Shudraka

Shudraka (IAST: ) was an Indian playwright, to whom three Sanskrit plays are attributed: Mrichchhakatika (The Little Clay Cart), Vinavasavadatta, and a bhana (short one-act monologue), Padmaprabhritaka. According to the prologue of Mrichchhakatika, he was a king; according to one theory, he may have been a third century Abhira king. According to another theory, Shudraka is a mythical figure, and the authorship of plays attributed to him is uncertain. Col. Wilfred has identified him with Simuka, the founder of Satavahana dynasty and placed him in 200 B.C.

Identification
No historical records mention a king by the name Shudraka (which literally means "little servant"). The first four acts of Mrichchhakatika are virtually a copy of the corresponding acts from Bhasa's unfinished play Charudattam. One theory is that the poet of Mrichchhakatika simply finished Bhasa's play out of respect, styling himself as the "little servant" of Bhasa.

A fourteenth century text attributes Mrichchhakatika to a duo, Bhartrimentha and Vikramaditya. The Mrichchhakatika is set in Ujjain. It is known that an Ujjain-based poet by the name Bhartrimentha was a contemporary of Kalidasa; the legendary king Vikramaditya also lived in Ujjain. However, identifying these two as the authors of Mrichchhakatika is chronologically impossible.

Indologist A. K. Warder notes that even the earliest sources that mention Shudraka present him as a legendary figure. Therefore, the existence of Shudraka is doubtful. Some scholars, such as Farley P. Richmond, suggest that Shudraka was simply a mythical figure, and the authorship of works attributed to him is uncertain.

According to another theory, first proposed by Sten Konow, Shudraka was the pen name of a 3rd century Abhira king, possibly Shivadatta, the father of Ishvarasena). This theory is supported by the following points:


 * The Abhiras succeeded or supplanted the Satavahanas, who are also known as the Andhras, and who were probably overlords of the Abhiras at one time. A Skandapurana legend calls Shudraka an "Āndhrabhṛtya", meaning a vassal of the Andhras. According to the Jain tradition (e.g. Vividha-Tirtha-Kalpa), a king named Satavahana gave Shudraka half of his empire. According to other legends, such as the one mentioned in Dandin's Avanti-Sundari, Shudraka either ascended the throne after the premature death of the Satavahana prince Svati, or defeated Svati.
 * Avanti-Sundari-Katha-Sara mentions that Shudraka was born in the Ashmaka region. The Vividha-Tirtha-Kalpa states that he was born in Pratishthana, which is located in the same area. Shudraka is among the earliest dramatists to use the Maharashtri Prakrit, the language of this area, in a play.
 * The Skandapurana places Shudraka in the Kali year 3290, which corresponds to 188 CE, close to the Abhira period.
 * Shudraka invokes the god Shiva in his play, and the Abhira names (known from their inscriptions) suggest that they were Shaivites.