Physical Culture II: Harmonial Gymnastics & Esoteric Dance (Chapter 7)
· The yogic body regimes described are congruous with Protestant religiosity called “HARMONIAL RELIGION” (1972 Sidney Ahlstrom). New Thought is
the most practical expression of this movement which reflects a
rejection of Calvinist denigration of the body in favor of the soul.
- · Spiritual
composure and physical health and even economic well-being are
understood to flow from a person’s rapport with the cosmos.
- · “Harmonial Gymnastics in America”(Genevieve Stebbins & Cajzoran Ali)-fashioned
the harmonial gymnastics that became associated with the “spiritual
stretching, breathing and relaxation regimes in the popular practice of
yoga today.
- · In Britain, Mollie Bagot Stack of the Women’s League of Health & Beauty” during the 1930s.
· Both
of these movements which were popularized for WOMEN during the height
of men’s physical culture movement form a straight progression to what
we would identify as modern postural practice.
· Genevieve Stebbins & American Delsartism
o French teacher of acting and singing (Francois Delsarte (1811-71)
developed spirito-physical exercises and rules for the coordination of
voice, breath and bodily gestures. Stebbins was the foremost proponent
of his methods in America through his student, Steele Mackaye
o Member of the Church of Light (order of practical occultism)-links to Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.
o Started
a whole movement of Delsartism in the US, most notably with the turn of
the century oriental dance genre featuring Ruth St. Denis (sum yogi)
and Maud Allen. Part of a larger general assimilation of Asian inspired
techniques such as Transcendentalism, Theosophy, modern Vedanta and
yoga.
o Upper socioeconomic white protestant women that took up this Asian practice of dance & asthei=tics also took up yoga
o Teachers
claimed to be teaching (like European & American Yoga Teachers) the
ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC YOGA OF INDIA, inspite of the many patent
innovations.
§ Dominant currencies of spiritual and cultural capital in the romanticized Asian marketplaces of the West
§ Drama of appropriation & legitimization-nationalist aspirations & cultural regeneration
THE BODY BEAUTIFUL: Modern Forms & Influences
Is the emphasis on the body beautiful anything new?
----Or
has yoga become a practice of women in the West, precisely because it
has presented a vehicle for acquiring these images of perfection and
beauty for women????????
- Delasarte
- Magana Babtiste
- Marily Monroe
- Jane Fonda
- Christy Brinkley
--How does the article in your reader comment on this reality or not?
--Can yoga ever not be about the body beautiful?
Dance and Yoga Have and continue to have a strong connection in the West as an aesthetic form:
- Dance and martial arts have made meaty contributions to yoga history, philosophy, and posework. The 108 Karanas of the Dance of Shiva (called Shiva Nata) are actually yoga-like postures meant to actualize viewers through a geometrically-precise drama.
- The Karanas create mandalas (meditation images called yantras)
in space over time–with the frontal body in the vertical plane and in
the horizontal plane with the feet. These mandalas affect our mind and
our energetic body.
- The
108 Karanas are sculpted at the Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram, South
India. The temple is dedicated to Lord Nataraja, the presiding deity of
dance. The Karanas are the basic dance units of Bharata Natyam, and the
mother source of the rich variety of Indian dance traditions. Lord Shiva
has said, "Dance is of Divine origin, sent to Earth as a precious gift,
not to please the senses, but to enlighten the spirit with
contemplation of noble beauty, which expresses eternal Truth." This DVD
clearly shows each of the 108 poses, including a live performance of the
Karanas
- The “Classic” form of Indian dance was practiced by the Devadasis (“servants”–or literally “slaves”–of God). They
were temple courtesans who were free women and occasionally scholars.
They were second only to priests in Tantric settings in the Middle
Ages.
- Their dance was called Dasi Attam,
and it was a fertility rite performed for the pleasure of kingly guests
and temple benefactors who wished to have blessings on festivals and
marriage ceremonies.
