The Sanskrit drama : $b in its origin, development, theory and practiceKeith, Arthur Berriedale
History
The Sanskrit drama : $b in its origin, development, theory and practice
Keith, Arthur Berriedale
Sanskrit drama -- History and criticism
The most original and interesting part of dramatic theory is the
gradual definition of the nature of the sentiment which it is the aim
of the performance to evoke in the mind of the audience. [662] The
statement of the Nāṭyaçāstra is simple. Sentiment is produced from the
union of the determinants (vibhāva), the consequents (anubhāva), and
the transitory feelings (vyabhicārin). The determinants fall in the
later classification into two divisions, the fundamental determinants
(ālambana) and the excitant determinants (uddīpana); fundamental
determinants comprise such things as the heroine or the hero, for
without them there can be no creation of sentiment in the audience;
excitant determinants are such conditions of place and time and
circumstance as serve to foster sentiment when it has arisen, for
instance the moon, the cry of the cuckoo, the soft breeze from Malaya,
all things which foster the erotic sentiment. The consequents are the
external manifestations of feeling, by which the actors exhibit to the
audience the minds and hearts of the persons of the drama, such as
sidelong glances, a smile, a movement of the arm, and—though this is
but slightly indicated in later texts—his words. [663] A special class
is later made of those consequents, which are the involuntary product
of sympathetic realization of the feeling of the person portrayed, and
hence are called Sāttvika, as arising from a heart which is ready to
appreciate the sorrows or joys of another (sattva); these are
paralysis, fainting, horripilation, perspiration, change of colour,
trembling, weeping, and change of voice. The transitory or evanescent
feelings are given as thirty-three; they are discouragement, weakness,
apprehension, weariness, contentment, stupor, joy, depression, cruelty,
anxiety, fright, envy, indignation, arrogance, recollection, death,
intoxication, dreaming, sleeping, awakening, shame, epilepsy,
distraction, assurance, indolence, agitation, deliberation,
dissimulation, sickness, insanity, despair, impatience, and
inconstancy. But these factors are not sufficient to account for
sentiment, nor does the Nāṭyaçāstra intend this. It recognizes that an
essential element in the production of sentiment is the dominant
emotion (sthāyibhāva) which persists throughout the drama amid the
variations of the transitory feelings; it stands to the other factors
in the position of the king to his subjects or a master to his pupils,
as the Çāstra says; it is, says the Daçarūpa, the source of delight,
and brings into harmony with itself the transitory states of feeling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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