7.1. Summary of the Padmapābhṛtakam

The Padmapābhṛtakam (Padmapābhṛtaka) is a Bhāṇa type of play included in the Cāturbhāṇī, composed by Śūdraka. There is a controversy regarding the date of Śūdraka. Śūdraka composed another two works namely the Mṛcchakaṭika and the Vīṇāvāsavadattā.

In the play, the Viṭa (named Śaśa) is employed by his friend Mūladeva to understand the feelings of his beloved Devasenā. On the way, the Viṭa meets a number of people with whom he carries imaginary conversation until he gets his destination. The Viṭa returns completing his mission successfully and brings a lotus flower from Devasenā as a symbol of love for Mūladeva from which the work is named so. The scene of the play is laid in Ujjain.

In the play, the hypocrisy of the people is satirized by the poet. The Brāhmaṇas and the Buddhists are also object of satire in the work. Throughout the work, bantering tone is used.

Firstly, the sky gazing poet Śārasvatabhadra of kātyāyana gotra, son of Śāradvatī is satirized, for his composition of some worthless poems.

The poet ridicules him comparing with a cobbler in the following line, said by the Viṭa–

purāṇakāvyapadacchedagrathanacarmakāra kimidaṃ naṣṭagoyūtha iva gopālako navapadānanveṣase!

Herein it is satirically said that as the cobbler joins torn out things, so as the poet joins words collecting from older poems. Otherwise, he has no talent to compose a good poetry. The Viṭa also mentions him as a kāvyapiśāca.

Next, a Pāṇinian grammarian named Dattakalaśi is satirized here, who is a vain pretender to learning, quarrelsome and debauch. He is addicted to harlots. The grammarian uses such a tough technical vocabulary that it may drive back his beloved whom he seeks. Kātantra grammarians are also satirized here who are said to make quarrel with the Pāṇinian grammarians.

Another hypocrite named Pavitraka, son of Dharmāsanika is also satirized here, who always pretends to be a pious man and gives his identity as a Vaiṣṇava. In the streets, he protects himself from the touch of other people but always keeps relationship with the harlots. The poet condemns such person, who looks outwardly a gentleman but inwardly a lier. In the words of Viṭa–ākṛtimātrabhadrako bhavān mithyācāravinīto hyasi.

A young licentious Brāhmaṇa is also satirized here. He is Śaṣilaka who secretly engages himself with dice and women. He is said to keep a female mendicant secretly in his house.

Sandhilaka, a characterless Buddhist monk is also satirized here. He is depicted as a regular visitor of the brothel. When he is caught in the brothel, he gives excuses that he only visited it to console the harlot upon the death of his mother–

mātṛvyāpattiduḥkhitāṃ saṅghadāsikāṃ buddhavacanaiḥ paryavasthāpayitumāgato'smi.

In the play, the Viṭa laments that the teachings of Buddha is defiled everyday by such hypocrites. He says–

aho sāriṣṭatā buddhaśāsanasya yadevamvidhairapi vṛthāmuṇḍairasad bhikṣubhirupahanyamānaṃ pratyahamabhipūjyata eva.

The hypocrite Buddhist monk is ridiculed here as a ghost living in the monastery (vihāravetāla).