Malatimadhava

Play written by the Sanskrit dramatist
Bhavabhuti (early 8th c.), who was particularly noted for his ability to express
and transmit the play of emotions
through language. The play’s general
plot is the triumphant love between
Malati and her beloved Madhava (an
epithet of the god Krishna), despite
numerous obstacles along the way. The
drama is noted as an exquisite poetic
work, but also because the primary
villain is an evil ascetic, generally
believed to be a member of the extinct
ascetic sect known as Kapalikas. The
Kapalikas were devotees (bhakta) of
Shiva, emulating him in his wrathful
form as Bhairava: wearing the hair long
and matted, smearing the body with
ash (preferably from the cremation
ground), and bearing a club and a
skull-bowl (kapala). The Kapilikas are
cited as indulging in forbidden
behavior—drinking wine, eating meat,
using cannabis and other drugs,
performing human sacrifice, and
orgiastic sexuality—which made them
feared. Bhavabhuti’s description is
one of the earliest references to
Shaiva asceticism, and thus historically
significant. The play has been translated
into English by Michael Coulson and
published in an anthology titled Three
Sanskrit Plays, 1981.