Bhavabhuti
{{Short description|Sanskrit scholar, poet, and playwright in 8th-century India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Bhavabhuti
{{no bold|भवभूति}}
| honorific_prefix = Poet of the Karunā Rasa
| birth_name = Srikantha Nilakantha{{cite book |last1=Mani |first1=Vettam |title=Puranic Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Work with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature |date=1 January 2015 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-812-080-597-2 |pages=922 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=laVZSgAACAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |access-date=23 May 2025}}{{cite web |title=Bhavabhūti (active 8th century) |url=https://www.nli.org.il/en/a-topic/987007463598405171 |publisher=The National Library of Israel |access-date=23 May 2025}}
| pseudonym = Bhavabhuti; Srikantha; Srikantha Audumbara; Udumbara; Udumbara Brahmin
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{circa|680 CE}}
| birth_place = Padmapura village, Vidarbha region, Chalukya Dynasty{{cite book |last1=Thamke |first1=Abishek |title=History of Maharashtra |date=19 February 2015 |pages=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_Maharashtra.html?id=BP2WCwAAQBAJ&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareHistory |access-date=23 May 2025}} (present-day Maharashtra, India)
| death_date = {{circa|750|760 CE}}{{cite book |last1=Kosambi |first1=Damodar Dharmanand |title=Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings |date=24 November 2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press India |isbn=978-019-567-730-0 |pages=870|url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Combined_Methods_in_Indology_and_Other_W.html?id=tfA9PgAACAAJ |access-date=23 May 2025}}
| death_place = Most likely Vidarbha region, Rashtrakuta Empire{{cite book |last1=Altekar |first1=Anant Sadashiv |title=Rāshṭrakūṭas and Their Times |date=1934 |publisher=Oriental Book Agency |pages=441 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Rāshṭrakūṭas_and_Their_Times.html?id=9McBAAAAMAAJ |access-date=23 May 2025}}
| language = Sanskrit
| occupation = ·Poet ·Playwright
| module = Predecessor Kalidasa
| period = {{circa|700|760 CE}}{{cite book |last1=Stein |first1=M.A. |title=Kalhana's Rajatarangini: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir, Volume 2 |date=14 December 2009 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-812-080-370-1 |pages=957 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzxTkI9iAxkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |access-date=23 May 2025}}
| genre = Sanskrit drama
| subject =
| notableworks = Mahaviracharita
Malatimadhava Uttararamacharita
}}
Bhavabhūti (born Śrīkaṇṭha Nīlakaṇṭha; Devanagari: भवभूति; {{circa|680}}-{{circa|750|760 CE}}) was a classical Sanskrit scholar, poet, and playwright of eighth-century India.{{cite book |last1=Borooah |first1=Anundoram |title=Bhavabhuti And His Place In Sanskrit Literature |date=1878 |publisher=Khetromohan Mukherjea |pages=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Bhavabhuti_and_His_Place_in_Sanskrit_Lit.html?id=vLcIAAAAQAAJ |access-date=23 May 2025}}{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=W. J. |title=A Dictionary of Hinduism |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-019-861-025-0 |pages=384 |url=https://books.google.com/books?vid=9780198610250 |access-date=23 May 2025}} He is considered a key successor to Kalidasa and is often regarded as matching his literary stature.{{cite web |title=Bhavabhuti, Bhavabhūti, Bhavabhūtī, Bhava-bhuti: 15 definitions |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhavabhuti |publisher=Wisdom Library |access-date=23 May 2025}}{{cite web |title=Bhavabhuti |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bhavabhuti#ref224875 |publisher=Britannica |access-date=23 May 2025}} His best known work Uttararamacarita (translated as The Later Deeds of Rama), earned him the title "Poet of the Karunā Rasa".
Background
Bhavabhuti was born in Padmapura, Aamgaon, at Gondia district,in Maharashtra. He was born in a Audumbar/Udumbar Brahmin family of scholars.{{sfn|Pandey|2007|p=19}} He is described as a scion of the Yāyāvara family, bearing the surname Udumbara. His Kāshyapa brahmin ancestors adhered to the Black Yajurveda and kept the five sacred fire.{{cite book |title=Bhavabhūti's Mālatīmādhava: With the Commentary of Jagaddhara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfYaDIqKhXgC&pg=PA5 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |language=sa |date=1997| isbn=978-81-208-1306-9}}
His real name was Srikantha Nilakantha, and he was the son of Nilakantha and Jatukarni. He received his education at 'Padmapawaya', a place some 42 km South-West of Gwalior.
