Professor Lal has provided an introduction on the history and aesthetic theory of Sanskrit drama, individual prefaces for each play, a phonetic guide to the pronunciation of the Indian names, and a selective bibliography.

The 'Playworld of Sanskrit Drama' is the 'poetic universe' (kavyasam) posited by Anandavardhana and other poeticians. Each of the seven plays studied here - works of Bhasa, Kalidasa, Sudraka, and Visakhadatta- provides us with a different angle of approach to the crucial issues of kavya, and their fundamental ambivalence, which cannot be understood or even delineated by the conventional approach to Indian aesthetics.

Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India moves through three levels of understanding: (1) What the components of the traditional Natya Production are as described in Natyasastra and other ancient Indian dramaturgical works; how they are interrelated and how they are employed in the staging of Rasa-oriented sanskrit plays?Probing deep into the immense reaches of time to India`s archaic past the author pieces together a fascinatingly intricate design of play production down to the units and subunits of expression and executive.

Provides information on the history and present practice of theater in the world.

The future of theatre history studies requires consideration of theatre as a global phenomenon. The Challenge of World Theatre History offers the first full-scale argument for abandoning an obsolete and parochial Eurocentric approach to theatre history in favor of a more global perspective. This book exposes the fallacies that reinforce the conventional approach and defends the global perspective against possible objections. It moves beyond the conventional nation-based geography of theatre in favor of a regional geography and develops a new way to demarcate the periods of theatre history. Finally, the book outlines a history that recognizes the often-connected developments in theatre across Eurasia and around the world. It makes the case that world theatre history is necessary not only for itself, but for the powerful comparative and contextual insights it offers to all theatre scholars and students, whatever their special areas of interest.

Among the known dramatic composition of ancient India, the Mrichchhakatika occupies a very high and distinguished position. It is a creation of outstanding brilliance. The Mrichchhatika is a drama in ten Acts based on the story of the love of Charudatta, a prominent but poor inhabitant of Ujjayini, and Vasantasena, an exquisitely beautiful but pure-minded courtesan of the city. By virtue of its high dramatic charm and its great literary excellence it has endeared itself to generations of spectators and readers; the play has been adapted in many Indian vernaculars, and in that modern form still continues to draw admiring crowds. The editor makes this book as comprehensive and useful as possible. To the commentary of Prithvidhara, which is somewhat abrupt and meager in places, he has made considerable additions where he felt them to be necessary for the elucidation of the text. The relation of this play to: Bhasa's Charudatta has been fully discussed in the Introduction. The Prakrit passages, which prove a hindrance to the student, have been printed below the text, and along with the' text, only the Sanskrit renderings are given above; the utility of this contrivance has been established in actual use.

A comprehensive and authoritative single-volume reference work on the theatre arts of Asia-Oceania. Nine expert scholars provide entries on performance in twenty countries from Pakistan in the west, through India and Southeast Asia to China, Japan and Korea in the east. An introductory pan-Asian essay explores basic themes - they include ritual, dance, puppetry, training, performance and masks. The national entries concentrate on the historical development of theatre in each country, followed by entries on the major theatre forms, and articles on playwrights, actors and directors. The entries are accompanied by rare photographs and helpful reading lists.