Author's Circumstances

Playwright: King Shūdraka (200 BCE- ?)

King Shūdraka was an Indian king and influential Sanskrit playwright. There is little biographical
information available about him but what we do know is given to us in the prologue of his play.

"Enough of this tedious work, which fritters away the interest of the audience! Let me then most reverently salute the honorable gentlemen, and announce our intention to produce a drama called "The Little Clay Cart." Its author was a man

Who vied with elephants in lordly grace;Whose eyes were those of the chakora birdThat feeds on moonbeams; glorious his faceAs the full moon; his person, all have heard,Was altogether lovely. First in worthAmong the twice-born was this poet, knownAs Shūdraka far over all the earth,His virtue's depth unfathomed and alone."

From his style of writing, we can gather that King Shūdraka was an individualist and wasn’t afraid
to break social norms. His direct use of language vastly differs from other prominent playwrights
of the time like Kālidāsa and Bhavabhūti.  “Indeed The Little Clay Cart was the only extant drama which fulfills the spirit of the drama of invention

(prakarana), as defined by the Sanskrit canons of dramaturgy”, says editor Charles Rockwell Lanman. Prakarana is defined as "an Indian drama involving fictional situations from ordinary life." King Sudraka used his creativity and could get around the technical prescriptions of the Sanskrit dramaturgy: disregarding the rule that a prakarana should be named by combining the names of the hero and the heroine, he named it Mrichchhakatika, which indeed elevated the curiosity of the audience to know as to what the play was all about. Another rule in Sanskrit dramaturgy prescribes that the hero of the play must appear in every Act, as against which Carudatta does not appear in Acts 2, 4, and 8 of this play.

“HARVARD ORIENTAL SERIES.” The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Clay Cart [MṚCCHAKAṬIKA], Translated by Arthur William Ryder, www.gutenberg.org/files/21020/21020-h/21020-h.htm#FNanchor_2_2.

Murty, G. R. K. “Mrichchhakatika, an Atypical Sanskrit Play.” IUP Journal of English Studies, IUP Publications, 1 Dec. 2015, www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3928305681/mrichchhakatika-an-atypical-sanskrit-play.

“Online Library of Liberty.” Shudraka: Life and Plays - Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org/pages/shudraka-life-and-plays.

Williams Jackson, A. V. “Certain Dramatic Elements in Sanskrit Plays, with Parallels in the English Drama.” Vol. 19, no. 3, 1898, pp. 241–254. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/287970. Accessed 18 Oct. 2019.