SANGEET NATAK journal of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, is published quarterly by the Sangeet Natak Akademi (National Academy of music, dance and drama for India). Printed at The Statesman Press, Connaught Circus, New Delhi.
Subscription rates: Price: Inland Rs, 10per annum Single copy Rs, 3 Overseas. 5 per annum All enquiries to be addressed to the Editor, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi. 1 sangeet natak 19 A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION ON MUSIC, DANCE AND DRAMA SANGEET NATAK AKADEMI, RABINDRA BHAVAN, NEW DELID JANUARY-MARCH 1971 The views expressed in Sangeet Natak are the wrrrers" own and do not necessarily conform to the opinion of the publishers. Permission to reproduce, in whole or in part, any material published in this Journal must be obtained from the Secretary, Sangeet Natak Akademi. Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi-r
EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr. V. Raghavan
Mrinalini Sarabhai
Dr. Lokenath Bhattacharya
Mohan Rakesh
Dr. Suresh Awasthi
Prof Mohan Khokar
Dr. B. C. Deva Ullla Anand: Editor Contents
5. THE SANSKRIT THEATRE IN ORISSA D. N. Pattnaik
13. GAGAKU AND BUGAKtJ Fernau Hall
24. ENCOUNTER WITH INDIAN DANCE Anne-Marie Gaston
34. COMPOSITIONS OF SRI SWATI TIRUNAL Dr. S. Venkitasubramonia Iyer
38. AESTHETICS AND PHILOSOPHY AS RELATED TO INDIAN MUSIC Arun Bhattacharya
43. LIMITATIONS OF THE VERSE-PLAY Dr. Lokenath Bhattacharya
CovertRyo-O by Eilean Pearce)' THE SANSKRIT THEATRE IN ORISSA A choronological review
D. N. Pattnaik
In the past Orissa was a great seat of Sanskrit learning. Puri, which was at that time known as Srikshetra, because of its importance as one of the four sacred places ofpilgrimage in India was the special home of Sanskrit poets, dramatists, philosophers and erudite scholars. Religious leaders, scholars and learned writers from various parts of the country assembled here for discourses and the dissemination of their knowledge. This helped the local scholars to enrich themselves with new knowledge and ideas and to produce works of unique profundity. Under the patronge of emperors, kings and noble chieftains the writers of Orissa contributed richly to the field of Sanskrit learning in India. Among their contributions are the Geeta Govinda by Jayadeva, Sahitya Darpana by Viswanath Kabiraj Mahapatra, Ekavali by Kavi Vidyadhar, Siddhanta Darpana by Samanta Chandra Sekhar and Arya Saptasati by Gobardhana Acharya. Besides these famous works, we find many valuable texts on religion, philosophy, medicine, rhetoric, poetics, mathematics, astronomy, dance, drama, music sculpture, architecture, literature, war, archery written by profound scholars under the impact of Brahmanic culture. The Sanskrit plays written in Orissa provide ample evidence of a classical theatre which developed in the premises of the Jagannath temple at Puri. It was a signal honour and recognition for a playwright to have his play enacted before the king and the learned pundits. There was a body of Sanskrit pundits attached to the shrine who used to judge the merit of the play after witnessing its performance. Records tell us how the playwrights themselves conducted rehearsals of their plays. Some of them had their own drama troupes (Natya-Mandalii. It was considered such a mark of honour that even emperors and kings who wrote plays hoped to stage their plays in the classical theatre of the Jagannath temple. There are a number of stone-platforms and pillared-halls with stair cases in the campus of the temple. It is difficult to decide which one was used for dramatic performances. Some are of opinion that the Nat Mandap (dancing hall) was used for such performances along with the dance of the SANGEET NATAK 6 devadasis. There is evidence that besides.dancing, the devadasis al~o took part in dramatic performances. But their performance was restricted to the temple only. Unfortunately w~ do not have any record describing the decor, costunie and make-up used 111 the theatre. The earliest play written in Sanskrit is assigned to Sri Bhatta Narayana. He probably lived during the first quarter of the 7t~C A.D. and received the royal patronage of Madhava Va~man of the .Sailodbhava dynasty. His play Veni Sanhara Natakam IS 1I1.sIx-acts: ThIS d~aJ?a re mained popular in Orissa for a considerable period of nme. This IS sur mised because Gajapati Purusottama Deva of Cuttack (1466-1497) wrote Abhinaba Benisanhara Natakam in order to eclipse the glory of the earlier work of Bhatta Narayana. The beginning of 9thC marks a great event in the religious and cultural history of Orissa. During this period the great Sankaracharya, in the course of his spiritual conquest of India came to Puri (820 A.D.) and established a centre of religious theology (Gobardhanapitltas which is still in existence. During his stay at Puri there occurred a great movement for the revival of Sanskrit learning and literature in this area. In this age of revival the famous play Anargha Raghava was written by Sri Murari Misra and was staged before an enlightened audience at the time of a festival of God Purusottama (Jagannath) as evident from the speech. of the sutradliara quoted below, mC\"I+1ifu"lQ%'1>i~I'l)<:1l'\Ui: iflW11!i"t'fl<:1*1 'fl«t;f('fllq<1I~,(fl1 ~: ~lW1 l1j;jl1 jlflfilI.;') 11 I ~: (~)s~:) " In this connection it may be stated that all the three plays of Bhava bhuti e.g, Malati Madhava, Mahavira Charitam and Uttara Ranta Charitam were staged during the festival of God Kalapriyanath, who has been rightly identified with Shiva of that name whose temple existed in Kanya-Kubja, the capital of Yosovarman. Similarly Murari, who wrote Anargha Raghava Natakam in imitation of Mahavira Charitam of Bhavabhuti, held a per formance at the time of the yatra (car-festival) of god Purusottam-Jagannath who must have been the family deity of his royal patron, whose name remains yet to be discovered. Anargha Raghdva is a "l~"'1la'fll'\ i.e, a major drama consisting of seven acts where the whole of the ~ Ramayana has been depicted. Most probably this work used to be enacted for several consecutive nights as it is 110t possible to do so in one night. It appears that the drama remained popular for a considerable. period of time. A number of palm-leaf manuscripts.of this drama copied in different centuries have been found from different parts of Orissa and some of them are with detailed commentary. The next important work is the Probodha Chandrodaya Natakam by Krishna Misra. From the prologue of this drama it is learnt that it was written and staged in the palace of Raja Kirtivarman to commemorate his victory over the Chedi King, Kama, identified with Laxmikarna (1041 1070 A.D.). The theme of the play revolves round Vedantic philosophy and .its characters are allegorical such as Daya (compassion) kshama (forgiveness) etc. We find a palm-leaf manuscript of a farce entitled Hasyarnaba (the Ocean of Laughter) written by Sankhadhara. The play has 7 SANSKRIT THEATRE.
four acts. In the introductory portion, the author calls himself Jagadiswara. At the end of the last act the work is called Natak melakam in Sanskrit and Hasyarnaba in Oriya. Some are of opinion'that Natak melakam is a two-act drama different from Hasyarnaba by the same author. The author acknowledges the patronage of Ranaranga Malla .Govinda Deva who was a great scholar and also the chief minister of Anangabhima Deva II (1290-1298 A.D.) of the Ganga dynasty of Orissa. The play" deals with a social theme and accordingly aU the characters are types from society. It strictly conforms to the rules prescribed for a farce in Sanskrit poetics and was held in high esteem by later rhetoricians. . No play has yet been found, written in 14th century as it witnessed the transition of power from the Gangas to the Gajapatis. In the 15th and / 16th centuries Orissa reached the zenith.of its glory under the Gajapati kings. This period witnessed the greatest expansion of the kingdom. The Gajapati kings were not only great conquerors but also writers, scholars and patrons ofletters. This period was marked by the first renaissance inOriya literature. Though they themselves were writers and patrons of Sanskrit literature, the Gajapati kings also patronised Oriya literature and helped it to develop as it was long looked down upon by the Brahmins as a Prakrit language. Great religious epics were now translated into Oriya for the benefit of the masses. The beginning of the 15thC saw one of the brilliant personalities in the field of Sanskrit learning. He was Kabiraj Viswanath Mahapatra: who earned a countrywide reputation as the author of Sahitya Darpana, the most celebrated work on Sanskrit poetics. His knowledge was not con- ' fined to rhetorics only. He also earned fame as a poet and dramatist of high order. He adorned the court of Narasinha-IV (1378-1407) in whose honour he wrote 'Narasinha Vijaya Natakam. He also served as minister for peace and war. Later he adorned the court of Nisanka Bhanudev-IV (1407-1434 A.D.). As evident from the dialogue of the sutradhara in Chandrakala Natika, this play was staged in the presence of Gajapati Nisanka Bhanudev before an assembly of learned scholars after his glo rious return to the capital from the conquest of Gauda or Bengal. From his citation in the Sahitya Darpana it is learnt that Biswanath wrote another play Prabhavtai Parinayam which has not yet been traced. Gopinath Sandhi Bigrahik was a minister of Gajapati Narasinha-IV. According to the custom of the time generally reputed scholars used to' be appointed as ministers for peace and war and as such, Gopinath himself was a scholar and dramatist. He wrote the drama Parijat Haran Natkam. There is no evidence of its being staged any where. The authorship of a vyayoga entitled Parsuram Vijaya is attributed to Gajapati Kapilendra Deva, the greatest among the Hindu kings of Orissa. . ~-Mrrs!1ftn:r-~· ~ . "lfm.J7:~-I_' - 4l<1SlfClfcml{ijl,.• ; ..•.••..•. ·.. ~ ~ ~e.:iilt44k1{QI ~. "IGl""lfC:'flijlYc.:l~ ~ ~ lHiN"l< m~ ~ ~... ~,. r.: ~ ~~" "'~lii.~q Sli$.I<'''l''l 'tliiliflr'H "I I'4t4 tm.l~"l~: ijcifllOljIf~'''l'1I'<song in the play sung by queen 'Chandravadana'. The play was so named not only because of its story, but to give an impression that like the great mythical hero Parasuram, Gajapati Kapilendra displayed his prowess by the conquest of all the chiefs he fought with. So, he was like an incarnation of Parasuram. This work was written and staged by Kapilendra himself to comme morate his victory over the Muslim forces of the Deccan, which raised him to the zenith of his power and glory near about 1458 A.D. Though inferior to his father Kapilendra Deva as a warrior, Puru sottama Deva excelled him as a poet and dramatist. A number of Sanskrit works are attributed to him. His play Abhinava Beni Sahara Natakam describes the pulling of Draupadi's hair by Dushasana. His style of dialogue is simple and powerful and the dramatic action also very effective. The question put by Draupadi to Dushasana has been exactly reproduced in Sanskrit from the Oriya Mahabharat of Sarala Das, This play was staged before the assembly of the vassal chiefs on the Mahastami day of the Dussehra festival. In the introductory portion of the play it is stated that the author had also composed rupakas like Ananda Vilas, Janaki Pramod and Kubalaya-swa. Kavichandraraya Dibakara Misra and Kavidindima Jivadeva Acharya were the foremost Sanskrit writers of their age, who adorned the courts of Gajapati Pursottama and his son Gajapati Prataprudra, respectively. Like his father, Prataprudra was also a highly cultured ruler and a great patron of learning. He is said to have written a number of works in Sanskrit. Dibakara Misra was born in a family of learned scholars famous for their poetic talent and mastery over six vedangas and six darshanas. This Brahmin family had the credit ofcontributing more than a hundred works in Sanskrit. Dibakara wrote two plays, Parijata Haranam and Pravabati Natakam. The Pravabati natakam describes the love and marriage of Prabhabati, daughter of Bajranava and Pradyumna, son of lord Krishna. Though there is no evidence of the staging of these plays, it is presumed that these might have been enacted according to the early tradition. Dibakara, after the death of Purusottama went to Vijayanagara to adorn the court of Krishna Deva Ray and later he returned to Orissa to receive the patronage of Prataparudra who held him in high esteem. Kavidindima Jivadeva Acharya in the early years of the 16th Century received the royal patronage of Prataprudra Dev. He was the most pro found scholar and writer of his time and was honoured with the title of Kavidindima. He is credited with having written two plays Bhakti Baibhaba Natakam and Utsahavati, both of which were staged in the premises of the Jagannath temple. Bhakti Baibhaba Natakam is an allegorical drama in nine acts like the ·wful"'lrI01GlI'1lc'fili ' of Krishna Misra where attempts have been made to prove the excellence of bhakti or devotion to god Krishna by means of purely personified abstractions. It was staged in the compound of the Jagannath temple at the time of Dol Yatra (Spring festival) as described below: (fji.1Ili~ctlGj'fia ~~tilt1litll ~:~~fuRwr {11i;11i;1'fi1~ ~'ffi'- :;rnr~G:'Jjqc+tq*'l..Nt, fi"~ R ~ICf... " 9 SANSKRIT THEATRE
