Indian Theatres

The origin of Indian theater, or rather international theater and dramatics can be traced to religious ritualism of the Vedic Aryans. This public theater misty past was mixed with dance, ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life. It was the final element that made the origin of the classical theater in recent times. Many historians, especially d.d. Kosambi, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya etc. refers to the prevalence of ritualism amongst Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals and some others were hunters.

Those who acted like animals as goats, buffaloes, reindeer, monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters and a fake hunting was adopted. In such a simple and crude manner did the theater originate in India nearly 4000 years back in the tribal areas Aryans of Rig Vedic times. There is also a must have existed a theatrical tradition in the Indus Valley cities, but we have no literary numismatic or any other material evidence.

The origin of drama and theater have been told to us in an aptly dramatic manner by Bharatamui, author of Natyashastra an ancient Indian text on dance and drama. Bharatamuni said to have lived around the 4th century, but even he is not aware of the true origin of the theater in India. He has skilfully said in a dramatic way that it was the master creation Brahma who also created the original Natyashastra (Drama). According Bharatamuni, when Lord Brahma created the entire universe, we do not question his ability to create drama. But Bharatamuni continues to tell us that the original Natyashastra of Brahma was too unwieldy and obscure to be of no practical use. Therefore Bharatamuni even took on the task of making Natyashastra simple, understandable and interesting.

Thus Natyashastra of Bharatamuni was supported to be understood by laymen. So Natyashastra of Bharatamunii not the oldest text on dance and drama, as Bharata himself says that he has only simplified the original work of Lord Brahma. The Natyashastra presupposes the existence of many plays before it was composed, and says that most of the early play did not follow the rules of the Natyashastra.

But Natyashastra itself seems to be the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic way. The Natya Shastra a tells us not only what is being portrayed in a drama, but what it means to be done. Drama, as Bharatamuni says, is an imitation of men and their doings (loka-vritti). As men and their deeds to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known under the concept roopaka which means portrait.

The Natyashastra all forms of expression employed by an individual to say. speech, gestures, movements and intonation must be used. The representation of these terms can have different modes (vritti) according to overweight and focus on one mode or another. Bharatamuni recognizes four modes i.e., Speech and Poetry (Bharati Vritti), dance and music (Kaishiki Vritti), Action (Arabhatti Vritti) and emotions (Sattvatti Vritti).

Bharatamuni also indicates where and how a play should be performed. In ancient India plays were generally performed either in temple-yard or within palace area. During public performances, which plays generally performed in the open. For such public performances, have Bharatamuni advocated construction of a mandapa. The Natyashastra in building a mandapa, the pillars to be created in four corners. By means of these pillars is a platform built of wooden planks. The area of the mandapa is divided into two parts. The front part that is left is called the phase r angashrishu. Behind the Selfoss-shirsha is what was called nepathya-griha, where the characters dress up before entering the stage. Bharatamuni has also indicated that each player must have a Sutradhara which literally means "holder of a leash. Sutradhara It was as a producer-director today. Each player had to start with a renewal of God. This invocation was called poorvaranga. Even today, plays in Indian languages begin with a devotional song called Naandi. Ramayana and Mahabharata can be called the first recognized plays that originated in India.

These epics also provided the inspiration for the earliest Indian dramatists and they do so even today. One of the earliest Indian dramatists was Bhasa whose plays have been inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Bhasa's date can not be definitively determined, but that he lived before Kålidåsa is proved by his reference to Bhasa as one of the early leading playwrights. As Kålidåsa lived in the 4th century, Bhasa has lived in the first centuries of our era. Bhasa was a natural dramatist who drew heavily from the epics, but Kålidåsa can be called an original playwright.

Kalidasa has written many plays, some of them; AbhijananShakuntalam, Kumarsambhavam, Meghadutam and Malavikagnimitram. Kålidåsa was the court playwright at the Gupta court. He lived at Ujjaini, the capital of Gupta and was for some days Gupta ambassador at the Court of Vakatakas at Amaravati where he wrote the piece Meghadutam.

The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti. He is said to have written three plays i.e. Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three, the last two cover between them the entire epic, Ramayana. Bhavabhuti lived around the 7th century AD, when Sanskrit drama was on the decline, mainly due to lack of royal patronage. The last royal patron of Sanskrit drama seems to be king Harshavardhana of the 7th century. Harshavardhana is even credited with having written three plays ie. Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda.

Yet despite the lack of patronage two leading playwrights came after Bhavabhuti they were Shudraka whose main play was Mricchakatikam, and the second was Rajashekhara playwright whose play was titled Karpuramanjari. But the decline in sanskrit theater is evident from the fact that while Mricchakatikam was in sanskrit was Karpuramanjari in Prakrit which was an everyday form of sanskrit. Rajashekhara himself has said that he chose to write in Prakrit as the language was soft while Sanskrit was harsh. Sanskrit plays continued to be written up to the 17th century in distant pockets of the country, mainly in the Vijayanagara empire in the South. But they had passed their prime, the later Sanskrit dramas are mostly imitations of Kalidasa or Bhavabhuti.

As with the other arts, Indian theater has left its mark on the countries in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, it has mainly been a tradition from medieval times to play based on reasons drawn from Indian epics. It had been so even in Cambodia where the ancient capital of Angkor Watt, stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata carved on the walls of temples and palaces. Similar, bas relief’s found at Borobudur in Indonesia. Thus, the Indian theater has been one of the vehicles to enrich the culture of our neighbors since ancient times.