Essay name: Hastalaksanadipika a critical edition and study
Author:
E. K. Sudha
Affiliation: Government Sanskrit College (Tripunithura) / Department of Sanskrit
This is an English study on the Hastalaksanadipika—a manual depicting the Mudras (gestures) of the Kerala theatre. It is a very popular text supposedly dating to the 10th century A.D. This study also touches the subject of Krsnanattam, Kathakali and Kutiyattam—some of India's oldest theatrical traditions in Kerala.
Chapter 2 - Bharata’s Dramaturgy
20 (of 56)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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region. However, for the sake of brevity, Bharata has specified four regional identities. They are Dākṣiṇātya, Avanti, Auḍramāgadhi and Pāñcāli or Pāñcālamadhyamā. Very broadly speaking, the classification made by Bharata may be taken to mean the southern, western eastern and northern regions of India, taken in order. Each of these regions consists of different tracts of land with separate identities. Bharata has strictly recommended that a particular regional identity of a character must be fully established in a histrionic expression. School of acting, modes of expression and regional identity are to be related to all forms of histrionic expression and so to a drama or a play- production. 52