- This court and temple dance, called Margi (“march” or “step”)–as opposed to village dances called Desi–was resuscitated by Rukmuni Devi and made into the “Classical” form now called Bharat Natyam (“Dance of India”) in the 1930s.
In America, her work was anticipated by the inventive “Oriental Dance” of Maud Allen and Ruth St. Denis in in the early 1900s.
- St. Denis has a singular status because she taught Martha Graham (the mother of modern dance) for ten years and became a student of the great yogini Indra Devi in Hollywood in the late 1940s.
- Devi, the
first student of Krishnamacharya to be a western woman, brought yoga to
Los Angeles whereshe became the teachers of many actors and dancers.
most importantly Gloria Swanson and Marilyn Monroe who later popularized
yoga as a was to create the perfect body for women.
- Magana Baptiste–the mother of Sherri and Baron Baptiste and
a student of Indra Devi as well–taught Oriental Dance and yoga in the
groundbreaking San Francisco yoga centers she created with her husband,
Walt, beginning in the 1950s.
- She brought Oriental Dance to Hollywood movies, and Shiva Rea and Hemalayaa Behl have
both advanced new yoga/dance movements in a big way. They are part of
the “evolutionary pulse of yoga in America” as Rea has
well-characterized it. She comes full circle with trance dance
- Behl has mixed yoga with hip-hop, Bollywood moves, and classical Odissi dance(that she trained in for five years). Rea has integrated work from Zhander Remete and hisShadow Yoga, as well as postures from the Indian martial art, Kalari, and her knowledge from ethnic dance worldwide.
HARMONIAL GYMNASTICS (Stebbins)
WOMEN & THE OCCULT:
The long-unsung heroine in the Church of Light’s history has recently been featured in an excellent scholarly study on the history of yoga. The reciprocal influence of `harmonial’ gymnastic systems
(like the American Delsartism of Genevieve Stebbins…) and modern hatha
yoga is enormous.”(p. 71) While Stebbins is remembered now almost
entirely as a pioneer in the history of women’s exercise and dance, the
“gentler stretching, deep breathing, and `spiritual’ relaxation
colloquially known in the West today as `hatha yoga’ are best
exemplified by variants of the harmonial gymnastics developed by
Stebbins…and others— as well as the stretching regimes of secular
women’s physical culture with which they overlap.”(p. 160)
Genevieve Stebbins earned international fame as the great popularizer of the teachings of French acting and singing teacher Francois Delsarte (1811-71)
who “became famous in Europe for his theory of esthetic principles
applied to the pedagogy of dramatic expression…” By the time Stebbins
emerged as a Delsarte teacher she was affiliated with the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.
“She brought these esoteric influences…to bear on her interpretation of
Delsartism… to American audiences [which] initiated a veritable
Delsarte craze”(p. 144) Her success in this endeavor recalls that of
another former actress. Stebbins evolved from beginnings as an actress
to a career as a propagandist. If we consider her cause to have been
harmonial women’s gymnastics, it seems a quaint and obscure claim to
fame.
Stebbins’s Dynamic Breathing and Harmonic Gymnastics: A Complete System of Psychical, Aesthetic, and Physical Culture (1892)
is as described by Singleton “a combination of calisthenic movement,
deep respiration exercises, relaxation, and creative mental imagery
within a harmonial religious framework. It is, in Stebbins’s words, `a completely rounded system for the development of body, brain and soul,’
a system of training which shall bring this grand trinity of the human
microcosm into one continuous, interacting unison and remove the
`inharmonious mental states’ that lead to discord.”(p. 146)
FRANCOIS DELSARTE
"The object of art is to crystallize emotion into thought and then give it form." Francois Delsarte.
History
tells that he ends up loosing his mother and then his voice and this
situation pushes him to start searching for the causes of his
disability. Not having found satisfactory answers by doctors or
teachers, he starts developing an own theory about the connection between emotions and physical gestures.
