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PART B
their hands[1], two are playing on the the seven-shringed vīṇā with a plectrum, two are
drummers, one beating a small drum with a stick, while another is beating a larger one with
her fingers, and only the instruments played by the two females in the middle of the circle
cannot be made out with certainly[2]. The right half of the panel is filled by four female
dancers, arranged in two pairs, one before the other. They are called Apsaras in separate labels and special names are given to them. Between the two, named Alambusā and
Misakesī, a child is dancing too, and it will be noticed that Alambusā is distinguished from
the rest of the dancers by wearing a turban which ordinarily appears only as the head-dress
of men. This shows that the performance of the Apsaras is a mimic dance in which Alambusā,
evidently the chief actress, plays the part of a man.
As recognised by Hoernle, turaṁ is an inaccurate spelling for tūraṁ, which according to
Hemachandra 2, 63 is the regular Prakrit equivalent of Sk. tūryam, and refers to the music
of the heavenly orchestra. Hoernle was probably right also in connecting sāḍikā with Sk. saṭṭaka, the name of one of the Uparūpakas. Instead of saṭṭaka the commentator of the
Karpūramañjarī constantly writes sāṭaka[3], and as we find nāṭikā by the side of nāṭaka, it is
quite possible that by the side of sāṭaka there existed a feminine form sāṭikā, which in Prakrit
became sāḍikā. Sāḍikasaṁmadaṁ may be inaccurate spelling for sāḍikāsaṁmadaṁ, or it may
be a compound in which the final vowel of the first member has been shortened as frequently
in Prakrit. In the Sāhityadarpaṇa (542) it is said that the saṭṭaka is similar to the nāṭikā, but
entirely written in Prakrit and without praveśakas and vishkambhakas. The acts are called javanikā and the rasa prevailing is adbhuta. According to another classification of dramatic
Performances[4] the saṭṭaka belongs to the deśīnāṭyas because the music and the dances employed
in it are not of the higher or Mārga class, but local varieties used in different parts of the
country. According to the Nāṭakal. 2156 f. in saṭṭaka, because women are predominant, the
king himself talks like a woman: saṭṭake strīpradhānatvād rāpakasyānurodhataḥ | nṛipaḥ strīvat
paṭhet. The only saṭṭaka that has been made known to us is Rājaśēkhara’s Karpāramañjari[5]. Of
course, the sāḍikā of the relief is not identical with the later saṭṭaka, but from what we are
told about the language, the music and the dances of the satṭaka or sāṭaka it becomes very
probable that its originally was the name of a mimic dance performed by women which in
later times developed into a real drama. Saṁmada is taken by all translators as an adjective
meaning ‘gay, gladdening, joyous’, although the word occurs elsewhere only as a noun.
I cannot offer a better explanation. Perhaps, saṁmada, originally, as indicated by the sam-,
‘gladdening together with something else’, was used as a technical term of the Nāṭyaśāstra
in the sense of ‘accompanied byâ.
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The clapping of hands is apparently the pāṇitāḷasadda (to be so read with the comm..) which is
mentioned in D. II, 147, besides bherisadda, muttiṅgas., vīṇās., gītas., sammas. A different expression for the
clapping of hands seems to be pāṇisvara, P. paṇissara, which occurs several times as a musical entertainment (D. I, 6; III, 183; J. 535, 15; 537, 111; Mvu. II, 52, 15). The man clapping the hands is pāṇisvarika (Mvu. III, 113, 3), pāṇissara (J. 545, 60). Later on, it seems, one did not know of the exact
meaning of the word. Buddhaghosa explains DA. 84, pāṇissaraṁ by kaṁsatāḷaṁ pāṇitāḷam ti pi vadanti, DA. 587 pāṇitāḷasaddo by pāṇitāḷachaturassammaṇatāḷasaddo | kuṭabherisaddo ti pi vadanti. The pāṇissare in J. 545, 60 is explained in the commentary by pāṇippahārena gāyante. The clapping of the hands
accordingly seems to have accompanied singing.
With the one, the instrument is invisible as the turns the back to the spectator. The other is
perhaps using cymbals (P.samma, Sk. śamyā).
Lévi, Théatre indien, Appendice, p. 30. Śāṭaka is quoted in the Petersburg Dictionary with the
meaning of nāṭakabheda from the Śabdakalpadruma, but the passage cannot be verified.
Lévi, ibid., p. 5 f.
Three more saṭṭakas have been published in recent years by A. N. Upadhya; cf. his edition of
Viśveśvara’s Siṁgāramaṁjarī, Journal of the University of Poona, Humanities Section, No. 13, pp. 33-76
(1960).
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