Point of View

The point of view of a play is different than the point of view of a standard novel, because there is no traditional narrator for most of the action, but Bhagavata acts as a narrator for some of the play, and this, along with the structure of the play itself, gives us an indication of where the perspective is intended to lie. Bhagavata begins the play by praising Ganesh and then immediately starts to introduce Devadatta and Kapila as the main characters of the story. He describes them both in depth, telling us of their personalities: “Having felled the mightiest pundits of the kingdom in debates on logic and love, having blinded the greatest poets of the world with his poetry and wit, Devadatta is at it were the apple of every eye in Dharmapura” (74).

Soon after this, the actor and Hayavadana interrupt the play...