Bhavabhuti

Bhavabhuti (Sanskrit: भवभूति) was an 8th-century scholar of India noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit. His plays are considered equivalent to the works of Kalidasa. Bhavbhuti was born in Padmapura, Vidarbha, in Gondia district, on Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh border. His real name was Srikantha Nilakantha, and he was the son of Nilakantha and Jatukarni. He received his education at 'Padmapawaya', a place some 42 km South-West of Gwalior. Paramhans Dnyananidhi is known to be his guru. He composed his historical plays at 'Kalpi', a place on banks of river Yamuna.

He is believed to have been the court poet of king Yashovarman of Kannauj. Kalhana, the 12th-century historian, places him in the entourage of the king, who was defeated by Lalitaditya Muktapida, king of Kashmir, in 736 AD.

The play is set in the city of Padmavati. The king desires that his minister's daughter Malati marry a youth called Nandana. Malati is in love with Madhava ever since she saw him and drew his portrait. Madhava reciprocates, and draws a portrait of her in turn. Malati suspects her father's motives in falling in with the King's plans for her. A side plot involves the lovers' friends Makaranda and Madayantika. The latter is attacked by a tiger, and Makaranda rescues her, getting wounded in the process. After numerous travails, all ends well, with the two couples uniting. According to the renowned sanskritist Daniel H.H. Ingalls, the Malatimadhava is a work that combines love and horror with a felicity never again equaled in Sanskrit literature.

According to Dasharatha Sharma, the dramatists Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti utilized the Arthashastra of Kautilya while composing their famous works. Kalidasa is indebted to Kautilya's Arthashastra for material in the Raghuvamsa. Similarly, Bhavabhuti utilizes words and ideas from the Arthashastra in the Malatimadhava and the Mahaviracharita. There is indeed a striking resemblance between the methods advocated by Ravana's minister, Malayavana and the policies suggested by Kautilya in the Arthashastra.

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