The `Playworld of Sanskrit Drama` is the `poetic universe` (kavyasam) posited by Anandavardhana and other poeticians. Each of the seven plays studied here - works of Bhasa, Kalidasa, Sudraka, and Visakhadatta- provides us with a different angle of approach to the crucial issues of kavya, and their fundamental ambivalence, which cannot be understood or even delineated by the conventional approach to Indian aesthetics.