who were said to speak Sanskrit with accent, emphasis, and expression (udattoktya).  In general, the stage is never left vacant till the end of an Act, nor does any change of locality take place until then.  The commencement of a new Act is often marked, like the commencement of the piece, by an introductory monologue or dialogue spoken by one or more of the dramatis personae, and called Vishkambha or Prave[S’]aka.  In this scene allusion is frequently made to events supposed to have occurred in the interval of the Acts, and the audience is the better prepared to take up the thread of the story, which is then skilfully carried on to the concluding scene.  The piece closes, as it began, with a prayer for national plenty and prosperity, addressed to the favourite deity, and spoken by one of the principal personages of the drama.

Although, in the conduct of the plot, and the delineation of character, Hindu dramatists show considerable skill, yet they do not appear to have been remarkable for much fertility of invention.  Love, according to Hindu notions, is the subject of most of their dramas.

The hero, who is generally a king, and already the husband of a wife or wives (for a wife or two more or less is no encumbrance in Indian plays), is suddenly smitten with the charms of a lovely woman, sometimes a nymph, or, as in the case of [S’]akoontala, the daughter of a nymph by a mortal father.  The heroine is required to be equally impressible, and the first tender glance from the hero’s eye reaches her heart.  With true feminine delicacy, however, she locks the secret of her passion in her own breast, and by her coyness and reserve keeps her lover for a long period in the agonies of suspense.  The hero, being reduced to a proper state of desperation, is harassed by other difficulties.  Either the celestial nature of the nymph is in the way of their union, or he doubts the legality of the match, or he fears his own unworthiness, or he is hampered by the angry jealousy of a previous wife.  In short, doubts, obstacles, and delays make great havoc of both hero and heroine.  They give way to melancholy, indulge in amorous rhapsodies, and become very emaciated.  So far, it must be confessed, the story is decidedly dull, and its chain, however, does not commence until the Fourth Act, when the union of the heroine with King Dushyanta, and her acceptance of the marriage-ring as a token of recognition, are supposed to have taken place.  Then follows the King’s departure and temporary desertion of his bride; the curse pronounced on [S’]akoontala by the choleric Sage; the monarch’s consequent loss of memory; the bride’s journey to the palace of her husband; the mysterious disappearance of the marriage-token; the public repudiation of [S’]akoontala; her miraculous assumption to closes, as it began, with a prayer for national plenty and prosperity, addressed to the favourite deity, and spoken by one of the principal personages of the drama.