CHAPTER NINE

THE GESTURES OF HANDS

Bharata speaks

1-3. So much about the minor limbs such as head, eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips and cheecks, and their description that I was to tell you. I shall now define you for the gestures of hands, breast, sides, belly, waist, thighs and feet and [explain] their proper use¹. In this connexion I shall [first of all] explain the gestures of hands and the like, that are used in the production of a play. You are to listen how they are to be applied [in acting].

Sixtyseven gestures of the hand

4-7. Gestures of single hands (asaṁyuta-hasta)¹ are twenty-four in number : Patāka, Tripatāka, Kartarīmukha, Ardhacandra, Arāla, Śukatuṇḍa, Muṣṭi, Śikhara, Kapittha, Kaṭakāmukha², Sūcyāsya (Sūcīmukha), Padmakośa, Sarpasiraḥ, Mṛgaśīrṣa, Kāṅgula, Alapadma (Alapallava), Catura, Bhramara, Haṁsāsya, Haṁsapakṣa, Saṁdaṁśa, Mukula, Ūrṇanābha and Tāmracūḍa.

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1-3 (B.1, 3, 2, G.1-3). ¹ This use relates to the two-fold Practice (realistic and coventional) on the stage (See NŚ. XIV. 62ff). The realistic Practice (lokadharmī) in this connexion is of two kinds, viz. (1) that reflecting one's emotion, as in arrogant reference to one's own-self, this (patāka) hand is to be raised on a level with the forehead (IX. 19), (2) that representing the external form of an object, as the use of the Padmakośa hand to represent lotus and similar flowers. The conventional Practice (nāṭyadharmī) is likewise of two kinds, viz. (1) that creating an ornamental effect, as the use of the four karaṇas of the hand (See NŚ. IX. 205-211 below), (2) that partially suggesting a popular behaviour, as the use of the tripatāka hand to represent words spoken aside (janāntika). See Ag.

4-7 (B.G. same). ¹ These hands gestures are ordinarily used singly ; but at times two hands showing one of these gestures are used simultaneously. But still these are called single (asaṁyuta) hands. For, combined (saṁyuta) hands are so called because they are always to be shown by both the hands ; see Ag.

² Some mss. read this name as khaṭakāmukha. Our reading is