Author: BHAVABHŪTI
Biography:
BHAVAVBHŪTI (c. 700-800 CE: Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre)
His real name was Srikantha and he was born to a Brahman family in Padmapura, Maharashtra, India. He became a poet and scholar in the court of Raja Yesovarman of Kanyakubja and his plays--three of which have survived--are considered to rival the works of the earlier Sanskrit poet, Kalidasa (q.v.). Two plays are listed in this database in translations by Horace Hayman Wilson; for information on Wilson see the headnote for Kalidasa. Wilson includes a learned headnote on Bhavabhūti in his edition of Malati-Madhava which he translated as Malati and Madhava, or the Stolen Marriage. The play is based on an invented plot but Bhavabhūti's two other plays, Mahaviracarita and his masterpiece, Uttara-Ramacarita (translated by Wilson as Uttara Rama Cheritra) develop material from the epic Ramayana. (Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre online 12 June 2025; Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance online 12 June 2025) SR