Theatre History Overview - Part 15 - Indian Theatre

Indian theatre started sometime between 2000 B.C. and the 4th century A.D. This was discovered by one of the earliest text in the world that is about dramaturgy. This text is called NatyaShastra. It was written by Bharat Muni. If it is older than 600 B.C., this means that Indian theatre formed earlier than Greek theatre.

The NatyaShastra describes rasa, which is the idea of artistic experience. Rada pervades all Indian art forms such as writing and dancing as well as theatre. The NatyaShastra also defines ten types of plays. However, there are two main types of plays. The Natakas are plays that dipict historical stories that deal with the divine or with mythology. Prakarana involved inventing stories dealing with every day characters and the events in their lives.

Indian theatre went through three main periods. The classical period began whenever theatre started in India and went through 1000 A.D. The stories in theatre were mainly stories that the audience already knew. Because of this, many physical elements and movements were used in the performances. The Traditional Period lasted from 1000 A.D. to `700 A.D. During this time, plays were presented verbally from the traditions and stories that had been passed down verbally rather than from written scripts. It was also during this time that regional languages and improvisation were brought to the Indian stage.

The modern period began in the late 18th century and ended in the 19th century. Because of the British rule in India, Western theatre influenced Indian theatre. This brought the tradition of theatre to being about reflections of the common man rather than about the gods and their miraculous feats. It also brought the procenium stage.

Before the procenium stage, Indian theatre had it's own types of theatres. The NatyaShastra explains three different types of theatres: rectangular, square, and triangular. Each kind of theatre could be large, medium, or small. The most common type of theatre was the medium-sized rectangular theatre. It measured about 96x48 feet. The space was divided in half with one half being for the audience and the other half being the stage and the backstage area.

While India still views theatre as extremely important, it does not treat it like it is often treated in the United States. There are some theatre course and theatre schools, but theatre is mostly done as an extra-curricular activity by students. They participate in religious theatre and street theatre. However, as the popularity of theatre in India grows, there might be more theatre education because theatre seems to be rivaling the popularity of cinema and television.

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