Nāṭyaśāstra and regional deśi art forms

The art form of dance and drama gained its prominence as independent art forms in various states of India, and even in some foreign countries. Though the common language was Sanskrit, the regional languages gained popularity. In the same way, the mother of all the works was Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra, but other works on dance gained importance in their own regions. The dance forms, which prevailed in those regions, adhered to their practice based on the tradition and theory of these scriptures or can be said, these works were written based on the lakṣaṇa of dance forms prevailing in those regions.

The dance forms can be categorized as nāṭya (dramatized dance), nṛtta (abstract dance) and nṛtya (imitative dance). They were mimetic, which had beautiful movement of hands and legs, and were performed for vocal and instrumental orchestral music. The meaning of the song was depicted through hand gestures and the feel of the song was brought out through facial expressions. In dance presentations, the dancer had single costume (ekāhārya) and they had to change their role only through actions. The songs performed had different themes (pṛtagārtha). In dance-drama presentations, actors were given a role and their costume varied accordingly. However, it had a single theme (ekārtha). The vācika abhinaya gained prominence, the actors had to speak and even sing at times with their own voice. This was the nāṭya conceived by Bharata.

Gati plays an important role in the deśi dance and drama forms. There has been a perfect combination of movements, along with rhythm in these forms. In the present day, the changes of rhythm are based on the five gatis or naḍais which are tiśra, caturaśra, kaṇḍa, miśra and saṅkīrṇa, that is three, four, five, seven and nine respectively. The speeds such as vilamba, madhya and druta are also followed. Thus, the gait of the characters, gait in sentiments, movement on vehicles, movement of animals and birds are set to the gatis or naḍais and performed. As far as movements on stage were concerned the bramarīs, utplavanas, cāris, maṇḍalas and piṇḍibandhas formed an important part of choreography in deśī forms. These technical terms were explained in detail in many post-Bharata works. This was common to almost all styles of dance.

Generally, āṅgika abhinaya was used to convey ideas and vācika was predominantly used in drama. These dance and dance-drama forms are classified into traditional, classical and folk varieties. There are nearly eight dance forms all over India, termed as classical dances and have specific techniques based on the literature. There are many traditional theatre forms, folk forms, ritualistic art forms and even martial art forms based on the gaits or gatis.

Kings in India patronized the poets, musicians and composers in their courts. Dancers were employed in the court. Many kings themselves were experts in literature and made documentations on music and dance. Raghunatha Nayak wrote Saṅgītasudha, Tulaja wrote Saṅgītasārāmṛta, and Shahaji was skilled in Sanskrit and music. Siṃhabhūpāla wrote a commentary for Saṅgītaratnākara, Serfoji II was the one who started the famous Saraswathi Mahal Library, Svātitirunāl was a composer and Mahendra Varma Pallava has engraved an inscription on music at Kuḍumiyāmalai. King Kulasekara Varman of Kerala revived the theatre of Kūḍiāṭṭa and wrote few Sanskrit dramas.^[1] In South-India geyanāṭakas were written by great composers such as Thyagaraja who wrote Prahlada Bhakti Vijaya and Nauka charitra, Gopalakrishna Bharati who wrote Nandanar caritra, Arunachala Kavirayar’s Rāmanāṭaka, Kṛṣṇalīlā taraṅgiṇī of Narayana Tirtha, etc.

Serfoji composed the nirūpaṇas for dance in Marāthi. They were based on single stories such as uparūpakas. They had compositions such as jeyajeya, alaru, kouthvaṃs and varnams, which were danced. Sahaji wrote prabandhas, which were also compositions for dance. These forms had dance movements based on the traditional classical style which came down with generations Raghunatha nayak wrote many nṛtyanāṭakas such as Rukmini parinaya, and Nalacharitra. Shahaji wrote many geyanāṭakas such as Śaṃkara pallakīseva, and Viṣṇu pallakīseva, which were sung and danced. He combined the yakṣagānas and prabandhas, introduced the dance dramas, and named it as drśyakāvyās. Thus, in South India, the Pallavas and Cholas patronised architecture and the Nayaks and Maratas were experts in literature.

This art form of dance and drama has also been prevailing in the South-East Asian region where many sculptures are seen in temples of Prāmbanan and they are connected with the dance movements given in Nāṭyaśāstra.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Lectures on the Nāṭyaśāstra-Radha Vallabh Tripathi. p.109