His Utsahavati a rupaka was staged in the Mani Mandap-a pillared hall bedecked with jewels standing near the Jagannath temple-in the spring season, most probably at the time of the Dolo Yatra festival like his other drama discussed before, ~, Glf/"df/+l4 :!~(i)'d+lt4 51lij 1~4UI:r" "l fOl"losll"lOS{11~ '" ~~~"l\iI'"l ~('"Iqfct5lalq(is:t[~1l1'1d"l1"' ~Fmfu~~ I ~ ~ '" U+lI f~-~ ~' Jayadeva-II, the SOIl of the famous Kavidindima Jivadeva Acharya was a leading poet and dramatist of his time. He wrote a one-act play Piyusha lahari on the dalliance of Radha and Krishna in the spring season Basant ras. This work was staged in the compound of the Jagannath temple at Puri as the two works of his father, ~) ~) '+llll The work in four-acts named Bhabani Bhavan, Kanaka Nauka Barna mala and Kanaka Ratli depicts a fictitious story of love and marriage bet ween Sringara sringa, a prince of Ujjain and Manimala a princess ofPuskara Island. As the cult of tantrism gained ground in that age, the author has introduced yoginis as characters who worked miracles to unite the lovers. -, A manuscript of a play Madhuraniruddha Nataka written by Chayani Chandrasekhara Rayaguru is noticed in the manuscript library of the Orissa state museum. This work in eight-acts is written in a pedantic, verbose and ornamental style in which the author, who took pride in his poetic talent has tried to display his mastery over the Sanskrit language. The author lived in the first half of the eighteenth century and wrote this play in about 1736 A.D. when Gajapati Verakishore Dev-I ascended the throne of Khurda, The play perhaps was never staged, a long work with eight acts with literary verbosity was merely a product to prove the author's literary eminence. Kavibhusana Govinda Samantaray, a learned scholar and poet of his time wrote Sammruddha Madhaba Natakam on the model of the Geeta Govinda of Javadeva and in imitation of the famous Sanskrit drama, Bidagdha Madhava written by Rupa Goswami in the middle of the 16th century. From the text of the play quoted by the learned scholar, it appears that this work in seven acts depicting the spiritual love between Radha and Krishna was staged in Nilachala or Puri before an assembly of SANGEET NATAK 12 learned pundits in the temple of Jagannath. Kavibhusana Govinda flourished in the state of Bawd in the district of Cuttack in the middle of the eighteenth century when Virakeshari Deva was the ruler of Khurda. Kaviratna Purohita Sadasiva Udgata is known as the author of a rupaka named Pramudita Govinda Natakam. This play in six. acts was written in imitation of the famous Geeta Govinda of Jayadeva. The author flourished in the court of the ruler of Dharakote, an estate in the district of Ganjam and is assigned to the eighteenth century. It is believed that the work must have been staged as in the eighteenth century the works depicting the leela or divine sports of Sri Radha and Krishna were gaining approbation in every royal court. Kavivar Nilkantha was the author of the Bhanja Mohodayam, an historical drama. Though not a play in the real sense it supplies ample material for the history of Orissa in the eighteenth century. It is written in the form of a dialogue between two yakshas named Ananga Kalebara and Priyambada who, being cursed by Kubera, came from heaven to this holy land of Bharata varsha for performing penance for their sin. The two descended near the Gonasika hill, the source of the holy Vaitarani river, and visited all the holy places on its bank.. Tn the course of their conversa tion the author has narrated the history of the Keonjhar State through which this sacred river flows from early times up to the time of his patron Bala-bhadra Bhanja 1764-1792 A.D. These are the major plays written for the Sanskrit theatre of Orissa, within a period of nearly one thousand years, that are still extant. y D. N. Pattnaik-s-See S. N. 5 GAGAKU AND BUGAKU Fernau Hall Bugaku is probably the oldest style of highly developed classical dance in Japan to survive in its pure form. So it was a great privilege to see the Imperial Japanese court dancers and musicians performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London in May, 1970 in the midst of a long tour of European music festivals. One intriguing aspect of this tour was that it gave the privilege of seeing the court artistes to large numbers of Europeans, who simply purchase tickets in the ordinary way - whereas in Tokyo the performances by these artistes are given within the imperial palace to invited audiences only, and invitations are a rare honour. Japan is unique among the countries of the East in preserving each of its ancient classical performing arts in pure form, with the new forms taking their place alongside the old instead of replacing them. This is true, for example, of the Noh dance-drama, which took shape in the 14th century; ever since then it has been preserved intact in its own theatres, performing the same dance-dramas, even though the aristocratic audience for which it was created has long ceased to exist. Far more popular forms such as Kabuki and Bunraku (the highly developed puppet theatre) later took their place alongside Noh, and they. too survive in all their authenticity of techni que, style of dancing and so on. Even in architecture the Japanese show this extraordinary and invaluable trait: much of the ancient architecture of both China and Japan was of wood and though such architecture does not survive in China, it does in Japan - for there the great shrines are rebuilt with punctilious attention to detail, before the wood rots. In fact to study this aspect of ancient Chinese architecture one must go to Japan; and Japan too offers a fascinating glimpse of aspects of ancient Indian styles of dance - for some major aspects of Bugaku originated in India. Not that the links with Indian dance are at all obvious when one looks at Bugaku today, any more than they are obvious in the associated music (though this too has elements which the Japanese trace back to India). The whole style of movement looks completely Chinese, and Japanese, being very slow, and lacking the mudras and complex foot-beats so characteristic of Indian classical dancing as we know it today, as represented in sculpture and described in ancient texts such as Bharata's Natyasastra. Variations on Original Styles What seems to have happened is that Indian classical dances and music, the product of centuries (if not millenia) of development in the great civilisa- SANGEET NATAK 14 tions of India, retained all their major features when they were taken (along with Hinduism and Buddhism) to various countries along the two great routes of cultural dispersion from India: one route leading through South East Asia, via Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Java and Bali, the other going North via Tibet. In all these countries the Indian classical dance absorbed influences from local dance-styles, and was developed by local reformers in ways which harmonised with their physique, styles of life and cultural traditions, but retained its Indian themes (mainly) taken from the Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, its use of mudra.s, and. the fundamentals. of Indian technique, with turned-out knees, angularity of Iine and the use ot foot-beats (the feet striking the ground in complex rhythms). But things were very different when this aspect ofIndian culture reached China in the 7th century during the great Tang dynasty. Here it met a civilisation comparable in antiquity and complexity with Indian civilisation and one which had its own long established classical traditions of music and dance. The Imperial court under the Tang emperors was very open to the importation ofthings from abroad, and retained them in all their variety, but the Chinese dancers and teachers tended to change these a good deal to harmonise with the tastes and interests of the emperors and nobles, and so the dance traditions which had originated in India became much more formal and abstract, to a large extent losing their meaning in the process. In fact they became extremely sophisticated, with a stress on elegance of movement and gorgeous costumes and a very slow and peaceful tempo. Gagaku is a Chinese word used in T'ang times in China to describe all ceremonial music and dances, whether .imported from abroad or indi genous - as distinct from Suyue (old folk dance and music) and Yensingle (new music from Western China). At this time the cosmopolitan spirit of Tang China became prevalent also in Japan, and many different types of T'ang dance and music were imported into Japan. In the reign of the Japanese Emperor Mombu (683-707) an Imperial Music Bureau, Gagaku ryo, was set up at the Imperial Japanese court to take charge of the teaching and performance of court music and dance - this bureau being-imitated from the Chinese imperial bureau which had the same function. The variety of music and dance handled by this bureau was enormous. The bulk of it was imported from Tang China (Togaku, as it was called including much modified music and dances of diverse origins), but there were also many indigenous Japanese forms, and forms imported direct from a variety of countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and Pohai (a country covering parts of North Korea and Manchuria). The word gagaku was used in Japan to cover all court styles of music and dance. One branch of gagaku, instrumental music without dance, was called Kangen, while the other branch of Gagaku, court dancing together with the special types of music used to accompany the dances, was c~l1ed BUfJaku. Those forms of music and dance originating from India, TI~t, C:him~ and South-East Asia, were classified as samai (left), while those originatmg III the folk-dances of Korea and Pohai were classified as umai (right), the terms "right" and "left" referring to the right and left sides of the emperor at court. . . One fascinating record. in the Shoku Nihongi (Second History Book of Ancient Japan) gives some Idea of the very complex ways in which Indian Komlllwko Ilf &rtlfll origill-BlIgilku Style. ------ Mallzairakll - Based on a legtlltl of the Y' ang Dynasty. 