Essay name: Hastalaksanadipika a critical edition and study
Author:
E. K. Sudha
Affiliation: Government Sanskrit College (Tripunithura) / Department of Sanskrit
This is an English study on the Hastalaksanadipika鈥攁 manual depicting the Mudras (gestures) of the Kerala theatre. It is a very popular text supposedly dating to the 10th century A.D. This study also touches the subject of Krsnanattam, Kathakali and Kutiyattam鈥攕ome of India's oldest theatrical traditions in Kerala.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
1 (of 32)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
1
INTRODUCTION
India is one among the greatest of repositories of
performing arts, particularly those of classical, folk, devotional and
modern traditions. The sheer enormity and diversity of its cultural
expressions in music, dance, drama and theatre are the envy of many
nations around the world. When we hear the word 'Indian theatre'
Sanskrit drama will flash in our mind. The study about the origin
and development of Sanskrit drama has been a complex one
engaging the endeavour of many scholars.
The first well arranged work that one could find on
Sanskrit dramaturgy is the Natya艣膩stra of Bharata. In the field of
Sanskrit dramaturgy the place of Bharata's Natya艣膩stra is unique
by its antiquity as being the pioneer work in the field. And in it the
dramaturgy has been discussed so elaborately, touching all aspects
and not leaving a single one that it presupposes the existence of
some theatrical works already written, in whatever form they may
have been. As theory presupposes practice, it can be very well
inferred that there could have been works on dramatics written in
many forms on which Bharata based his magnificient work - The
狈腻峁瓂补艣腻蝉迟谤补.