The
core of his theory states that there is a connection between mental
attitudes, emotions, physical postures and gestures. According to this, one’s emotional state would be communicated through one’s physical appearance and performance.
For
example, the extension of the body would be in relationship with the
feeling of self realization; the feeling of annihilation would translate
into a bending of the body. Practicing those positions would
reinforce the feelings they traduce and all emotions would have their
own bodily translation (the gesture would reinforce them and at the same
time they would reinforce the gesture).
This
postulate coincides with the famous modern dance principle according to
which the intensity of a feeling determines the intensity of a gesture,
in opposition to the classical dance rule that makes use of codified
gestures which are (presumably) not related to the mental state of the
dancer.
“What
we say is not what persuades but how we say it. The speech is inferior
to the gesture because this last one corresponds to the phenomenon of
the spirit. The gesture is the agent of heart, the persuasive agent.
Sometimes 100 pages can not say what one sole gesture can express,
because in that simple movement our whole being comes to the surface”
(Translated quotation from: Alain Porte. Francois Delsarte, une
anthologie, I.P.M.C., 1992).
The
codification of the system of Francois Delsarte is organized under the
omnipresence of what some historians call his ‘understanding of the
Christian concept of the trinity’. So, his theory is full of classifications that are always divided into three categories:
· His system, called applied aesthetics, is divided in three parts: the statics, the dynamics and the semiotics.
- · The
body is divided in three zones: the physical, the emotional and the
mental, which correspond to the inferior members, trunk and arms, and
neck and head respectively.
- · There
are three languages: the affective, transmitted through voice, the
elliptic, expressed through gestures and the philosophical, traduced by
the articulated word.
- · Movement
is of three orders: opposition, parallelism and succession, according
to the intervention of the physical, emotional or mental part.
- · Movement is of three categories: eccentric, concentric, and normal.
· There are three laws for movement (The laws of harmonic movement):
1. Law of the harmonic posture: there’s a need to obtain a balanced and natural attitude like the position of perfect rest in Greek statues.
2. Law of opposed movement:
every movement of one or several parts of the body demands, for balance
principles, an opposed movement of the rest of the segments.
3. Law of the harmonic muscular function or of the succession of contractions:
the force of a muscular function must be in direct relationship with
the size of the muscles. Therefore muscles should start from the big
muscles that surround the pelvis.
Francois Delsarte had two pupils that became important for the spreading of his work: Steele MacKaye and Genevieve Stebbins.
Stebbins: “different
parts of the body express different emotions. To throw out the chest
shows strength, power and energy in anything undertaken; the breast
emphasizes the softer feelings and gives prominence to the lowest part
of the body and shows the coarseness of the virago who, with her hands
on her hips defies the neighborhood at large.”
MacKaye
brought Delsarte’s teachings to the U.S.A. and spread them under the
name of “harmonic gymnastics”. His success was enormous, to the point of
having most of the women from liberal families following the trend. The
practice even got a fashioned character and marketing clothes and
products were sold under the system name. (sound familiar?)
____________
What About The Influence of Indian Theater
Theory of Rasa described in Chapters VI and VII of Natya Shastra
The
theory of Rasa-Bhava establishes a relationship between the performer
and the spectator. The model spectator is a sahrdaya, someone "who
empathizes with the author." Since the success of a performance is
measured by whether or not the audience has a specific experience
(rasa), the spectator becomes a vital participant in the play.
Bharata
calls human soul as Bhava-Jagat (the world of emotions). Bharata and
later authors explain how the Art universalizes emotions making them an
instrument of appeal to the spectators. They say that the actor acts as
bearer, media and connector of emotions of the character. By conveying
emotions the actor step by step opens inner Bhava-Jagat of the
character, creates special emotional atmosphere, which can be felt and
relished. The actor introduces and involves the spectators into this
emotional atmosphere. Thus, emotions of the character are spread through
the actor to spectators, who share them collectively, as a group, by
relishing the Rasa. Thus emotions are embodied and translated from one
person to many.
