The contemporary Social Reality portrayed in Sanskrit Comic Farce, the Mattavilasa [Farce of the drunken Sport]

Abstract

The Mattavilasa is a one act humourous farce written in Sanskrit and Prakrit and authorship is assigned to the Pallava ruler of South India named Mahendravarman the First[600-630A.D] who ruled from his capital at Kanchipuram. The initiators of the Pallava dynasty assume to have been adventures of northern descent, who settled in Dekkan peninsula at about the commencement of the Christian era. As a consequent of the disintegration of the Sathavahana [Andhra] supremacy close to the third century A.D., The Pallavas gained the opportunity to establish Themselves as autonomous miniature power.Slowly and steadily their domain extended rapidly until they graded as one of the mightiest states of the south India who were constantly at war with neighboring kingdoms of Chera, Chola and Pandya. The Pallava capital Kanchipuram [Presentley Conjevaram] supplied the background for the Maththavilasaprahasana. Pallava kings bestowed generous and cultured benefaction to diverse art forms and science. Ruminants of grand architecture and sculpture are living evidence to the glorious by gone past. Mahendravarman the first king who turned into a scribe. In his opus magnum mathavilasaprahasana offeres a convincing portrayal of the socio-cultural aspects of the contemporary South India .It is important to note the cultural sensitivity with which this reconfiguration has been undertaken by the author. In doing so he scrutinizes the experiences of clergy and their social milieu in a remarkably perceptive manner demonstrating an estimable narrative dexterity. In this study it is envisaged to examine the socio-cultural depiction of the farce and special focus will be paid to analyze the religious dialectic between the Buddhists and the ardent followers of Tantrism.