Theමෙම filmචිත්රපටය isක්රි.පූ. anදෙවන adaptationසියවස ofආහ ක්රි.ව. පස්වන සියවස දක්වා කාලය තුළ විසූ පුරාතන නාට්ය රචකයකු වූ [[ශූද්රක]]ගේ ''{{IAST|[[Mṛcchakatikaමෘච්ඡකටික]]}}'' (''Theකුඩා Littleමැටි Clay Cartකරත්තය''),aනම් ten-actවූ [[Sanskritකොටා drama]]දහයකින් attributed toයුත් [[Śudraka|Śūdraka]],සංස්කෘත an ancient playwright generally thought to have lived sometime between the second century BC and the fifth century AD whom the prologue identifies as a [[Kshatriyaනාට්ය]]යෙගි king and a devotee of Siva who lived for 100 yearsඅනුවර්තනයකි.<ref name=Richmond>{{cite book|last=Richmond|first=Farley P.|chapter=Characteristics of Sanskrit Theatre and Drama |title=Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance|year=1990|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=0824811909|pages=55–62|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/?id=OroCOEqkVg4C&pg=PA55&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false |editor=Farley P. Richmond |editor2=Darius L. Swann |editor3=Phillip B. Zarrilli}}</ref> The play is set in the ancient city of [[Ujjayini]] during the reign of the King Pālaka, near the end of the [[Pradyota dynasty]] that made up the first quarter of the fifth century BC.<ref name=Oliver>{{cite book|last=Oliver|first=Revilo Pendelton|chapter=Introduction to 'The Little Clay Cart.' |title=Illinois Studies in Language and Literature |volume=23|year=1938|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana|pages=9–44|editor=Rozelle Parker Johnson |editor2=Ernst Krenn}}</ref>