Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part G (2021)

Abstract
Vishkhadatta created a completely new genre in Sanskrit Literature by bringing mainstream politics into literature. In post -Kalidasa era, this type of subject in a play was very rare. After the destruction of Nanda dynasty, Chandra Gupta Maurya ascended the throne. The theme of the play is to bring Nanda’s trustworthy Amatya Rakshas in to the confidence of Chandra Gupta’s. While depicting the characters Vishkhadatta showed his exquisite mastery in representation of various characters by showing different shades of them. Like other side roles, equal importance was also given on the child character too. Every character, though being in a certain genre is also unique in their own ways. The amount of imagination engulfed in these child characters represents the reality on one hand and at the same time enlivens the motion of the play to another height. Mastery of Vishkhadatta while depicting the child character does not merely lie in the dialogue, acting or representation only but the inherent psychological traits analysed in a completely different manner uplifts the play on a different level. All the devices tried by Chanakya to convince Amatya Rakshas and the efforts of Rakshas’s wife to safe guard the family from Chanakya’s espionage system helps to depict the infancy of her son. Though her mother tries to confine her son in a safe house but an infant heart can’t be captured and ultimately breaks free. The natural curiosity of a child is universal and nothing can contain that. The spontaneous exuberance of an infant represented by Rakshas’s child bears the signature of natural reflex of a child. The unique signature of Vishkhadatta’s creation has come to full bloom through the depiction of this child character.