Theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir are honored in their region since; theatre takes an integral part of Kashmiri culture. There are historical records like the Nilamata Purana and Kalhanas Rajatarangini found in the twelfth century. There it revealed that the theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir already attained its glory when these texts were written.
The theorist and aesthetician - Abhinavagupta in tenth century, anchored the fame of the theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir. He said to have lived in Kashmir, the northernmost part of India. Royal palaces were the main centers of theatrical activity, where theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir were always present to point out merits and flaws. This golden age of drama in Kashmir lasted for 1500 years, owing to theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir.
Theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir started to gain prominence from the beginning of the Christian era to the fifteenth century. But very little of the dramatic literature has descended to the present generation of theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir, and that too only in Sanskrit. Yet it is known that theatre in this state of Indias was inseparably associated with royal glamour. There also existed a performatory tradition in the vernacular that was based on the spontaneous folk imitation of common life. These include birth, calamities, death, and rebirth. The theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir performed plays that were associated with celebrations and festivals of sowing, reaping, and threshing. The theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir marked occasions with song, dance, and music, and that a public performance was a form of religious obligation.
Thus in the earliest form of Kashmiri theatre, almost all the theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir could mimic for mere entertainment of a king, a sadhu, a soldier, a bridegroom, or other respectable social figures. The function of this primitive burlesque was only to incite mirth. Although as a natural mimetic activity, Lagun did not actually require professional training, certain people called kelak or `buffoons` that attained a special prowess in it and adopted it as their profession. The theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir performed plays, equipped with simple musical instruments like a drum, dahri i.e. a rod with iron rings, or surnay i.e. swarnai, a pipe. Such folk performers in Jammu and Kashmir wandered from house to house, exhibited their skill, and got their income from those whom they entertained. Some blithesome public entertainers who pretended as people of different vocations, mythical characters, or even animals and birds, were called rangiryeviny i.e. `harlequins`.
The theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir gradually brought an improved form of Kashmiri folk theatre that was the Pethir. This is a satirical comedy in which several actors exaggeratedly represented individuals, classes, or supernatural beings with the intention of ridiculing human follies, frailties, and cruelties. The theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir mainly worked on Pethirs on social themes, with musical interludes and boisterous harlequins, are still known as Bandi Pethir.
With the establishment of the Jammu and Kashmir Cultural Front after India`s independence, the theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir received serious attention. Several plays were written and staged by them to strengthen the Front`s political viewpoint. However, with the passage of time, no serious or promising attempt is being made to the theatre personalities of Jammu and Kashmir, and their marvellous performances are now remembered as a thing of the past.
