Introduction to the Samavakāra type of Drama

The West has a long and rich tradition of dramas. However, it does not have the tradition of drama similar to Samavakāra. H. H. Wilson (1998, Drama, p.23) therefore criticizes the story of the Samudramanthana and states that “we may doubt the success of the technique of Hindu, in representing the mountain and the snake, churning-staff and rope or the agitation of the mighty men, from which sprang the personifications of health and beauty and the beverage of immorality. This was, in all probability; clumsily contrived, but the gods and demons were well dressed and better actedand with the patronage of a Rājā, the conflicts between the hosts of heaven and hell for the goddess of beauty and the cup of ambrosia, were no doubt got up with no want of numbers or of splendor.”

The term Samavakāra is derived from “sam + ava + √kṛ; it means “to scatter completely over, or to cover entirely or overwhelmingly with (Monier Williams, vol. ii, p.1690)”. Avaloka, the commentary on the Daśarūpaka, explains the meaning of “Samavakāra” as that wherein the various themes are scattered (samavakīryante’sminnarthā iti samavakāra). It is a unique type of drama, which has three acts, four Junctures and various sentiments and contains some difficult meters from both Vedic and Classical literature. All these features indicate that the acts of Samavakāra are not related to each other.

Surendra Natha Sastri (1961, The Laws and Practice of Sanskrit Drama, p.19) states that Samavakāra is a dramatic representation in which there is fusion of several types of action, characters and motifs. Etymologically, it means that which has “simultaneously so many scattered things (saṅgatair avakīrṇaiśca arthaiḥ kriyate iti samavakāraḥ)and purports to contain several scattered items of action, finally connected with each other. It is peculiar in its composite elementsand differs, from an average drama in several respects.”