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Sanskrit drama



 
 
Indian drama
Theatre in India

Theatre in India began with the Rigvedic dialogue hymns during the Vedic period, and Sanskrit drama was established as a distinct art form in the last few centuries BC....
 as a distinct genre of Sanskrit literature
Sanskrit literature

Indian literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity ....
 emerges in the final centuries BC, although its origins date back to the Rigvedic dialogue hymns
Rigvedic dialogue hymns

The Rigveda contains a number of dialogue hymns , hymns that are in the form of dialogues, representing the earliest surviving sample of this genre, and can be argued to be an early precursor of Sanskrit drama....
. Famous Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 drama
Drama

Drama is the specific Mode of fiction Mimesis in performance. The term comes from a Ancient Greek word meaning "Action " , which is derived from "to do" ....
tists include Shudraka, Bhasa
Bhasa

Bhasa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Theatre in India in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about him.Kalidasa in the introduction to his first play Malavikagnimitram writes -...
, Asvaghosa
Asvaghosa

was an Indian philosopher-poet, born in Saketa in northern India. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet before Kalidasa....
 and Kalidasa
Kalidasa

Kalidasa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His floruit cannot be dated with precision, but most likely falls within the Gupta Empire, probably in the 4th century BC or 5th century or 6th century....
. Though numerous plays written by these playwrights are still available, little is known about the authors themselves.

Yama-Yami
Yama

Yama , also known as Yamaraja in India, Yanluowang or simply Yan in China, and Enma in Japan, is the lord of death, first recorded in the Vedas....
 episode and other Rigvedic dialogue hymns
Rigvedic dialogue hymns

The Rigveda contains a number of dialogue hymns , hymns that are in the form of dialogues, representing the earliest surviving sample of this genre, and can be argued to be an early precursor of Sanskrit drama....
 present one of the earliest forms of dramatic dialogue in literature, and can be argued to be an early precursor of Sanskrit drama.






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Encyclopedia


Indian drama
Theatre in India

Theatre in India began with the Rigvedic dialogue hymns during the Vedic period, and Sanskrit drama was established as a distinct art form in the last few centuries BC....
 as a distinct genre of Sanskrit literature
Sanskrit literature

Indian literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity ....
 emerges in the final centuries BC, although its origins date back to the Rigvedic dialogue hymns
Rigvedic dialogue hymns

The Rigveda contains a number of dialogue hymns , hymns that are in the form of dialogues, representing the earliest surviving sample of this genre, and can be argued to be an early precursor of Sanskrit drama....
. Famous Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 drama
Drama

Drama is the specific Mode of fiction Mimesis in performance. The term comes from a Ancient Greek word meaning "Action " , which is derived from "to do" ....
tists include Shudraka, Bhasa
Bhasa

Bhasa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Theatre in India in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about him.Kalidasa in the introduction to his first play Malavikagnimitram writes -...
, Asvaghosa
Asvaghosa

was an Indian philosopher-poet, born in Saketa in northern India. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet before Kalidasa....
 and Kalidasa
Kalidasa

Kalidasa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His floruit cannot be dated with precision, but most likely falls within the Gupta Empire, probably in the 4th century BC or 5th century or 6th century....
. Though numerous plays written by these playwrights are still available, little is known about the authors themselves.

Precursors

The Yama-Yami
Yama

Yama , also known as Yamaraja in India, Yanluowang or simply Yan in China, and Enma in Japan, is the lord of death, first recorded in the Vedas....
 episode and other Rigvedic dialogue hymns
Rigvedic dialogue hymns

The Rigveda contains a number of dialogue hymns , hymns that are in the form of dialogues, representing the earliest surviving sample of this genre, and can be argued to be an early precursor of Sanskrit drama....
 present one of the earliest forms of dramatic dialogue in literature, and can be argued to be an early precursor of Sanskrit drama. The nature of the plays ranged from tragedy
Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
 to light comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
. Dramatists often worked on pre-existing mythological or historical themes that were familiar to the audience of the age. For instance many plays drew their plot lines from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata
Mahabharata

The is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetrys of History of India, the other being the '. The epic is part of the Hindu itihasa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
, the great epics of India
Indian epic poetry

Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent. Originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into Kannada, Tamil language and Hindi, it includes some of the oldest epic poetry ever created and some works form the basis of Hindu scripture....
.

Theory


Natya Shastra


Bharata Muni
Bharata Muni

Bharata was an ancient Indian musicologist who authored the Natya Shastra of Bharata, a theoretical treatise on ancient Indian dramaturgy and histrionics, dated to between roughly 400 BC and 200 BC....
's Natya Shastra
Natya Shastra

The Natya Shastra is an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, encompassing Indian theatre, Indian classical dance and Indian classical music....
 (literally "Scripture of Dance," though it sometimes translated as "Science of Theatre'") is a keystone work in Sanskrit literature on the subject of stagecraft. The Natya Shastra dates to between the second century BC and the second century AD.

