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The Art of the Performer as
Described in Ancient Indian Theatrical Treatise Natya
Sastra
Mirka Pavlovic'
(Belgrade)
Documentation et Art de
l'Acteur
Records and Images of the Art of the Performer
18ème Congrès
International, Stockholm 3-7 septembre 1990
18th International Congress, Stockholm 3-7 September 1990
Editor: Barbro Stribolt (Drottningholms Teatermuseum).
Stockholm : 1992, p. 39-42
There are three good
reasons for returning, once again on this occasion, to
the Natya Sastra, the ancient Indian treatise on
histronics:
First, because the theme of this meeting - Records and
Images of the Art of the Performer - corresponds
exactly to what Natya Sastra in its essence is - a
manual for Actors.
Second, many images of the art of the performer described
in the Natya Sastra can be found on ancient Indian
monuments and as visual documents surpass many of those
in existence about much more recent, for example 18th
century European theatrical practice.
Third, though ancient Indian drama is long extinguished,
elements of that tradition are still alive in some Indian
traditional forms, and therefore can be treated as living
documents on the subject.
Before focusing on the aspects of the art of the
performer described in the Natya Sastra, some
facts about the treatise need to be recalled. The
treatise was most probably compiled by one or more
authors (usually ascribed however to Bharata-Muni, the
Sage Bharata only), about 200 AD, but was based on the
experience of several centuries. It has come down to
modern times in two recensions, a shorter and a longer,
both of which existed already in the 10th century.
Since its rediscovery in the 1860ties, more than 40
manuscripts in more or less readable condition, complete
or abridged have been found. The discovery at the
beginning of the 20th century of commentaries on the
treatise by Abhinavagupta (from the 10th or the beginning
of the 11th century) gave a new impetus to scholars in
different fields to attempt translation of the chapters
of the work pertinent to their interests and to studies
of the work from many points of view. The translation and
the commentaries used for the present paper are those of
the Bengali scholar Monomohan Ghosh, published in 1950 in
Calcutta by the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. The last
nine chapters (six on music) were published in 1961.
In the literature, the Natya Sastra is usually
referred to as "a manual for actors". However,
it would seem more appropriate to call it "a manual
for performers", because according to the ancient
Indian conception of drama (aspects of which are still
valid in various traditional forms!), the actor had to be
a very versatile artist. Namely, owing to the
peculiarities of their construction and production,
ancient Indian drama were in fact spectacles in which, in
addition to the pure drama, dance and music had a greater
or lesser part.
Depending on the role of each of these, as well as of
some other elements, there were according to Natya
Sastra ten kinds of plays. In Western terminology,
these could cover the range from pure drama to kinds of
singspiel, opera, ballet and the like. The prevalence of
certain elements was important only to help classify the
spectacle one way or the other. In short, ancient Indian
drama strictly speaking was not drama in the modern sense
and therefore required of the performer diverse skills.
This was especially so due to the total absence of
painted scenery and props. The performer had to invest
all his talents in order to communicate the
"drama", create the ambience and call forth
right feelings, reactions and right mood in the
spectator.
The first step in trying to understand the technique in
staging ancient Indian dramas is to become acquainted
with the four main styles in dramatic production (Ch.
XXII). They were the verbal, the grand, the
energetic and the graceful. In practice,
the styles were not mutually exclusive in their
application. Though this division is not very precise, it
is very helpful in making clear the dominant mood and
character of a play.
A dramatic performance in which speech had the
predominant role and in which only male characters took
part was defined as being in the verbal style.
Characteristics were forceful speech and acting. It was a
style mainly used "in the evocation of the pathetic
and the marvellous sentiments".
A performance in the grand style depended for its
effects on speech and gestures. Characteristic was vigor,
and it was considered suitable for representations of
"the marvellous and the furious sentiments".
The energetic style was used to represent
boldness. It included various types of combat, the
striking of weapons, deeds of magic, many kinds of
speeches, quick entrances and exits. The energetic
style was appropriate to "the odious and the furious
sentiments".
