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was therefore a difficult and expensive process. The Brahmans-with their marvellous memory never cared to recite the dramas arid to propagate dramatic literature orally since the drama formed no part of their sacred scripture. Besides the-works c-f a certain dramatist became the property of a-particular class of professional actors who deliberately withheld publishing them and with whom necessarily the dramas, themselves became extinct.
. 'i
If
The one drama that survived this wreck is the Mrit cha-katika. Sudraka is the reputed author and the prologue-gives him a high place in arms and in letters. He lived a* hundred years and then burnt himself leaving his kingdoms' to his son.
Tradition includes him among the universal monarcfis of India and places him between Cbandragupta and Vikramaditya, Tne late Col. Wilford considers him the same with the* founder of the Andhra dynasty of Magadha Kings, succeeding to the throne by deposing his master, the last of the Kanwa« race, to whom he was minister. It is further asserted in the Kumarika-Khanda of the Skanda Parana that in the year 3800 Kali a great King Sudraka would reign. This date is 190 A. D-Therefore Sudraka must be that king. '
A work of Sudraka's reign, this may be considered the oldest specimen of the Hindu drama, arid internal evidence there is ample to support the view:—
I. The style of the play is simplej unaf fificial &tid free frorb rhetorical devices with which sii&iiaf *'tt$fk teem* Such a simplicity cannot be attributed td ^aiiy ¥tM df^sthodl.•'•'".'•' " ;;ultiplication of M S S*ave or comic character, are biting, scratcWng, kissing, • eating, sleeping, bath and the marriage ceremony.