Daśakumāracarita

A Sanskrit prose romance attributed to Daṇḍin, recounting the adventures of ten princes through episodes of travel, intrigue, disguise, and reunion.

Daṇḍin: A Sanskrit poet and prose stylist traditionally dated to around the seventh or eighth century. He is the work’s attributed author and the stylist whose prose defines it.
Disguise: The adoption of a false appearance or identity to conceal who someone is. Disguises let characters enter guarded spaces and alter their social position.
Daśakumāracarita and the Bṛhatkathā tradition: A lost Indian story collection known through later adaptations and references, associated with extensive prose-and-verse tales. The romance shares the expansive adventure-story culture represented by this lost narrative tradition.
Sanskrit manuscript: A handwritten witness to a Sanskrit text, copied and transmitted before or alongside printed editions. The surviving text depends on manuscript transmission rather than an authorial copy.
Sanskrit prose: Literary writing in Sanskrit composed in prose rather than metrical verse. The romance’s ornate, continuous prose distinguishes its storytelling from Sanskrit court poetry.
Intrigue: A secret scheme involving deception, manipulation, or political maneuvering. Conspiracies and calculated deceptions repeatedly drive the princes’ fortunes.
Bāṇabhaṭṭa: A seventh-century Sanskrit prose writer, best known for Harṣacarita and Kādambarī. His ornate prose romances provide a close comparison for Daṇḍin’s literary style.
Textual criticism: The study of textual witnesses to establish or reconstruct the wording of a work. Differences among witnesses complicate decisions about the romance’s original wording and structure.
Kathā: A Sanskrit narrative form centered on stories, often linked by a frame or chain of tellers. The princes’ episodes belong to the broader Sanskrit tradition of linked tales.
Recognition scene: A narrative moment when a concealed or mistaken identity is correctly identified. Revelations of identity help convert scattered adventures into reunion and resolution.

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