The text specifically describes the proper way one should go about staging a Sanskrit drama. It addresses a wide variety of topics including the proper occasions for staging a drama, the proper designs for theatres, the types of people who are allowed to be drama critics and, most especially, specific instructions and advice for actors, playwrights and (after a fashion) producers.

Plays


Mricchakatika (The Little Clay Cart)


One of the earliest known Sanskrit plays, this play is thought to have been composed by Shudraka in the 2nd century BC. Rife with romance, sex, royal intrigue and comedy, the juicy plot of the play has numerous twists and turns. The main story is about a young man named Charudatta, and his love for Vasantasena, a rich courtesan or nagarvadhu
Nagarvadhu

Nagarvadhu or Nagar Vadhu was a tradition followed in some parts of ancient India.Women competed to win the title of a Nagarvadhu, and it was not considered a taboo....
. The love affair is complicated by a royal courtier, who is also attracted to Vasantasena. The plot is further complicated by thieves and mistaken identities, and thus making it a greatly hilarious and entertaining play. It invited widespread admiration when staged in New York in 1924. The play was made into a 1984 Hindi
Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry in India. The term is often used to refer to the whole of Cinema of India....
 movie Utsav
Utsav

Utsav is a 1984 Hindi film, produced by Shashi Kapoor and directed by Girish Karnad.The film stars Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, Amjad Khan, Anuradha Patel, Shekhar Suman, Anupam Kher, Shankar Nag, Neena Gupta, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Annu Kapoor, Sanjana Kapoor and Kunal Kapoor ....
, directed by Girish Karnad
Girish Karnad

Girish Raghunath Karnad is a contemporary writer, playwright, actor and Film Director in Kannada language. He is the latest of seven recipients of Jnanpith Award for Kannada language, the highest literary honour conferred in India....
. The Indian play depicted in the film Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge!

Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 in film Cinema of Australia film by Baz Luhrmann, director of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, based largely on the Giuseppe Verdi opera La Traviata....
 may have been based on The Little Clay Cart.

Bhasa


The plays written by Bhasa
Bhasa

Bhasa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Theatre in India in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about him.Kalidasa in the introduction to his first play Malavikagnimitram writes -...
 were only known to historians through the references of later writers, the manuscripts themselves being lost. Manuscripts of 13 plays written by him were discovered in an old library in 1913 by the scholar Ganapati Shastry. A 14th play was later discovered and attributed to Bhasa
Bhasa

Bhasa is one of the earliest and most celebrated Theatre in India in Sanskrit. However, very little is known about him.Kalidasa in the introduction to his first play Malavikagnimitram writes -...
, but its authorship is disputed.

Bhasa's most famous plays are Svapna Vasavadattam (Swapnavasadatta) (Vasavadatta's dream), Pancharatra and Pratijna Yaugandharayaanam (The vows of Yaugandharayana). Some other plays being Pratimanataka, Abhishekanataka, Balacharita, Dutavakya, Karnabhara, Dutaghatotkacha, Charudatta, Madhyamavyayoga and Urubhanga.

Karnabhara is a critically acclaimed play and it is being subjected to lot of experimentation by the modern theatre groups in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
.

Bhasa is considered to be one of the best Sanskrit playwrights, second only to Kalidasa
Kalidasa

Kalidasa was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His floruit cannot be dated with precision, but most likely falls within the Gupta Empire, probably in the 4th century BC or 5th century or 6th century....
. He is earlier than Kalidasa, and may date to any time between the 1st century BC and the 4th century AD.

Kalidasa


Kalidasa (3rd-4th cent AD) is easily the greatest poet and playwright in Sanskrit, and occupies the same position in Sanskrit literature that Shakespeare occupies in English literature
English literature

The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V.S....
. He deals primarily with famous Hindu legends and themes; three famous plays by Kalidasa are Vikramorvasiyam
Vikramorvasiyam

Vikramorvasiyam is a Sanskrit play by medieval Indian poet Kalidasa, on the Vedic love story of king Pururavas and celestial nymph Urvashi....
 (Vikrama and Urvashi), Malavikagnimitram
Malavikagnimitram

Malavikagnimitram is a Sanskrit Play by Kalidasa. It is his first play. The principal characters of Malavikagnimitram are Malavika and Agnimitra....
 (Malavika and Agnimitra), and the play that he is most known for: Abhijñanasakuntalam
Abhijñanasakuntalam

Abhij?anashakuntala or Abhij?anasakuntalam) , is a well-known Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa. It is written in a mix of Sanskrit and the Maharashtri Prakrit, a Middle Indian dialect....
 (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last named play is considered to be greatest play in Sanskrit. More than a millennium later, it would so powerfully impress the famous German writer Goethe that he would write:

"Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms and the fruits of its decline
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed,
Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine?
I name thee, O Shakuntala! and all at once is said. "


Kalidasa also wrote two large epic poems, Raghuva?sa ("The Genealogy of Raghu") and Kumarasambhava
Kumarasambhava

Kumarasambhava is an Sanskrit epic poem written by the illustrious poet Kalidasa. It is one of the most important examples of Kavya poetry....
 ("Birth of Kumara"), and two smaller epics, ?tusa?hara ("Medley of Seasons") and Meghaduta
Meghaduta

Meghaduta is a lyric poem written by Kalidasa, considered to be one of the greatest Sanskrit poets.A short poem of only 111 stanzas, it is one of Kalidasa's most famous works....
 (The Cloud Messenger), another 'perfect' work.

