Here is a new Clay Sanskrit Library edition and translation of Bhava-bhuti's Rama's Last Act.
The play is counted among the greatest Sanskrit dramas. Rama's Last Act at once dramatizes Valmiki's troubling Ramayana and revises its most intractable episode, the hero's rejection of his
beloved wife. Human agency in the face of destiny, the power of love, and the capacity of art to make sense of such mysteries are the themes explored in this singular literary achievement of
the Indian stage.
Bhava-bhuti transfigured epic models that are history for traditional readers. He may have been, the first not only to produce a reworking intended for theatrical performance, but more
important, to attempt to tackle the most critical problem of the story, the abandonment of Sita, the moral valence of the act, and the precise degree of Rama's personal responsibility.
Bhava-bhuti's dominant concern is the reflexive appreciation of dramatic art itself and the place of art in making sense of lived experience, His literary practice of self-awareness perhaps
constitutes the supreme achievement of Rama's Last Act.
