Bhavabhuti
Encyclopedia
Bhavabhuti was an 8th century scholar of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

. His plays are considered equivalent to the works of Kalidasa
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language...

. Bhavbhuti was born in a Deshastha Brahmin
Deshastha Brahmin
Deshastha Brahmins are the original and the oldest Hindu Brahmin sub-caste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and some districts of northern Karnataka. The word Deshastha comes from the Sanskrit words Desha and Stha which mean inland or country and resident respectively...

 family of Padmapura, Vidarbha
Vidarbha
Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maharashtra state made up of Nagpur Division and Amravati Division. Its former name is Berar . It occupies 31.6% of total area and holds 21.3% of total population of Maharashtra...

, central India, in Gondia district, on Maharashtra and MP border.
His real name was Srikantha Nilakantha, and he was the son of Nilakantha and Jatukarni. He received his education at 'Padmapawaya', a place some 42 km South-West of Gwalior.
Paramhans Dnyananidhi is known to be his guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...

. He composed his historical plays at 'Kalpi', a place on banks of river Yamuna
Yamuna
The Yamuna is the largest tributary river of the Ganges in northern India...

.

He is believed to have been the court poet of King Yashovarman of Kannauj
Kannauj
Kannauj , also spelt Kanauj, is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is traditionally derived from the term Kanyakubja . Kannauj is an ancient city, in earlier times the capital...

. Kalhana
Kalhana
Kalhana , a Kashmiri, was the author of Rajatarangini , an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be deduced from his own writing, a major scholar of which is Mark Aurel Stein...

, the 12th century historian, places him in the entourage of the king, who was defeated by Lalitaditya, King of Kashmir, in 736 AD.

Malatimadhava

The play is set in the city of Padmavati. The king desires that his minister's daughter Malati marry a youth called Nandana. Malati is in love with Madhava ever since she saw him and drew his portrait. Madhava reciprocates, and draws a portrait of her in turn. Malati suspects her father's motives in falling in with the King's plans for her. A side plot involves the lovers' friends Makaranda and Madayantika. The latter is attacked by a tiger, and Makaranda rescues her, getting wounded in the process. After numerous travails, all ends well, with the two couples uniting.

Legacy

Late Laxmanrao Mankar Guruji named his education society as "Bhavbhuti Education Society" in 1950.
Yashodabai Rahile founded "Bhavbhuti Mandal" (community) in 1996. O.C. Patel published a book "Bhavbhuti ab geeton mein" (Bhavbhuti, now in his songs), he also has published some audio CDs and cassettes to keep the legend's memories alive. State's local TV channel, Sayhyadri and E TV Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 telecasts some documentaries on the life of this great poet. People and some non profit groups have erected a few statues in the region where the poet belongs to.

Works

  • Mahaviracharita (The story of highly courageous), depicting the early life of Rama
    Rama
    Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...

  • Malatimadhava a play based on the romance of Malati and Madhava
  • Uttararamacharita (The story of Rama's later life), depicts Rama's coronation, the abandonment of Sita
    SITA
    SITA is a multinational information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the air transport industry...

    , and their reunion
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