12. Theory and Pratice of the Performing Arts

Question 1

The multifariousness and multimediality of the performing arts

Answer 1

Performing arts, terminology:
Sanskrit drama:
Nāṭya: (Skrt. naṭ/nṛt), the union of a text and its performance
nāṭaka (ten classical dramatic genres, daśarūpaka)
connected to courtly culture and the

phenomenon of kāvya
“poetry to be seen” (enacted poetry, i.e. drama) vs “poetry to the heard” (recited poetry)

Other performing arts:
dance (nṛtta), singing (gītā), instrumental music (vādya)> saṃgīta (singing together, concert or solo dance performance with musical accompaniment)

Different contexts of performance:
- theatre (auditorium)
- court (royal assembly, royal theatre)
- temple (sometimes with special pavilions for performances) - religious and non-religious festivals

Different performers: itinerant groups, palace and temple ensembles, professional and not

Question 2

The sources: A continuous history with gaps

Answer 2

A major lacuna:
* Unavailability of evidence for performance practices in the past

→ Partly filled by:
1) mentions of performers and performing arts in various textual genres
2) literary texts (Sanskrit plays)
3) treatises on the performing arts (Nāṭyaśāstra)
4) visual evidence (often of difficult interpretation, ≠ between static images and moving ones)
5) living forms of performance which claim links at various levels with the past: Kerala Sanskrit theatre Kūṭiyāṭṭam, the so-called “classical” forms of Indian dance (Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathakali) and music (Hindustani music, Carnatic music)

Question 3

1) Mentions of performers and performances in a variety of early texts

Answer 3

• Mentions of gods dancing in the Vedas
• Mention of theatrical performances based on Kṛṣṇa themes by
  the grammarian Patañjali (2nd BC)
• Dharmasūtras: performers belong to the lower social classes and performing is a demaning and impure activity that Brahmanical students should especially avoid
• Canonical Buddhist sources: proscriptions for the monks against attending theatrical performances
• Epics: the patronage of performers is proportional to the fame of the king, and theatrical performances are entertaining activities at court

Question 4

2) Literary texts: Sanskrit plays

Answer 4

• Beginnings are obscure, but a certainty is Aśvaghoṣa (2nd AD): Buddhist philosopher, poet and playwright working at the court of Kaniṣka; author of the Buddhacarita and Saundarananda (kāvya), Buddha appears as a character speaking Sanskrit.
• Bhāsa (2nd/3rd cent, or probably later ?): very prolific dramatist, the language and style of his works appear “ancient”, but the antiquity and attribution of his plays is controversial
• Kālidāsa (4th/5th cent. ): the classical poet par excellence, his three plays are imbued with courtly culture;
• Bhavabhūti (ca. 700 AD): unrivalled master of ‘tragedy’ (karuṇā rasa) - in contrast to Kālidāsa, whose name stands for (courtly) erotic love

Question 5

Aśvaghoṣa on the aim of poetry

Answer 5

“This composition on the subject of liberation (mokṣa) is for calming the reader, not for his pleasure. It is fashioned out of the medicine of poetry
(kāvya) with the intention of capturing an audience whose minds are on other things. Thinking how it could be made pleasant, I have handled in it things other than liberation, things introduced due to the character of poetry (kāvya- dharma), as bitter medicine is mixed with honey.”

Question 6

Indian aesthetics and the aim of art: Production/transmission of emotions

Answer 6

The aim of theatre:
“Indeed, no object/purpose can ever proceed without rasa.”
How does rasa arise?
“rasa is produced by the union of the determinants (vibhāva), the consequents (anubhāva) and the transitory states (vyabhicāribhāva).”
That is, rasa results from the successful combination of all the different elements of a play, and in particular from the actors’ adequate portrayal of the emotional situation.

Question 7

Origins of Sanskrit theatre

Answer 7

Literary origin
* Dialogical hymns of the Vedas, like Ṛgveda 10.95, a conversation between the king Purūravas and the celestial nymph Urvaśī
* Dialogical form of large parts of ancient Indian Sanskrit literature, such as the epics
⇒ However, no evidence of ‘performance practices’, let alone the theory of ‘folk’ drama

Ritual origin
* Performative aspects of the Vedic sacrificial ritual
* Theatre is often called a yajña, a kratu or pūjā, ”sacrifice”, “ritual offering” for the gods
e.g. Mālavikāgnimitra 1.4: “Sages celebrate this theatre as a ritual offering, beautiful for the gods to behold”
* The Nāṭyaśāstra describes in details the preliminary rituals that precede every theatrical performance (pūrvaraṅga), conceived as an offering to propitiate the deities of the stage

Question 8

Sanskrit theatre: An authoctonous art or a foreign import?

Answer 8

Connected with the question of the origins, is the question about the sudden rise of Sanskrit drama in India
→ Was the idea of Sanskrit theatre borrowed from or influenced by the Hellenistic theatre?
* Aśvaghoṣa (2nd century AD): Buddhist philosopher, poet and playwright working at the court of Kaniṣka, a Kuṣāṇa king
* The North-West of India was very influenced by Hellenistic culture, especially through the presence of Indo-Greek kingdoms (3rd BC/1st AD)
* Foreign dynasties were more open to novelties than indigenous ones, cfr. the Kuṣāṇa’s and Śāka’s introduction of Sanskrit outside of the religious domain, in particular for writing poetry (kāvya) and for the poetic expression of politics in inscriptions (cf. Sanskrit Cosmopolis!)

→ A still open question

Question 9

Visual evidence

Answer 9

• Plenty of evidence of performance depictions from very early times (Buddhist reliefs from the 2nd BC), before the evidence of written plays
• Popular or artistic contexts?
• Religious uses (at Stupas and temples, cf. later uses of dance and music as types of offering in Hindu pūjā) or worldly ones (entertainment, courtly refined performances)?
• When there is no clear accompanying musical ensemble or stage setting, how can we determine if a narrative scene does not represent a theatrical performance? Themes are sometimes analogous (epic-narrative materials)
• The visual is a different narrative medium than the performative

Question 10

Living traditions

Answer 10

• Kutiyattam, the leaving Sanskrit theatre of Kerala
• Traditions of “classical” dance and music, referring to the Sanskrit tradition of the Nāṭyaśāstra for legitimation and authority, but actually the heritage of regional traditions of performers from low classes attached to temples and courts, the Devadasis, and Nattuvangam.

→ Every performance is a unique, unrepeatable event, and the performing arts are themselves in constant evolution