Chandralekha

SR No.: 001860
Original Sutra Author: Rudradas
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1945
Total Pages: 174
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Story
File Size: 13 MB

Page 29

20
CAMDALEHA
of intellectual aristocrats; but that need not preclude us from recognising its popular elements which are closely connected with the lives of common people. There are, then, other scholars who hold different theories of the secular origin for the drama, say, from a popular mime which was introduced into the religious ritual and which, later on, with the epic, forms the fore-runner of the early Indian drama. The Indian life was so much permeated with religious spirit that it is difficult to demarcate exclusively the religious from the secular. The presence of non-Sanskritic technical terms, the use of Prakrits, simplicity of the stage, the combination of music and dance, the mixture of prose and lyrics, introduction of a character like Vidūṣaka, etc. are adduced as proofs for the popular origin. Bits of evidence are studiously sought in the drama to trace back its source to puppet-play and shadow-play. Some scholars have tried to trace the origin of Indian drama to the influence of the Greeks; but sober scholars feel convinced that its development can be satisfactorily explained by indigenous antecedents.
b) RUPAKAS AND UPARŪPAKAS
A critical study of the basic terms and of the types of dramas, unfolds altogether a complicated picture of the evolution of early Indian drama. Though etymologically they are quite akin, it appears that nṛtta stands for mere dance, nṛtya means dance with gesture or mimetic art, and natya signifies dance, gesture and dialogue (in prose and verse). It is the natya that incorporated the essentials of a drama proper. The dramatic entertainments based on natya have been designated by a general term Rupaka which originally connoted 'representation,' and those based on nṛtya by Upa-rupaka.1
When they are mentioned as Rupaka, there is much unanimity among theorists about the number ten and about the types, namely, Nāṭaka, Prakaraṇa, Bhāṇa, Vyayoga, Samavakara, Dima, Thamṛga, Aňka, Vithi and Prahasana." Hemacandra classifies pathya-kāvya into twelve types which are the same as ten Rūpakas with the addition of Naṭikā and Saṭṭaka; and Ramacandra recognises twelve, i. e., ten Rūpakas plus Națika and Prakaraņi, as the famous
1 See Mankad's book noted above, p. 23.
2 For more details see Mankad's book noted above, chaps. II-VI.
3 For the necessary extracts see the Appendix.