Devichandraguptam

rdf:langString Devichandraguptam

rdf:langString Devi-Chandraguptam (IAST: Devīcandraguptam) or Devi-Chandragupta is an Indian Sanskrit-language political drama attributed to Vishakhadeva, who is generally identified with Vishakhadatta. The complete text of the play is now lost, but its portions survive in form of quotations in the later works. The plot also survives in form of a Persian language story, which appears to be an adaptation of the play, and is included in the 11th century text Majmal-ut-Tawarikh. In the play, king Ramagupta decides to surrender his queen Dhruvadevi ("Devi") to a Shaka enemy when besieged. Ramagupta's younger brother Chandragupta enters the enemy camp disguised as the queen, and kills the enemy ruler. The rest of the story is not clear from the surviving passages, but based on other historical evidence, it appears that in the last part of the play, Chandragupta dethrones Ramagupta and marries Dhruvadevi. The historicity of the play's narrative is disputed: some modern historians theorize that it is based on historical events, as several later sources refer to the events mentioned in the play. Other scholars argue that there these later sources may be based on the play itself, and no independent evidence corroborates its historicity.