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911
Classification of Poetry
'Nartanaka' is read in Bhoja only but it has a wider scope and in parts it is touched by various authorities. Bhoja (pp. 468, Śr. Pra. ibid) defines it as -
“yasya padárthábhinayam lalitalayam sadasi nartaki kurute, tan nartanakam, śamyā
lāsya-cchalita-dvipadyādiDr. Raghavan (pp. 555, ibid) observes that this is dance like 'nautch'. A danseuse sings and renders through gesture the contents of the songs. This nartanaka has varieties in śamyā, lāsya, chalika, and dvipadī. In the sabdālankāra section Bhoja mentions tāņdava, lāsya, chalika, sampā, hallisaka, and rāsa, the six preksya types (S.K.A. pp. 309, ibid). Läsya will be examined by us separately later. Nartanaka is lāsya itself. Bhoja seems to suggest that the lāsya with the ten angas as described by Bharata can be presented by a single dansense i.e. nartakī, and will then be termed 'nartanaka'.
Mālavikāgnimitra. Act. I. mentions chalika' which princess Mālavikā was learning from Ganadāsa, the dance teacher. In act I. Panditā Kausiki observes : "deva ! śarmisthāyāh krtim catuspadódbhavam chalitam dusprayogam udāharanti." This has a reference to a composition by some lady called śarmisthā. This dance composition consists of four parts (catuspadam). It is difficult to perform - dusprayogam'. One of the four parts is chalita which Mālavikā is to perform. It looks like a love-piece in prakrtą. Kātayavema, a commentator, quotes a definition of chalika' which seems to be inspired by Kalidasa's Malavikāgnimitra. According to this definition, chalita is the dance of a damsel, who reveals hero through the pretext of doing 'acting or abhinaya, for an old composition. This definition seems to be based on the word 'chala' i.e. deceit. It may be noted that 'chalika' and 'chalita' are synonyms. The definition reads as - tatha coktam -
"tad eva chalikam nāma sākṣād yad abhiniyate, vyapadiśya purā-vȚttam
svábhiprāya-prakāśanam.” Another definition of unknown source is also quoted by Dr. Raghavan (pp. 556,
cording to that, 'chalita' is a sort of dance, depicting love, anger, and heroism, which hardly adds anything fresh to what we know. It runs as -
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