Types of Drama

According to Agni Purana the different varieties of Drama are called the Nataka, the Prakaranam, the Dima, the Samavakara, the Prahasanam, the Vyoga, the Bhana, the Vithi, the Auka, the Trotaka, the Natika, the Sattakam, the Shilpakam, the Kama, the Lapa, the Durmallika, the Prathanam, the Bhanika, the Bhani, the Gosthi, the Hallishakam, the Natya, the Rasa, the Ullasaka, the Uilapakam, and the Prenkhanam. These varieties number twenty-seven in all. A drama is possessed of two sorts of motion, as the Samanya and the Vishesha.

The general Motion embraces the whole plot of the Drama, while the special movements are restricted to its special parts. After the prologue having been finished, the unity of time and place, the sentiment with their accessories and the Anubhavas (feelings), the play, or rendering of the work, the divisions and acts, should be included in the general movement of the Drama. The special motion (Vishesha-gati) should be confined only to its specific parts.

It has been said that the Drama fulfils the threefold interests of the human race. A prologue opens with one of the thirty-two sorts of introductory, such as the Nandimukhas, etc. It is the duty of the manager of the play to open the prologue either with a salutation unto the deities, or with a panegyric of the elders and preceptors, or with a benediction to kings, Brahmanas, and the cows.

Agni Purana mentions that the prologue in Rupakas opens with applause of the ancestry, the family, and the previous achievements of the poet, together with a narration of the object of the play, and the occasion which gives birth to it.

Historical incidents of a play are divided into two classes. The five Artha Prakritis of a Drama are the Vijara (the seed), Vindu (central point), the Pataka (episode), the Prakari (interlude), and the Karyaro (denouement). The five Chestas (motion) of a play, are the Prarambha, (beginning) the Prajatna, the Prapti, the Sadbhava, the Phalaprapti, and the Phala-Yoga. The five links or joints (Sandhis) of a Drama, are the Mukharn, (Prologue), the Prati-Mukham (Epilogue), the Garbhas (interlude during an act), the Vimarsha (a change in the successful progress of a dramatic plot, or that of a love story, through a curse, etc.), and the Nivarhanam.

Finally it has been said that the action of the Drama should be made to possess human interest, and to be replete with the joy and sorrow, struggle and suffering of the human race. Glimpses of heavenly regions, or super-natural incidents, may be introduced in the middle of a drama, without taking away anything from its merit.