Part 2 - Summary of the play (Mattavilāsa-prahasana)

The Mattavilāsa Prahasana is a one-act drama. The drama starts with the entry of a Kāpālika, by name Satyasoma, with his fiancee, Devasomā. Both Satyasoma and Devasomā are heavily drunk and in that drunken state, the Kāpālika forgets the name of his companion and calls her Somadevā. Devasomā became enraged for the “gotraskhalana”. Satyasoma asks for pardon and blames his own drunkenness for the mistake and vows to stop drinking. But Devsomā pleads with him not to stop drinking which she considers “sacred”. The Kāpālika agrees and after praising his own sect, which permits drinking and attacking the Buddhism, he wishes to have another spell of drinking. They go to a nearby liquor shop, which is compared to a sacrificial hall. The Kāpālika notices that his begging bowl is missing. He also laments that the loss of his bowl may lead to the banishment from his religious order. The Kāpālika fears that it might have been stolen either by a dog or by a Buddhist monk, since it contained a piece of roasted meat.

Meanwhile, a Buddhist monk enters, cursing the elderly monks of his order for prohibiting wine and women. He believes that in the beginning, there were portions in the sacred texts, which permitted these things and that the old monks, have deliberately suppressed them from the younger monks. He vows to trace the original text and thus render yeoman service to his religion. The sight of this monk, hiding something inside of his cloth, arouses the suspicion of the Kāpālika. He demands the monk to show the hidden object. The bhikṣu argues that it is his own begging bowl but the Kāpālika charges him with stealing of his bowl. In the fight that ensues between the Kāpālika and the monk, his companion Devasomā is knocked down by the sturdy Buddhist monk. At this stage, a Pāśupata enters, who offers to mediate between them. The bhikṣu then shows up his bowl, which is red in colour. But the Kāpālika says that the original black colour of his own bowl might have been turned red by the sticky reddish robe of the Buddhist monk.

At this stage, a mad man comes carrying a bowl, which he had snatched from a dog. The Kāpālika recognizes it to be his own bowl. He tries to snatch it away from the mad man who refuses to budge. Being called an “unmattaka” the mad man requests the Kāpālika to find another “unmattaka” whom he is anxious to meetand take the bowl as free for his services. The Kāpālika directs the lunatic to look for the “unmattaka” behind a wall and the lunatic hurries behind, leaving the bowl. The Kāpālika feels elated at the recovery of his bowl. Devasomā remarks that her lover shines in the company of his bowl like the evening in conjunction with the moon. The play ends with the conventional “Bharatavākya”. (The summary has been taken from “Prahasana in Sanskrit literature” by S. Ramaratnam, 1987).