Kalidasa's writing is characterized by the usage of simple but beautiful Sanskrit, and by his extensive use of simile
Simile

A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as". Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors seek to equate two ideas despite their differences....
s. His similes have earned him the saying, Upama Kalidasasya (Kalidasa owns simile).

Da??in

Da??in is a 6th-7th century Sanskrit author of prose romances and expounder on poetics. Although he produced literature on his own, most notably the Dasakumaracarita, translated in 1927 as "The Adventures of the Ten Princes", he is best known for composing the Kavyadarsa ("Mirror of Poetry"), the handbook of classical Sanskrit poetics, or kavya
Kavya

Kavya refers to artificial Sanskrit literary style used by Kingdoms of Ancient India court poets flourishing from the first half of the seventh century A.D....
. His writings were all in Sanskrit.

He is also known for his complex sentences and creation of very long compound words (some of his sentences ran for half a page, and some of his words for half a line).

A shloka
Shloka

A Sanskrit term shloka specifically denotes a metered and often rhymed poetic verse or phrase. Shloka is the chief metre used in the Epics.It also connotes and has come to mean a proverb and a form of prayer throughout Indian religions having arisen in the Vedas....
 that explains the strengths of different poets says: Dandinaha padalalityam ("Da??in is the master of playful words").

Other Major Plays

There are lot of other great plays like Ratnavali
Ratnavali

Ratnavali is a Sanskrit drama about a beautiful princess named Ratnavali, and a great king named Udayana. It is attributed to the Indian emperor Harsha ....
, Nagananda
Nagananda

Nagananda is a Sanskrit Play attributed to king Harsha .Nagananda is one of the best Sanskrit dramas in five acts dealing with the popular story of Jimutavahana's self-sacrifice to save the Naga people....
 and Priyadarsika
Priyadarsika

Priyadarsika is a Sanskrit Play attributed to king Harsha ....
 by Sri Harsha
Harsha

Harsha or Harshavardhana or "Harsha vardhan" was an Indian Rajput emperor who ruledNorthern India for fifty seven years. He was the son of Prabhakar Vardhan and younger brother of Rajyavardhan, a king of Thanesar....
 (7th century), Mahendravikramavarman's Mattavilasaprahasana, Shaktibhadra's Aascharyachoodamani (Ascharyachudamani), Sri Harsha’s Nagananda, Kulasekhara’s Subhadradhananjaya and Tapatisamvarana, Neelakantha’s Kalyana Saugandhika and Sri Krishna Charita.

Mani Damodara Chakyar As Nayaka

Performances

Sanskrit plays were very popular and were staged in ancient times all over India. Now the only surviving ancient Sanskrit drama theatre is Koodiyattam
Koodiyattam

Koodiyattam or Kutiyattam is a form of Sanskrit theatre traditionally performed in the state of Kerala, India. Performed in the Sanskrit language in Hindu temples, it is believed to be 2000 years old....
, which is preserved in Kerala
Kerala

Kerala is a Indian Union States and territories of India located in the southwestern part of India. With an Arabian Sea coastline on the west, it is bordered on the north by Karnataka and by Tamil Nadu on the south and east....
 by the Chakyar
Chakyar

Chakyar is a caste from the Kerala state of south India. The women in this community are called Illotammas. They are Brahmins who, having mixed with Namboothiris, occupy a position in the Hindu Temple associated with the priestly caste in managing the affairs of the temple, though not the actual conduct of ceremonies....
 community. This form of Sanskrit drama is thought to be at least 2000 years old and is one of the oldest living theatrical traditions in the world. All major Sanskrit plays such as that of Bhasa, Sri Harsha, Shaktibhadra etc. are performed in Koodiyattam. Guru Natyacharya Vidushakaratnam Padma Shri
Padma Shri

Padma Shri is an award given by the Government of India generally to Indian citizens to recognize their distinguished contribution in various spheres of activity including the Arts, Education, Industry, Literature, Science, Sports, Social Service and public life....
 Mani Madhava Chakyar
Mani Madhava Chakyar

Guru Mani Madhava Chakyar was a celebrated master performance artist and Sanskrit scholar from Kerala, South India, considered to be the greatest Koothu and Koodiyattam artist and authority of modern times. He was considered as the authority of Abhinaya and Natyasastra....
 choreographed and directed plays like Kalidasa's Abhijñanasakuntala, Vikramorvasiya and Malavikagnimitra; Bhasa's Swapnavasadatta and Pancharatra for the first time in the history of Koodiyattam. He popularised Koodiyattam and rejuvenated the only surviving Sanskrit drama theatre in India.

See also

  • Theatre in India
    Theatre in India

    Theatre in India began with the Rigvedic dialogue hymns during the Vedic period, and Sanskrit drama was established as a distinct art form in the last few centuries BC....