Prabodhacandrodaya
89379
Kṛṣṇa Miśra
Kapstein 2009
140
Play in six acts, with a prologue (prastāvanā), three interludes (viṣkambhaka), and two prologues (praveśaka).
| act | ed. pp. | structural devices |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–13 | prastāvanā (pp. 1–4), viṣkambhaka (pp. 5–10) |
| 2 | 14–33 | viṣkambhaka (pp. 14–21) |
| 3 | 34–52 | |
| 4 | 53–70 | viṣkambhaka (pp. 53–56) |
| 5 | 71–88 | praveśaka (pp. 71–78) |
| 6 | 89–112 | praveśaka (pp. 89–94) |
Location markers are adapted from the Clay Sanskrit Library (CSL) edition, which marks every fifth textual unit with a numerical reference in the format {act}.{unit}. A “unit” may consist of a single paragraph, a single verse, a stage direction, or the designation of a structural device.
In the present text, identifiers of this form are assigned to the beginning of each character’s speech, regardless of how many prose or metrical elements it contains, as well as to selected stage directions and structural devices.
"The Rise of Wisdom Moon" is an 11th-century philosophical allegory of great historical importance, being one of the first Sanskrit works well known and read in the West. Through the story of a family feud, it conveys to readers a Vedāntic view of the Supreme Self's (Puruṣa) awakening from delusion.
Plot: After Puruṣa and Illusion (Māyā) produce a son, Mind (Citta), Puruṣa falls into a magical sleep. Citta fathers three sons: Delusion (Mahāmoha) by Activity (Pravṛtti), Intuition (Viveka) by Resignation (Nivṛtti), and the abandoned Dispassion (Vairāgya). Grandson Mahāmoha embodies Puruṣa's sleep and will cease to exist if Puruṣa awakens, so when prophecy reveals that Viveka's children by Lady Upanishad will destroy both family branches, Mahāmoha fights to prevent the marriage. With goddess Hail Vishnu's (Viṣṇubhakti's) help, Viveka defeats Mahāmoha's forces at Varanasi, though Mahāmoha flees. Heartbroken by the human cost of the war, Citta is moved to reunite with his abandoned son Vairāgya, which triggers Puruṣa's partial awakening. Viveka marries Upanishad, and with Contemplation's (Nididhyāsana's) help, Puruṣa magically perceives as his great-granddaughter Knowledge (Vidyā) is born and mutually annihilates with Mahāmoha. Finally, great-grandson Wisdom Moon (Prajñācandra) appears and embraces the awakened Puruṣa, symbolizing the great struggle's peaceful aftermath.
Personal collection of M. Kapstein.
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
I (T. Neill) produced this HANSEL edition by manually converting M. Kapstein's submitted Word files into plain text, standardizing some punctuation, and adding structural markup for HANSEL. The text has been recently proofread by M. Kapstein.
Drama
Roman-like (ity evam, not ityevam)
2026-02-13
2026-06-10
2026-06-25