Bhava and Rasa
Bharata says that which can be relished – like the taste of food – is rasa: "Rasyate anena iti rasaha (asvadayatva)."
According
to Bharata, the playwright experiences a certain emotion (bhava). The
director of the play should properly understand the idea and bhava-s of
the character and convey his knowledge and understanding to the actors.
The actors perform their parts using their own vision and experience,
but they should follow the main idea and key bhavas emphasized by the
director, Sutradhara.
The term bhava means
both existence and a mental state, and in aesthetic contexts it has
been variously translated as feelings, psychological states, and
emotions. In the context of the drama, bhavas are the emotions
represented in the performance.
Bhava
is that which becomes (Sanskrit root "bhoo", "bhav" means "to become");
and bhava becomes rasa. In Natya Shastra it is said, that bhavas by
themselves carry no meaning in the absence of Rasa: "Nahi rasadyate kashid_apyarthah pravattate." Forms and manifestations of bhavas are defined by the rasa. It is therefore said, Rasa is the essence of art conveyed.
Rasa
is the emotional response the bhavas inspire in the spectator (the
Rasika or Sahrudaya). Rasa is thus an aesthetically transformed
emotional state experienced by the spectator. Rasa is accompanied by
feelings of pleasure and enjoyment. Such emotions tunes perception of
the spectators, they create atmosphere of empathy, make people more
sensitive, help to open mind and heart to understand the idea and
message of the play.
Rasa
is associated with palate, it is delight afforded by all forms of art;
and the pleasure that people derive from their art experience. It is
literally the activity of savoring an emotion in its full flavor. The
term might also be taken to mean the essence of human feelings.
Rasa
is sensuous, proximate, experiential. Rasa is aromatic. Rasa fills
space, joining the outside to the inside. What was outside is
transformed into what is inside.
Abhinaya
The
actors convey bhavas using Abhinaya. The Sanskrit root "abhi" means "to
lead", "to go together". Abhinaya is the process by which the meaning
of the play is "led toward" the audience.
Human
activity is divided into the physical, the verbal and the mental. Thus
Abhinaya is four-fold – Sattvika (temperamental), Angika (physical),
Vachika (verbal) and Aharya (dress, make-up, etc.).
Mrinalini Sarabhai uses famous shloka from "Abhinaya Darpanam" to explain these four aspects: "Where
the hands go the eyes follow [anubhava], where the eyes go the mind
follows [sattvika abhinaya], where the mind goes the mood [bhava]
follows, where the mood goes there is rasa born."
Sattvika
abhinaya is very important kind of Abhinaya, showing the highest level
of actor’s identification with the character . All of the components of
abhinaya must be applied by the actor in order for him to bring the
audience to the correct rasa, and thus to the enjoyment of the play, but
sattva, which literally means "purity", however in dramaturgy is the
psychological ability of the actor to identify with the character and
his emotions, is the hardest to master and to understand.
As Bharata asserts, "Sattva
. . . is [something] originating in mind. It is caused by the
concentrated mind. The Sattva is accomplished by concentration of the
mind. It’s nature cannot be mimicked by an absent-minded man."
The
Natya Shastra calls Sattvika abhinaya the "Spirited" modes of abhinaya,
but the best explanations link it to Stanislavsky’s "Magic If" and
"Sense of Truth." This allows the actor to convince himself the
circumstances are real to the character, even though, as the actor, he
knows they are not.
When
executed properly, sattvika abhinaya allows the actor to exhibit the
physical signs of the emotions the character’s feeling, such as tears,
trembling, change of color, or horripilation (the hair standing on end,
or goosebumps). For the audience to feel the correct rasa, the actor
must manifest the outward expressions of the character’s emotion using
all kinds of abhinaya, but especially sattva. The Natya Shastra insists,
"The Histrionic Representation with an exuberant Sattva is superior,
the one with the level Sattva is middling, and that with no [exercise
of] Sattva is inferior."
