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Govardhan Panchal
Nirgrantha
about the Rūpakas or the Uparūpakas. These became the entertainment for the court and the élite and vanished with feudalism. Perhaps the third generation of dramatic forms now prevalent all over India absorbed.
The Rūpaka-Mārgi Sanskrit tradition also vanished from many parts of the country except in Kerala where it still survives in the form of a regional variation and has acquired a strong local colour. Only decades ago, many classical Sanskrit plays were staged in full, each lasting for weeks. But now only single acts from a few plays are staged which take seven or 15 days depending on the act and the actor's capacity and knowledge.
It must be noted that more than 35 plays were written and many of these were staged during the Caulukyan times. The Sanskrit plays must have been popular as indicated by the Prabandhacintamani mentioning the incident of Siddharāja Jayasimha watching the play with a gram-seller. The plays were staged during the yātrā-mahotsavas, the gods, birthday celebrations, vasantotsava, and other occasions. These plays were sponsored by the kings as well as rich tradesmen who were either Jaina or Brahaminist, both of whom used the plays for their religious propaganda. And people flocked to see them.
The Nātyadarpaņa clearly mentions the Trysra and the Caturasra theatres in which the plays were staged in the temple complexes. But the plays also seem to have been staged in the rangamandapa-s of the temples. Geya-Rūpakas also might have been staged in these theatres as they also had been patronized by the courts and were codified and become sophisticated and had moved away from the common people.
I would like specifically to point out that Hemacandra, while speaking of the GeyaRūpakas, ended the sentence with the word "hiff" (et cetera). This clearly shows that there were other Geya-Rūpakas also besides those he mentioned. The Bhavai, as we have seen, was a full-fledged dramatic form by the 14th century as the words “9791545Rİ "etc. clearly point out. This leads to the belief that the Bhavai also may have been one of the Geya-Rūpakas in its early stage in Caulukya times. And it is from this Bhavāi GeyaRūpakas that Asāita Thākara, by adding pathya (prose) dialogues reformed it to suit the environment of his time. And he enriched it by writing 350 plays as the tradition goes.
Among the third generation forms that are seen all over India which around the 15th century and after, Asaita Thākara seems to be the first among these to reform Bhavai in the 14th century.
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