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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ON THE DRAMATIC SYSTEM OF THE HINDUS. I.?The Authorities Of The Hindu Dramatic System. The invention of dramatic entertainments is usually ascribed by Hindu writers to a Muni, or inspired sage, named Bharata; but, according to some authorities, they had a still more elevated origin, and the art having been gathered from the Vedat by the god Brakma, was by him communicated to the Muni. The dramatic representations first invented consisted of three kinds: Ndtya, Nritya, and Nritta; and these were exhibited before the gods by the Gandherbas and Apsarasas, the Spirits and Nymphs of Indra's heaven, who were trained by Bharata to the exhibition. Siva added to these two other styles of performance, the Tdndava and Ldsya. Of these different modes of representation, only one, the Ndtya, is properly the dramatic, being defined to be gesticulation with language. The Nritya is gesticulation without language, or pantomime; and the Nritta is simple dancing. The Tundma and Ldsya, which appear to be grafts upon the original system, are merely styles of dancing; the former so named from Tandu, one of Siva's attendants, whom the god instructed in it; whilst the Ldsya, it is said, was taught by Parvati to the princess Usha, who instructed the Gopis of Dwaraka, the residence of her husband, in the art; by them it was communicated to the women of Surashtra, and from them it passed to the females of various regions. In these legends, as well as in the radical purport of the three original terms, we observe the intimate connexion between the idea of dancing and dramatic representation, which no doubt subsisted in the classical drama. The dances of the Chorus were no less important than their songs, and the arrangementof the ballet was as much the task of the author as the invention of the...

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