The Hindi play Ashadh ka Ek Din was written by
- A.Jaishankar Prasad
- B.Mohan Rakesh
- C.Dharamvir Bharati
- D.Bharatendu Harishchandra
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Mohan Rakesh. Ashadh ka Ek Din imagines the poet Kalidasa torn between his village love and the glory offered by the court at Ujjayini, and it is counted the first fully modern Hindi play; Aadhe Adhure and Lahron ke Rajhans are his other major works. A is wrong because Jaishankar Prasad wrote historical dramas of an earlier generation, among them Skandagupta, Chandragupta and Dhruvaswamini. C is wrong because Dharamvir Bharati wrote Andha Yug, a verse play on the last day of the Mahabharata war, and the novel Gunahon ka Devta. D is wrong because Bharatendu Harishchandra belongs to the nineteenth century, is called the father of modern Hindi literature and wrote Andher Nagari and Bharat Durdasha. Note the pleasing overlap: this modern Hindi play has the ancient Sanskrit dramatist Kalidasa as its hero.
Read the full article: Famous Plays and Dramatists: Exam Notes and Lists
Practice Questions
View allThe Sanskrit play Mrichchhakatika, known in English as The Little Clay Cart, was written by
- A.Kalidasa
- B.Shudraka
- C.Bhasa
- D.Bhavabhuti
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Mrichchhakatika is a ten-act play about the love of a poor Brahmin merchant for a courtesan, set against a palace revolution, and its English title The Little Clay Cart comes from a toy cart that appears in the story.
Read the full explanation →Mudrarakshasa, the play dealing with Chanakya and the rise of Chandragupta Maurya, was written by
- A.Kautilya
- B.Vishakhadatta
- C.Banabhatta
- D.Kalhana
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Mudrarakshasa is a political drama whose plot turns on the statecraft of Chanakya as he brings down the Nandas and places Chandragupta Maurya on the throne, and historians use it as a literary source for that change of dynasty.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is a play written by Kalidasa?
- A.Meghaduta
- B.Vikramorvashiyam
- C.Ratnavali
- D.Uttararamacharita
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It tells the story of King Pururavas and the celestial nymph Urvashi.
Read the full explanation →The Sanskrit play Swapnavasavadattam was composed by
- A.Bhasa
- B.Shudraka
- C.Vishakhadatta
- D.Rajashekhara
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Swapnavasavadattam, the dream of Vasavadatta, turns on King Udayana and his queen and is regarded as his finest work; Urubhanga and Pratima Nataka are also his.
Read the full explanation →The Natyashastra, the oldest Indian treatise on dramaturgy, is ascribed to
- A.Panini
- B.Bharata
- C.Patanjali
- D.Abhinavagupta
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The Natyashastra lays down the rules of the stage, of acting, gesture, music and stagecraft, and gives the theory of rasa, the set of aesthetic moods a performance is meant to create in its audience; it is the foundation of all later Indian dramatic and dance theory.
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