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
56 (of 56)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
the various exercises based on karaṇas and angahāras in their application. In this way in the case of other divinities also, the sign of their flag-staff may be taken as the appropriate insignia. From the above descriptions with appended examples it is known that the term piṇḍibandha is an essential component in the completion of an established person, feature, concept or phenomenon. Further examples could be cited as follows 1. 2. In the popular Tullal story Garuḍagarvabhanga Hanūmān refuces to accept Rama's figure without Sitā. The famous composition, the Seventh Utsavaprabandha of Mahārāja Svāti Tirunā� is the typical example of an entire lyrical composition that explains the accepted relationship between certain materials or phenomena assosciated with certain personalities. 88 The conclusion thus arrived at is the totality of communication
including transfer of subtle ideas and concepts cannot be absolutely
achieved by the use of hand gestures alone. Quite often some aspects of
angahāras and gatis must accompany a gesture to achieve complete
communication. Thus it is relevant to ponder sufficiently deep into the
components of caris to gatis while a study is being done on the language
of hand gestures.
