*** Welcome to piglix ***

Madhyamavyayoga


Madhyamavyayoga or Madhyama Vyāyoga (Hindi: मध्यमव्याbयोग), (English: The Middle One) is a Sanskrit play attributed to Bhāsa. There is no real consensus regarding when the play was written, and it has been dated variously from 475 BCE to the 11th century CE. It has been pointed out that the famous Sanskrit poet Nannaya, who lived around 400 AD, has mentioned Bhasa in his works, and hence Bhasa is dated around 350 AD. However, many scholars disagree, and opine that Bhasa lived around the 7th to 8th centuries CE, placing the play's creation within the same time period. Madhyama Vyayoga focuses on the name confusion between the priest Keshav Das's middle son and the middle Pandava prince Bhima. Also, the reunion of Bhima and Ghatokach as father and son take place. While the characters in this tale are taken from the Mahabharata, this particular incidence is solely a product of Bhasa. Madhyamavyayoga falls under a particular type of Sanskrit drama called Vyayoga.

Madhyama refers to the middle one: In this case, the middle sibling. Vyayoga is a type of Sanskrit plays of only one act, containing heroic overtones and lacking significant feminine roles or romantic themes.

The play takes place in the same forest in which the Pandava brothers are spending their exile, and commences with a Brahmin family of a mother, father, and their three sons being pursued by Ghatokach, son of the demoness Hidimbā and the second Pandava prince, Bhima. Ghatokach, however, is only doing his mother’s bidding, for she has asked him to find some human for her to have as a meal. Upon capturing the Brahmin family, Ghatokach states that he will release the family, as long as one individual becomes Hidimbā’s dinner. In acts of selflessness, each person in the family strives to be taken by Ghatokach in order to save the rest of the family. The priest (the father) states that he will go to preserve his family. The mother protests that her husband means everything to her and that she has served her purpose as a mother so she must go. Both the first and second son argue that it is they instead that must save the family. Upon painfully discussing who will have to give their life to spare the other members of the family, the father confesses that the first son is his favorite, and the mother admits that the youngest is hers, leaving the middle son to be taken by Hidimbā. Before facing his fate, the middle son first asks permission to first quench his thirst at a nearby lake.


...
Wikipedia

...