Dayananidhi Paramahansa is known to be his guru. He composed his historical plays at 'Kalpi', a place on banks of river Yamuna.
He is believed to have been the court poet of king Yashovarman of Kannauj. Kalhana, the 12th-century historian, places him in the entourage of the king, who was defeated by Lalitaditya Muktapida, king of Kashmir, in 736 AD.
Malatimadhava
The play is set in the city of Padmavati. The king desires that his minister's daughter Malati marry a youth called Nandana. Malati is in love with Madhava ever since she saw him and drew his portrait. Madhava reciprocates, and draws a portrait of her in turn. Malati suspects her father's motives in falling in with the King's plans for her. A side plot involves the lovers' friends Makaranda and Madayantika. The latter is attacked by a tiger, and Makaranda rescues her, getting wounded in the process.
File:Mālatīmādhava Bhavabhūti (मालतीमाधव भवभूति)– Pigment Painting (Old).jpg
After numerous travails, all ends well, with the two couples uniting. According to the renowned Sanskritist Daniel H.H. Ingalls, the Malatimadhava is a work that combines love and horror with a felicity never again equaled in Sanskrit literature.{{citation | title = An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry |author1=Vidyakara | author2=Daniel H.H. Ingalls|publisher=Harvard Oriental Series Volume 44|page = 75}}
Indebtedness to Kautilya and Arthashastra
According to Dasharatha Sharma, the dramatists Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti utilized the Arthashastra of Kautilya while composing their famous works. Kalidasa is indebted to Kautilya's Arthashastra for material in the Raghuvamsa.Indian Historical Quarterly Vol XXV, part 2 Similarly, Bhavabhuti utilizes words and ideas from the Arthashastra in the Malatimadhava and the Mahaviracharita. There is indeed a striking resemblance between the methods advocated by Ravana's minister, Malayavana and the policies suggested by Kautilya in the Arthashastra.'Bhavabhuti's Indebtedness to Kautilya' Journal of the Ganganath Jha Research Institute Vol VIII, part 3, May 1951
Bhavabhuti's native place
On the basis of Bhavbhuti's literature, it is said that he was born at Padmapura Village in Amgaon Tahsil of Gondia District of Maharashtra.
In this present era, local people around Padampura are trying to keep memories of Bhavbhuti's ancient existence alive with them. Late shri Laxmanrao Mankar Guruji named his education society as "Bhavbhuti Education Society" in 1950. Yashodabai Rahile founded "Bhavbhuti Mandal" (community) in 1996.
Historian & Principal Mr O. C. Patle has published a book, "भवभूति अब गीतों में" (Bhavabhuti, now in his songs), he also has published some audio CDs and cassettes to keep the legend's memories alive.
"Bhavabhuti Ranga Mandir" has also been constructed at Gondia Town in the Honour of Poet Bhavabhuti.
State's local TV channel, Sahyadri and E TV Marathi telecasts some documentaries on the life of this great poet. People and some non-profit groups have erected a few statues in the region where the poet was there once.
Literary works
{{further|List of Sanskrit plays in English translation}}
- Mahaviracharita (The story of the highly courageous one), depicting the early life of Rama
- Malatimadhava, a play based on the romance of Malati and Madhava
- Uttararamacarita (The story of Rama's later life), depicts Rama's coronation, the abandonment of Sita, and their reunion
References
- {{Citation
|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian literature
|volume=1
|first=Ravi Narayan
|last=Pandey
|publisher=Anmol Publications
|year=2007
|isbn=978-81-261-3118-1
}}
External links
- [https://archive.org/details/malatimadhavaors00bhavuoft Malati and Madhava], translated by Horace Hayman Wilson
- The Uttara Rama Charita of Bhavabhuti. With Sanskrit commentary by Pandit Bhatji Shastri Ghate of Nagpur and a close English translation by Vinayak Sadashiv Patvardhan. The Nyaya Sudha Press, Nagpur 1895 [https://books.google.com/books?id=XxMpAAAAYAAJ&q=intitle%3Auttara+intitle%3Arama+intitle%3Acharita]
- Rama's later history or Uttara-Ram-Charita of Bhavabhuti. Critically edited with notes and an English transltation by Shripad Krishna Belvalkar. Harvard University Press 1915 [https://books.google.com/books?id=9t7TAAAAMAAJ&q=rama%27s+later+history+uttara+rama+charita]
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Category:8th-century Indian poets
Category:Ancient Indian dramatists and playwrights
Category:Date of birth unknown