Page:Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama.djvu/25

Rh noble. According to the text-books he had two associates: the sthāpaka and the pāripārśvika. It is probable that in the actual practice of the theatre the duties assigned by the treatises to the sthāpaka were all performed by the sūtradhāra. At the end of the nāndī there is a dialogue between the manager and some actor complimenting the audience on their critical ability and ending by introducing one of the characters of the play, after which the action goes on with regular divisions into acts and scenes. Scenes are marked by the exit of one person and the entrance of another, as on the Classical and the French stage, and the stage is never left empty until the end of the act. Between the acts a connecting scene called viṣkambhaka is often introduced, in which occurrences that have taken place since the preceding act are explained. The theory of the unity of time, place, and action, which played so important a part in the Greek drama, appears in rather a modified form in India. The time of the action is supposed to be the same as that occupied in the performance, or else to fall within twenty-four hours. But this rule is not always observed, and we find in the Uttararāmacarita of Bhavabhūti a lapse of twelve years between the first and second acts. Unity of place is not strictly observed, and journeys are often made, sometimes even through the air in celestial cars.

As to the stage-setting and decoration very little is yet known. Special buildings for the presentation of plays are described in the Nātyaśāstra but it is probable that dramas were usually given m a hall (saṃgīta-śālā 'concert-room') of the palace. Behind the stage, which occupied a quarter of the whole hall, was a curtain divided in the middle, and behind that again was the greenroom (nepathya) whence the actors came on the stage. The greenroom had an entrance from the outside 'separate from the entrance for the audience.' Scenery and