is usually preceded by trial and tribula-
tion. The other is that the drama’s
dialogue is in two different languages.
Characters from the higher classes
speak Sanskrit, the language of high,
learned culture. Characters from the
lower classes (including many of the
women) speak in Prakrit, an umbrella
term for the grammatically simpler
vernacular languages that developed
from Sanskrit through natural linguistic
change. This difference in dialogue
doubtless reflected the social realities of
the time in which the play was written,
when Sanskrit would have been the elite
language but was always learned as a
second language after learning one’s
“natural” language. The play has been
translated into English by Michael
Coulson and published in an anthology
titled Three Sanskrit Plays, 1981.Abhimanyu
In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Hindu epics, Abhimanyu is one of
Arjuna’s sonsby his wife, Subhadra.
Abhimanyu is known as a great warrior
who fights with valor in the
Mahabharata war. As he fights in battle,
he enters the enemy’s chakravyuha
formation, a battle array that is widely
believed to be virtually impenetrable.
According to tradition, Arjuna is one of
the few people who knows how toAbhimanyu
Dancers performing in the Kathak style. Most Kathak performances include dances in the abhinaya genre,
in which performers use dance to act out a story from religious literature.