March16

*** SANSKRIT THEATRE ***

*Sanskrit Literature starts around 1500 BCE.
*Oral tradition

*Most Sanskrit dramas are based on the EPIC TALES: THE MAHABHARATA und THE RAMAYANA.

*4th/5th Centuries (Gupta Dynasty): Golden Age of Sanskrit Drama.

*Written in a mix of Sanskrit (fancy literary dialect) and Prakrit (Vernacular dialect)

*"NATYASASTRA" by Bharata Muni. An indeepth study about how to stage drama, how to perform (including how actors should move their nose), how to watch drama. Also, within it, there's one more theory on the origins of drama.

*Sanskrit theatre was often staged within Religious Festivals and preceded by elaborate religious rituals.

*All classes went to the theatre. All genres performed.

*Highly Stylized performance: "The way a performer stands and blinks and crooks a finger and flares her nostrils all of that is conveying vital information about her character and the circumstances of the play." Crash Course #7.

*No scenery but elaborated costumes and make-up.

VE *** "Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition" by Kalidasa ***

* "from the Indian dramatists, indeed of all Indian poets, the most celebrated is Kálidása, the writer of the present play....the Shakespeare of India."

*"[S']akoontalá' seems to have been acted at the commencement of the summer season—a period peculiarly sacred to Káma-deva, the Indian god of love."

*"The dramatis personæ were divided into three classes—the inferior characters (nicha), who were said to speak Prákrit in a monotonous accentless tone of voice (anudáttoktyá); the middling (madhyama), and the superior (pradhána), who were said to speak Sanskrit with accent, emphasis, and expression (udáttoktyá)."

*"The piece closes, as it began, with a prayer for national plenty and prosperity, addressed to the favourite deity, and spoken by one of the principal personages of the drama."

*"Indeed the whole story of [S']akoontalá is told in the Mahá-bhárata."

*"It is probable that a curtain suspended across the stage, and divided in the centre, answered all the purposes of scenes. Behind the curtain was the space or room called nepathya, where the decorations were kept, where the actors attired themselves, and remained in readiness before entering the stage, and whither they withdrew on leaving it. When an actor was to enter hurriedly, he was directed to do so 'with a toss of the curtain.'"

From the Preface to the Eighth Edition of THE TRANSLATED VERSION INTO ENGLISH PROSE AND VERSE FROM THE SANSKRIT OF KÁLIDÁSA BY SIR MONIER MONIER-WILLIAMS, K.C.I.E. M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., PH.D. BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT, HON. FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY AND LATE FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD. (first published in 1855)