History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.285

v7.c92.285

Most verses of the Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa (in the Lalitopākhyāna, chap. 42) are the same as in the Mudrānighaṇṭu pp. 55-57 verses 110-118; but the largest number of mudrās in dancing is contained in the Viṣṇudharmottara (III) In chap 32 it speaks of numerous rahasya (secret) mudrās in prose called mudrāhastas and in chap. 33 (1-124) it describes over one hundred sāmānyamudrās and the colophon at the end of the chapter calls them 'nṛttaśāstramudrās' (mudrās in the science of dramaturgy).¹⁸⁴⁴ This opens up a subject which cannot be gone into here, viz. whether the mystic hand poses (mudrās) in worship were derived from the postures (*karaṇas*), *recakas* (gestures) and 32 *aṅgahāras* (movements of limbs) described in the Nāṭyaśāstra¹⁸⁴⁵ of Bharata (chapters 4, 8 and 9). It may be noted that the Nāṭyaśāstra (in IV. 171 and 173) speaks of 'nṛttahastas'. Pāṇini knew naṭasūtras of Śilālin and Kṛśāśva.¹⁸⁴⁶ Bharata speaks of four kinds of acting (*abhinaya* 8 9-10) viz. āṅgika, vācika, āhārya, and sāttvika. In the 9th chapter the movements of the hands and fingers intertwined or joined are set out. Muṣṭi is defined by Bharata in 9. 55. Mudrās would fall under āṅgika abhinaya; *aṅgahāras* depended upon *karaṇas* and the latter consisted of different arrangements of hands and feet. It is likely that the mudrās in the Hindu and Buddhist Tāntrik works are based on the poses that were evolved in ancient Indian dance and drama and that find their earliest extant description in Bharata-nāṭyaśāstra and that are also to be found in later medieval works on dramaturgy such as the Abhinayadarpaṇa ¹⁸⁴⁷