The first of 36 chapters in a text in this language outlines a sage’s development of the “graceful” style of drama to accompany the original “verbal,” “grand,” and “energetic” styles. The stage manager for plays in this language has a name meaning “holder of threads.” In a mad scene in a play in this language, a royal speaks to a series of animals and a river after his wife is turned into a vine for entering a forest forbidden to women. In a play in this language, a king who spares a deer in its opening encounters his son playing with a lion cub in a hermitage. That king is cursed by a sage to forget his wife until a fisherman recovers a signet ring in a play in this language. For 10 points, name this ancient language used to write Urvashi Won by Valor and The Recognition of Shakuntala by Kālidāsa. ■END■
ANSWER: Sanskrit [or saṃskṛtam] (The first line refers to Bharata’s Nātyaśāstra.)
<Editors, World Literature>
= Average correct buzz position