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Classification of Poetry
śisyāṇām bharatasya yāni ca matany adhyāpya tāny añjanasunor apy atha nātyavedam akhilam samyag adhyāpayat. śāradātanayo devyās tanyadhitya ca sannidhau, ādāya sāram etebhyo hitártham natyavedinām. bhāva-prakāśanam nāma
prabandham akarot tadā.
This account clearly says that Sarasvati suggested the name of an expert teacher Divākara, who was appointed to teach Śāradātanaya and he taught the whole of natyaveda with details concerning the views of various authorities. Nowhere it is mentioned that Divakara played these thirty types of rūpakas. Dr. Raghavan, it seems has not cared to read Sa.'s words carefully.
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Next point is that Dr. Raghavan feels that in dealing with the three types viz. nātikā, toṭaka, and saṭṭaka, Śā. contradicts himself by calling them once 'rasa"śraya' and then taking them as bhāvā"śraya nṛtya-types. Here also Dr. Raghavan's approach is less charitable. It may be noted that on an earlier occasion we had discussed following A.bh. whether these art-forms can be taken as rūpakas or not. A.bh. is less conservative about this. It is suggested that as an element of ‘abhinaya' is involved in all these types, they can be called 'natya'. But, since there is an added dose of dance and music in the so called uparūpakas, they may be taken as a different variety of art-forms, perhaps 'nṛtya' varieties, as the element of ‘abhinaya' is
very thin. We have seen how H. has suggested, and even Bhoja following Dhanika said the same thing by calling them padárthábhinaya types, that there is absence of rūpaṇa in these and hence they are lesser drama. The individual self of the dancer is not concealed by the character. So, they may not be rūpakas. But with all these, in some varieties of these upa-rupakas acting and 'rūpaṇa' are predominant. It is because of this that even Bharata mentions and discusses nāțikā along with the ten major types. Saṭṭaka and toṭaka also come very close. So, if Śāradātanaya even while calling them uparūpakas, picks them out and treates them separately, heavens have not fallen!
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