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

INTRODUCTION xxix

draws the admiration of its admirers particularly owing to its
well-drawn characters and poetic beauties of the sanzas.
What is of great interest in the Ratnávali is the good get-up and
skilful manipulation of the incidents within the play. The
marriage scheme of the minister on his own responsibility without
the knowledge of anybody and the skilful performance of the
magician helping the recognition of the heroine, the chattering
of the parrot disclosing the plot and other minor incidents are well
conceived and fitting the situations. Without the Magician's per-
formance the union would have been a sudden and hap-hazard one.
The style of Ratnávali is well conceived and well polished, plot
well developed, characters possibly well depicted within the narrow
limit of the action of the subject-matter and thus it is the best
work of Harsha though not the best of the lot of the greatest lumi-
naries like Bhása, Kálidása and Bhavabhuti in the literary firma-
ment. Yet considering the burdensome duty of a ruler involved in
continuous warfare and struggles, it is not a small achievement on
the part of Harsha to elicit admiration from the public by his
unflinching devotion to literary pursuits which resulted in the
production of a typical drama like Ratnávali the merit of which
is stated in short by an eighth century author Dámodaragupta ine
his Kuttanimata as follows.—
“श्लिष्टसन्धिवन्धं सत्पात्रं सुवर्णयोजितं सुतराम् ।
निपुणपरीक्षकदृष्टं राजति रत्नावलीरत्नम् ।”
“The jewel of Ratnávali shines out effulgently by its well-
constructed joints (of the plot), well-painted characters like pieces of
gold being examined by the expert connoisseurs.” Harsha construc-
ted the plot of Ratnávali strictly in accordance with the rules of
dramaturgy ; so the later dramaturgic experts have cited copious
illustrations from the Ratnávali to exemplify the rules regulating
the Samskrit drama, they have set forth. In the history of
Sanskrit drama the place of Ratnávali is by no means to be over-