Finally, there was the graceful style, practiced
mostly by women who wore beautiful costumes (Ch.XXXIII).
It included many dances and much singing and corresponded
best to "erotic and the comic sentiments". This
was the style most appropriate for themes about love and
enjoyment.
The distinctive feature of ancient Indian dramatic
performances (as is the case with Indian music, dance and
other arts) is the role of feelings, emotions and
temperament. The Natya Sastra dwells in great
length on these aspects of theatrical performances,
returning over and over to them and giving the most
minute descriptions of classifications of all shades of
mental and emotional states and the reactions of
sentiments they provoke. Eight dominant sentiments are
listed: love, mirth, sorrow, anger, energy, terror,
disgust and astonishment and 33 transistory sentiments:
discouragement, weakness, apprehension, envy,
intoxication, weariness, etc. According to the Natya
Sastra, the dominant sentiments evoke dominant states
of temperament (Ch. Vl). Their detailed description
provides precious guidelines for the actor how to
represent them on the stage.
According to the Natya Sastra, temperament is one
of the essential instruments of theatrical representation
- "it is something invisible, but gives support to
the states and the sentiments". So, for instance,
the various aspects of temperament in a young woman are
given as: feelings, emotions and passion, explaining that
"feeling arises from temperament, while emotion from
feeling, and passion from emotion", and physical
manifestations of each are described. These, it is noted,
are most often evoked in relation to a person of the
opposite sex (Ch. XXIV).
Besides temperament, a basic representation is using also
words and gestures: "experts in acting", the Natya
Sastra tells us: "are to represent [a character]
by graceful movements of hands and delicate efforts of
limbs, which are to delineate the sentiments and the
states".
There were four means in representing a drama: the
physical, the vocal, costumes and make-up. But, most
important, as already noted, was temperament which
"has to exploit the entire physiological resources
of a man".
The physical representation consisted of various gestures
and postures of which the Natya Sastra gives
elaborate descriptions, relating them to different
situations and to various mental and emotional states.
Quick movements for instance, are said to express anger,
understanding, assertiveness, threats, sickness,
intolerance, and slow movements - sadness, unwillingness,
astonishment, confidence.
In acting, the eyes had the especially important task of
reflecting states and sentiments, in giving expression of
the corresponding feelings and emotions. No less
important were the eyebrows, the nose, the cheeks, the
chin, the neck, the entire face, the head. It is stated:
the head alternately turned from side to side
demonstrates surprise, joy, intolerance, flirting,
cogitation; looking upward, self esteem or pride; the
neck slightly bent to one side, sickness, a swoon,
intoxication, drowsiness, possession by evil spirits; the
shoulders raised with the neck bent to one side, when
used by women, pride, light-heartedness, affected
indifference, a hysterical mood, silent expression of
affection, the pretense of anger, jealous anger,
paralysis.
The movements, gestures and postures of the hands had an
exceptional role because they communicated all sorts of
meanings: acceptance, killing, throwing, urging,
protecting, beating, etc. There were three categories of
hand movements: those of a single hand, those of both
hands and, so called, dance hands (Ch. IV, IX). The last
had to express very precise meanings. The gestures and
postures of palms, fingers and arms (the mudras)
are, as part of a special art form, not described in
detail in the Natya Sastra. Also not described are
dance postures, although exhaustive descriptions of
movements of the lower body, particularly of different
gaits are given (Ch. X, XI, XIII).
The ways of representing sensual perceptions (Ch. XXIV)
and the communication of meanings by symbols (Ch. XXVI)
were also not forgotten in the treatise. A number of
passages describe how the actor "should represent
sound, touch, form, taste and smell by the sense-organs
concerned" and how he should delineate by gestures
their objects. The main instruction to the actor is to
concentrate, because "when an object of a
sense-organ is contemplated in the mind it gets
represented" correctly, since the Natya Sastra
adds, "a person out of his mind can not know the
object of senses which come through five sources".
