Synopsis Mrchchhakatika is one of the best dramas in ten acts composed by Sudraka. He bypasses many conventional rules of dramaturgy and shows such unusual sense as the nocturnal pursuit of a girl by lustful men, street-fights of gamblers, open quarrel and abuse between king’s guards and between the king’s guards and between the contestants in a court of law, house-breaking and theft, sleep scene, murder and parade of the accused through city street, and a scene of sati. Even the angle of love is different, because the heroine, a young woman and a young man goes to meet in pouring rain, thunder and darkness. The story is partly historical and partly invented, with no mythological ingredients.