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The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c20.s8: 8. The Preliminaries and the Prologue

The Sanskrit Drama in its Origin, Development, Theory & Practice c20.s8

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8. The Preliminaries and the Prologue

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The *Nāṭyaçāstra*² prescribes an elaborate series of preliminaries (*pūrvaraṅga*) which must be performed before the actual drama begins; they are intended to secure divine favour for the performance, each act having a definite share in the result, and doubtless they present us with a reminiscence of the early theatre in the mingling of music, dance, and song. First there is the beat of drum (*pratyāhāra*) announcing the beginning of the performance, and the carpet is spread out for the orchestra; the singers and the musicians then enter and take their places (*avataraṇa*): then the chorus try their voices (*ārambha*); the musicians try their instruments (*āçrāvaṇa*); they tune up their wind and string instruments, and manipulate their hands to make them ready for the work; then an instrumental concert follows, succeeded by the appearance and practice steps of the dancers.³ A song follows, to please the gods; then the Tāṇḍava is performed, increasing in violence as it proceeds; then a song accompanies the raising by the Sūtradhāra of the banner (*jarjara*) of Indra; he scatters flowers and purifies himself with water from a pitcher borne by an attendant, while another carries the banner; there follows a perambulation of the stage, the praise of the world guardians, and homage to the banner. Then comes the Nāndī or benediction; it is followed by the recitation by the Sūtradhāra of a verse in honour of the god whose festival it is, or the king or a Brahmin; then comes the Raṅgadvāra, which is said to mark the beginning of the dramatic action (abhinaya), the Sūtradhāra reciting another verse, and bowing before the banner of Indra. There follow steps and movements of erotic character (cārī) in honour of Umā, and more violent movements of the same kind in honour of the Bhūtas. A discussion (trigata) between the Sūtradhāra, the Vidūṣaka, who talks nonsense, and an attendant follows. Finally the Prarocanā announces the content of the drama, and the Sūtradhāra and his two attendants leave the stage, and the preliminaries are ended.

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² v. 1 ff.; Konow, ID., pp. 23 ff.

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³ These nine acts gratify the Apsarases, Gandharvas, Daityas, Dānavas, Rakṣases, Guhyakas, and Yakṣas. They are performed behind the curtain according to Konow, but cf. Lévi, TI. i. 376.

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Immediately after, according to the Nāṭyaçāstra, another person, similar in appearance and qualities to the Sūtradhāra, is to enter and introduce the play, a function which gives him the style of introducer, Sthāpaka.¹ His costume should indicate the nature of the drama, as dealing with divine or human affairs. An appropriate song greets his entrance, he dances a Cārī, praises the gods and Brahmins, propitiates the audience by verses alluding to the subject of the play, mentions the name of the author and the play, and describes some season in the verbal manner, thereby opening the prologue (prastāvanā, āmukha, sthāpanā)² of the play. The essential feature of the prologue is an address by the director with an attendant (pāripārçvika) or an actress or the Vidūṣaka on some personal business which indirectly hints at the drama. The mode of connexion is given by Dhanaṃjaya as threefold, as in the Nāṭyaçāstra; the words of the director may be caught up (kathodghāta) by a character in the drama, entering from behind the curtain, as in the Ratnāvalī Yaugandharāyaṇa catches up the consolation offered to the actress which is applicable to his own scheme, and in the Veṇīsaṃhāra Bhīma brusquely denounces the benediction of his adversaries. Or a person may enter (pravṛttaka), who has just been mentioned by the director in a comparison with the season of the year, as in the Priyadarçikā. Excess of representation (prayogātiçaya) is taken in the Daçarūpa as applying to a case where the director actually mentions the entry of a character of the drama, as at the beginning of the Çakuntalā, where he assures the actress that her song has enchanted him, as the gazelle enchants Duḥṣanta, who just then enters. Viçvanātha, on the other hand, treats this form as an instance of continuance (avalagita), and interprets the phrase as denoting the supersession of the director’s action; thus, in the lost *Kundamālā*, about to call on the actress to dance, he hears the word, ‘Lady, descend’, and realizes that it is a reference to Sītā, who is being led into exile. He admits also the abrupt dialogue (udghātya) as a means of connexion; thus in the *Mudrārākṣasa* the director alludes to the demon of eclipse as eager to triumph over Candra, the moon, and Cāṇakya behind the scenes calls out, ‘Who then while I live claims to triumph over Candragupta?’ and enters a moment later. The theorist Nakhakuṭṭa is also credited with the view that a voice behind the scenes or from the air may be used to introduce the chief personage.

