CHAPTER TWENTYTHREE

THE COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP

Necessity of the Costumes and Make-up

1. I shall similarly speak in due order, O Brahmins, about the Costumes and Make-up; for the production [of a play] depends on this¹.

2. The Extraneous Representation (āhāryābhinaya) deals with the rules of the Costumes and Make-up (nepathya)². Anyone who wishes for the success (lit. well-being) of a dramatic production should pay attention to these¹.

3. The dramatis personae are of different types¹. Indicated first² by their Costumes and Make-up they accomplish the representation without much effort by means of Gestures and the like.

Four kinds of the Costumes and Make-up

4. The Costumes and Make-up (nepathya) are of four kinds: model work (pusta)¹, decoration (alaṃkāra), painting the limbs (aṅga-racanā) and living creatures (sañjīva).

The four kinds of model-work

5. [Of these] the model-work is of three kinds and of various forms. They are: the Joined Object (sandhima), the Indicating Object (vyājima) and the Wrapped Object (veṣṭima)¹.

6. The model work which is made up of mat, cloth, skin and the like, is called the Joined Object (sandhima)¹.

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1 (C.1; K.XXI.1). ¹ K. reads 1b differently.
2 (C.2; K.XXI.3). ¹ C. reads after this an additional couplet.
3 (C.4; K.XXI.2). ¹ Nānāvastha—nānābhūtā yā śokādyā nānābhūtāśrayāś ca (Ag. p. 429).
² Read pūrvam (pūrva, C.) nepathya-sūcitaḥ (sūcikaḥ, C. sādhitāḥ)
4 (C.5; K.XXI.4). ¹ K. mukta for pusta.
² K. nāṭyāṅga-racanā for tathāṅga-racanā.
5 (C.6; K.XXI.5). ¹ Ceṣṭimaḥ, C. for veṣṭimaḥ, K.
6 (C.7; K.XXI.6). ¹ Sandhimaḥ—sandhānatayā nirvṛttaḥ (Ag. p. 429).