नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

XLIV

This description seems to fall in a line with Cicero's view that "drama is a copy of life, a mirror of custom, a reflection of truth". In this statement Cicero evidently takes his cue from Aristotle who considered that the art in general consisted of imitation (mimesis). But this does not help us very much to ascertain the nature of drama as an example of 'imitation'. For the Greek philosopher nowhere defines this very essentially important term. So when he declares that "epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dythrambics as also for the most part the music of the flute and of the lyre all these are in the most general view of them imitations"⁶, one can at best guess how drama imitates. There seems to be no such difficulty about understanding the view of the Hindu theorists. The Nāṭyaśāstra lays down very elaborate rules as to how the drama is to make mimicry of the exploits of men and their divine or semi-divine counterparts. It is due to rules of representation that the Hindu drama has been called by the later theorists 'a poem to be seen' (SD. 270-271). By this term epic or narrative poetry and fiction etc. are at once distinguished from drama which is preminently a spectacle including a mimicry of activities of mortals, gods or demigods. It may now be asked what exactly was meant by the word mimicry (anukaraṇa) used by the Indian theorists. Did this mean a perfect reproduction of the reality ? For an answer to this question we are to look into the conventions of the Hindu drama.

2. The Dramatic Conventions

That the Hindu theorists turned their attention very early to the problem of dramatic representation and enquired about the exact place of realism or its absence in connection with the production of a play, is to be seen clearly from their very sensible division of the technical practice into "realistic" (lokadharamī, lit. popular) and "conventional" (nāṭyadharmi, lit. theatrical". By the realistic practice, the Nāṭyaśāstra (XIV. 62-76 ; XXIII. 187-188) means the reproduction of the natural behaviour of men and women on the stage as well as the cases of other natural presentation. But from the very elaborate treatment of the various conventions regarding the use of dance, songs, gestures and speeches etc. by different characters it is obvious that the tradition of the ancient Hindu theatre recognised very early the simple truth that the real art to deserve the name, is bound to allow to itself a certain degree of artificiality which receives its recognition through many conventions. One very patent example of this conventional practice on the stage, is speeches uttered 'aside' or as soliloquy. The advocates of extreme realism may find fault with these as unnatural, and the accusation cannot be denied, but on closer examination of circumstances connected with the construction of a play as well as its production on the stage, it will be found that if the spectators are to demand realism very

---

⁶ Poetics, p. 5'