Vibhava and Anubhava
Actions
and feelings are evoked in connection with certain surrounding objects
and circumstances, called Vibhava-s. Different mental and emotional
states manifest themselves and become visible through universal
physiological reactions called Anubhava–s.
Thus
Bhava, the emotion felt by the character, results from a "Determinant"
(vibhava), or determining circumstance, such as the time of year, the
presence of loved ones, the decor or environment, and so on. The vibhava
affects the character so that he feels sorrow, terror, anger, or some
such emotion (bhava).
The
"Consequent" (anubhava) of a particular bhava is a specific behavior
exhibited by the actor as he portrays the character such as weeping,
fainting, blushing, or the like. The anubhava, if properly executed,
will cause the audience to feel a specific rasa corresponding to the
bhava felt by the actor:
VIBHAVA — causes —> BHAVA — causes —> ANUBHAVA —> RASA
|
This
is precisely the process Stanislavsky describes for his actors. A
character’s feelings arise from the circumstances of the scene, both
those in effect at the moment and those that occurred before. The
feelings, combined with the "given circumstances," cause her to behave
in a certain way — the "stage action." Replacing the Sanskrit terms of
The Natyasastra with Stanislavskian terminology, the diagram might look
like this:
GIVEN CIRCS — cause —> EMOTION — causes —> BEHAVIOR —> AUD. RESPONSE
|
Eight Sthayi bhavas
Chapter
VII of The Natya Shastra goes into great detail about the bhavas, which
are broken down into three categories. Bharata mentions eight
"Durable," "Permanent," or "Constant" emotional conditions called Sthayi
bhavas:
These
emotional states are inherent to humans. They are basic as they are
inborn, understandable without explanation. They also are characterized
by intensity, as they dominate and direct behavior. On the stage Sthayi
bhavas are represented by certain Anubhavas, explained in Natya Shastra
as follows:
Sthayi bhavas are manifested by corresponding Anubhavas:
- Rati (Pleasure) – Smiling face, sweet words, contraction of eye–brows, sidelong glances and the like.
- Hasa (Joy) – Smile and the like, i.e., laugher, excessive laugher.
- Shoka (Sorrow)
– Shedding tears, lamentation, bewailing, change of color, loss of
voice, looseness of limbs, falling on the ground, crying, deep
breathing, paralysis, insanity, death and the like.
- Krodha (Malice) – Extended nostrils, unturned eyes, bitten lips, throbbing cheeks and the like.
- against
enemies – knitting of the eye–brows, fierce look, bitten lips, hands
clasping each other, touching one’s own shoulder and breast.
- when controlled by superiors – slightly downcast eyes, wiping off slight perspiration and not expressing any violent movement.
- against
beloved woman – very slight movement of the body, shedding tears,
knitting eyebrows, sidelong glances and throbbing lips.
- against one’s servants – threat, rebuke, dilating eyes and casting contemptuous looks of various kinds.
- artificial – betraying signs of effort.
- Utsaha (Courage) – steadiness, munificence, boldness of undertaking and the like.
- Bhaya (Fear)
– trembling of the hands and feet, palpitation of the heart, paralysis,
dryness of the mouth, licking lips, perspiration, tremor, apprehension
of danger, seeking for safety, running away, loud crying and the like.
- Jugupsa (Disgust) – contracting all the limbs, spitting, narrowing down of the mouth, heartache and the like.
- Vismaya (Surprise)
– wide opening the eyes, looking without winking of the eyes and
movement of the eye–brows, horripilation, moving the head to and fro,
the cry of "well done" and the like.
