Introduction to the Utsṛṣṭikāṅka type of Drama

The west has a long tradition of drama originated from the Greece. The dramatic tradition started before the fifth century B.C. In that period, tragedy was the only form of drama and it was performed in the city of Dionysian. These dramas were based on either mythology or history. According to Greek and Roman, drama means tragedy and it cannot be thought of without tragedy. The drama consists of tragic plot, an exalted hero, who brings tragedy in the story and who is extra-ordinary and a spectacular human being. Greek and Roman believed hero brings the real pathetic. It could be said as the psycho-pathetic.

G. K. Bhat (1985, Sanskrit Drama, pp.54-55) states as follows:

“The western tragedy is a story of an exalted character. He is remarkable in a number of ways and is thereby above the label of common humanity. He, however, adopts a course of action, which puts him into terrible conflict with an established order of political-social life, or with cosmic forces, which do not brook any wrong being done. The entire story moves round such a conflict and ends with the death of the hero. One of the qualities that the hero possesses is the firmness of his own stand. He defies the forces of opposition. He does not deviate from the course of his action even if it brings him untold misery and agony. Sometimes he realizes the error of his action; sometimes notand occasionally the realization comes too late, almost at the moment of dying. Yet he courageously marches towards the end and faces death heroically. It also happens that the characters are victims of an adverse destiny. Nemesis takes hold of them, though they may not have done any real wrong. Such a spectacle rouses a variety of emotions. There is naturally “pity” or sympathy for the agonies the hero suffers; there is also “terror” or awe at the trail of waste, blood, disaster and death that the story leaves; there is at the same time deep admiration for the uncommon courage that the hero continuously shows in meeting disaster, in his suffering and in finally accepting death. There is sublimity that the hero reaches which lifts the spectator also on a higher level of humanity.”

Some examples of such type of dramas are Aeschylus’s “The Persians”, “Oresteia trilogy”; Sophocles” “Antigone”, “Electra”; Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “Othello;” Euripides’s Andromache and Daughters of Troy. Euripides’s dramas are also the best examples of the “Utsṛṣṭikāṅka”type.

However, in the Indian tradition of Sanskrit drama, tragedy occurs naturally, without needing any effort. The Ūrubhaṅga of Bhāsa is the best example of Utsṛṣṭikāṅka, which is quite close to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy. In the Indian tradition of Sanskrit drama, Utsṛṣṭikāṅka is a one-act drama based on tragedy. Here basically, weeping of women happens because of the loss of their beloved ones.

Utsṛṣṭikāṅka is the sequel to a Samavakāra, Ihāmṛga, Ḍima and Vyāyoga and mostly resembles Bhāṇa. Here the hero and the plot are mostly well known and the story is based on pathetic.

Abhinavabhāratī states that it depicts the death of the subject and that is why it is called Utsṛṣṭikāṅka:

“utkramaṇīyā sṛṣṭirjīvitam prāṇā yāsām tā utsṛṣṭikāḥ śocantyaḥ striyastābhiraṅkita iti tathoktāḥ”
  –(Abhinavabhāratī, XVIII.96).

Utsṛṣṭikāṅka does not have any divine character, because it is based on pathetic sentiment.

If there were furious, odious or terrible sentiment as the main sentiment, then it could have had the divine character:

“iha ca karuṇarasabāhulyādeva devairviyogaḥ raudrabībhatsabhayānakasaṃbandho divyayoge na bhavatyapi tu karuṇayogaḥ”
  –(Abhinavabhāratī, XVIII.96).

It does not have any action except verbal action and hence it contains verbal style (bhāratīvṛtti). Utsṛṣṭikāṅka is a natural type of (lokadharmī) drama like Prakaraṇa, Bhāṇaand Prahasana and which represents worldly behaviour. It depicts common behavior, normal action and wide spread story.

Utsṛṣṭikāṅka survived because of the Ūrubhaṅga, which has followed almost all the rules of the Nāṭyaśāstra. Bharata Gupta (1994, Dramatic concepts Greek and Indian, p. 216) states that “if an Utsṛṣṭikāṅka had managed to survive guessing from its attributes (lakṣaṇas) as given in the Nāṭyaśāstra, it would have had plenty of such tragic wails and complaints (nirveditabhāṣitaḥ). One must also notice that the aim of tragedy was to be achieved by the agency of mutability. Death of the hero was not essential. However, because of Aristotle’s “prejudice”, “Oedipus Rex,” need not be taken as the best tragedy and the only point of reference”.

Even the Nāṭyaśāstra states that there is no rule that all dramas will get successful conclusion. However, result-wise, the arrangement of the plot is made and that result arises from various actions (samutkarṣāt phalasya ca–Nāṭyaśāstra.XXI.5). The Ūrubhaṅga is justified to be an Utsṛṣṭikāṅka, as the same contains the seed and a miserable ending.