Introduction
Given the age of the sophisticated civilization that inhabited the Indian subcontinent along the Indus river valley in what is now the modern state of Pakistan about 4000 BCE, it might be reasoned that theatre and drama would have developed far earlier than it did on the Indian subcontinent. Yet a glimmer of what is thought of today as theatre performance and the birth and growth of a substantial body of dramatic literature appears to have emerged perhaps no earlier than 500 BCE. And the first fragments of plays to be discovered date from no earlier than the first century CE.
We begin our search for traditional Indian theatre by examining surviving primary sources: the Natyasastra (The Science of Dramaturgy), considered the earliest text of dramaturgy, and the surviving plays written in Sanskrit, Prakrit and a variety of regional dialects. Unlike the physical remains of architecture, sculpture, vase painting, tiled walls and mosaic floors that further our understanding of the character and life of the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, we must rely on written material alone to paint a picture of the earliest phases of traditional theatre in India.
Natyasastra
Because the Natyasastra is such a rich and complex text it is not possible to do justice to it in this short space. The title is composed of two separate Sanskrit words: natya (drama) and sastra (variously understood as rule, science or scripture). It has long been considered an encyclopaedia of information concerning Sanskrit drama and theatre in ancient India, and has exerted a profound influence over the development of later genres of performance in India. Without it we would know considerably less about ancient Indian theatre and drama than we currently do.
The authorship of the work has been attributed to Bharata, a brahmin sage. Virtually nothing is known about the man except what is contained in the text. Given the unevenness of the writing style and other inconsistencies, some critics reason that the work is really a compilation of several works assembled over time by different authors. Scholars have variously dated it between 500 BCE and the eighth century CE.
The Natyasastra contains thirty-six chapters, which are briefly described below. Like most important Sanskrit texts, the Natyasastra begins with an invocation of respect to the gods. The first chapter concerns the origin of drama and theatre. According to Bharata, Brahma, the creator god, conceived this art by combining elements from the four Vedas, books of hymns sacred to the Hindus. Recitation was inspired by the Rg Veda – the oldest books of hymns, song from the Sama Veda, acting from the Yajur Veda and aesthetics from the Atharva Veda. Brahma then charged Bharata and his sons to learn the art, assisted in acting and dancing by divine nymphs and musicians who accompanied the performers.
Chapter 2 concerns the shape and construction of theatre buildings to house the art. Visvakarma, the heavenly architect, is said to have designed the original structure as a means of protecting the actors from malevolent forces that attempted to disrupt the first performance. Chapter 3 prescribes procedures by which a suitable spot is to be chosen for constructing such an edifice and what parts of the stage and the theatre building are to be protected by which gods. Regrettably, no theatre structures or their remnants have survived from ancient India.
Chapter 4 deals with the characteristics of the tandava dance associated with Lord Shiva, one of three principal deities. Chapter 5 lists preliminary rituals that are appropriate to be performed at the beginning of all performances.
Among the more important chapters of the work, chapters six and seven relate details about the sentiments and emotions to be depicted in a performance. The theory and aesthetics described are original to India and unique in world theatre. Chapter 6 focuses on rasa (sentiment) that a spectator is expected to experience when seeing and hearing a performance. Eight basic human sentiments are identified: erotic, comic, pathetic, furious, heroic, terrible, odious and marvellous. Although every performance contains permutations and combinations of all the sentiments, only one is expected to dominate a performance. Chapter 7 identifies eight bhavas (emotions) that correspond to the eight rasas. They are love, mirth, anger, sorrow, energy, terror, disgust and astonishment. It is these that the actors depict on stage and that generate the experience of rasa in the spectators.
Next are extensive discussions of abhinaya (acting) in chapters 8–14, focusing on physical movements of the head, eyes and hands, physical movements on stage, and a number of related matters known as angika abhinaya.
At the end of Chapter 14 Bharata draws an interesting distinction between plays of two different ‘natures’ (dharma). He says that there are lokadharmi (realistic) plays ‘in which men and women, in their own nature, without any change, without any gestures behave naturally’. These stand in sharp contrast to natyadharmi (dramatic) plays ‘in which speech is artificial and exaggerated, actions unusually emotional, and gestures graceful’ (Rangacharya 1986: 76–7). The Natyasastra mainly deals with aspects of natyadharmi.