The second resource of theatrical performance was vocal
representatlon and consisted of the use of speech. It
involved the use of the proper voice registers, right
intonation, correct pitch of vowels, appropriate tempo in
speaking the text, the corresponding rhythm and cadences,
observance of rules of declamation and prosody. The Natya
Sastra is even precise about the most suitable notes
to express different sentiments and states. The
importance given in ancient Indian drama to speech and
vocal representation can best be appreciated from the
number of chapters (XV-XIX) devoted to language, modes of
addresses and intonation, types of recitation, prosody,
etc., as is stated at the beginning of Ch. XV, words
"are known as the body of the dramatic art;...
gestures, costumes and make up temperamental acting
clarify the meaning of words".
The third resource of the theatrical representation were
costumes and make-up (Ch.XXIII). Meticulous rules existed
for their use. They were considered supportive as
elements for creating the appropriate mood, evoking the
necessary sentiments and helping spectators to call up in
their imagination the right and corresponding ambiance.
As already mentioned, temperament was looked upon as the
most important instrument of representation. It required
the mobilization of the entire psychological resources of
the actor: "the actors must for the time being feel
the states that they represent, and only then will the
sentiments related to them follow". It is also
underlined that the sentiments "arise from the
states when they are imbued with the quality of
universality...there are no sentiments prior to the
states; and no states without sentiments, and during the
histronic representation they are produced from their
mutual relation" (Ch. Vl, Vll, XXIV).
From the four initial dominant sentiments, erotic,
furious, heroic and odious, derive another four: the
comic from the erotic, the pathetic from the furious, the
marvelous from the heroic and the terrible from the
odious. The psychological roots of each sentiment, the
eight dominant and the 33 transitory, and the manner in
which they should be represented depend greatly on a wide
range of factors: the rank of the character, his
personality, sex and age, the circumstances, conditions
and situations presented, the season, time of day, kind
of a play, etc. To represent, for example, the death of a
person, the cause of death must be born in mind, in order
to represent the death correctly. However it is also
noted that there are occasions when the rank of the
character does not affect his reactions and behaviour.
For instance "the happy and unhappy conditions which
occur in connection with love... assumed by kings, are
also followed by common people."
It is necessary to note that the detailed description of
the most delicate psychological and emotional states and
reactions in the Natya Sastra are mostly at the
same time the instructions or even rules of the way in
which they should be rendered on the stage. But a sharp
distinction is made between what are called "regular
representations" and "irregular
representations", i.e. between actors, and
representations by those who have not received training
from any master and "resort to irregular ways which
depend merely from practice" (Ch. XXIV).
No less noteworthy with regard to the description of
ancient Indian drama in the Natya Sastra is that
while stating that it "avoided stark realism, giving
utmost scope to imagination", when it came to the
art of histronics, a perfect reproduction of the reality
was expected. And though the treatise sets out often
rules - Satras, time and again it is also stated that all
"rules regarding feelings and activities of the
world...cannot be formulated exhaustively by the
sastras" and whatever is "omitted, should be
gathered from the usage of the people and the life
itself" (Ch. XXVI).
To wind up this paper it would seem quite useful to quote
some passages from this invaluable document dealing with
many essential aspects of the art of the performer.
According to Natya Sastra, the qualities of an
actor should be:
Intelligence, strength, physical beauty, knowledge of
time (Tala) and tempo (Laya), appreciation of Sastras and
the sentiments, /people/age, curiosity... the knowledge
of arts....supression of stage fright and enthusiasm...
(Ch. XXVI).
When the roles are distributed "after considering...
their gait, speech and movement of limbs as well as their
present strength and nature, the experts", only
then, "to employ actors to represent different
roles..." (Ch. XXXV), and in looking for the best
method of proper impersonation of characters, the actor
should:
Just as a man renounces his own nature together with his
body and assumes another's nature by entering into his
body, so the wise actor thinking within himself that
"I am he" should represent the states of
another person by speech, gait, gesture and other
movements, using one "of three classes of
impersonation of human characters: the natural, the
unnatural and the imitative..." (Ch. XXXV).
18th Congress
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