नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

-II. 41 ] DESCRIPTION OF THE PLAYHOUSE 23

The ceremony of laying the foundation

35-37. Having divided the plot of land according to rules laid down before, he should lay in it the foundation of the playhouse. And during this ceremony [of laying the foundation] all the musical instruments such as, conchshell, Dundubhi¹, Mṛdaṅga², and Paṇava³ should be sounded.

37-38. And from the places for the ceremony, undesirable persons such as heretics, including Śramaṇas¹, men in dark red (kāṣāya)² robes as well as men with physical defects, should be turned out.

38-39. At night, offerings should be made in all the ten directions [to various gods guarding them] and these offerings should consist of sweet scent, flowers, fruits and etables of various other kinds.

39-41. The food-stuff offered in the four [cardinal] directions east, west, south and north, should respectively be of white, blue, yellow and red colour. Offerings preceded by [the muttering .

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35-37 (B.41b-43a, G.38-49). ¹ dundubhi—a kind of drum.
² mṛdaṅga—a kind of earthen drum.
³ paṇava—a small drum or tabor.

37-38 (B.43b-44a, G.40). ¹ pāṣaṇḍa.—This word has a very curious history. Derived originaly from pārṣada (meaning 'assembly' or 'community') its Pkt from was *passada or *passaḍa or pāsaḍa. The form pāsaḍa with spontaneous nasalization of the second vowel gave rise to Aśokan pasaṃḍa (Seventh Pillar Edict, Delhi-Topra), which is the basis of Skt. pāṣaṇḍa in the sense of 'heretic'. It may be mentioned here that in Aśokan Pkt. the word meant simply a 'community' and not a 'heretical community'. One of the very early indications of disfavour to heretics is to be found in the fourth book (ch. 18) of the Viṣṇu P. See Winternitz, Vol. I. p. 551.
² B. reads śramiṇa, but G. śramaṇa, the word means Jain monks. See NŚ. XVIII. 36 note 2.
³ kāṣāya-vasana—men in kāṣāya or robe of dark red colour ; such people being Buddhist monks who accepted the vow of celebacy, were considered an evil omen, for they symbolised unproductivity and want of wordly success etc. See also NŚ. XVIII, 36 note 2.

38-39 (B.44b-45a, G.41)      39-41 (B.45b-47a, G.42-43)