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¹ N. v. 149 ff.; DR. iii. 2 ff.; SD. 283 ff. Cf. R. iii. 150 ff.

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² An effort to discriminate Prastāvanā and Sthāpanā is made, R. iii. 158.

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This account of the preliminaries and the prelude presents obvious difficulties both in itself and in connexion with the actual specimens of the Sanskrit drama. The *Daçarūpa* and Viçvanātha alike give no details of the preliminaries, and the *Nāṭyaçāstra* indicates that, in addition to the complete form of Pūrvaraṅga, there might be an abbreviated form and also an extended form with additional ceremonials. There is an obvious overlapping between the Pūrvaraṅga and the rest of the performance, for the last element of the former, the giving the content of the drama in the Prarocanā, is essentially an element in the latter. We are quite definitely told by Viçvanātha that in his time there was not a complete performance of the preliminaries; when, therefore, we find in Bhāsa’s dramas that there is no mention of the name of the author or the drama in the prologue, we may safely assume that it was after his time that the practice grew up of transferring from the preliminaries, which were not a matter for the poet, the substance of the Prarocanā, and embodying it in the poet’s own work. In Viçvanātha’s time also we are told that the Sūtradhāra or director performed the whole of the work assigned in the theory to him and the Sthāpaka. But it is extremely difficult to say how far back this goes; the extant dramas with occasional exceptions,¹ such as Rājaçekhara’s *Karpūramañjarī and Mādhava’s *Subhadrāharaṇa* mention only the Sūtradhāra, and Pischel¹ suggested that it was Bhāsa who banished the Sthāpaka, in view of the reference in Bāṇa to his dramas as begun by the Sūtradhāra. It is uncertain, however, what precisely the sense of this reference is. The *Daçarūpa* expressly provides for the activity of the Sthāpaka, but then proceeds to style him Sūtradhāra, and there is agreement that he is to have the attributes of the Sūtradhāra, so that the use of the name may merely be explained by this reason. This is certainly supported by the express reference in the *Sāhityadarpaṇa* to the transfer of his functions to the Sūtradhāra and the silence of the *Daçarūpa* on this head. The point would be of importance only if it meant that Bhāsa dropped the Pūrvaraṅga as part of the drama; nothing, however, even hints at this; as we have seen, his omission to name himself or his play in the prologue tells strongly in favour of the view that the old Praro-canā was still in use.

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¹ These are more common than formerly thought; the Sthāpaka is found in various connexions in the *Pārthaparākrama* of Prahlādana, and Vatsarāja’s *Kirātārjunīya*, *Rukmiṇīharaṇa*, *Samudramathana*. But the *Rasārnavasudhākara* ignores him.

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¹ GGA. 1883, p. 1234; 1891, p. 361. Bhāsa’s use of Sthāpanā for the prologue suggests accord with the *Daçarūpa*.

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More complex still is the question of the Nāndī or benediction. Most Sanskrit dramas open with a verse or verses of this type, followed by the remark, ‘At the close of the Nāndī the Sūtradhāra enters,’ but in Bhāsa’s dramas, in old manuscripts of the *Vikramorvaçī*, and now and then in South Indian manuscripts of such plays as the *Nāgānanda*, the *Mudrārākṣasa*, and other more modern dramas,² we find the play begun with these words, and a verse or verses following. We have also the direct testimony of Viçvanātha, who tells us that some authorities held that the introductory verse in the *Vikramorvaçī* which normally passes for the Nāndī was not that at all, but was the Raṅgadvāra, with which, according to the *Nāṭyaçāstra*, the play properly begins, as in it we first find acting in the shape of a combination of speech and action; that verse, they argued, could not be reconciled with the definition of the extent of the Nāndī given in the *Nāṭyaçāstra*; others, however, on the authority of Abhinavagupta repelled this objection. Viçvanātha adopts as the definition of Nāndī what is recited in praise of a deity, Brahmin, king

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² E. g. *Tapatīsaṃvaraṇa* and *Subhadrādhanamjaya*, where Sthāpanā is used.

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Çivarāma’s comm. on *Nāgānanda*, i. 1 shows that great doubt then existed both as to the preliminaries (p. 2), and the Sūtradhāra, Sūcaka, or Sthāpaka (pp. 6, 7). Cf. p. 273.

