THE AUTHORSHIP OF BHASA OVER THE THIRTEEN TRIVANDRUM PLAYS OR BHASA PROBLEM

                                                         
       Bhasa is one of the predecessors of Kalidasa.  Kalidasa mentions his name in the prologue of his drama Malavikagnimitram as an established and popular dramatist in the following words: ‘Baasakivapu~saaOimallaadInaaM p`iqatyaSasaama\’. Bhasa is known to have written a number of dramas. However, till recently, Bhasa was only a name and his plays were lost. The works on rhetorics contained some information about his works. In 1911, some manuscripts were discovered by a great scholar by name Mahamahopadhyaya Ganapati Sastrin. They were thirteen in number in the same bundle and bore some mutual likenesses. Ganapati Sastrin edited them and attributed all of them to the authorship of Bhasa.

His arguments in support of Bhasa’s authorship can be summed up as follows:

(1)   All these plays begin with the arrival ‘saU~Qaar:’ (Stage-Manager/Stage-Director)on the stage and then ‘naandI’ (Benediction in the plays) is recited. This is quite a peculiar feature not found in the dramas of other writers. In the HarshaCaritam, Bana uses the words ‘saU~QaarÌtarmBaO: naaTkO:’ while referring to Bhasa, supporting this trait found in these plays.

(2)    The prologue is called ‘sqaapnaa’ in these plays while the other well-known plays have the word ‘p`stavanaa’ or ‘AamauKma\’ to refer to it.

(3)    The prologues do not contain any reference to the name of the author and of the work, thereby showing that these plays belong to pre-classical period.

(4)   In most of these plays, the same expressions occur in the prologue: ‘evamaaya-imaEaana\ iva&apyaaima.Ayao ikM nau Klau iva&apnavyaga`o Sabd [va EaUyato.

(5)   The Nandi verse contains the names of the characters in the play concerned thus having the Mudralankara.

(6)   The ‘Bartvaa@yama\’ (Epilogue - the conclusion of the plays) in most of these plays ends with the prayer ‘rajaisaMh: p`Saastu na:’.

(7)   These plays contain a number of expressions which are incorrect in the light of Panini’s grammar, e.g., ‘AapRcCaima’ ‘]plaPsyait’ ‘d`xyato’ ‘rxato’ ‘kaiSara&:’ ‘sava-ra&:’ ‘AlaM ktu-M’ etc. On the strength of these similarities found in common among these plays, the learned scholar Ganapati Sastri attributed them to the same author.

Soon after the publication of these plays called Thirteen Trivandrum plays, a host of scholars began to oppose the conclusion arrived at by Ganapati Sastri. They held that these plays are only the stage scripts of Cakyars. They are trained actors in Kerala. But one important thing must be kept in the mind while discussing this problem. From the references made by Rajasekhara it is known that Bhasa’s Svapnavasavadatta - ‘svaPnavaasavad<ama\’ stood the test of fire when a critical examination was conducted for the plays of Bhasa.  ‘BaasanaaTkcaËo|ip CokO: ixaPto prIixatuma\. svaPnavaasavad<asya dahkao|BaUnna pavak:..’

Bana also pays a glowing tribute to Bhasa and his Svapnavasavadatta. Many of the verses found in the plays of Bhasa are quoted by famous rhetoricians. On the basis of these references we are certain that there was a dramatist by name Bhasa who was also a predecessor of Kalidasa. A careful study of the thirteen plays would show that all these plays must have been written by a single author. Hence the modern research has accepted all these plays as plays of Bhasa.