“How the Nagas Were Pleased” and “The Shattered Thighs”

By Harṣa and Bhāsa
Translated by Andrew Skilton

Two plays that break the rules: both show the hero dying on stage, a scenario forbidden in Sanskrit dramaturgy. From widely different ideological and social backgrounds, each evokes intense emotion in an exploration of love and heroism, conflict and peace, idealism and pragmatic reconciliation.

Harsha’s Play, composed in the seventh century CE, re-examines the Buddhist tale of a magician prince who makes the ultimate sacrifice to save a hostage snake (nāga).

Shankha·chuda: So, if we deserve your sympathy, think of a plan so that my mother here will not give up her life tortured by my disaster.
Hero: What needs planning here? The plan is already conceived. But it depends on you.
Shankha·chuda: In what way?
Hero: If you want her living, when you dying she’d die. And you living she’d live, then save yourself with my life. I am the plan. So give me the victim’s mark quickly, so that I can put it on and get up on the slaughter stone.

Attributed to Bhasa, the illustrious predecessor to Kali·dasa, “The Shattered Thighs” transforms a crucial episode of the Maha·bhárata war. As he dies from a foul blow to the legs delivered in his duel with Bhima, Duryódhana’s character is inverted, depicted as a noble and gracious exemplar amidst the wreckage of the fearsome battle scene. As ignoble man dies a hero’s death.

376 pp. | ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-4066-8 | ISBN-10: 0-8147-4066-9 | Co-published by New York University Press and JJC Foundation

Excerpts

“How the Nagas Were Pleased”
Act 2 (pp. 58–71)
(22 pp, 1.34mb)

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Download CSL Front Matter (pdf)
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Download the title page and table of contents and one chapter of the book (in English and Sanskrit on facing pages), bundled together as a .pdf file. You can also download the CSL Front Matter (6pp, 1.3mb). It describes how we transliterate the Sanskrit text in the Roman alphabet and includes a guide to pronunciation. It also explains our system of representing phonetic fusion (sandhi).

You can set Adobe Acrobat Reader to display the Sanskrit text and translation in facing page view. Simply go to “View” in the toolbar, select “Page Layout” and click on “Facing.”

About the Translator

Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Indian Religions, University of Cardiff.

eCSL Word Frequency Counts

Top 50 Verbs

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	Like	100
2	Come	68
3	Looking	59
4	See	59
5	Look	51
6	Say	41
7	Enters	27
8	Please	25
9	Gone	24
10	Made	24

11	Going	24
12	Make	22
13	Leave	21
14	Seen	21
15	Taking	21
16	Seeing	20
17	Bear	20
18	Give	19
19	Take	19
20	Think	19

21	Coming	19
22	Know	18
23	Listen	16
24	Tell	16
25	Fallen	15
26	Making	15
27	Approaching	14
28	Speak	13
29	Looks	13
30	Laughing	13

31	Follow	12
32	Help	12
33	Leaves	11
34	Drawn	11
35	Instructed	11
36	Want	11
37	Smiling	11
38	Addressing	11
39	Sit	11
40	Open	11

41	Bow	11
42	Destroyed	11
43	Supporting	11
44	Given	10
45	Scattered	10
46	Hanging	10
47	Said	10
48	Getting	10
49	Feel	10
50	Enter	10

Top 50 Nouns

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	Hero	147
2	Act	95
3	Companion	71
4	Maidservant	67
5	Shankhachuda	63
6	Son	61
7	Mitravasu	57
8	Heroine	55
9	Duryodhana	51
10	Boy	50

11	Hand(s)	50
12	Malayavati	47
13	Body(ies)	44
14	Two	44
15	Eye(s)	42
16	Queen	41
17	Garuda	41
18	Face	39
19	Jimutaketu	39
20	Friend	38

21	Scene	36
22	Feet	33
23	Mother	33
24	Today	32
25	Life	32
26	Point	32
27	Heart	31
28	Jimutavahana	31
29	Soldier	30
30	King	29

31	Father	29
32	Lady	29
33	Chief	29
34	Prince	29
35	Five	29
36	Time	28
37	Man	26
38	Three	26
39	Woman	26
40	Parents	25

41	Way	25
42	Battle	25
43	Tears	24
44	Flower(s)	23
45	Durjaya	23
46	Ground	22
47	Four	22
48	Dhritarashtra	22
49	Mountain	21
50	Husband	21