CBCS Sem-1 "Mrichchhakatika": Prologue

Comment briefly on the prologue of Mrichchhakatika

Prologue, is a preface or introduction to a literary work. In a dramatic work, the term describes a speech, often in verse, addressed to the audience by one or more of the actors at the opening of a play. The prologue in Mrichchhakatika begins with a brief description about the author.From the prologue we deduce that Sudraka was a Kshatriya king of some country, brave and handsome in appearance knowing Rigveda, Samaveda and mathematics. He knew the art of regarding courtesans and the science of training elephants; was a devotee of Lord Siva and had performed the Asvamedha sacrifice. After establishing his son in his place, he entered the fire and died at the age of a hundred years and ten days. However, it must be remembered that it was the practice for the poet himself to write the prologue and it is queer for Sudraka to be commenting upon his death unless the passage was composed by some other author.

A prologue is also important from the perspective of offering an introduction to the plot of the play. The Sutradhara makes an announcement of the day’s play which is a prakarana entitled Mrichchhakatika and deals about the romance between Charudatta and Vasantasena, and the course of life based on pleasures of love, corruptness of legal procedure, the nature of villains and the workings of destiny. The Prologue of the play captures the strange and complex way this theme unfolds in everyday life. It takes place in a house unsettled by preparations for a festival. A feast is being prepared but the master of the house, the Sutradhara, is dying of hunger while his wife, the Nati, is observing a fast so that she may have the Sutradhara as her husband even in her next life. The same experience of lack of food, of starvation, is being experienced differently by the husband and the wife: the starvation of the husband, induced from outside, is hunger and wants to be satisfied, while the wife’s starvation is voluntary which seeks a reward in the next life.

The prologue is a playful conversation between a hungry and distressed Sutradhara and a fasting but fully-in-control Nati. This conversation, then connects to the story when Sutradhara invites Maitreya, the bramhana for a feast who laments Carudatta’s loss of fortune. Finally introducing the audience to Charudatta who bemoans his poverty and Vasantasena who sees in his poverty an opportunity for a new life.