Description of Samavakāra

Samavakāra is a dramatic representation in which there is fusion of several types of actions, characters, and motifs^[1]. It is a peculiar in its composite elements and differes from an average show in several respects.

It cannot have a mortal hero according to Bharata, Dhañanjaya and Śāvadātanaya who specifically direct that the hero of Samavakāra could be one from among gods and demons^[2]. Viśvanātha, on the other hand, observes that they should be gods and men^[3]. He adds that these heroes should be of the gallant (Udātta) type^[4].

A Samavakāra has only four junctures, namely, the Opening, the Expansion, the Pause and the conclusion; and the whole of action is to be spread over three acts only. It has the absence of Catastrophe or the Vimarśa Sandhi. Duration of action displayed in the first act is expected to take the longest time, i.e. six muhūrtas^[5]. And the entire action will endure nine muhūrtas or eighteen nādikas.

The sentiment ruling over the action of the play should, in view of the type of the heroes leading the action, be chiefly heroic or furious. The erotic sentiment will, however, have its place in such show. Under the circumstances, it is obvious that the play will afford little room for the soft bearing (Kaiśikī Vṛtti) and more for the heroic and the horrifice ones, the Sāttvatī and the Ārabhaṭi.

Bharata holds up that it always contains three types of horror, three types of passion and three types of deception^[6]. The types of horror become three according as they spring respectively from an animate object like a lion or a wild elephant; an inanimate object like a bolt or a lightning; and from both the living and the lifeless objects as shouts and shrieks in a confusion caused, say, by conflagration or an invasion. The three kinds of passion are pious (dharma Śṛṅgāra), the Voluptous (Kāma Śṛṅgāra) and mercenary (artha Śṛṅgāra) which differs according as they respectively relate to love with a married consort, for a spinster or an adulteress, and for concubines and harlofs who are gained merely for pecuniary consideration.

Bharata directs that metres employed in a Samavakāra should be mostly irregular^[7], generally consisting of six or seven syllables in a foot. Viswanatha, on the other hand, prescribes that a Samavakāra should better have long and heavy meters like Sragadharā.

Lastly, in a Samavakāra there is one more convention: the use of the Drop (bindhu) and of the introductory scene (Praveśaka) in forbidden^[8]. With these pecularities a Samavakara does in other respects follow the scheme of the Nāṭaka, subject, however, to one exception, viz., more copious use of the different members of Vīthī and Prahaśaṇa should be made in a Samavakāra than what is done in a Nāṭaka^[9].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

N. XX, 47; Sāhityadarpaṇa VI-124.

[2]:

Sāhityadarpaṇa VI-126; Daśarūpaka II–49; Rasārṇava-sudhākara I-271

[3]:

N. XX–50b; Sāhityadarpaṇa VI-127; Rasārṇava-sudhākara I-177.

[4]:

N. XX–51. Sāhityadarpaṇa VI–127a; Rasārṇava-sudhākara 277b;

[5]:

N. XX–52. Sāhityadarpaṇa VI–128a;

[6]:

A.B. Vol. III

[7]:

N. XX–37 seq.

[8]:

Sāhityadarpaṇa VI–131b.

[9]:

Nāṭyaśāstra XX-44; Nāṭaka-lakṣaṇa-Ratnakośa 1288