Eight Rasas (Navarasa)
The eight Sthai bhava-s evoke eight corresponding Rasa–s:
- Rati evokes Sringara (the Erotic – romance, love)
- Hasa evokes Hasya (the comic – laugh, humor)
- Shoka evokes Karuna (the pathetic – compassion, sadness)
- Krodha evokes Roudra (the furious – indignation, anger)
- Utsaha evokes Veera (the heroic – valor)
- Bhaya evokes Bhayanaka (the terrible – fear, horror)
- Jugupsa evokes Bibhasa (the odious – disgust, aversion, repugnance)
- Vismaya evokes Adbhuta (the marvelous – wonder, astonishment, amazement)
- The Erotic – Sringara –
(1) in union &ndash The Anubhava–s to be represented are clever
movements of eyes and eye–brows, soft and delicate movements of limbs,
sweet words, etc.; whereas those to be represented (2) in separation –
are despondency, weakness, apprehension, envy, weariness, anxiety,
yearning, sleep, dreaming, awakening, illness, insanity, epilepsy,
inactivity (temporary) death and other conditions.
- The Comic – Hasya –
It is to be represented by throbbing of the lips, and the cheeks,
opening of the eyes wide or contracting them, perspiration, color of the
face and taking hold of the sides. Hasya is self-centered when a man
laughs himself and it is centered in others when he makes others laugh.
This two-fold division of Hasya relates to its infectious nature. In the
verses of the Anubhavas of the six types of Hasya are given.
- "smita" (gentle smile): slightly blown cheeks, elegant glances, teeth not visible;
- "hasita" (smile): blooming eyes, face and cheeks, teeth slightly visible;
- "vihasita"
(gentle laugher) – laugher suitable to the occasion; slight sound and
sweetness, face joyful, eyes and cheeks contracted;
- "upahasita" (laugher of ridicule): the nose expanded, squinting eyes, shoulder and head bent;
- "apahasita" (vulgar laugher) – laugher on unsuitable occasion: tears in eyes, shoulders and the head violently shaking;
- "atihasita" (excessive laugher) – eyes expanded and tearful, loud and excessive sound, sides covered by hands.
Smita
and hasita should be employed in the case of superior characters,
vihasita and upahasita in the case of middling ones and apahasita and
atihasita in the case of the inferior types.
- The Pathetic – Karuna –
This is to be represented by shedding tears, lamentation, dryness of
the mouth, change of color, drooping limbs, being out of breath, loss of
memory and the like.
- The Furious – Roudra is
to be represented by red eyes, knitting of eye&ndashbrows,
defiance, biting of lips, throbbing of the cheeks, pressing one hand
over the other and the like.
- The Heroic – Veera – This is to be gesticulated by firmness, heroism, charity, diplomacy and the like.
- The Terrible – Bhaya is to be represented by trembling of the hands, the feet and the eyes, horripilation, change of color and the loss of voice.
- The Odious – Bibhatsa is
to be gesticulated by contraction of all the limbs, narrowing down of
the mouth and eyes, vomiting, spitting and (shaking the limbs in)
disgust and the like.
- The Marvelous – Adbhura –
This is to be represented by wide opening eyes, looking with fixed
gaze, horripilation, tears. Joy, perspiration, uttering words of
approbation, making gifts, crying (incessantly) "ha, ha, ha" waving the
end of dhoti or sari and movement of fingers and the like.
Abhinavagupta
interpreted rasa as a "stream of consciousness". He then went on to
expand the scope and content of the rasa spectrum by adding the ninth
rasa: the Shantha rasa, the one of tranquility and peace. Abhinava
explained that Shantha rasa underlies all the other mundane rasas as
their common denominator. All the other rasas emanate from the Shantha
rasa and resolve in to it. Shantha rasa is a state where the mind is at
rest, in a state of tranquility.The other rasas are more transitory in
character than is shanta rasa. The Shanta Rasa is the ultimate rasa the
summum bonum.
Transitory states – Vibhichari or Sanchari bhavas
Emotions
have many shades, are characterized by different levels of intensity.
Basic emotions can be also combined with each other. Such individual
varieties of emotions, possible in different situations, in case f
different characters are called Vibyachari (or Sanchari) bhava-s. They
are many in number.
