TALES FROM THE HINDU DRAMATISTS - Awaken Video

(_Nandi_) invoking the national deity in favour of the audience.
Then generally follows a dialogue between the stage-manager and one or
two of the actors, which refers to the play and its author, mentions
past events and present circumstances elucidating the plot, and
invariably ends by adroitly introducing one of the dramatic personages,
and the real performance begins.
The play thus opened, is carried forward in scenes and acts; each scene
being marked by the entrance of one character and the exit of another.
The stage is never left vacant till the end of an act, nor does any
change of locality take place till then. The commencement of a new act
is often marked, by an introductory monologue or dialogue spoken by one
or more of the _dramatis personae_, and is called _Viskambhaka_ or
_Praveshaka_, which alludes to events supposed to have occurred in the
interval, and the audience are prepared for national plenty and
prosperity, addressed by one of the principal personages of the drama,
to the favourite deity. The development of the plot is brought about
through five divisions called the five _sandhis_. A _sandhi_ is a
combination of incidents whereby the object is attained.
THE MANNER OF PERFORMANCE.
There were no special theatres in the Hindu Middle Ages, and plays seem
to have been performed in the concert-room (_Sangita-Cala_) of royal
palaces. A curtain, divided in the middle, was a necessary part of the
stage arrangement; it did not, however, separate the audience from the
stage, as in the Roman theatre, but formed the back-ground of the stage.
Behind the curtain was the tiring-room (_nepathya_), whence the actors
came on the stage. When they were intended to enter hurriedly, they
were directed to do so "with a toss of the curtain." The stage scenery
and decorations were of a very simple order, much being left to the
imagination of the spectator, as in the Shakespearian drama. Weapons,
seats, thrones, and chariots appeared on the stage; but it is highly
improbable that the latter were drawn by the living animals supposed to
be attached to them. There may have been some kind of aerial contrivance
to represent celestial chariots.
KALIDASA.
Kalidasa is the author of Sakuntala, Vikramorvasi and Malavikagnimitra.
He has been designated the Indian Shakespeare. He is reputed to have
been one of the nine ornaments (or "gems") of the Court of Vikramaditya,
king of Ujayin, whose Era, called _Samvat_, begins in 56 B.C. Stories
extant about him describe him to be the veriest fool. He rose to be a
great poet through the favour of the Goddess of Learning. Those stories
embody the public opinion that except through Divine Grace or the
Inspiration of the Muse a man cannot rise to such eminence by learning
and culture alone. His native place is Kashmir or its neighbourhood. He
74