Urdu drama , a literary and artistic phenomenon in existence for the last two centuries, has its roots in Urdu narrative genres (mathnavī, dāstān, qiṣṣa), Indian traditional performances (rāslīlā, naut'ankī), and popular farce. It was also heavily affected by Western dramaturgy. The poetic rules and aesthetic norms that made Urdu classical poetry unique did not apply to drama, and some scholars regarded Urdu drama as an "exotic plant moved to the Urdu soil" (Saksena, 346). The history of Urdu drama begins in Lucknow, with Amānat's (d. 1858) Indar sabhā ("