Sthayi
bhava–s are accompanied by thirty–three Vyabhicari-bhavas, called
"Complementary" or "Inconstant" modes, which may be seen as
"Conditioning Forces" of a scene or the changeable conditions that
affect character’s behavior, such as intoxication or exhaustion.
- Nirveda – weeping, sighing, deep breathing, deliberation and the like.
- Glani –
week voice, lusterless eyes, pale face, slow gate, want of energy, loss
of color of the body and the limbs, change of voice and others.
- Sanka –
constantly looking about, hesitating movement, dryness of the mouth,
licking the lips, change of facial color, tremor, dry lips, change of
voice and the like. Concealment of appearance to be characterized by
adoption of clever gestures according to some authorities.
- Asuya -
finding fault with others, decrying their virtues, casting glances in
jealousy, downcast face, knitting eyebrows, disregard and abuse in
public.
- Mada –
In case of superior persons – sleeping
Middling ones – laughing and singing,
Low ones – crying and using coarse words.
Stages of Mada –
(i) light smiling face, pleasant feeling, slightly faltering words, delicately unsteady gait.
(ii) medium drunken and rolling eyes, arms drooping or restlessly thrown about, irregularly unsteady gait.
(iii)
excessive loss of memory, incapacity to walk due to vomiting, hiccup,
tick protruding tongue and spitting. When there is panic, grief and
increase of terror due to some cause, intoxication is to be stopped by
effort.
- Srama –
gentle rubbing of the body, deep breathing, contraction of the mouth,
belching, massaging of the limbs, very slow gait, contraction of the
eyes, making hissing sound.
- Alasya – aversion to any kind of work, lying down, sitting, drowsiness, sleep, etc.
- Dainya – want of self&ndashcommand, headache, dullness of the body, absent–mindness, giving up of cleansing (of the body), etc.
- Cinta – deep breathing, sighing, agony, meditation, thinking with a down-cast face, thinness of the body, etc.
- Moha – want of movement, excessive movement of a particular limb, falling down, reeling, dazed condition.
- Smrity – nobbing of the head, looking down, raising up the eye–brows, etc.
- Dhriti – enjoyment of objects attained, absence of regret for the unattained, impaired or lost, etc.
- Vrida –
covered face, thinking with down casting face, drawing lines on the
ground, touching cloths and the ring, biting the nails, etc.
- Capalata – harsh words, rebuke, beating, killing, taking prisoner, goading, etc.
- Harsa – brightness of the face and eyes, using sweet words, embracing, horripilation, tears, perspiration, and the like.
- Avega –
(a) due to portends – looseness of all the limbs, distraction of the mind, loss of facial color, sadness, surprise, etc.
(b) due to violent winds – veiling the face, rubbing the eyes, collecting the ends of the clothes worn, hurried going, etc.
(c) due to heavy rains – lumping together the limbs, running, looking for some cover of shelter, etc.
(d) due to fire – eyes troubled with smoke, contracting all the limbs or shaking them, running with wide steps, flight, etc.
(e) due to elephants – hurried retreat, unsteady gait, fear, paralysis, tremor, looking back, etc.
(f) due to having something – getting up, embracing, giving away cloths and ornaments, tears, horripilation, etc.
(g)
due to unfavorable news – falling down on the ground, rolling about on a
rough surface, running away, bewailing, weeping and the like.
(h) due to calamity – sudden retreat, taking up weapons and armor, mounting elephants and horses and chariots, striking, etc.
- Jadata –
not uttering any word, speaking indistinctly, aversion to all work,
remaining absolutely silent, looking with steadfast gaze, dependence on
others, etc.
- Garva –
disrespect for others, harassing, not giving reply, not greeting
others, looking to oneself, roaming, contemptuous laugher, harsh words,
transgressing commands of the superiors, insulting others, etc. (In case
of persons of inferior type, (boastful) movement of the eyes and the
limbs is to be employed.)
