Читать книгу The Rise of Wisdom Moon - Krishna mishra - Страница 35

introduction

and rupakanataka (“metaphorical drama”) in order to describe “The Rise of Wisdom Moon” and works resembling it.7 Nevertheless, allegory had in fact been used by Indian authors from the earliest times. The image of the twoheaded bird, for instance, first found in the Rgveda (i.164. 20), was taken over in the Mundaka Upanisad as an allegory of the dimorphism of the soul. By citing this famous passage in act six (6.112 [20]), Krishna·mishra in effect plants the roots of his inspiration deep in the most ancient strata of Sanskrit literature.

Fragments of early Buddhist dramas, dating to the first centuries ce, also make use of allegory, and include characters with names like “Fame” and “Pride.” Nevertheless, these plays, so far as we can now know them, do not appear to have been sustained allegories, that is, they were primarily stories of Buddhist saints, in which some episodes took allegorical form. And there is no evidence of knowledge of these works among later Indian writers, much less of their exerting any influence upon the way they wrote.8

At the same time, regarding several of the devices he em- ploys in developing his allegory, Krishna·mishra’s debts to earlier dramatic writing can sometimes be discerned. One example is to be found in his satire of the three heterodox schools—Jainism, Buddhism and Kapalika Shaivism—in the third act. In this case, the inspiration of the seventh-century farce Mattavilasa, the “Madman’s Play,” of Mahen- dra·varman seems unmistakeable.9 And in Krishna·mishra’s incorporation of elements of philosophical debate and dialogue into the drama at several points, he may well have the model of Jayanta·bhatta’s Agamadambara, “Much Ado ________

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