The so-called Vyaṅgyavyākhyā: selected remarks for reading it philologically
(2017) Cracow Indological Studies — Vol. 19, p. 139-153 (2017)
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- A Review Article of "Vyaṅgyavyākhyā: The Aesthetics of Dhvani in Theatre". Edited by K.G. Paulose, New Delhi : Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan - D.K. Printworld, 2013, xvi + 546 pp. K.G. Paulose provides us for the first time with the text of the [Subhadrā-]Dhanañjaya- and [Tapatī-]Saṃvaraṇa-dhvanis forming the so-called Vyaṅgyavyākhyā. This commentary on the states of mind (sthāyibhāva), modes of enacting (prayogamārga) and also backgrounds (pūrvasambandha) of the characters at their respective entrances (praveśika = praveśaka) on the stage, following the show of the royal playwright himself, was made, according to its brahmin author, for explaining the dhvanis to the spectactors (prekṣaka) of good taste (rasin/sahṛdaya). As such, the text raises a series of questions. Despite Paulose’s view of it as a ‘performance text’, viz. a kind of stage manual, according to the late A. K. Warder it does not seem to have been composed for actors (like the later āṭṭa-prakāraṃs in Malayalam for the Kūṭiyāṭṭam). Another difficult problem is the dating of Kulaśekhara’s two plays together with this double commentary, supposed to be more or less contemporary. On the basis of the different arguments, the dates of their composition range from the 9th to the 12th centuries. A close look at the quotations in the Vyaṅgyavyākhyā, most of them remaining untraced, and how they serve the main issues of the work, will contribute to shed new light on both the nature and the date of this atypical commentary.
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Vielle, C. (2017). The so-called Vyaṅgyavyākhyā: selected remarks for reading it philologically. Cracow Indological Studies, 19, 139-153. https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.19.2017.01.04 (Original work published 2017)