19 GAGAKU AND BUGAKU religious, musical and dance traditions reached Japan. This book states that in the 8th year of Tempyo (736 AD) the Indian Brahmin priest Bodai Senna came to Japan along with a musician of Lin'yu (Vietnam). In 894 the rich current of cultural importation into Japan was broken off by Imperial decree, and then followed a period of codification and of creation of Japanese musical composition and dances in imitation of the importance forms. It was at this time that the clasification into samai and umai branches of Gagaku was instituted. Since then Gagaku has been preserved in Japan without much change. In the Heian period (794-1192) it was very popular, and the pieces of music and the dances were performed by nobles and court officials as well as by professional dancers. There were great nobles and even rulers who went in for musical composition and choreography: the emperor Nimmyo (who reigned 833-850) composed music. Here we find an interesting parallel with trends in India, where creative work in the arts also was considered a suitable occupation for rulers, nobles and gentlemen of leisure. After the Heian period social and political changes caused Gagaku to lose much of its popularity, and it fell into obscurity with the rise of Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku and so on. But it survived in seclusion at the courts of emperors and shoguns, and a rich heritage of Gagaku dances and instru mental compositions has survived to the present day, together with highly developed techniques of teaching and performance. In typical Japanese fashion, the performers tend to belong to families which specialise in this field: those performing in the imperial palace can trace their ancestry back through centuries, with generation upon generation of imperial performers of the same name. Apart from the imperial performers, there are Gagaku musicians and dancers who perform at a number of the larger Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Today, Gagaku still plays an essential ritual role in a number ofimportant annual ceremonies, at the shrines and temples and in the Imperial palace; the performances laid on for the entertainment of invited audiences at the Imperial palace (or for that matter at the Royal Albert Hall) come into a different category, but at these the ritual forms are still preserved in a way which is typically Japanese. The division of Gagaku into samai (left) and umai (right) is still meti culously preserved today, and in the dances performed at the Royal Albert Hall one could see suitable traces of Indian influences in the samai dances, whereas in the umai dance (Komaboko, derived from a folk-dance of Korean boatmen) no such influence was apparent. Music Introduction The programme given at the Royal Albert Hall showed a number of contrasting aspects of the rich art of Gagaku. A square stage of the correct dimensions, surrounded by a low wooden rail, and with steps leading up to it at the back, was constructed within the oval amphitheatre of the Albert Hall, and at the beginning of the programme the musicians solemnly filed on to the stage and knelt down in straight rows. In fact the programme began with three purely instrumental pieces (Kangen), in a style which is related to that used, for accompanying Bugaku dance but which is even more slow and mysterious. A special flavour is given to Kangen music by the long held droning notes of the sho, a curious kind of mouth-organ consisting of a spherical wind-box to which 17 short narrow bamboo pipes are fitted. SANGEET NATAK 20 There are also a kind of oboe or shahnai, kotos (a very long kind of plucked zither, making a harp-like sound) and a wide variety of drums; i~ fact the stress on drums seems rather Indian, though the drums are beaten in a slow, measured way, with long gaps between the notes, which is very un-Indian. The second Kangen piece performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Karyobin no-kyu, has a tradition which links it to Indian music and Indian my!hology. According to tradition, it was composed by Myoonten (Saraswati) to re present the miraculous birds called karyobin (Kalavinka) which flew about and sang at the time of the service at the Gionshona temples (Jetavana Vihara) in ancient India: tradition also states that it was introduced into T'ang China by a musician called Anan, and then to Japan by a Brahmin monk. But there was no obvious suggestion of the flight of birds in the music, which was very slow and solemn, full of long-held notes. In the same way the third Kangen item, Ko'nju, representing a drunken man of the Ko trobe of Mongolia, gave no apparent suggestion of drunkenness, being almost as slow and solemn as the other two items. But one might perhaps detect some slight suggestion of levity in the orchestration, with its stress on the hichiriki (oboe), koto, and kakko (small, sharp-toned drum struck with the right hand). After the three Kangen items the musicians retired to a small dais behind the stage, taking their small instruments with them, and the large instruments (notably a big bass drum hung from in the centre down stage) were removed, leaving the stage clear for the dancers. Invocational Dance Part 11 of the programme took the form of a Ninjomai (invocational dance), Sonokoma in a Bugaku version of a Kagura dance: in fact a dance movement from a very long Shinto ceremony which lasts from twilight to dawn (like a Kathakali dance-drama), a ceremony of which until recently has only been performed in the inner shrine of the imperial household and in the largest Shinto shrines and of which no part was ever shown to the public. The dancer wore a simple white robe (that of the Imperial Guards of the 9th century) and held in one hand a branch of the sacred Sakaki tree to which was attached a simulation of the sacred Shinto mirror. The text associated with Sonokoma is very cryptic, illustrating the remote antiquity and baffling quality of much Shinto ritual as it has come down to us, That pony it asks me for grass it asks me for water I will give it grass I will give it water. But there ~as no suggestion in the dance of any exposition of the words, as one might expect to find in an equivalent Indian dance of invoca non. The da~cer. (Sh.intaro Togi) moved very slowly and solemnly about the stage, blessing It Withslow waves of the branch. Kagura in fact taken us back to the most rt:mote origins of Japanese religion, mythology and culture, long before Chinese influence made itself felt. The name literally means "god-music" an~ ~ay refer to a dance before the sun-goddess Amaterasu a dance, WhICh is part of the Japanese myth of creation. The 21 GAGAKU AND BUGAKU normal form of Kagura, as performed at Shinto shrines and in the streets on festival days, has a clear link with folk-dance; the Bugaku version is very formal indeed, with no apparent link with folk-dance. Main Performance Part III of the programme took the form of a suite of three sharply contrasted Bugaku dances, two being samai and one umai. Here the dancers wore gorgeously coloured and ornate costumes. For the first dance, Manzairaku, four dancers moved solemnly up the steps and took position on stage, each wearing a robe with one sleeve missing, showing a sleeve in a contrasting colour underneath. This dance represented in a very abstract way a legend about an event during the reign of a wise Chinese emperor of the T'ang Dynasty: a Phoneix flew over and gave loud cheers for a long life for the emperor. The music represented its voice; the dance its shape and movements. All four dancers moved in strict unison, in formal geometric patterns, facing each side of the stage in turn. Their SANGEET NATAK 22 movements were slow and stately, and they used a smooth gliding step in which one could see very clearly the origin of the giding step used in Noh (though their footwear was much more solid and Chinese than the tabi socks used by Noh dancers, and the steps somewhat less complex). Their way of holding out their arms in a straight stiff line, horizontally to the side, gave a faint suggestion of the wings of a bird, and here one could see a tenuous link with the magical birds of Indian mythology and Indian classical dancing, as well as with the large number of magical birds which one encounters in the classicaldances of Hindu Bali (notably the Legong dances). But the arms did not move with any of the fluttering wing-beats one sees in Legong or in the magical birds of Kathakali, nor were the foot-movements in any way bird-like: they might have belonged to any Bugaku dance. The n~xt dance, Ryo-O, was very different in style. This is said to r~present Pnnc~ Chang-kung, a mighty Chinese warrior who lived at the time of the Pet-chi dynasty (550-577). This handsome and brave prince 23 GAGAKU AND BUGAKU always wore a menacing mask when he went to war; when he defeated a large force of the enemy, a musician composed Ryo-O in his honour. The dance in fact took the form of a solo, splendidly performed by Shintaro Togi. He wore a beautiful golden helmet and mask, ornamented with jewels, which had the figure of a ferocious bird (hawk or eagle) stretching forward from the piece covering the forehead. His movements were slow and powerful but also elegant in a properly princely way, one foot moving out to the side and touching the ground with the toes turned up, then moving back to join the knee of the other leg. In one hand he held a slim wand (presumably representing a sword), while the other hand had two fingers stiffly outstretched at the end of a straight arm in a way very typical of Bugaku. Certain aspects of traditional Japanese architecture (with its refined use of space) and texture are amazingly close to major trends in the contem porary architecture of the West; and exactly the same fascinating link between the very old and the very new was to be seen when four dancers came on to perform the final item, Komaboko, They were supposed to be Korean boatmen and the dance can be traced back to remote origins in Korean folk dance; but the dancing was in fact to the highest degree stylised and classical, its main point being the tracing ofelegant symmetrical patterns by the long thin poles carried by the dancers. I have never seen the whole space of a stage brought to life in such vivid and magical fashion: here was something transmitted from remote antiquity which was completely in line with the work being done by some great pioneers of abstract modern dance, and in particular with the word of Alwin Nikolais, Komaboko literally means "Korean halberd", and so the poles carried by the dancers were presumably intended to represent halberds. Yet these poles were not in the least like halberds, being much more like slim versions of the poles originally used by the Korean boatmen to punt their boats into harbour. In this complicated bundle of symbolism, verbal allusion and ancient traditions, allied with an extremely formal dance which carried tenuous links with both punting and halberd-play yet was extremely abstract in its pattern-making, can be seen an example of Japanese art at its most subtle and refined, uniting simplicity and complexity, indirection and bold clarity, in a way which is inimitably Japanese. Fernau Hall, well-known British dance critic and writer; see Sangeet Natak 2; sketches by Eilean Pearcey (3) and Milein Cosman (3). . ENCOUNTER WITH INDIAN DANCE Anne-Marie Gaston I should emphasise first that this is to be a rather personal evaluation of Indian dance. As a performer I am familiar with only two of the several Indian dance styles, these being Odissi and Bharatanatyam. My background in Western dance embraces Ballet and the Martha Graham technique of modern dance. Therefore my comparisons will be limited to these. Even at the first encounter the Western dancer is struck by the totally different structure and effect of Indian dance. In almost every aspect the two traditions seem completely dissimilar; the neck movements, eye move ments, pronounced facial expressions, intricate ways of using the hands, slapping the feet, costumes and music. Also in the pure dance portions of Bharatanatyam and Odissi it is essential that the knees remain turned out and apart. One rarely stands upright except when walking back after a rhythm section is completed or during the abhinaya or expressive portions. Because of this bent-knee