20/01/2021 Bhavabhuti - Wikipedia

Bhavabhuti
Bhavabhuti was an 8th-century scholar of India noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit. His
plays are considered the equal of the works of Kalidasa. Bhavabhuti was born in Padmapura, Vidarbha,
in Gondia district, on Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh border. He is described as an 'Udumbara
Brahmin'.[1] His real name was Srikantha Nilakantha, and he was the son of Nilakantha and Jatukarni.
He received his education at 'Padmapawaya', a place some 42 km South-West of Gwalior. Dayananidhi
Paramahansa is known to be his guru. He composed his historical plays at 'Kalpi', a place on banks of
river Yamuna.

He is believed to have been the court poet of king Yashovarman of Kannauj. Kalhana, the 12th-century
historian, places him in the entourage of the king, who was defeated by Lalitaditya Muktapida, king of
Kashmir, in 736 AD.

Contents
Malatimadhava
Indebtedness to Kautilya and Arthashastra
Legacy
Works
References
External links

Malatimadhava
The play is set in the city of Padmavati. The king desires that his minister's daughter Malati marry a
youth called Nandana. Malati is in love with Madhava ever since she saw him and drew his portrait.
Madhava reciprocates, and draws a portrait of her in turn. Malati suspects her father's motives in falling
in with the King's plans for her. A side plot involves the lovers' friends Makaranda and Madayantika. The
latter is attacked by a tiger, and Makaranda rescues her, getting wounded in the process. After numerous
travails, all ends well, with the two couples uniting. According to the renowned Sanskritist Daniel H.H.
Ingalls, the Malatimadhava is a work that combines love and horror with a felicity never again equaled in
Sanskrit literature.[2]

Indebtedness to Kautilya and Arthashastra

According to Dasharatha Sharma, the dramatists Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti utilized the Arthashastra of
Kautilya while composing their famous works. Kalidasa is indebted to Kautilya's Arthashastra for
material in the Raghuvamsa.[3] Similarly, Bhavabhuti utilizes words and ideas from the Arthashastra in
the Malatimadhava and the Mahaviracharita. There is indeed a striking resemblance between the
methods advocated by Ravana's minister, Malayavana and the policies suggested by Kautilya in the
Arthashastra.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavabhuti 1/2
20/01/2021 Bhavabhuti - Wikipedia

Legacy
Late Laxmanrao Mankar Guruji named his education society as "Bhavbhuti Education Society" in 1950.
Yashodabai Rahile founded "Bhavbhuti Mandal" (community) in 1996. O.C. Patel published a book
"Bhavbhuti ab geeton mein" (Bhavbhuti, now in his songs), he also has published some audio CDs and
cassettes to keep the legend's memories alive. State's local TV channel, Sayhyadri and E TV Marathi
telecasts some documentaries on the life of this great poet. People and some non profit groups have
erected a few statues in the region where the poet belongs to.

Works
Mahaviracharita (The story of the highly courageous one), depicting the early life of Rama
Malatimadhava (https://archive.org/details/malatimadhavaors00bhavuoft) a play based on the
romance of Malati and Madhava
Uttararamacarita (The story of Rama's later life), depicts Rama's coronation, the abandonment of
Sita, and their reunion

References
1. Kosambi, D.D. Combined Methods in Indology (http://www.ms.uky.edu/~sohum/ma330/files/kosambit
ext.pdf) (PDF). p. 16.
2. Vidyakara; Daniel H.H. Ingalls, An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry, Harvard Oriental Series
Volume 44, p. 75
3. Indian Historical Quarterly Vol XXV, part 2
4. 'Bhavabhuti's Indebtedness to Kautilya' Journal of the Ganganath Jha Research Institute Vol VIII,
part 3, May 1951

External links
The Uttara Rama Charita of Bhavabhuti. With Sanskrit commentary by Pandit Bhatji Shastri Ghate of
Nagpur and a close English translation by Vinayak Sadashiv Patvardhan. The Nyaya Sudha Press,
Nagpur 1895 [1] (https://books.google.com/books?id=XxMpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intit
le:uttara+intitle:rama+intitle:charita&hl=en&sa=X&ei=G-g3T6JYzsexAs6h7PoB&ved=0CDgQ6AEwA
Q#v=onepage&q=intitle%3Auttara%20intitle%3Arama%20intitle%3Acharita&f=false)
Rama's later history or Uttara-Ram-Charita of Bhavabhuti. Critically edited with notes and an English
transltation by Shripad Krishna Belvalkar. Harvard University Press 1915 [2] (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=9t7TAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=rama%27s+later+history+uttara+rama+charit
a&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pRMKT8TnBcKNsQKd8NmQCg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=rama%2
7s%20later%20history%20uttara%20rama%20charita&f=false)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bhavabhuti&oldid=982637127"

This page was last edited on 9 October 2020, at 11:27 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site,
you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a
non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavabhuti 2/2