WRITTEN BY LONDON SWAMINATHAN

Post No. 9374

Date uploaded in London – –12 MARCH  2021     

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

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We have discovered a bronze dancing woman statue in Indus-Sarasvati valley civilization. The closest link to that statue is the Rig Veda, which many consider a Pre- Indus book. The amazing figure has the Tri Bhanga (Three Bends) which we see in all the Hindu goddess statues even today. Rig Veda has many references to dancing and singing. All the dialogue poems are nothing but dance dramas.

 In the nook and corner of Tamil Nadu, you my see such sexy (similar to Urvasi- Puruvas dialogue in the Rig Veda) dances in the mid night on the eve of Holi. It is called Kaman Pandikai (Festival of Manmatha) in Tamil Nadu. In Sprig season (Vasanta Rtu) every young couple enjoy such pleasure. But the end message of the festival is Kama will be burnt by Lord Shiva (desire will be annihilated by the worship of Shiva. In the mythology , we see Manmatha is burnt alive by Shiva and he became bodyless/ANANGA.

Most of the encyclopaedias attribute the first and oldest drama to Greece. But Vedic and Ashtadhyayi references explode those myths. According to Panini, ‘Naandhi’ is the first scene which we see even in Kalidasa’s plays. Panini is dated 7th century BCE. He did not know the Buddha and Nanda Vamsa nor Pataliputra. He lived at least 300 years before the Mauryas. Panini’s coinage, weights and measurements, no mentioning of Buddha and Mahavira, his description of Hindu gods, his innumerable comparisons of Chandas/Vedic poems with Sanskrit, that is Basha etc, show Panini lived many centuries before Nandas and Mauryas. Greeks haven’t got the scheme of play that is found in Sanskrit. Neither Nandi/prologue nor National Anthem at the end. All Sanskrit dramas finish with the National Anthem what they called ‘Bharata vakya’. That says ‘Long Live the King; Long Live the Queen. Let all people be Happy; Let the country be Prosperous’. This scheme or structure is absent in Greek dramas.

Kalidasa lived in the first century BCE, which is proved by Tamil Sangam poets. His 200 out of 1500 similes were used by Sangam Tamil poets. Kapilar, the Brahmin who contributed highest number of poems to Sangam corpus imitated Kalidasa in his Kurinjippattu. Even a foreign Tamil student like Rev Dr G U Pope has rightly pointed out this fact.

Half baked western ‘’scholars’’ mis interpreted all dialogue poems in the  Rigveda. Actually they are all dance dramas enacted after Yagas and Yajnas. Panini and Patanjali say that some yajnas lasted for hundreds of years. It is not an exaggeration . Generation after generation continued fire sacrifices. Elsewhere we read that Bharadwaja couldn’t finish mastering all Vedas even after 300 years. Like the Nanda Lamps in the temples Yaga Kundas were burning continuously. Nanda vilakku, lamp, means that which is never extinguished. We see in all Tamil Temples even today.

Here is what Panini and Patanjali say about dramaturgy:-

Panini,who lived before the Greek dramas, mentions ‘Naandi’ , Prologue to a drama in Sutra 3-2-21.

Panini mentioned ‘Silaalin’ as the author of Nata sutras, his students forming the Vedic school of dancing designated as Sailalinah Nataah 4-3-110.

The Sailalakas were originally a Rigvedic charana/school with their own Brahmana book. This is cited in the Apastambha Srauta Sutra. Katyayana who comes 300 years after Panini also knew of this Vedic school as Sailaalaah 6-4-144.

Thus it will be seen that the students of dramaturgy were called SAILAALINAH while those of orthodox Vedic studies were known by the simpler name Sailalah.

The growth of a secular text like the NATA SUTRA under the auspices of a Vedic school shows the scope that Vedic literature gave to new intellectual development not directly connected to religion.

The word Natya Nataka was used through out India. Both were inseparable. Later only dramas with prose only dialogues were written. Tamil words Natya as in Bharata natya and Nataka/drama are all of Sanskrit origin. They are  found in Sangam literature and Tolkappiam. But no ancient Tamil drama survived. Though we read about 11 types of dances performed by Madhavi in Tamil epic  Silapadikaaram they were all Post Sangam materials. They were all Hindu mythological stories. In short we didn’t know anything about ancient Tamil dramas. Instead of Sanskrit Nataka and Natya, Tamil used the word  Kuuthu. But the amazing fact is Tamils did not have any drama for 2000 years! Sanskrit has hundreds of dramas from the days of Bhasa of third century BCE.

Source book:- India as known to Panini, V S Agrawala, 1953; with my inputs

PLEASE READ MY OLD ARTICLES ON THE SAME TOPIC:-

Origin of dramas | Tamil and Vedas

tamilandvedas.com › tag › origin-of-dramas

6 Dec 2014 — We have dialogue hymns in the Rig-Veda and several scholars believe those were the first theatrical plays. We have similar dialogues in Egypt.

DIALOGUE POEMS IN THE RIG VEDA (Post No.7737) | Tamil …

tamilandvedas.com › 2020/03/24 › dialogue-poems-in-…

24 Mar 2020 — Even the funeral hymns and marriage hymns are only in the tenth mandala. So according to them Hindus did not get married or did not die until …

origin, drama, Panini, Nandi