practiced by s ́ilpiswho handed down their traditions from father to son.
Architectural texts, which were not written until much later, often started
by reciting a myth of creation as if to remind the builder that building a city
or a temple was like the re-creating of a world.
These principles were expressed not only in literature, iconography, and
architecture but in dance, drama and music. Dance, for example, embodied
the story of the gods and fundamental moods, both human and cosmic. It
was intended to “carry” rasato the audience. In fact, the term abhinaya, the
“performing” of rasa, meant literally “carrying to” an audience. Later, dance
was combined with music to create its own art form. Dance included the use
of stylized “hand gestures” (mudra ̄s). By the fourth century CEsome thirty-
sevenmudra ̄swere listed, as well as many other poses.^37 Abhinayaor “carrying
to an audience” could include verbal expressions – for example, the use of
sound, rhythm or plot; bodily gestures from head to feet; ornamentation –
for example, painting the face, costuming, or makeup; and the re-creation
of emotions (Na ̄t.yas ́a ̄straChapters VII ff.).
Music, for its part, encompassed at least three components. First was meter
or beat (ta ̄la ̄) – some twenty-two were enumerated in the Na ̄t.yas ́a ̄strawith
many more added later (Chapter XXXI). Meter was sustained by a drone
and the beat of a drum in such a way as to replicate the rhythm of the cosmos.
The second element of music was the “tune” (ra ̄ga) – the ra ̄gaconsisted of
The Urban Period 75Figure 1Yashoda scolds her mischievious son Kr.s.n.a as expressed in the Kuchipudi dance
form. Dancer: Suvarchala Somayajalu. Photograph by Dr. Raman Venkataraman.