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or the like, and is accompanied by a benediction, consisting of twelve inflected words (with nominal or verbal endings) or eight lines (quarter-verses); this would exclude the beginning of the *Vikramorvaçī*, but Abhinavagupta permits of a greater variety of forms. In Viçvanātha's view the Nāndī is part of the preliminaries, which must be preserved, however much these are shortened. It is clear, therefore, that gradually the benediction, like the Prarocanā with its appeal to the benevolence of the audience,¹ came to be worked into the play by the author himself, though the period when the custom became normal cannot be stated with any precision, and in the south of India, at any rate, the older practice of leaving the benediction to the Sūtradhāra seems to have been sometimes followed. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the extent to which the preliminaries were retained differed from time to time; Viçvanātha evidently contemplates their almost total disappearance, but the *Amṛtodaya* of Gokulanātha in the sixteenth century assumes their presence; the authority of the *Nāṭyaçāstra* told heavily in their favour, and the stock phrase, 'Enough of this ceremony,' which occurs frequently at the opening of the plays, doubtless refers to the dance, song, and music with which the drama was prefaced.²

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¹ A classification of poets on the basis of their confidence in themselves as expressed in this place is given in R. i. 246 f.; Kālidāsa is elevated (*udātta*) in the *Mālavikāgnimitra*; Bhavabhūti haughty (*uddhata*) in the *Mālatīmādhava*; self assertion (*prauḍha*) is seen in the *Karuṇākandala*; modesty (*vinīta*) in the *Rāmānanda*.

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² Konow, ID. p. 25.

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These facts explain the confusion³ of the notices of the theorists as to the actor by whom the benediction is to be recited. We find ascribed to Bharata the view that a special actor, the Nāndī, should recite it, or that duty should be performed by the Sūtradhāra; another authority permits the Sūtradhāra or any other actor to recite it. The situation is complicated by the rule that at the end of the preliminaries the Sūtradhāra is supposed to leave the stage and the Sthāpaka to come on, while our dramas, as a rule, have the benediction followed by the entry of the Sūtradhāra, or rarely, as in the *Pārthaparākrama*, the Sthāpaka. The theory, therefore, suggests that the benediction is recited by the Sūtradhāra or Sthāpaka (called Sūtradhāra by reason of similarity of function and character) behind the curtain, and then he enters on the stage. The matter is not cleared up by the practice followed in the embryo dramas introduced into others: in that included in the Bālarāmāyaṇa the Sūtradhāra recites a benediction of twelve inflected words, and then proceeds with the prologue without a break; in the Jānakīpariṇaya it is one of the actors who does so, as in Ravivarman’s Pradyumnābhyudaya, the director then beginning the play; in the Caitanyacandrodaya the benediction is recited behind the curtain, but that is stated to be because the piece to be acted is a Bhāṇa or Vyāyoga, implying that in other cases it normally was recited on the stage, presumably by an actor other than the director.

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³ Lévi, TI. i. 135, 379; ii. 26 f., 64, 66. Cf. *Harivaṃça*, ii. 93; *Kuṭṭanīmata*, 856 ff.

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The extent of the benediction was, as we have seen, disputed.¹ Bharata’s rule of eight or twelve Padas does not stand alone, for he is credited with mentioning four or sixteen as possible numbers, and Pada may mean inflected word, line, or proposition. Abhinavagupta allows three, six, or twelve Padas in a benediction of three times; four, eight, or sixteen in one of four times; and definitely takes Pada as proposition; illustrations of eight- and twelve-Pada benedictions of this type are given by Abhinavagupta and Bharata. The dramas differ; the Çakuntalā has one of eight propositions or four lines; the Ratnāvalī four stanzas; the Mālatīmādhava and the Mudrārākṣasa eight lines each; the Uttararāmacarita twelve words.

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¹ Lévi, TI. i. 132 f.; ii. 24 f.; Hall, DR., pp. 25 f. The Veṇīsaṃhāra has six stanzas. R. iii. 137 f. takes Pada as word, giving the Mahāvīracarita, Abhirāmarāghava, and Anargharaghava as examples of 8, 10, and 12 Padas.

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Harmony between the benediction and the character of the drama is naturally demanded by the theory, and is observed largely in practice; thus the Prabodhacandrodaya, a philosophic drama, begins with an adoration of the sole reality, the Mudrārākṣasa, a drama of political intrigue, with a verse as tortuous as the diplomacy of Cāṇakya. It is a characteristic of the determination to carry matters to extremes which distinguishes Indian theory that attempts are made to extract from the benediction not merely a general harmony with the theme, but also a reference both to the main characters and to the chief events.²

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² For a general reference see Pañcarātra, i. 1. In a Jain drama like the Moharājaparājaya, the benediction is addressed to the three Tīrthakaras; in the Nāgānanda to the Buddha.

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