Bhavabhuti

Years of birth and death unknown. Indian dramatist of the eighth century.

Bhavabhuti wrote in Sanskrit. Three of his plays are known: the dramas Life of the Great Hero and Later Life of Rama, both based on the Ramayana, and the comedy of intrigue Malatimadhava, on a subject from contemporary life. He departed from primary sources in his dramas on epic subjects, which are apparently linked to various folkloric versions of the story of Rama. His style is somewhat complicated and grandiloquent, in conformity with the norms of Sanskrit literature. Poems preserved in medieval anthologies are ascribed to him.