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Vol. 1-1995
A Glimpse into the....
areas on the stage, as it was smaller in size. Also, it was not necessary to have the mattavārņi-s because only one or two actors, as in Bhāna or Vithi rūpaka, must have participated. But there were mattavārani-s on the Caturasra stage as it was large enough and on which Prahasana and Prakarana types of Rüpaka with larger cast and showing simultaneous scenes, it would be necessary.
The nepathya might have been partitioned off to create rooms for the male and female performers. Their entries to the nepathya might have been as shown in the diagrams. The stage was backed by a wall separating it from the nepathya . In this wall, there must have been two doors for facilitating the entries and exits of the characters.
In Tryasra, a single door in the wall backing the stage was enough due to smaller cast. The musicians on the Caturasra stage might have sat on the other side of the mattavāraṇi-s or on the off-stage on the right side as they do even now. The three areas of the stage, rangapītha and the two mattavārani-s, each measured 16 hastas square according to Bharata's specifications as applied to the middle-sized Caturasra theatre. Bharata has described the Vikrsta-madhya theatre at length as it was neither too small not too large for staging the Nātaka and the Prakarana type of Rūpakas having large casts, but he has only briefly described the small-sized (kaniyas) Tryasra and Caturasra, each measuring 32 hastas on all sides. But later writers of the medieval times mention Caturasra type of theatre of madhya (middling) size measuring 64 hastas square. This was so because there was greater emphasis on dance and music during this time and group-dances as in the Hallisaka would require a larger stage and also more ample space for a large orchestra.
Mattavārani-s on either side of the middle-sized (Caturasra-madhya) stage were necessary because the plays abounded in simultaneous scenes played in different locales --- kaksyā-s --- as Bharata called them.
This theatre differs from the Küttampalam of Kerala, where also, even now, the Sanskrit plays are staged. Küttampalam is a rectangular building having a square stage at one end with a roof of its own. (See Illustration 3.)
In the Küttampalam Sanskrit drama tradition, the emphasis is on the Angika abhinaya in Kaiśiki vịtti with highly stylised recitational speech. It is Nātyadharmi in style. The plays staged were classical plays based on the Rāmāyana or the Mahābhārata. with divine or semi-divine characters and this stage was suitable for it. The Caulukya tradition of Gurjaradeśa seems to lay emphasis on Bhāratī vịtti in which the speech predominated. In other words, these were Pāthya-rupakas in Lokadharmī style. The plays staged were Prakaranas, also the Nātakas. They depicted contemporary kings with elements of adbhuta in them.
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