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Wikipedia lists plays, novels and TV series among formats of fiction:

Traditionally, fiction includes novels, short stories, fables, legends, myths, fairy tales, epic and narrative poetry, plays (including operas, musicals, dramas, puppet plays, and various kinds of theatrical dances). However, fiction may also encompass comic books, and many animated cartoons, stop motions, anime, manga, films, video games, radio programs, television programs (comedies and dramas), etc.

Now these two questions seem to be based on plays written by an acharya:

OP here assumes statements made by characters in a play to be true and then asks for scriptures supporting these statements.

Similarly, here are a couple that are based on the StarPlus Mahabharat TV series:

Should we allow these type of questions?

If yes, can one also simply quote a line from an Amish Tripathi novel (which are usually based on characters from Hindu scripture) and ask which scripture contains it?

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  • For Amish Tripathi Novel questions, a big NO.
    – TheLittleNaruto Mod
    Aug 27, 2019 at 3:18
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    Why is one fiction allowed but not the other? @TheLittleNaruto
    – Say No To Censorship
    Aug 27, 2019 at 15:54
  • Myth is also listed as fiction .. so if Mythology (the study of myths) does not bother you, why not ? Just quote any book of your choice and then ask "What scriptures describe ..?" and it will be a well received question.
    – Rickross
    Aug 28, 2019 at 5:09
  • Yes, it's tricky, that's why this meta post. I think the answer may lie in what the source/author claims their work to be. E.g., Amish Tripathi novels have a disclaimer: "This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person living or dead, events and locales is entirely coincidental." When the author himself says this, it cannot be used as a basis for a question on this site. So prefixing "What scriptures describe ...?" would still make it off-topic. @Rickross
    – Say No To Censorship
    Aug 28, 2019 at 19:29
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    Also, looking at the downvotes, some people don't want to even discuss these topics. Wonder how this site plans to graduate without addressing basic questions like this. @Rickross
    – Say No To Censorship
    Aug 28, 2019 at 19:29
  • Well, you have linked few people's questions .. they have probably downvoted .. Regarding graduation, recently we have seen sites getting graduated as they are sufficiently old.. so we might also graduate when our time comes.
    – Rickross
    Aug 29, 2019 at 6:01
  • See, there are always many doors to enter a room, if one fails you try another one :P .. if "what scriptures .." template fails I'll try another one viz: "do scriptures.." and it is not easy to close such questions as the answer will be either a yes or no.
    – Rickross
    Aug 29, 2019 at 6:03

2 Answers 2

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I think these are fine on Movies.SE but not here. I don't think we should discuss or quote or do anything with TV series on our site. And discussion of authors work like Amish Tripathi or similar authors should not be considered here (should be considered on Science & Fiction.SE).

Conclusion:

Discussion on plays and TV series should be off-topic.

Note:

About the guru books (novels?) mentioned by OP in the post, we need to have a proper discussion on this which require a separate post. As this is a debatable topic where we need to finalize the fictional books/stories, as community members. (Let's have this discussion if this answer or similar one works for the community)

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  • "guru books...were written not in the modern age...as they were written in support of Sanatana Dharma" - doesn't seem like a convincing argument. Also, difficult to enforce. Even StarPlus Mahabharat TV series is made to promote Hinduism/Hindu values. And any novel or play written by a modern guru can also fit in this "support of Sanatana Dharma" category. Rules need to be unambiguous.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Sep 24, 2019 at 3:49
  • @sv. do please suggest the period to consider? I am thinking the safe will be to consider modern age from 1800.
    – Mr_Green
    Sep 25, 2019 at 18:32
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    To keep it simple, we either allow all fiction or none.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Sep 25, 2019 at 20:17
  • agreed. that's completely other discussion to have on meta and a important one. If possible, please create a new post to decide what is fiction and what is not. I will do it myself if I get time later today or someday.
    – Mr_Green
    Sep 26, 2019 at 5:38
  • Science & Fiction or literature
    – Ankit Sharma
    Sep 27, 2019 at 12:01
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The idea of television series reminds me a community promotion ad on Movies Stack Exchange we tried our hands in 2017. Several TV series are produced for Ramayana and Mahabharata and we have many questions based on it on our site. I think the old famous TV series were based on scriptures though some scenes were deemed not and questions asking scriptural support for those would be ok. But modern series may be much deviated from the scriptures still it may be fine to find the truth in this case like that we have been doing for Which famous quotes are wrongly attributed to Bhagavad Gita?

Talking about plays, in early days of Indian film industry most of plays were from Itihasas and Puranas but again modern plays would be doubtful. I don't know much about novels but I think it would be loosely based on scripture and can be imagination of author only.

So, questions are in descending order of TV series, plays and novels encouraged in my opinion.

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    I think this is still fine on Movies.SE but not here. I don't think we should discuss or quote or do anything with TV series on our site. I am not sure about the guru books mentioned above by SV but discussion of authors work like Amish Tripathi should not be considered here (should be considered on Science & Fiction.SE). Guys lets just concentrate on our Hindu scriptures.
    – Mr_Green
    Sep 21, 2019 at 7:14
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    "questions are in descending order..." - I'm not sure how we can assign order of importance based on old vs. new or the medium, aren't they all works of fiction? A play is a play, a TV adaptation is a TV adaptation irrespective of when it is made. Are Kalidasa's plays like Raghuvamsa ok but not the modern ones?
    – Say No To Censorship
    Sep 26, 2019 at 1:41

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