at least five notes; each ra ̄gaevoked a particular rasa, each suitable for
a particular time of day. The ra ̄gaBhairava (S ́iva in his fierce form), for
example, was the ra ̄gafor dawn, the ra ̄gaof rage, awe, or fear. In this period
of musical production there were said to be six basic ra ̄gas;^38 now there are
many. A final component in music was the scale, gra ̄ma(Na ̄t.yas ́a ̄straChapter
XXVIII). The scale is probably traceable to the old Sa ̄mavedasingers who
were multi-tonal in their chanting. Over twenty-two microtones were
developed, each part of a scale that was thought to comprehend the universe.
It is useful to recall that sound was thought to be primordial and cosmogonic
in the Vedic period; hence, the scale was congruent to the totality of the
universe and to satya(being itself). Music, like dance, had ritual overtones,
evoking cosmic rhythm, embodying rasa, the flavor of brahman, and inviting
the hearer to participate in the human–cosmic ambience.
Drama became an increasingly popular art form in the classical settings
in the first century CE, though classical performance no doubt grew out
of the enactments of myths, folk tales, epics, and village dramas.^39 Though
As ́vaghos
̇
a, a Buddhist, was the first to mention drama, it is Ka ̄lida ̄sa who
became known as the most popular dramatist of the period. Most early
plays included elements from one or more of the epic tales, material often
familiar to the audience, and used both prose and verse. Sanskrit was used
for the lead male roles, representing authority figures, while Pra ̄krits were
used for lesser roles. Drama was intended not merely for the amusement
of audiences, but also to instill or evoke one or more of the fundamental
rasas. Drama was instructive, whether in re-enacting the themes of folk
heroes and mythological figures, or in presenting the spectrum of human
emotion. Invariably, plays of this period presented a conflict and its eventual
resolution.
TheNa ̄t.yas ́a ̄stramade explicit the ritual character of early drama. The
playhouse was likened to a temple or the old sacrificial hut of the Vedic
period. The drama was an oblation, a sacrifice, acted out at a miniature
cosmos (Chapter III). Its characters were often depicted as representations
of the ideas of dharma. Usually performed at a festival or other ceremonious
occasion, the costumes, stage props, masks, colors – all eventually stylized –
were intended to enhance the mood or rasaportrayed in the drama itself.
Clearly drama as it was made part of the classical Sanskritized tradition like
the other arts was closely aligned to ritual.
Religious life at the popular level
Clearly many of the people of the “urban” period were affected very little or
not at all by the “classical” forms of religion articulated in the texts. There
76 The Urban Period