position Indian dance is rarely relaxing and parti cularly for a Westerner many of the movements seem designed to punish the body. Another peculiarity is that the elbows are nearly always at right angles; the forearms either outstretched to the side as in the ardhmandali position of Bharatanatyam or outstretched in front as in the chowk position of Odissi; in either case, parallel to the floor. Despite all these alien components, at the first encounter one is struck by a tension and excitement. . Ballet was a court dance of Europe and the Martha Graham technique IS only one of many systems that were developed in this century in an effort to free classical western dance of the artificialities of ballet. So, just as Bharatanatyam and Odissi are varations on a theme of bent-knees, neck, eye moyeme?ts, and facial expressions so the Graham technique and ballet can be identified as having the same basis of stretches, leaps and turns. First Exercise . Once YOl.I begin to take classes in Indian dance you no longer have to think about differences III movements. Muscles trained for Ballet inform you immediately of where these differences lie. In Ballet, the first position 25 INDIAN DANCE at the "barre" is the plie or going down by raising the heels and opening the knees, the free arm swings gracefully from the side, down, and returns to the side. This is often finished off by raising up on the toes and dropping the support given by the "barre" and raising both arms over the head and balancing. In contrast, the first exercise in Bharatanatyam consists of firmly establishing the ardhamandali position of bent knees and then alternately raising one foot and slapping it down and then repeating this with the other side. There must be a constant tension to hold the body firmly in this posi tion and the tension must be feIt to the tips ofthe fingers. In Bharatanatyam the hands are held in pataka or all the fingers close together. In Ballet the fingers are open, loose and left to falI naturally. In Odissi, the first exercise is also done with bent knees but the foot position is not in the Ballet first position as in Bharatanatyam, but in the third position. The body is in tribhanga-three bends to achieve this the hip is deflected to one side and the head to the other. The variation here is that the heel remains on the ground when the foot is raised, the foot rotates on the heel before it is slapped; the head moves in half-an-arc, first one side and then the other; the hands rest in musti or a fist position on the thighs. The Martha Graham Technique has borrowed many of its exercises from yoga. Its use of the breath and contracting and relaxing the torso provides yet another contrast to Indian dance. The first exercise is done sitting. on the floor, crosslegged, arms outstretched, hands loose and relaxed. The initial movement comes from the centre of the body and is started by a backwards contraction from the centre ofthe torso and breathing out heavily. The heel ofthe hand is turned out and pushes hard as the tension spreads to it. In effect, the dancer's body produces maximum resistance against the air. In Bharatanatyam, the tension in the hands and body is already there, while in the Graham technique the tension flows out through the body and escapes through the heel of the hand. The contracted torso is then relaxed and the body stretches up. This relaxation phase is absent in the first step of both Odissi and Bharatanatyam. In fact the torso in Bharatanatyam is held rigid while in Odissi, the sinuous, undulating quality is achieved by contract ing one side of the torso and moving the head to the concave side of the rib cage. Ballet too is devoid of the torso movement. The differences increase so that a dancer trained in one system finds very little transfer of movement and must build up new muscles and train different reflexesand in the end co-ordinate eyes, neck, hands, head and feet. In fact even the differences between the dance styles in India make it diffi cult to achieve mastery in the several styles, that utilize the body in a different manner. Odissi and Bharatanatyam are two such styles. The differences are subtle: the undulating torso of Odissi, its tribhanga and the slightly different mudras (hand-gestures) that are often executed at the side on the diagonal, contrasted to the straight torso of Bharatanatyam and the execu tion of the mudras either directly in the centre or directly to the side. This gives Bharatanatyam its angular quality in contrast to Odissi's roundness. Thus even within Indian dance itself the dancer must form a different concept for each. SANGEET NATAK 26 Sculpture The two examples of western and eastern sculpture that illustrate the ideal that the dancer is trying to create are the Greek God, Mercury, and the Hindu God, Shiva in his form as the cosmic dancer, Nataraja. In the statue of Mercury the God is caught in movement whose completion lies beyond the formal organisation. In contrast, the Nataraja specialises time in a simultaneous enduring present. Simultaneity extends to the possi bility of doing many things at once, portrayed by the many arms and different implements in each. For Nataraja there is the drum of creation in his left hand and the fire of destruction in his right, thus indicating the cyclical nature of existence. Indian dance shares this concept of containment, the audience does not look beyond the furthest tips of the extremities. On the other hand Ballet, like Mercury, reaches out as far as is possible, restricted only by the physical limitations of the body. To achieve this, western dance exploits leaps, turning either on point (on tip-toe using toe shoes) or on the balls of the feet, stretching, kicking the legs high, moving while the body is on the floor, lifting the female partner and pointing or flexing the toe. Leaps in Bharatanatyam are generally contained, not pushed to the maximum and in Odissi they are non-existant. Connected turns to cover a large area of the stage are not found in Odissi and Bharatanatyam, although Odissi does employ hramharis (turns) on one spot. Stretching and kicking are limited only to cases where the karanas - poses - are imitated and the floor is used for sitting naturally during the descriptive portions; having a partner is rare; and lifting one partner is unknown and the flexed or loose foot is the rule rather than the nearly constantly pointed foot of Ballet. Mosic The music used for ballet can be music composed strictly for dancing or simply lyrical music or electronic music or sounds such as whistling or breathing; infact recent dance compositions often have no music and mark the high points with either a slap or the dancer's own vocal accompaniment of a sudden cry or hiss. However, regardless what instruments are used vocal accompaniment in the form of song to be enacted is virtually unknown in Western dance. Whereas in the West, music and dance are compartmenta Used, in the Indian performance they are closely interwoven. Rhythm plays a dominant role in both Indian dance and music. In the dance this is em phasised by the use of ankle bells. In certain schools of Kathak rhythm has developed almost to the exclusion of the other aspects of the dance. The addition of the spoken boIs to the rhythm of the feet and the drum creates a further dimension to the dominance of rhythm. The tala system dictates that it will be more complex and intricate and the whole concept of same is unknown in the West. Maurice Bejart, the Belgian composer, in a portion of his Ballet, Radha and Krishna presented Allaripu, the traditional invocatory piece of Bharata natyam a dance solo "on point". He used the traditional South Indian music (on tape) yet his medium was Ballet with the additon of a few mudras This invocation did not make the dance less classical Ballet, because the movements conformed to tradition and it is not imperative that the music also strictly adhere. ILLUSTRATIONS: Page 27. Above: A Dancing figure. Below: Drummer and Dancer, Konarak; Page 28. Above: From Halebid, Mysore, Below: Panel from Brameswara Temple, Bhubanesh....ar, 29 INDIAN DANCE In contrast Odissi and Bharatanatyam have definite music composed for dance and it ~ust be played in a certain way and with certain prescribed instruments. Vocal and instrumental accompaniment is extremely important and when lyrics are sung they are enacte~. Only occasionallyas in the case of a prayer in Odissi are the words used In the alap and the SInger allowed to stretch out the words according to his or her own mood, otherwise they are always within the tala structure. Classical Bharatanatyam includes in its orchestra a natuvanar to call the boIs for the rhythmic passages, a singer that could also be th~ ll'!tural~ar to give vocal direction to the dance, a tanpura or shrutl-oox t~ a~sIst In rna~n taining the pitch, a mridangam (drum) and a flute, veena or VIOlIn to provide some melody. In Odissi the same accompaniments are needed, however the vocalist and natuvanar must be separate as the items such a pal/avi call for a sthayi or the repitition of the raga set to certain words while the underlying boIs or rhythmic passages are spoken. The pakhawaj (drum) replaces the mri dangam and flute, veena, violin or sitar may be used. The very classical nature of the dances dictates the type of instruments that are to be used, also the style in which they are to be played. For Bharatanatyam the style is Karnatic and the music for Odissi like the geograpical position of Orissa, lies between the two traditions of Hindustani and Karnatak. Even the smallest change, such as one type of drum replacing the other would be criticised and the classical nature of the dance decried. Story There is much more to Indian dance than mere movement. Western ballet may tell a story but this is usually no more than a vehicle for creating a kinesthetic effect; the story itself is never very profound and is ussually based on some kind of folk myth. It is perhaps one of the short coming of Ballet that it has never developed as a serious medium for elaborating significant situations. However, in Indian dance, the story which is told is of paramount importance and the reason for this lies in the religious nature of the dance. Indian dance is theatre and the only comparable art form in the West is the Passion Play. The story involved in an Indian dance item is portrayed in much greater detail than is possible in Ballet, despite the fact that the dancer usually performs alone. This is possible because of the evolution of a very detailed vocabulary of expression and gesture which forms a definite language, often mimetic, but also strongly symbolised and economical. An example of symbolism is Hanuman, the monkey God: two kapitha hands held one in front and the other over the head to indicate holding the tail quite unlike the jumping and scratching that must be em ployed when the use of mudras is not at one's disposal. Spring is another example of the economy of mudras; the opening of new leaves is indicated with the hands 'over head and alternating between allapadma and Itamsaya. However, while some things can only be shown in one way this is more the exception than the rule. The poetic nature of the mudras gives a richness to this form of expression and to refer once again to spring, the alternative mudras of buzzing bees, blooming flowers and soft breezes blowing may be selected by the dancer. The fact that the same word or same line of a song may be performed over and over again with varying methods of expres sion is a measure of the very wide vocabulary contained in the mudras. SANGEET NATAK 30 At the same time this very detailed exposition makes considerable demands on the audience if they are to appreciate the performance -fully While the mudras are complete in themselves the sophistication of their presentation makes previous knowledge a necessity to appreciate their subtlety. The dance student en~ounters thi~ p~o?lem once t~e