5th century, dramatic character, India, play, primary source, quotes, Sanskrit, stories
In The Little Clay Cart (Mycchakatika, attributed to Sudraka) the vidusaka Maitreya, whom we met earlier, shows a perhaps even greater degree of familiarity, loyalty and irreverence than Kalidasa’s vidusaka. Â He stands by his master even when the latter has lost...
folk fool, India, primary source, quotes, stories
A regular theme in the foolosphere has the fool besting someone supposedly wiser, smarter, holier or otherwise superior. There’s a whole raft of stories of jesters engaging with scholars and tying them in semantic knots, and in China this extends to grappling...
dramatic character, India, primary source, quotes, Sanskrit
Rare to find a clear prescription concerning the recommended physical appearance of a jester type, in this case, a litany of desirable defects. This is from the Indian classic hand book of drama, the Natyasastra (c. 200 BCE), showing a wealth of permutations in comic...
6th century, folk fool, India, primary source, quotes, Sanskrit
A lively line up of skills and attributes reminding me of jesters and in particular vidusaka, the stock comic character of Sanskrit drama, commonly paired up in a close if argumentative relationship between a king and the jester. His appearance in plays and the...
5th century, dramatic character, India, play, primary source, quotes, Sanskrit
Vidusaka is a stock comic character in ancient Sanskrit drama; there has been much ink spilled as to whether he was a jester or not, and many of the arguments against this proposition seem rather to confirm it. We’ll be featuring more quotes and stories about...
folk fool, India, primary source, quotes, stories
Tenali Rama is one of the great legendary jesters of India, and stories about his exposing corruption, lies and nonsense abound.  He even exposed the king himself in one account. An enemy of the king bribed his astrologer to dissuade him from a military campaign by...
Central Asia, folk fool, India, primary source, quotes, stories
There is an anecdote attributed to various giants of jesterdom, including the Indian Gopal, (`So exquisite was Gopal’s wit that he violated the laws of the domain and defied the Rama’s pride with impunity’), along with the Central Asian folk fool...
16th century, historical figure, India, primary source, quotes, stories
A common theme among jester stories is that of intervening on behalf of an individual whom the ruler is treating unjustly. In this case, Birbal saves a man from being executed on a whim by Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605). A merchant in Delhi was known for having a face...
