Bhavabhuti
Bhavabhuti ( Sanskrit भवभूति , bhavabhūti , m. ) Was an Indian playwright who lived in Kanauj in the 8th century and wrote some important works of Sanskrit literature.
life and work
Bhavabhuti lived in the first half of the 8th century at the court of King Yashovarman of Kanauj. He came from a noble Brahmin family and had a high scientific and cultural education. Some passages in his works were so elaborately written that they were probably only understandable to a small audience. But he managed to convincingly express emotions and heroic pathos in his texts.
He wrote three dramas, two of which deal with subjects from the epic Ramayana . The Mahāvīracarita describes the first part of the story of Rāma and Sītā in the form of narrative dialogues. The Uttararāmacarita builds on this and reports on the repudiation of Sītā by Rāma, whereby the original content of the epic is partially significantly modified.
The Mālatīmādhava, in turn, is considered the poet's own invention and is about the ministerial daughter Mālatī and the ministerial son Mādhava. With the approval of their parents, they maintain an intimate love affair, but can only finally find each other after many adverse circumstances, because the king wishes that Mālatī should marry his favorite Nandana.
Von Glasenapp notes in his commentary on the poet's work that his strength lies less in the dramatic structure and effective design than in his gift of awakening the most conflicting feelings and ideas in the audience with the help of profound and vivid lyric stanzas and a profound view of life to express moral seriousness. " He describes Bhavabhuti as "the greatest Indian playwright after Kalidasa ".
literature
- von Glasenapp, Helmuth (1961), Die Literaturen Indiens , Stuttgart, A. Kröner Verlag, pp. 243-44
- Mylius, Klaus (1988), History of Old Indian Literature , Bern, Scherz Verlag, pp. 229–30
- Sastri, Gaurinath (2013), A Concise History of Classical Sanskrit Literature , Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 108–110