4. The entity of Vṛtti and its use in Mudrārākṣasa

pravṛttirūpo netṛvyāpārasvabhāvo vṛttiḥ/^[1]

“The nature of the activities (vyāpāra) of the actors is called as vṛtti.”

The purport of netṛvyāpārsvabhāvaḥ is nāyakasya vyāpārānukūlaḥ svabhāvaḥ. Normally, the perspective of the performance of the actor is vṛtti. It’s the diathesis of the nature of the actor. Here diathesis means: mental, oral and physical efforts. Usually, there are various characteristics of the activities of the actors as they use different languages and costumes for different places. These actors also attach to different form of work. But all the works cannot be included within vṛtti. Therefore, all the performances and the attire (veśavinyāsa) of the actors are not included in the nāṭyavṛtti. On the other hand, only the physical, oral and mental performances are known as the vṛtti of a play.

Rājśekhara has mentioned the sequence of vilāsavinyāsa as vṛtti—

vilāsavinyāsakramo vṛttiḥ/^[2]

The vṛttis have direct relations with the rasas. It is the poets who comprehend the vṛttis with the hearts as the rasas and hence these are also known as the “mother of the nāṭyas”.

Cf.—

catasrovṛttayo hyetā sarvanāṭyasya mātṛkāḥ/^[3]

In Nāṭyaśāstra such vṛttis have been considered as the “mother of nāṭyaḥ”.^[4]

The author of Nātyadarpaṇa has acknowledged the prominence of vṛtti as—

vṛttayo nāṭyamātaraḥ.^[5]

These vṛttis are classified into the following four types—

1. Kaiśikī,
2. Sātvatī,
3. Ārabhaṭī and
4. Bhāratī.

The basis for the mutual classification or differences of these vṛttis can be enumerated as follows: the Sātvatī-vṛtti is especially the mental activities whereas Bhāratī is basically oral performances and the rest i.e. Kaiśikī and Ārabhaṭī are the forms of physical activities. However, the difference of mental, oral and physical activities are not possible, because, though it be physical or oral, the both forms of endeavours are ultimately based on the mental endeavours. Based on this, therefore, the aforesaid classification of vṛttis seems to be inappropriate. However, based on the importance of any of the action, the classification of vṛtti invariably gets manifested just as in the Sāṃkhya philosophy though all the three guṇas of satva, rajas and tamas remain present in every object, yet the object with the importance of satva guṇa is called sātvika, rajas guṇa as rājasa and tamo guṇa as tāmasa. This is why the oral prominent activity is Bhāratī, mental prominent activity is Sātvatī and physical prominent activity is Kaiśikī and Ārabhaṭī vṛttis respectively.^[6] Again, rasa and abhinaya are also considered as the differentiator (bhedaka) of vṛttis. Abhinavagupta has clearly mentioned the areas or fields of prominence of these vṛttis. According to him, in Bhāratī, reading (pāṭhya) is prominent, acting is prominent in Sātvatī, in Ārabhaṭī the rasas along with the anubhāvas are placed at the foremost, and in Kaiśikī songs, instruments, music etc. find prominence.^[7] In a nāṭya all the actions are attached with the rasa, bhāva and abhinaya. Therefore, these vṛttis also follows the rasa, bhāva and abhinaya.

In Śṛṅgārarasa there is Kaiśikī, in Vīrarasa Sātvatī, Raudra and Bībhatsa in Ārabhaṭī and in every other rasa one finds the Bhāratī-vṛtti. Cf.—

śṛṅgāre kaiśikī vīre sātvatyārabhaṭī punaḥ /
rase raudre ca bībhatse vṛttiḥ sarvatra bhāratī //^[8]

Herein, Hāsyarasa from Śṛṅgāra , Adbhuta from Vīra , Karuṇa from Raudra and Bhayaānaka from Vībhatsa-rasa are also accepted. Following Nāṭyaśāstra (20.25), Śiṅgabhupāla has established the relationship of the four Vedas with the four vṛttis in the following manner—Ṛgveda with Bhāratī, Yayurveda with Sātvatī-vṛtti, Sāmaveda with Kaiśikī and Artharveda with Ārabhaṭī.

Cf.—

ṛgvedācca yajurvedāt sāmavedādatharvaṇaḥ/
bhāratādyā kramājjātā ityanye tu pracakṣate//^[9]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Daśarūpaka (vṛtti), II.47

[2]:

Kāvyamīmāṃsa, III, p.

[3]:

Sāhityadarpaṇa, VI.123

[4]:

Nāṭyaśāstra, XVIII.4

[5]:

Nāṭyadarpaṇa, III.155

[6]:

Nāṭyaśāstra, XX.25

[7]:

(a) na ca rasopayogilālityabhāgaśūnyaḥ ko’pi nāṭye parispande ityanyonyaṃ saṃvalitā vṛttayaḥ kevalaṃ kvacitkiñcidadhikamiti prādhānyena vyapadeśaḥ kriyate/ Nāṭyaśāstra (Abhinavabhāratī), XX.25
(b) pāṭhyapradhānā bhāratī, abhinayapradhānā sātvatī anubhāvādyāveśamayarasapradhānārabhaṭī,gītavādyoparañjakapradhānā kaiśikīti// Ibid

[8]:

Daśarūpaka, II.62

[9]:

Rasavarṇa Sudhākara, p.260