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

viii RATNAVALI

One of the distinguishing excellences of Sanskrit drama is 'its
poetic grandeur which envelopes it as flowers overspread the bosom
of the earth in the season of Spring.......It weaves the wreath of
idyllic fancies in an unbroken chain adding to its favourite and
familiar blossoms ever-fresh beauties from an inexhaustible garden.
Nor is it unequal to depicting the grander aspects of nature in
her mighty forests and on the shores of ocean. A profound
familiarity with its native literature can here alone follow its
diction through a ceaseless flow of phrase and figure, listen with
understanding to the home of the bee as it hangs over the lotus
and contemplate with S'akuntalā's pious sympathy with the
creeper as it winds round the mango tree. But the poetic beauty
of the Indian drama reveals itself in the mysterious charm of its
outline, if not in its full growth even to the untrained'. (En-
cy. Brita. )

To the Brahmanic supremacy in the evolution of the dramatic
art and its idealism another notable characteristic of Sanskrit
drama can be attributed ; that is the absence of tragedy. Though
the tragic elements are not wanting in Sanskrit drama, yet tragic
end is denied us most probably on the ground of peculiar conditions
of Indian thought in propounding the law of action' and exposing
the existence of human life which is nothing but the outcome
of the workings of the deeds done in the previous birth. In
explaining this view Dr. Keith holds, "The actions and status
of man in existence depend on no accident ; they are essentially
the working out of deeds done in a previous birth and these again
are explained by yet earlier actions from time without beginning.
Indian drama is thus deprived of a motif which is invaluable to
Greek tragedy and everywhere provides a deep and profound tragic
element, the intervention of forces beyond control or calculation
in the affairs of man, confronting his mind with obstacles upon
which the greatest intellect and the most determined will are
shattered. A conception of this kind would deprive the working