coming years he wrote prolifically wrote eighteen plays till his death in 1885. Pre-Bhartendu period, had created mostly mythological and epic inspired plays like, Hanuman-natak, Amasya sar natak, Vichitra natak, Shakuntala upakhyan, Anand Raghunandan and Inder sabha. Just as Bhartendu Harishchandra wrote Satya Harishchandra (1875), Bharat Durdasha (1876) and Andher Nagari (1878), in the late 19th century, Jaishankar Prasad became the next big figure in Hindi playwriting with plays like Skanda Gupta (1928), Chandragupta (1931) and Dhruvswamini (1933), Maithili Sharan Gupt also wrote three plays, Tilottama (1916), Chandrahaas (1921) and Anagha (1925). The next phase of important plays after Prasad, came with Badrinath Bhatt, next it was Lakshminarayan Mishra's work which broke away from existing pattern of subject treatment and presentation and is known for its realism, and unmistakable influence of Ibsen as seen in Sansyasi (1931), Raksha Ka Mandir (1931), Mukti ka rahasya (1932), Rajyoga (1934) and Sindoor ki Holi (1934), which tackle social problem with marked directness. An important event in this period was establishment of Hans, a literary magazine based in Varanasi, by noted writer Premchand in 1938, which published numerous important one-act plays in the coming years, further giving boost to the craft. In the 1930s one-act plays became a prominent organizational structure in Hindi theatre. Playwrights who excelled in this format included Ganeshprasad Dwivedi (Suhag bindi, 1935), Bhuvneshwarprasad (Karvan, 1935), and Satyendra (Kunal, 1937) Of particular importance was the poet, playwright, critic, and historian Ram Kumar Verma who wrote several successful one act plays, including Prithviraj ki ankhen (1936) and Reshmi tai (1941). Verma's play Charumitra (1941 or 1942) is considered a masterpiece of modern Hindi drama. 1940s and beyond As the Independence struggle was gathering steam playwrights broaching issues of nationalism and subversive ideas against the British, yet to dodge censorship, they adapted themes from mythology, history and legend and used them as vehicle for political messages, a trend that continues to date, though now it was employed to bring out social, personal and psychological issues rather than clearly political. Post-independence the emerging republic threw up new issues for playwrights to tackle and express, and Hindi playwriting showed greater brevity and symbolism, but it was not as prolific as in case with Hindi poetry or fiction. Yet we have playwrights like Jagdish Chandra Mathur (Konark) and Upendranath Ashk (Anjo Didi), who displayed a steadily evolving understanding of thematic development, theatrical constraints and stagecraft, and