उत्तररामचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - संस्कृत मूल एवं हिन्दी व्याख्या)

VIII INTRODUCTION.
when rhetorical conventions prescribed that long compounds
were the soul of prose, as expressed by Daṇḍin in his
Kāvyādarśa.²⁷
III Bhavabhûti's works
Bhavabhûti is known at present by his three plays, the
Mahāvīracharita, the Mālatīmādhava and the Uttararāma-
charita The first and third are based on the Rāmāyaṇa.
The plot of the second apparently is the author's own creation,
but it seems to us that the suggestion came to him from the
story of Madiravatī, which we now find in the Kathāsarit
sāgara (VIII), which work is based on the Bṛihatkathā of
Guṇāḍhya. Out of these it is beyond question that the
Uttararāmacharita is a product of the poet's mature intellect.
It seems to us in the present state of our knowledge of his
works that the Mahāvīracharita was his first work and the
Mālatīmādhava the second When he wrote the Mālatī
mādhava he must have incurred the ridicule of the critics of
his time (vide the verse from the Mālatīmādhava quoted
above) This presupposes that he had placed before the public
some work of his As we at present know of only three
works of his, it follows that the Mahāvīracharita preceded
the Mālatīmādhava The fuller details about his ancestors
contained in the Mahāvīracharita point in the same direction
Whether Bhavabhūti wrote any other work cannot be
said with certainty In the Sārṅgadharapaddhati there are
two stanzas attributed to him which are found in none of his
three works ²⁸ Therefore it is not unlikely that Bhavabhūti
may have composed some other work which has not come
down to us
27 ओजः समासभूयस्त्वमेतद्गद्यस्य जीवितम् । पद्येप्यदाक्षिणात्यानामिदमेकं
परायणम् ॥' I 80
२8 लिखितानि पदानि यदि नात्यल्प डा भवति । किं तत्कथानिदिति ... क्रियते-
Bhavabhūti also in the Rasikajīvana compiled by Gadadhara
bhatta In the सूक्तिमुक्तावलि of जहण the first verse is attributed
to a poet मालतीमाधव, the reading being वधनायस्य for यदि नात्यल्प
In the सूक्तिमुक्तावलि there are other verses attributed to भवभूति
which are not found in his known works