Chapters 15–19 concern vacika abhinaya (acting with the voice and speech).
Chapter 20 focuses on the nature of ten types of play and Chapter 21 concerns the plots of the play. (The material in these two chapters is discussed at greater length with regard to the surviving Sanskrit plays.)
Chapter 22 is concerned with vrtti-s. The subjects of this short chapter are considered confusing and unnecessary by Rangacharya in his translation of the Natyasastra (Rangacharya 1986: 117).
Chapter 23 focuses on aharya abhinaya (that is, the projection of a character through costume, makeup and stage properties). Chapter 24 contains miscellaneous information about a number of general topics related to performance.
Chapter 25 concerns the art of the courtesan. Chapter 26 discusses additional miscellaneous matters dealing with acting.
In Chapter 27 we are introduced to the means by which spectators are expected to judge a performance.
Chapters 28–33 concern themselves with musical instruments, such as the lute and flute, various types of rhythm and songs that are appropriate for the stage. Percussion instruments are discussed in the final chapter of this section.
Chapter 34 identifies the various character types found in the plays. Chapter 35 articulates the types of role needed to make up a theatre company.
And the final chapter of the work relates the story of why and how natya eventually came to earth and who sought to protect and preserve it.
The benediction at the end of the works says much about the importance of drama and theatre in ancient India:
This sastra is entertaining; it purifies; it is holy; it destroys sin. Those who read it and those who listen to it, those who produce plays in accordance with it, and those who attentively watch the performance, all those derive the same merit as may be derived by those who study the Vedas, those who perform sacrifices, and those who perform acts of charity and religion. This is the greatest gift of all the gifts, viz. the giving of an opportunity to watch a performance. The production of a play is pleasing to the gods as no other form of worship with sandal paste or flowers is.
(Rangacharya 1986: 226)
Sanskrit plays
The second major primary source for gaining an understanding of ancient Sanskrit drama and theatre is the surviving plays. The manner in which Sanskrit plays were to be composed is laid down in chapters twenty and twenty-one of the Natyasastra. The requirements are reiterated and made clear in Danamjaya’s Dasarupa (literally ten beautiful forms), a dramaturgical text written in the tenth century CE. Unlike the Natyasastra, this short work provides brief examples from existing plays composed by different playwrights. From both works we are told that there are ten kinds of play. They are: nataka, prakarana, samavakara, ihamrga, dima, vyayoga, anka, prahasana, bhana and vithi.
Owing to the number of surviving natakas written over the centuries by India’s best-known Sanskrit playwrights, this is clearly the most important dramatic form. According to the Dasarupa, ‘Dramas are classified according to Subject matter, Hero, and Sentiment’ (Dhanamjaya 1962: 6). Natakas should have a well-known story, a hero who is of an exalted nature, such as a king or royal sage, and should contain various rasas of which either srngara (love) or vira (heroic) may be the dominant one. It must have between five and seven acts. Among the surviving examples of natakas are Bhasa’s Svapnavasavadatta (The Vision of Vasavadatta), Kalidasa’s Abhijnanasakuntala (Shakuntala), Bhavabhuti’s Uttararamacarita (The Latter History of Rama) and Harsa’s Nagananda (Joy of the Serpents).
By contrast, a play written as a prakarana should have a story that is the original idea of the author, a hero who is a member of the brahmin caste, a minister or a merchant, and deal with characters who are from many different walks of life, including slaves, gallants and courtesans. Prakaranas should have no fewer than five and no more than ten acts and should also contain various rasas. Mrcchakatika (The Little Clay Cart) is the best known and one of only two surviving examples of this kind of drama. Srngara is the main rasa of a prakarana.
The third kind of drama is samavakara. It is to have only three acts. The story is to deal with gods and asuras (demons); the hero is to be well known. The dominant rasa is heroism (vira). In Chapter 1 of the Natyasastra, Bharata describes Samudra Mathanam (Churning of the Ocean), the first play to be performed, which celebrated the defeat of the demons by the gods. The work is a samavakara.
