On Sanskrit dramaturgy and histrionics, with special reference to Bharata Muni's Nāṭyaśastra.

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Indian Theatre expands the boundaries of what is usually regarded as theatre in order to explore the multiple dimensions of theatrical performance in India. From rural festivals to contemporary urban theatre, from dramatic rituals and devotional performances to dance-dramas and classical Sanskrit plays, this volume is a vivid introduction to the colourful and often surprising world of Indian performance. Besides mapping the vast range of performance traditions, the volume provides in-depth treatment of representative genres, including well-known forms such as Kathakali and ram lila and little-knowa performances such as tamasha. Each of these chapters explains the historical background of the theatre form under consideration and interprets its dramatic literature, probes its ritual or religious significance, and, where relevant, explores its social and political implications. Moreover, each chapter, except for those on the origins of Indian theatre, concludes with performance notes describing the actual experience of seeing a live performance in its original context. Based on extensive fieldwork, Indian Theatre is the first comprehensive account of the subject to be written by Western specialists and addressed to the needs of readers in the West. It will be a valuable resource for all students of Indian culture and a standard work in the history of theatre and performance for years to come.

Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India moves through three levels of understanding: (1) What the components of the traditional Natya Production are as described in Natyasastra and other ancient Indian dramaturgical works; how they are interrelated and how they are employed in the staging of Rasa-oriented sanskrit plays?Probing deep into the immense reaches of time to India`s archaic past the author pieces together a fascinatingly intricate design of play production down to the units and subunits of expression and executive.

What is Dance? What is Theatre? What is the boundary between enacting a character and narrating a story? When does movement become tinted with meaning? And when does beauty shine alone as if with no object? These universal aesthetic questions find a theoretically vibrant and historically informed set of replies in the oeuvre of the eleventh-century Kashmirian author Abhinavagupta. The present book offers the first critical edition, translation, and study of a crucial and lesser known passage of his commentary on the Nāṭyaśāstra, the seminal work of Sanskrit dramaturgy. The nature of dramatic acting and the mimetic power of dance, emotions, and beauty all play a role in Abhinavagupta’s thorough investigation of performance aesthetics, now presented to the modern reader.

For Nearly A Century, Nautanki Reigned As North India'S Most Popular Form Of Entertainment, And Gulab Bai Shone As Its Brightest Star. Fusing Dance And Dialogue, Music And Romance, Humour And Melodrama, This Travelling Folk Theatre Was A Precursor To Bollywood. In Cities And Villages, People Watched All Night, Drawn Into A World Of Fantasy And Make-Believe. Gulab, A 12-Year-Old Girl From The Bedia Caste, Joined Nautanki In 1931. Reputed To Be The First Female Actor In Nautanki, She Rose To Dizzy Heights As The Heroine Of Countless Dramas And Later Started The Great Gulab Theatre Company. Gulab Bai Was Awarded The Padmashree, A Mark Of National Honour&Mdash;Yet She Died Sad And Bewildered, For The Form To Which She Had Devoted Her Life Was Languishing. To Tell Gulab Bai'S Story&Mdash;And Reconstruct The Social History Of A Genre&Mdash;The Author Travelled To Gulab'S Village And Kanpur'S Rail Bazaar, Met Family Members And Co-Artistes, Gathered Oral Narratives, Traced Drama Scripts And Song Recordings. The Tale That Emerges Is A Wonderfully Intimate Portrayal Of A Dying Art And Its Uncrowned Queen.