Synopsis Ever since the publication of Chandragupta (1931), the twelfth play by Jayshankar Prasad (1889-1937), Hindi critics have found similarities between this play and the Bengali play with the same title, written by the poet-playwright Dwijendralal Roy (1863-1913). The Bengali play was extremely popular on the Bengali stage and was at the same time enghusiastically read in the contemporary Hindi literary circles. The question of affinity between the two plays or influence has been seriously debated by the Hindi scholars for the last five decades or so, and it has not lost its relevance even today if one is interested in issues of intertextuality and the modern paradigms of influence studies. It is necessary, therefore, to start with the examination of the concept of influence in order to place these two texts in a valid theoretical framework.