initial ~xer cises are completed and study IS begun on individual dance Items. It IS at this point that the Western student of Indian dance realises the importance of having some general understanding of Hindu religious mythology. This is particularly important when, as is often the case, the Western student and her guru often have no common language. It is one thing to imitate a particular gesture or series of movements, but if the story is not compre hensible then it is difficult to introduce true feeling into the dance. Also, if the movements themselves are highly symbolic then the story will not necessarily be apparent through them. Even relatively small portions of the dance have complex meanings; a single pose used once in an item may have a whole story of its own attached, one which is known and appreciated by the informed audience. Some limited examples of this are the different avatars - reincarnations-of Vishnu poses of Krishna. The audience will be given a brief glimpse of Narasima, the man-lion disembowelling a demon; but why? of Krishna holding up a mountain with his baby finger; again why? .In the items extolling the greatness of God there is no time to stop and paint a clearer, more complete picture. Thus, by alluding to several attributes the items taken in themselves often seem like a lot of unconnected events, when in fact they are built on previous knowledge. The same intricate background of knowledge is not required to appreciate Western dance. Facial Expression Abhinaya (facial expression) plays a large part in Indian dance and is probably the most difficult aspect of Indian dance. Expression has, like gesture become codified in a precise manner and at first sight often appears exaggerated even caricatured to Western eyes. The male look of desire on seeing a beautiful woman: looking sideways and breathing heavily, all the time moving the eye brows continually is one such example. Charles Darwin in his book on the expression of emotions in man considered that certain characteristic expressions were common to the whole of the human race, so that the language of expression was universally understood. This is true to a certain degree but the expression of some moods is very difficult because these have largely fallen into disuse in the West. In India they seem to be kept alive in a corrupted form on the cinema sereen and familiarity with these expressions must make it easier for Indian girls to learn abhinaya. However the problem then becomes a matter of refinement. This diffi cu.lty will probably continue to increase as girls are no longer dedicated to this art at an early age to growing up in a hereditary family of dancers and thus. able to observe and study continually this art during most of their waking hours. Now as was inevitable, the object to delve deeply into da~ce IS to perform on the stage and become a professional dancer. The serenity of allowing a long period of time for the dance to mature and to learn the art at le~sure h~s ~aken its toll. The padams of Bharatanatyam and the ashtapadis of Odissi are not always performed in their simplicity. Whereas once familiarity with the songs demanded the dancer to conform so as to establish a rapport with the ~Iearned audience the demand for 'variety is altering the ol? classics. Abhinaya portrays em'otion and primarily uses the face, secondarily the hands, the body while some time used is not necessary 31 INDIAN DANCE only added in Kathakali to .give more rasa or taste. In complete contrast the body in Western dance is an autonomous unit for the emotions and such emotions as joy are portrayed through physical activity such as leaps and spins and sorrow with drooping shoulders and or a slow dejected walk. But emotions through the body are seen every day-theatre demands com plexity and refinement if unspoken drama is to stir our imagination. Indian dance provides such a possibility. Even in the abhinaya the two . styles of Bharatanatyam and Odissl differ: the stories in Bharatanatyam are more direct, the girl longing for her lover, she can't eat, can't sleep, while in Odissi some time is spent painting a tableau to set the scene, usually by the river Jumuna. In Odissi particularly in the Gila Govinda, the dancer is the third person (or sakhi) trying to bring the lovers Krishna and Radha together. In contrast, in most Bharatanatyam themes the dancer herself is the lover and is able to portray her emotions of longing more forcefully since she is directly involved. Costume Costume and ornaments playa striking part in Indian dance but this aspect cannot be considered fully historical since early representations of dance in sculpture and painting show the dancers almost naked except for heavy jewels. For public display a more modest costume has evolved. One should note that the styles seen to-day are by no means identical to those seen ten years ago. The same can be said of Ballet but the basic concept for the body in both forms has not altered. The fact that the body is naked in the sculpture and nearly completely covered in todays performance does not alter the effect and it appears that the actual shape of the body is less important in Indian dance than in Western dance where it is of fundamental importance to see the muscles and body form. Thus Ballet adopts the dress oftights and leotards another skin so to speak. Religious Significance Dance seems to have formed part of Hindu religious ritual form the earliest times. The oldest treatise, the Natyashastra of Bharata Muni, dates from about the 4th century. Before it was written down ,it was strictly codified by convention therefore its history predates the actual book. Though almost extinct now as a form of temple worship, the religious significance of the dance is always acknowledged before and during per formances and at the beginning of classes when the student asks forgiveness of Mother Earth for stepping on her. One problem that is debated by critics of Indian dance but rarely by dancers themselves is the importance of bhakti or devotion that should be directed towards the godhead. Since Indian dance has only recently moved from the temples to the stage and from restricted families teaching and performing to the availability for all to study,_the devotional aspect of the dance seems to be at a critical stage. Has the spiritual aspect of Indian dancing continued to be paramount in their present form or is it slowly evolving into a secular art form in which little more than lip service is paid to the traditinal origins'? The question SANGEET NATAK 32 that will soon come to the fore may well be: is Indian dance less classical because a more secular approach is used, despite the fact that a high standard ofdance and purity of expression are maintained? As a spectacle Indian dance lends itself to a more intimate setting than Ballet. Originally designed as a communion between the dancer and God it was meant to please the audience only inasmuch as the God is identified with having a wholly human appreciation. At the same time, religion exercises a conservative influence on the dance in that if human taste alters it is not permissible to assume that the Lord's taste has also changed. In the East, time sanctifies and innovation is frowned upon. Whereas in the West the creation of new forms is looked on as the highest art, in Indian dance most recent choreography has concentrated on the re-creation of historical dance styles. Certain of these have been truly creative in the Western sense but often there is a strange reluctance to admit this and justi fication is sought instead in ancient texts and temple carvings. The temple carvings are numerous and found scattered all over India. However for Odissi the main temple is Konarak, and for Bharatanatyam, Chidambaram. The carvings provide a pictorial documentation of poses that were probably used when the temples were built and it is recorded that a sculptor must first learn dance before he could sculpt the human figure. Temple sculpture has borrowed heavily from dance for its poses and the structure of Indian temples has itself influenced the form of the dance. Dances were performed in medieval temples in a special hall known as the Natya Mandapam. In developed Orissan temples this was the second of three halls attached to the sanctuary. At the Nataraj temple in Chidam baram it faces the main sanctum on its north side. In other South Indian' temples it is variously placed. It was a limitation of Indian architecture until the introduction of Islamic techniques - that it was unable to create large unsupportable spans and consequently all large halls are cluttered with numerous pillars. Even in the Sun temple at Konarak, the dance hall though comparatively large, is broken by enormous pillars which must have restricted dancing to an area of about twelve feet squere, At Chidam baram the available space for unrestricted movement is even less. This factor must have contributed to the very contained appearance of Odissi and Bhratanatyam. There are none of the exuberant leaps found in ballet. Thefeet are generally close together all the time and nearly all the movement is confined to a very small area. This may be another reason why dancing is invariably solo. Certainly the historical origins of Indian dance are obtrusive and it is difficult not to become interested in the origins of the dance in different regions, comparing this with what is found-today, and surmising on the future. Because of recent evidence it is highly conceivable that Indian dance can. have a great effect on Western dance, incorporating mudras and other stylistic features mto the still basic Western form of composition. However, the opposite effect will probably not be accepted as even mixing of styles i~ nC?t tolerated.. From the temple carvings one can see that dance played a significant part m the Buddhist, Jain and Hindu religious worship. However, If we are to accept the temple sculpture as authentic representa tions of what was done previously, the dance certainly has evolved and changed somewhat in its execution over the past few hundred years. Even 33 INDIAN DANCE in cursory inspection it is notable that the temples contain several dance poses tbat have fallen into disuse. Since the styles we see to-day have evolved from the records in stone, the question to-day seems to be, will Indian dance be allowed to evolve further and if so, would this evolution be a further perfection or the beginning of decay? Ann.e-Marie Gasto~, is ~he Canada Council Arts Bursary holder for two years to study Indian d~nce. This article was the text of a speech delivered at the Sangeet Natak Akademi and Max Mueller Bhavan Encounter with Indian Dance and Music held in New Delhi ill February this year. She is presently studying Odissi with Guru Mayadhar Raut, COMPOSITIONS OF SRI SWATI TIRUNAL Some Firsts in Karnatak Music Dr. S. Venkitasubramonia Iyer Maharaja Swati Tirunal ofTravancore (1813-1845) is a great composer. The wealth and variety of his musical out put and its high quality have gain ed for him a rank among composers no less exalted than that of Tyagaraja, Dikshitar and Syama Sastri, the Trinity of Karnatak Music. Not a single musician of note in South India today considers his repertoire complete without some of the songs of this royal composer. Many of these songs are available in proper notation too. StilI a comprehensive study of these compositions from diverse aspects remains but a desideratum. It is now admitted that the indigenous music of Kerala which goes by the name Sopana system is, in its fundamentals, practically identical with the classical music current in the rest of South India. But it has a style of rendering of its own marked by a slow and stately flow with little emphasis on rhythmic intricacies and melodic nuances, but WIth adequate stress on the text and Its sense. Swati Tirunal added to this system whatever it was lacking and brought it on a par,with the music on the other