The History of Indian Literature c9.56.3

c9.56.3

but only that it did not itself constitute part of the sacred rite or religious ceremony, and could only, and did only, find a place in the intervals. The name applied to the stage-manager in the dramas themselves, ‘Sútra-dhára,’ is referred, and no doubt rightly, to the original sense of '(measuring) line-holder,' 'carpenter;'¹ since it appears to have been one of the duties of the architect at these sacrificial celebrations, over and above the erection of the buildings for the reception of those taking part in the sacrifice, likewise to conduct the various arrangements that were to serve for their amusement. (See Lassen, *I. AK.*, ii. 503.) Whether the *naṭas* and *nartakas* mentioned on such occasions are to be understood as dancers or actors, is at least doubtful; but in the absence of any distinct indication that the latter are intended, I hold in the meantime to the etymological signification of the word; and it is only where the two appear together (*e.g.*, in Rámáy. i. 12. 7 Gorr.) that *naṭa* has certainly to be taken in the sense of 'actor.' Buddhist legend seems, indeed, in one instance—in the story of the life of Maudgalyáyana and Upatishya, two disciples of Buddha—to refer to the representation of dramas in the presence of these individuals.² But here a question at once arises as to the age of the work in which this reference occurs; this is the main point to be settled before we can base any conclusion upon it.