(Text with Introduction & English Translation)
                                           Dr. K. P. A. Menon
Ascharyachudamanih, a drama in seven Acts has been assented as the earliest of Sanskrit dramas composed in the southern part of India. The author Saktibhandra is believed to have been a contemporary of Adi Sankara on the basis of a story that the budding genius had read out the play to the Jagatguru before it was enacted.
The theme for the play has been drawn from the great epic of Ramayana though the playwright has introduced his own innovations by introducing a duplicate set of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana with the magical powers in which Rakshasas are proficient. It is the wondrous crest-jewel and the equally efficacious ring gifted to them by the hermits of Dandakaranya that enables Rama and Sita to divine the tricks that were being played on them by the deceitful Rakshasas. The emotions; that dominate the play are those of the 'heroic' (vira) and of wonder (adbhuta) with the frequent interplay of sringara, karuna and others also. The play opens with the Surpanakha episode and the construction of the hermitage at Pancavati and ends with the killing of Ravana and the return to Ayodhya in the aerial car after the fire ordeal.
Among the great Ramayana plays Ascharyachudamani has a prominent place along with the famous plays of Bhasa and Bhavabhuti.
 
                           CLASSICAL SANSKRIT LITERATURE OF KERALA VOL NO. 1