The Sanskrit Theatre and Stagecraft

This is the most comprehensive study done in recent years on the stagecraft on the ancient Indian theatre. Admirably written with a living theatre in mind, the work in its fourteen chapters unfolds the mysteries of Sanskrit theater production with particular emphasis on the playhouse, the role of the curtain, the dramatic preliminaries, the employment of music, character-types, historic art, theatrical techniques and extraneous representation, all of which have received but scant attention of scholars of Sanskrit drama but so vitally important to a proper understanding of the way in which Sanskrit plays took physical shape on the stage. Chapter 13 is devoted to a detailed discussion on the different theatrical genres with a clear distinction drawn between rupaka and uparupaka forms. The author dispels the fallacy that the Sanskrit theatre catered to the nobility and the literati alone and remained from the very beginning monopoly of the royal court. The reader will soon realize that Sanskrit plays, despite royal patronage, served as a form of popular entertainment throughout its long history from about the dawn of the Christian era at least up to the close of the first millennium. Its emphasis on the theatrical aspects of Sanskrit drama makes this book much different from what has hitherto been written and published about this most intriguing theatre.