side ofthe ghats without however, sacrificing its distinctive quality. There were two principal factors responsible for fostering Swati Tirunal's creative activity in music. One was the influence of his tutor and later Dewan, Tanjore Subha Rao, who was himself a musician and patron of music. The other was the profound impression made on his responsive mind by the musicians and dancers that flocked to his court from all parts of India, particularly after the demise in 1832 of the great patron of arts, Raja Sarabhoji of Tanjore. The musical genius of Swati Tirunal effloresced into.a variety ofbeautiful patterns, and among them we find many which have claim to be the firsts of their kind in South Indian music. As a composer of varnas, Swati Tirunal is excelled by few. He has composed more than a score of them and this is a remarkable number when we take into account the great mastery over raga and its meticulous details this type of composition demands. In this category he has three firsts to his credit on the basis of raga, form and language. A varna in the raga 35 SWATI TIRUNAL Navarasa, the Telugu composition Entanavadi naga in Triputa tala, was first composed by Swati TirunaI. !V.ovarasa is ~~metimes i~ent!fied with the modern Navaroju but as rendered In Kathakah It has certain differences. Unlike most varnas which have only four charanas, this one has six. With regard to the novelty in form, we find in his varna Sumasayaka in Kapiraga Aditala the last charana as a ragamalika (in Kalyani, Kamas, Vasanta and Molzanam) , a feature which was adopted by Vadivelu, the great master of varnas in his court, in some of his own compositions. As far as language, Swati Tirunal was the first to use for varnas, Sanskrit and Malayalam in addition to Telugu, the language used by most other composers of varnas. Some of the best known varnas of the Maharaja like Sa vama rusha in Khamas-Adi and 'Sarasasarasundara' in Nilambari-Adi are in Sanskrit. He has honoured his own mother tongue Malayalam by employing it for the varna 'Tndumukhi nisamaya' in Sankarabharana-Chapu. His example was followed by the famous poet and composer in his court, Irayimman Thampi. The pada is a class of composition which depicts the nexus between the deity and the devotee as the relation between a lover and his beloved and portrays the individual soul conceived as a nayika, as yearning for union with the supreme soul conceived as the nayaka, and in this process presents a variety of erotic moods. This class is, therefore, primarily meant for abhinaya and it came into great prominence from the time of Kshetragna who gave the musical world numberless scintillating songs of this type. Telugu, the language in Kshetragna's padas, was felt to be the most suitable language for such songs and later composers adopted it. Swati Tirunal too was no exception to this, but he also felt that for proper enjoyment of abltinaya, a knowledge of the import of the song that is elaborated in dance is an essential and so with the non-Telugu knowing people in mind, he composed many padas in Malayalam and some in Sanskrit, the language that was nearest to his heart. He is the first composer to attempt padas in these two languages. In the same class, pada, Swati Tirunal has another first. That is the Ragamalika pada. The well-known song 'Pannagendrasayana' is a pada and depicts the diverse moods of a nayika awaiting her lover from nightfall to daybreak in appropriate ragas. The language is Sanskrit. In addition to the varna and pada in the Ragamalika type ofcomposi tion, he is also the originator of the Ragamilika sloka. Any sloka can be rendered in any suitable raga, but what Swati Tirunal has done is to specify the raga for each foot of a verse by covertly incorporating the name of the ragain it. His innovaton does not consist in this alone but in applying this ' for dancing. After the. recent discovery of the musical structure of the ragamalika sloka Kalyani khalu etc., it has become clear that these slokas were.meant not merely for singing, but improvised with suitable jatis, for dancing too. This incidentally shows that the sloka, like the composition sabda, was formerly in vogue as an item for nritta. The rendering of sloka by the danseuse we sometimes meet with in dance recitals today, is perhaps a r:mnant of this. Besides the slokas Kalyani kahlu etc., and Balaharipada which have now become popular, there are several others also by him. Two of them are given below: SANGEET NATAK 36 '11 It may be noted that these two slokas are composed in metres which have a measured rhythmic flow, which in the first corresponds to the Misrachapu tala and in the second to the Rupaka tala. Some ragas also occur for the first time in the composition of Swati Tirunal. Such are Sudhabhairavi and Purvakamboji. We are able to know the nature of the first since we have got the varnamettu of the song 'Vihara manasa sada' composed in it, but we have no idea of the latter since only the sahitya of that song 'Keminimani' etc. is known and not it varnamettu. The period of Swati Tirunal's musical activity was marked by the influence of North Indian Music and many Norh Indian ragas like Yamuna kalyani (Yaman Kalyan), Hamir Kalyani, Dviajvanti, Sindhubhairavi, Kafi and Hindolam figure not only in the music of Swati Tirunal but in that of Tyagaraja and Dikshitar also. But it may appear strange that the use of that sparkling raga Bihag in Karnatak music goes to the credit of the Maharaja alone. In spite ofthe great popularity ofhis kirtana 'Smarajanakd in this raga even outside Kerala as can be seen from its occurrence in several old musical anthologies compiled in Tamilnad and Andhra, and in spite ?f its arresting attractiveness, Bihag seems to have remained outside the domain of the Karnatak composers for a long time. It is Tirupati Narayanaswanu who gives an equally charming specimen in this raga, the famous javali 'Vakaladi. The raga Mohanakalyani, as we get in his composition 'Seve srikantam', seems to be his own creation. It combines the arohana of Mohana and avarohana of Kalyani and is a fine example for a novel method of creating new ragas. We may remember, however, that we do get a.composition indicated to be in a raga of this name among the numerous compositions ~f Ramachandrendrayati, better known as Upanishadbrahmayogi of Kanchi puram in the 18th century. But we have no means of knowing whether t~e structure of the raga used by Upanishadbrahmayogi is the same as or different from the raga we get Swati Tirunal's song. There are several ragas wi~h names compounded from the names of two other ragas but of ~ nature different from both. Such are, for instance, Kannadagaule, Kapl 1l:1rayani, Sarasva.~imanohari and Vasantabhairavi. It may be that Upa nishadbrahmayogi s Mohanakalyani is one such, Swati Tirunal is the first composer of separate works for Barikatha kalakshepam. The art of Harikathn or musical discourse which originat~ with_ the Maharashtra saints became popular in South India, but for their musical part, songs were culled from various sources and slokas were borrOW ed from the epics and Puranas and the popular kavyas. The ovis, sakis, 37 SWATI TIRUNAL dindis, abhangs etc. from Maharashtra music were also liberally employed. But Swati Tirunal composed two works Kuchelopakhyana and Ajamilo pakhyana in the Sanskrit language with musical forms popular with dis coursers and interspersed with verses. These two works remain unique specimens of this type. The type of musical narrative having verses alternating with songs is a feature current in Tamilnadu, although the earliest work where we get the alternation of verse and song is the Gitagovinda cf Jayadeva, Swati Tirunal was the first to adopt this type for a Malayalam work. His Utsavaprabandha is a work ofthis kind and it describes the festival at the Sri Padmanabha swami temple in Trivandrum, in verses in Sanskrit metres interspersed with songs. Apart from these which lay claim to being firsts in Karnatak music, there is an outstanding contribution which marks out Swati Tirunal as the first without having a second so far, and that is his Hindustani compositions. A Maharaja in farthest south composing songs in Hindustani cf the distant North more than a century before that language was ever thought of as a possible claimant for being considered as the lingua franca of India! One can imagine his catholicity. And his contribution embraces all forms of Hindustani music. An admirable achievement indeed, but not adequately appreciated. It can be seen from the above, that Swati Tirunal has claim to several things original among his compositions. He is the first author to write musical Upakhyanas for Harikatha. He is the first to compose Prabandha and Varna in Malayalam and Ragamalika sloka and pada in Sanskrit. He is again the first to devise a new raga by combining parts of two others and to handle some of the uncommon ragas. Steeped in tradition no doubt he was, but he had a mind open to receive the modern and a genius active to create the new. His musical output is vast and varied. Its propel preservation and fair evaluation are matters which should engage the serious attention of lovers of our music. See Sangeet Natak No. 10 AESTHETICS AND PHILOSOPI-IY AS RELATED TO INDIAN MUSIC' Arun Bhattacharya While listening to a Beethoven composition on a soft June night, Aldous Huxley suddenly became aware of a feeling of 'blessedness', In that lively essay 'Music at Night', he further narrates the process through which the artist gets a glimpse of his ultimate vision: 'The substance of a work of art is inseparable from its form, its truth and its beauty are two, and yet mysteriously, one'. Here, in this particular statement of Huxley, philosophy, generally believed to be a study ofthe nature oftruth, approaches aesthetics, whose ultimate 'aim is the perception of beauty in Nature and the arts. Supposed to be a specific study within the broad purview of philosophicial speculations, aesthetics concerns itself primarily with perceptions. Structurally, raga music of India is based on melody pattern which has an underlying system of its own; philosophically, it is the sum total expression of the Indian mind which has tried to attain a highly cultivated state of aesthetic experience through such melody pattern, The mythology and history behind the origin and development of Indian music have always been emphatic in associating it with spirituality, while the aesthetic impact on the listener is derived from the emotive responses that a performing musician might evoke with his unique interpretation of svara - note patterns within the framework of a particular raga. In a subtle way, aes thetics thus approaches the more valid foundation ofphilosophy, though in a mysterious way, as suggested by Huxley, And, wherein lies that mystery? Let us have, by way of recapitulation, the etymological significance of the two terms to be related shortly to music. The word 'aesthetic' is derived from the Greek word 'aesthetics' meaning one who perceives. Perception isa faculty of referring ofsensations to their external causes. True appreciation of beauty depends on the perceptibility of an individual who should be com passionate - sahrdaya - and to whom artistic communication is anything but obligatory. And what should be his field of perception in the present context? The beauty in Nature- and-the beauty derived from art, rather music, which embodies sound as its principal constituent. Beauty is 39 INDIAN MUSIC something which cannot be conceived; on the contrary, it is related mostly to sense perceptions. The word 'philosophy' again, as we know, is derived from two Greek words 'philos' and 'sophos' meaning love of wisdom. The significance has been extended further and the word came to be related to . the human enquiry into the nature of knowledge and the nature of ultimate reality. The Indian equivalent of the word is however darsan which seems to be affirmative in its