Like the samavakara, the other types of drama mentioned by the Natyasastra are far less significant and there are relatively few surviving examples.
With reference to the plot of a play, the Dasarupa says, ‘The denouement (karya) [of the action consists of one of] the three objects of human existence (trivarga)’ (Dhanamjaya 1962: 8). The three are dharma (virtue), artha (wealth) and kama (pleasure). We learn that the outcome of the action begins early in the play with a bija (germ) in which bindu (expansion) takes place, similar to what happens when a drop of oil floats on water. The expansion results in the development of pataka (episodes) and prakari (episodical incidents) that finally result in the denouement. These are regarded as the five elements of a plot.
The Dasarupa, like the Natyasastra before it, lists five stages of dramatic action: beginning, effort, prospect of success, certainty of success and attainment of the result. Parallel to these are five sandhis (junctures). They are opening, progression, development, pause and conclusion. There are additional subdivisions of these aspects of a plot that are complicated and unnecessary to consider here.
Moving next to the heroes, heroines and other categories of character appropriate for a play, we quickly understand that ancient Indian drama developed a number of character types appropriate for use in various kinds of plays and that the language of these types was to follow specific rules. For example, ‘Sanskrit is to be spoken by men that are not of low rank, by devotees, and, in some cases, by female ascetics, the chief queen, by daughters of ministers, and by courtesans’ and ‘Prakrit is generally [to be the language] of women and Sauraseni [a regional dialect] in the case of male characters of low rank’ (Dhanamjaya 1962: 75). Other regional languages are mentioned as appropriate for different types of character. The text even goes so far as to identify specific forms of address by a character of a particular rank to those of another rank and type.
Fragments of the earliest plays to have survived from ancient India date from between 78 CE and 144 CE. Asvaghosa is presumed to be the author of at least one of these fragments, Sariputraprakarana (The Story of Sariputra). Asvaghosa was probably a member of the court of Kaniska, a powerful king who ruled a vast swathe of land from Turfan to Pataliputra in the Gangetic plain. The king patronized Buddhism and the fragments of the plays concern Buddhist teaching. From the fragments it is clear that this playwright abided by the rules laid down in the Natyasastra.
Among the more significant playwrights of ancient India is Bhasa, of whom little is known, including exactly when and where he lived and worked. In 1912 thirteen plays attributed to Bhasa were published. Although the authorship of some of the works has been contested, the subject matter of the plays is drawn from a wide variety of sources, such as the two great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Puranas, semihistorical tales, and from his own imagination. It is also clear that the author experimented with different kinds of dramatic composition, including natakas, prakaranas, samvakaras and vyayogas. It is significant that parts of some of his plays are still being performed by performers in Kerala state, south India. Even the opening verse of his play Balacarita is required to be learnt and performed by fledgling actors as part of their initiation into kutiyattam.
In the prologue to The Little Clay Cart, the stage manager ascribes the play to King Sudraka. However, there is no historical evidence that there was ever such a ruler. We do know that the play is clearly an expansion and elaboration of Bhasa’s unfinished play Carudattam, named after the hero of the piece, suggesting that the author of The Little Clay Cart borrowed Bhasa’s original work and made it uniquely his own. The plot is elaborate and in ten acts introduces us to a host of fascinating characters: a brahmin who is down on his luck, his faithful friend the vidusaka (clown), a beautiful and generous courtesan, her grief-stricken mother and a faithful and supportive maid servant, a boastful, spiteful courtier, good-hearted and trustworthy servants, a masseur turned Buddhist monk, gamblers, assorted bullock cart drivers, executioners, officers of the court and a reluctant judge. Because of its vivid picture of life in an ancient Indian city and its interesting plot, the work is an acknowledged masterpiece of dramatic literature that is still performed throughout the world.
Kalidasa is regarded as the best and certainly the most famous playwright of ancient India. Precisely when he lived and where he worked is still debatable. Some scholars identify him as one of nine ‘jewels’ at the court of King Chandragupta II in the mid-fif...
