पृष्ठम्:विक्रमोर्वशीयम् (कल्पलताव्याख्यासमेतम्).djvu/९१

पुटमेतत् सुपुष्टितम्
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ESTIMATE OF THE PLAY.

before him by casting her mask off. Their union was again disturbed as her presence was required in staging a drama at the court of Indra, where she faltered and misquoted a certain query. On account of this failing she was thrown to the mortal world and she was united with her lover. The poorva-rag turns here into a full-fledged union.

 Once, thereafter, the couple feel inclined to have a short outing in the course of which the hero steals a glance at a Vidyadhar girl, Udayavati by name, which is another pivot of the dramatic res-business. Urvashi gets jealous at this breach and hastily walks ahead of the hero and steps within the forbidden area of the Kumarivan. There she is turned into a creeper. The hero is in quest of her and bewails at her disappearance and inquires of every living being in the forest about her and gives vent to his real feelings of a lover. The poet is at his height in his dramatic art here. The acquisition of a jewel brings about their union and they return home happily. That jewel is picked away by a vulture, whom Urvashi's son in the Chyavan's ashram above kills. This action was felt repugnant to the hermitage living and Urvashi's son was asked to be brought to the hero. The sight of the son was the limit of the period upto which Urvashi could have resided with Vikrama and so Urvashi was sorry to see Vikrama embracing their child. When asked she explained the reason of her despondency and the king was prepared to go to a forest for leading an ascetic life. Indrà had this intelligence of the king's resolve and deputed Nārada to dissuade the king from quitting the arms in view of an impending war between gods and demons and was pleased to extend the period of their union till Vikrama lived. The son, Ayush was nominated as heir-apparent and the couple passed a happy life thereafter. Thus closes the drama with a benedictory valediction by the stage-manager to the audience.

 Looking at the plot it appears that the plan of this play is not dissimilar to, nor in any way the denoument is less charming than that of his other plays. As all his dramas are erotic, the substratum is very common and the outline of his plays does not differ in material points.

 Theory of Obligation: Unlike any other dramatist, Kalidasa introduces his heroine to the hero in some difficulty or the other. The emancipation of the heroine from that trouble is manoeuvred at the hands of the hero and thus the

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