Glimpses of history of Theatre

 

Theatre, drama, tragedy, comedy are words of Greek origin. Greek’s fundamental belief on influence and attention of rivalry between good and evil(within and outside individuals)plays crucial role in temple dramas then. The South Asian theatre centres in India preeminently for its massive population and cultural diversity. The mythological origin of theatre and drama in India is related to sage Bharata’s Natyasastra. In the first play of this world’s oldest text on the genre, shows the victory of the gods over demons. As far as play is concerned, playwrights in India had a wide range of choices; but for them Nataka was their favourite. Nataka is a play which has five and no more than seven acts and the dominant sentiment is either love or heroism.The earliest plays in India hails from North India with Asvaghosa in second century A.D. These dramas follow the rules laid by Natyasastra. However, the greatest playwright of India of all time is undoubtedly Kalidasa. His plays like Swapna Vasavadatta  and others are still performed in Kutiyattam of kerala.Kalidas’s dramas are full of ‘Rasa’,aesthetic beauty, the original contribution of India to the world. Although Sanskrit dramas decline after the tenth century, Kutiyattam survives today in kerala. When Vaisnavism started in fifteenth century, Ankiya nat started in Assam and jatra in Bengal and that is the start of theatre in real sense. Ankiya nat or Bhaona ruled the hearts of masses by their portrayal of deities and imparted moral wisdom. Sankardeva believed it to be better to place his philosophy through theatre rather than through written texts.Later the impact of colonialism and foreign influence brought many changes to theatres. The same happens with assamese theatre also. Fortunately Ankia nat or vaona has sustained overcoming all of the upheavals of modernization and globalization. It is now an internationally acclaimed performance art. Sangeet Natak Academy organizes yearly performance of vaona. NGOs are also taking initiatives for staging vaona throughout Assam.