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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
satisfy Him (not themselves] (Dimock 1966:161-62).
The enactment of this "identification with the female" became central to the performance of the bhakti genre of dance-theatre. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Siddhendra Yogi (Natya Mela/Kuchipudi), Sankaradeva (Ankia Nat, Sattriya) and his disciple Madhavadeva as well as other founders of the regional dance-theatre forms expounded female impersonation as one of the prominent means of transformation in preparing the aspirant to the reception of the divine.
With the spread of Vaishnavism throughout India and the popularity of the religious concept of madhura bhakti, the notion of female impersonation became aestheticized through descriptive imagination of both literary and religious poets, artists, theologians, saints and performers alike. With the exception of Kathak dance, where the “female” and the “feminine" are developed entirely through the art of abhinaya or "acting,” and not through the extraneous trappings of gender, female impersonation in most of the other forms discussed above use both external as well as the abhinaya aspects of the theatrical aesthetic. Fully aware that the actor playing the female role is actually a male, the audiences reveled in his presentation of a "fantasized” notion of the "female," with exaggerated qualities that no real woman could portray. Undoubtedly, the portrayal of “femininity" was defined through the male perspective, not with women as they really are but as men would imagine them to be. Thus, the impersonator's presentation of the “feminine," became an aesthetic basis for "female" representation enjoyed by the audiences such that the twentieth century female actresses and dancers could neither emulate nor compete with. The audience assumption that male actors/ artists are better qualified in artistically portraying the feminine than do real female actresses is supported with the belief that real women tend to exploit their natural sexuality and while appearing too natural, they compromise on the aesthetic value of female character portrayal. In a discussion on the aesthetics of acting, Balwant Gargi quotes the director Surya Dutta, who has spent several decades producing Jatra, "When a man acts as a woman it is art!" (1966:23)
Ideals of the femininity in the traditional brahmanic context would vary from region to region, however, its depiction in the epics, legends and other literature would entail qualities of gentleness, docility, sympathy, tenderness, and utmost obedience beyond doubt. An ideal woman was to be a model of selflessness, willing to sacrifice her personal wishes and rights in the interest and well being of her larger family, her husband and children. Pativrata means that as the custodian of her family honour, chastity and loyalty to her husband were of utmost importance. Ideal wives were to be loyal to their husbands while not expecting reciprocity at any level. Her husband would be the one and the only man she would submit to in her life time never to think of another even in her dreams. Should the honour of her family or the valor of her husband happen to be at stake, she would not even blink before sacrificing her life. The female impersonator in these traditional dance-theatre forms neither imitated the
Huil : y. 24, vis 3-8, zsel. 2006 – Hizí, 2006
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