Murari

Years of birth and death unknown. Ancient Indian dramatist of the ninth and early tenth centuries. His verse play in Sanskrit, Anargha-Raghava (The Priceless Raghava), has been preserved; it is a traditional rendering of the story of the Ramayana. The predominance of descriptive elements and the almost total absence of action in the play indicate the decline of the dramatic form. Grandiloquent monologues, which include lengthy descriptions of nature, permitted the author to display his knowledge of traditional poetical figures. Murari’s verses, which are not without elegance, were valued by medieval Indian connoisseurs of poetry; they are marred, however, by a lack of originality and poetic feeling.