Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c10.s1.3

c10.s1.3

The debate with the demons involved physical violence, as they tried to disrupt the performance. The debate in the last chapter of *Nāṭyaśāstra* suggests that the violence of speech is much more dangerous. Bharata was aware of diverse regional theatre practices represented by the minor forms of drama which were later on termed as *uparūpakas*. In the last chapter of *Nāṭyaśāstra*, he informs that his sons, trained by him in Nāṭyaveda, later on began to perform the *śilpakas*³ of rustic nature (*grāmyadharmaka*). The sons of Bharata, in the *śilpakas* performed by them, presented the life and deeds of the sages residing in the vicinity of Himalayas by the way of *viḍambana* (caricature) and *vyaṅgyakaraṇa* (satire). The sages being laughed at in this way, got infuriated and cursed the actors to be expelled from the divine region of the Himalayas and to become *śūdras*.