- Visada –
looking for allies, thinking about means, loss of energy,
absent–mindedness, deep breathing and the like in the case of superior
and the middling types; in case of the inferior type – running away,
looking down, drying of the mouth, licking the corner of the mouth,
sleep, deep breathing, meditation and the like.
- Autsukya – sighs, thinking with downcast face, sleep, drowsiness, desire for lying down.
- Nidra –
heaviness of the face, rolling of the body, rolling of the eyes,
yawning, massaging of the body, deep breathing, relaxed body, closing
the eyes, etc.
- Apasmara –
throbbing, sighing, trembling, running, falling down, perspiration,
foaming in the mouth, motionlessness, licking (lips) with tongue and the
like.
- Supta –
deep breathing, dullness of the body, closing the eyes, stupefaction of
all senses, dreaming, talking while asleep, closing eyes softly.
- Vibodha – yawning, rubbing the eyes, leaving the bed, etc.
- Amarsa – shaking the head, perspiration, thinking with downcast face, determination, looking for means and allies, etc.
- Avahittha – speaking otherwise, looking down words, break in speech, pretended patience.
- Ugrata – killing, imprisoning, beating, rebuking, etc.
- Mati – instructing pupils, ascertainment of meanings, removal of doubts, etc.
- Vyadhi –
(a)
fever with a feeling of cold – shivering of the entire body, bending
the body, shaking the jaws, desire for heat, horripilation, movement of
the chin, narrowing down the nasal passage, dryness of the mouth,
lamentation, etc.
(b)
fever with a feeling of heat – throwing out cloths, the hands and the
feet, desire to roll on the ground, use f unguents, desire for coolness,
lamentation, dryness of mouth, crying.
(c)
other types of sickness – narrowing down the mouth, dullness of the
body, downcast eyes, deep breathing, making peculiar sounds, crying,
tremor, etc.
- Unmada –
laughing and weeping without any reason, crying, irrelevant talk, lying
down, sitting and rising up, running, dancing, singing, reciting,
smearing the body with ashes and dust, taking grass and remains of
flower-offering to deity, soiled clothes, rags, potsherd, and earthen
tray as decorations of the body, many other senseless acts, imitation of
others who are not present, etc.
- Marana –
(a)
from sickness – looseness of the body, motionless of the limbs, closed
eyes, hiccup, deep breathing, not looking towards surroundings people,
indistinct words, etc.
(b) due to accidental injury –
(i) wounded by weapons – suddenly falling down on the ground, tremor, throbbing, etc.
(ii)
snake bite or poison – gradual development of the following symptoms –
thinness of the body, tremor, burning sensations, hiccup, foaming mouth,
breaking of the neck, paralysis and death.
- Trasa – contraction of limbs, shaking, tremor of the body, paralysis, horripilation, speaking with choked voice, etc.
- Virtaka – various discussions, non-settling1 of problems, concealment of the counsel, movements of the head and eye-brows, etc.
Temperamental states – Sattvika bhavas
Temperamental
states are expressed on the stage using Sattvika abhinaya. In fact, all
the gesticulation of mental states may be designated as the Sattvika
abhinaya. But the prominence given to the gesticulation of the
temperamental states is due to the peculiar mental effort which is
necessary for their presentation. Bharata has thus given first the
gesticulation of temperament for, without it the real purpose of the
performance would be lost.
- Sveda – taking up the fan, wiping off sweat, looking for breeze.
- Stambha – being inactive, smileless, being like inert object, limbs drooping.
- Kampa – quivering, throbbing and shivering, wiping the eyes of tears, shedding tear incessantly.
- Asru – wiping the eyes full of tears, shedding tears incessantly.
- Vaivarnya – alteration of the color of the face with effort by putting pressure on the artery.
- Romanca – repeated thrills, hair standing on end, touching the body.
- Svarabheda – broken and choked voice.
- Pralaya – motionlessness, breathing gently (unnoticed), falling on the ground.
References
Natya Shastra, Chapters VI and VII