significance as something realised. In his famous treatise on Aesthetics, Croce defines the two pure forms of knowledge as 'aesthetic and intellectual or conceptual' uot exactly as opposites, but surely different in so far as artistic creativity is concerned. So, perception, which is related to all artistic pursuits and conception that leads to the knowledge of science and philosophy, are obviously two separate methods. How can music therefore be related, at the same time, to these two varied aspects of the human faculty, that ofperception and conception? Here again Croce comes to our rescue. Let us quote him: 'The most lofty manifestations, the summits of intellectual and of intuitive knowledge shining from afar, are called, as we know, Art and Science. Art and Science, then, are different yet linked together: they meet on one side, which is the aesthetic side'. And lastly, Croce concludes his essay on 'Art and Philosophy' by saying 'Intuition gives us the world, the phenomenon; the concept gives us the noumenon, the spirit'. As phenomenon and noumenon are not opposed to each other fundamentally, we can have intuition and concepts as the two parallel aspects of human faculty. Intui tion again, has been described by some philosophers as the immediate per-: ception oftruth and reality. Response to beauty in artistic activity depends therefore, on intuitive knowledge, but the appreciation of its formal and structural aspects are purely conceptual in nature. Music, basically an aesthetic pursuit can, perhaps, against this back ground, approach philosophy in its pure form. Sir William Jones, the cele brated founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, was also a pioneer in inter preting Indian music to his own countrymen. In his famous treatise published in the Asiatic Researches in 1799, Sir William raised the same problem. But his statements were categorical. He considered music both, as a science and as an art, both as a philosophy and as an aesthetic pursuit. His observations are as follows, 'Music belongs, as a science, to an interesting part of natural phi losophy, which by mathematical deductions from constant phenomenon, explains the causes and properties of sound, limits the number of mixed, or harmonic, sounds to a certain series, which perpetually recurs, and fixes the ratio, which they bear to each other but considered as an art, it combines the sounds, which philosophy distinguishes in such a manner as to gratify our ears, or affect our imagination, or by uniting both objects, to captivate the fancy while it pleases the sense, and speaking as it were the language of beautiful nature, to raise correspondent ideas and emotions in the mind of the hearer; it then and then only becomes what we call a fine art, allied very nearly to verse, painting, and rhetoric.' Sir William has obviously referred to the relation of vedi and samvedi svaras which are at a constant distance of 8 or 12 srutis apart. Moreover, in the sruti relation of the svaras, if considered as in an octave in the sadja grama, a perfect mathematical and harmonic relationship may be found. SANGEET NATAK 40 However, aesthetics and philosophy are then related to music at least in a complementary if 1?-0t identical man~er. An objective definition of music is necessary at this moment. Sangita, the Sanskrit equivalent for music, has been defined by Moiner Williams, in his (lexicon as 1) that which is sung in chorus or harmony, and (2) the art or science of.singing with music and dancing. In Gila, the root verb expresses the functions of both gana and Kathana. It would not be out of place to mention here that samagana was meant both for recitation and singing. The traditional meaning of sangita is taurjatrik that employs the simultaneous performances of nritta, gita and vadya. But then comes the prefix sama which has a variety of synonyms as 'perfectly', 'artistically', 'fully' and so on. The significance of sangita is, therefore, rich and varied even when considered from the sociological and religious background. In order to trace out the origin of our sangita, the musicologists have firstly enquired of the nada, the root cause of all this manifest world. Phi losophy gets its hold on music right then. It is surely an interesting study where Sarngadeva has devoted more than two hundred s/okas in the svara gata adhyaya of his famous treatise Sangitaratnakara only to study the origin of our music and of the nada. With the precise knowledge of a physiologist, he has given detailed anatomy of the human body that pro duces the nada, remembering though that the Lord Sankara Himself is the nada-tana- embodiment ofthe all-pervasive nada. Matanga, in his treatise Brhaddasi, has pointed out that neither the development of svara nor the existenceofmusic is possible without the nada; he has, moreover, emphasized that nada is parasakti and Mahesvara itself: na nadana bine gitem ne nedane bine swereh and again, nederupe pere sektirnederupok mehasvereh Since Matanga, all the leading musicologists of India have made pointed reference to this nada, associating it with the ultimate Creator. Nada is the immediate cause of sabda or dhvani. It exists in space as anahata. This space i.e. akasa, is the container of the nada, according to our ancient philosophers, specially, vaisesikas. The concept of chhande again is intimately connected with the tandava of Nataraja which has been summed up by Havel as the threefold processes of creation, preservation and destruction. As sabda or dhvani is derived from nada, which is contained in infinite space, so chhande is derived from infinite time. The basic constituents of music, svara and chhanda, are thus related to Space and Time, which are both infinite. The conceptual aspect of. music is thus related to the broad philosophic attitude of the Indian mind that ha~ ever tri.ed to discover the inner significance in all our unlimited human pursuits. It IS further known that the atmana or the divine psyche, is the foundation of all music. A study of aesthetics, as related to Indian music, presupposes a study of the a/ankara that are used in music and other arts. Bharata has ex ten~ively dealt both wi~ t~e a/ankara as well as'with the corresponding rasas denved from the application of those a/ankara. The history and develop ment of poetry and the finer arts suggests that the alankariks have differed from time to time in their method of estimation of creative art, but have 41 INDIAN MUSIC agreed on the fundamental issue in assigning a common significance to the evaluation of the aspect of creativity, related, as such, to enjoyment. It might seem at the beginning that the various a/ankariks have stressed the aspects of either alankaras, or riti, or dhavanior rasa as the singledeter minant factor in evaluating the beauty of that artistic piece. But Jagannath, the last of the great aestheticians, added a common significance for judging the specific merit of poetry and the arts. He ascribed, to the greatness of a poetic piece, the quality of its being ramaniya to the reader, remenierthepretipedekesebedeh kevyem His analysis has found an echo also in the judgement of musical aesthetics. We have known that raga or the melody pattern is that which gives enjoyment to the listener. This quality of ranjana is almost identical with the quality of its being ramaniya. The aspect of vyanjana - a process of suggestion, and the bhavas- the emotional attributes, are basicallyrelated to this aspect of ranjana. In the 29th Chapter of Natyasastra, Bharata has extensively dealt with the rasas and its relation to various forms of the natyagiti. Evocation of rasa and that of vyanjana is but a step leading to the aspect of ranjana. The aesthetic motive that relates itself to the enjoyment of music is noticeable at this stage. Dr. S. K. De, in his Tagore Centenary lectures at the University of Chicago, pointed out during his discourse on the 'Sanskrit poetics as a study of aesthetics' that the theory of rasaforms one of the most important aesthetic foundations of Sanskrit. Developing his propositions he observed, "All theorists agree that rasa, which cannot be manifested without an accompanying state of joy, conveys a peculiar ramaniyata essential to poetry". The final aspect to be considered in this connection relates basically to the processesthat lead to this ranjana, to be cherished or felt by the listener. Ragas are but various structural patterns of svaras with certain distinct individual characters of their own and are formed with the sole object of being ramaniya or monoranjak - pleasing - to the listener. It is again through the various broad forms of Indian music that the ragas express themselves. A perfect integration of these two simultaneous processes one of the structural progression of the ragas, the other, of the presentation and development of forms according to the sentiments expressed through the ragas- leads us towards the inherent spirit of raga music. the aesthetic appreciation of Indian music, depends on several factors, the most important being its association with the sentiments that are evoked in each particular melody pattern. Let us therefore conclude by saying that philosophy is related to Indian music in so far as its outline, as described by C.E.M. Joad, concerns not with acts but with values; on the other hand, the study of aesthetics cannot be separated from an appreciation of music, as this particular branch of fine arts is something primarily to be perceived in the context of the sentiments derived from such music patterns. Thus the expression of sentiments forms an important approach to the study of aesthetics in relation to Indian music; but it should be borne in ~ind, what Huxley felt - that the feeling of blessedness is the kind of en joyment on the part of a listener of raga music - and this particular state SANGEET NATAK 42 of mind is surely a substitute for the santa rasa- feeling of tranquility as described in our Vaisnava poetry. In focusing the need for an aesthetic -approach to the branches of arts nobody has emphasized it as Rabindranath, who observed: "The sastra that I have always referred to is neither musicology nor poetics, it is rather a study of the finer art which encompasses both music and poetry within its sphere"! Tagore obviously meant here a broader study of aesthetics for an apprecia tion of both music and poetry. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY I. De, Dr. S. K.: Sanskrit Poetics as a study 0/ Aesthetics. 2. Croce, B.: Aesthetics. 3. Prajnanananda, Swami: Historical Development 0/ Indian Music. 4. Tagore, Rabindranath: Adhunik Sahitya. 5. Bhattacharya, Arun: Sangit-Chinta. 6. Chowdhury, Prabasiiban: Saundarja Darshan, 7. Huxley, Aldous: Music at Night. 8. Meyer, Leonard, B: Emotion and Meaning in Music. 9. Matanga: Bihaddesi (Trivandrum Edition 1928). 10. Samgadeva: Sangitaratnakar (Adyar Library, Madras). 11. Bharata Muni: Natyasastra (Asiatic Soc. 