION
Drama.—‘Drama’ is derived from the root ‘Dráo’ (Greek)—which
means ‘to act’ or ‘to do’. The term ‘Drama’ is used to indicate
those works of art which do imitate or represent actions by pro-
ducing personage taking part in them as real. In spite of the
different varieties of the drama as to their objects imitated and
matter represented, what is essential to all successful dramas is
the imitation of action. With this in view the author of Daśa-
rupaka, gives the definition of the dramatic art as “अवस्थानुकृतिर्नाट्यम्”
(The dramatic art is the imitation of circumstances or action).
The same author does not forget to style it as a representative
art—रूपं दृश्यतयोच्यते (the art which is called रूपम् on account of its
दृश्यता, i.e., what is capable of being seen and represented by
personage called actors).
**Action.—**Action is the thing represented as done in a drama.
The event or series of events real or imaginary governing the
subject-matter of a drama is styled as action. The imitation
of an action as set forth through proper characterization is the
foundation-stone upon which the whole structure of the drama
is constructed. ‘It is action which connotes character and implies
it. Through the very movement of a story and particularly through
its great crises and situations, the larger intellectual and moral
qualities of the persons who take part in it are necessarily im-
pressed upon us. We know them by what they do, as the tree is
known by its fruit’. So imitation which is the first step in the
drama, does not mean the imitation of person but the imitation of
action as set forth through the actors of the play who carry the
action. In a good play the question of successful plot comes first
and this plot again really rests upon character which evolves “as a