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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

Page:

40 (of 56)


External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)


Download the PDF file of the original publication


Copyright (license):

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)


Warning! Page nr. 40 has not been proofread.

presented, so that the same stage (cf. Shakespeare's 'wooden O') 21 comes to represent different places and a lapse of ten or twenty years is seen to have taken place within the compass of the stage time. This feat is accomplished by the use of verbal description and other indication, such as 'Look, here is Dvāraka', 'We are in Benares now' etc. (cf. changes of time and space in Śākuntaḷam). Similarly too the prologue and epilogue (nāndi and bharatavākya delivered by the leading character or one of the characters in appropriate dress, are the cases of Natyadharmi. All such procedures become credible only within the magic circle of the stage. As AG says: ' अश्रूयमाणस्य श्रवणं लोकेऽप� कदाच� � भवति � केवल� तन्त्र� तत� सौन्दर्यार्थम् आनीयते। [aśrūyamāṇasya śravaṇa� loke'pi kadācana na bhavati | kevala� tantre tat saundaryārtham ānīyate|] ' ii) The test of Deviancy from accepted social norms: Instances of this are: Rhythmical strutting - a walk to rhythm and tune (tāḷa and laya), he speaks in song, he speaks in an overly structured manner, with self-conscious effort at rhetoric (eg. Duryodhana in Mayasabha), his movements are formal and stylised, he dances in rage or ecstacy : 'खण्डित� नृत्यत�, कलहान्तरित� नृत्यत�, उन्मादित� नृत्यत� [khaṇḍitā nṛtyati, kalahāntaritā nṛtyati, unmāditā nṛtyati] ' - 72 and more generally, the introduction of poetry, song and dance in the
midst of the dialogue for decorative or other purpose, or the carrying out
of an entire action in the form of dance and song, as in musicals and
21.
or we may cram
Within the wooden O, the very casques
That would affright the air at Agincourt?
.....suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are we now confined two mighty monarchies.....

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