'of Bengal, Calcutta), Arun Bhattacharya. Having done his Master Degree in English from Calcutta University, Mr. Bhattacharya followed his inclination/or music by taking lessons in Khyal from Ustad Ata Hussain Khan, Rabindra Sangeet from Principal Sailajaranjan Malumdar and Tappa from Late Kalipada Pathak. He writes widely in Journals on Literature and Music and has published collections ofPoems. He was formally co-editor of 'Poetry Bengal'. At present if Lecturer at Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta and Music Critic for The Statesman, Calcutta. LIMITATIONS OF THE VERSE-PLAY SOME REFLECTIONS Dr. Lokenath Bhattacharya There are so many kinds of drama already going on, from the tradi tional conflict-plays to absurd, or from epic to naturalistic, that apparently it may be quite in order that another category, that of the verse-play, be added to the list. In fact, however insignificantly, the verse-play already exists and in that connection the names of such writers as Rabindranath Tagore, T. S. Eliot, Robert Lowell, etc., may immediately come to mind. However, I have certain misgivings about this particular form of play and my observations, which are both tentative and hesitating, are placed before readers for whatever they are worth. I am inclined to think that the verse-play is neither 'verse' nor 'play', but a strangely chemical amalgam of two divergent, even contradictory, speech forms - an amalgam in which both the forms are most likely to lose their respective and primary chracteristics. And what this mixingprocess makes them gain ultimately - if it is a gain at all- may not be a thing to be particularly attracted by. In other words, if verse has to be asociatcd with poetry - and one naturally expects that it should be so -there may in that case be an inescapable contradiction between the essence of poetry and what a play wants to achieve. Here several questions are likely to be raised. For example, am I then referring to the basic incompatibility between the two primordial speech forms, which are poetry and prose? IfI am, how is it then that some ofthe greatest poetry has been and is still being written in prose? The contrary is no less true: we have several examples of bad poets, past and present, whose verse-compositons often produce an extremely prosaic effect. It may be said in answer to such questions that putting the argument as poetry vs, prose in this fashion is slightly misleading. A better differentiation should have been between the natural speech and the transformed, heightened speech, the latter being the exclusive business of poetry. If this latter can be .adeq~ately caught in a prose medium, good poetry can by all means be written m prose. SANGEET NATAK 44 - . Our point is that what is good for poetry may not always be good for drama, since it is the natural speech, more than anything else, with which drama must be primarily concerned. It may be argued and is also true to some extent that the so-called natural speech in a creative expression is a misnomer, since it necessarily undergoes a transformation in the hands of an artist, be he a poet or a dramatist. Also true that all art, to be worth its name, must contain at least one peak moment when it can express, through words or lines or sound, a poetic articulation.. But this poetic element can be only very generally referred to; it is more a thing of the feeling than what could be analytically defined. As to the other point concerning the inevitability of transforming natural speech in all creative expression, it should be categorically stated that the transformation is not of the uniform intensity in all literary forms, such as poetry, play, novel, etc. What is important to note is that drama requires its speech to be as close to natural as possible since its final objective, as I understand it, is to create, through actions and dialogues ofmore than one character, a situation which evokes both surprise and sympathy in the audience. Further, it aims at bridging the gap between the audience and the stage and establishing an atmosphere of harmony which links both the stage and the audience. The deliberately artificial verse-tool of the verse-play is an avoidable impediment to achieving this goal of harmony. Moreover, the problem does not remain confined to a merely structural difference; the verse-form also controls the nature and tone of the content, since certain things or feelings can never be adequately expressed in verse. I am aware of the obvious question that can be asked at this point: how is it then that previously all plays, from Shakespeare's to Racine's, used to be written in verse? The answer is, first, that it was the convention then. Secondly, however paradoxical it may seem, we must make a distinc tion here between.verse and poetry, and I am explaining shortly the con temporary reasons for making the distinction. My submission is that in spite of the fact that they wrote in verse, with perhaps the single exception of Shakespeare who was also a great poet, all the others were playwrights exclusively. It would be preposterous to suggest that they,. including Shakespeare, could ever intend to be accepted as verse-playwrights in the co~temporary sen.se of the term. One or two examples might illustrate the point. Here, for instance, are a few lines from Prince of Morocco's dialogue in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: Cold, indeed; and labour lost: Then, farewell, heat, and welcome frost.' Portia, adieu. I have too griev'd ~ heart To take a tedious leave: thus losers part. My second example is from a dialogue by Taruffe, in Moliere's play Tartuffe: Je sais quo vous avez trop de benignite, Et que vousferez grace a ma temerite . Que VOllS m'excuserez sur l'humaine f~iblesse Des violents transportsd'll1l amour qui vousblesse . ... 'Yho would be so unreasonable today as to call these specimens poetry, SImply because of the end-rhymes or the metrical pattern of the lines? 45 LJA1JTATIONS OF THE VERS/:.....PLAY However, what is of supreme importance in the present context is 110t whether Shakespeare and others in the past wrote their plays in verse and still got away with it triumphantly. The point is that after the Romantic Revolution the very concept of poetry has undergone a drastic change. Poetry today is increasingly a matter of subjective expression - an assertion of the individual spirit, More and more, modern poetry is not a thing to be recited in public and immediately understood, but something which should be read at leisure and in private, and read repeatedly to be appeciated. A thing like the Greek chorus, for example, representing the Vox Populi or people's voice, is, alas, no longer achievable. We personally shall have no objection and would even welcome it if someone could return poetry to its original promise and revive the day when it will again become an integrated part of the ritual of life- a coIlective expression of a community. But that initiative cannot be left to an individual, however great, but must be pro duced by society at large, and society, unfortunately, is not likely to do so, at least not in the foreseeable future. Today's verse-playwrights are caught in this dilemma and their efforts at a compromise between poetry and drama have expectedly produced only unsatisactory results. T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, which, however, is the best verse-play he ever wrote, is an example in point. Murder, in patches, may be fairly good poetry, but it is a very poor play. Ironically, but significantly, the only portions in the play which are slightly more effectiveas drama are written in prose: these are the self-defensivespeeches by the four knights which, after having killed Becket, they address to the audience. An example may perhaps iIlustrate the point further. Here, for instance, is a dialogue in pure, simple prose by the First Knight after the murder has been committed: 'We beg you to give us your attention for a few moments. We know that you may be disposed to judge unfavourably of our action. You are Englishmen, and therefore you believe in fair play: .and when you see one man being set upon by four, then your sympathies are all with the underdog. I respect such feelings, I share them. Nevertheless, I appeal to your sense of honour. You are Englishmen, and therefore will not judge anybody without hearing both sides of the case. That is in accordance with our long-established principle of Trial by Jury. I am not myself qualified to put our case to you. I am a man of action and not of words. For that reason I shall do no more than introduce the other speakers. who, with their various abilities, and different points of view, will be able to lay before you the merits of this extremely complex problem. I shall caIl upon our eldest member to speak first my neighbour in the country: Baron William de Tracio' It will be enough to compare and contrast the above dialogue, charged with the qualities of real dramatic essence and having a direct appeal to the audience, with, for example, the foIlowing excerpt from a verse section of the Chorus in the same play: We have not been happy, my Lord, we have not been too happy. We are not ignorant women, we know what we must expect and not expect. We know of oppression and torture. We know ofextortion and violence, Destitution, disease, SANGEET NATAK 46 The old without fire in winter, The child without milk in summer, Our labour taken away from us, Our sins made heavier upon us. We have seen the young man mutilated, The torn girl trembling by the mill-stream. And meanwhile we have gone on living, Living and partly living, Picking together the pieces, Gathering faggots at nightfall, Building a partial shelter, For sleeping, and eating and drinking and laughter. We have heard people say that even some of Eliot's poems contain enough dramatic element and such lively dialogues as could be presented on stage. But dialogues alone do not constitute a play and such dialogues as there are in these poems - for example. "The Waste Land" or "The Love Song ofJ. Alfred Prufrock' - never reach the high moment of drama. However witty and smart, they melt into thin air. Here is another example from one of our own languages, Bengali a portion of a dialogue by Kunti in Rabindranath Tagore's verse-play Kama-Kunti Samvad: Arjun-jananibeta, tai mane gani Dvesh korio ne vetsa! Ajo mana para astraparikshardin Hastina-nagare' Tumi dhire pravesile turun kumar rangsathale, naksatrakhachita purvasar prantadese navodita aruner mata Yavanika-antarale nari chilajata tar madhye vakyahina ka sa abhagini atripta snehaksuhar sahasra nagini jagaye jarjar vaksa; kahar nayan Tomar Sarvange dila ashiz-i-Chumpan ? In the poet's own prose translation the passage reads as follows: ' .... Yes, indeed, the mother of Arjuna, your antagonist. But do not, therefore, hate me. I still remember the day of the trial of arms in Hastina when you an unknown boy, boldly stepped into the arena, like the first day of dawn among the stars of night. Ah! who was that unahppy woman whose eyes kissed your bare, slim body through tears that blessed you, where she sat among the women of the royal household behind the arras? Why., the mother of Arjuna.' It will perhaps be universally conceded that in spite of the prose ,trans \ lation in English, both the original and the translation suffer from some inescapable drawbacks of a typical verse-play. The only mentionable example to my knowlege, in whom the two forms ofpoetry and drama have been fused in an acceptable unity, is perhaps the great Spaniard, Federico Garica Lorca, But Lorca's plays are of an altogether different kind and it will not be proper to describe him as a verse playwright. One of his most famous plays, Yerma, for example, express~s the agony of a childless wife and is written mostly in prose. Such few poetic passages as there are, are lifted body and soul from the very fabric of 47 LIMITATIONS OF THE VERSE-PLAY Andalousian life and folklore, of which Lorca, through all his works, was a splendid and faithful exponent. rhis is in sharp contrast to some very recent efforts by a few Indian playwrights who, all originally poets, have included poetic passages in their plays. Not belonging to any tradition worth the name which we have been able to assimilate, these passages do not ring true, sound superfluous and are often outside the tone of the drama in question. I may, therefore, conclude by saying that not to speak of the verse play as such, 1 am doubtful about the effectiveness of including even poetic passages in a drama. And if at all, for the purpose ofa theoretical discussion, a question like the following is asked categorically-is the verse-play possible today? - one might quite conceivably be tempted to put forward a counter question: was the verse-play ever a viable proposal? Dr. Lokenath Bhattacharya, Bengali poet and playwright, is at presen Editor, Indian Literature, the quarterly journal of the Sahitya Akademi,