Study of the literary sources and plots of Indian temple dances

Abstract

© 2018, Ecozone, OAIMDD. All rights reserved. The stories underlying the temple dances are described in the scientific works devoted to different styles of dance, and are also used as examples in the literature on dance technique. The literature, covering the problems of Indian art including dance, contains mostly general description and stray instances. The aim of this study is the systematization of information and finding the common roots for the plots of various forms of temple dance. The article examines the literature underlying the plots of Indian temple dances, and investigates their common origin, considers artistic features and aesthetic techniques of plastic expression that are used in the reproduction of content and ideas of literary works to reflect the aesthetic experience of 'rasa'. Dance is considered as an important element of Indian traditional art. The article concludes that the art of dance in India has long been closely connected with other arts – from music to sculpture and architecture. However, special attention is given to the connection of dance with literature, because it is the temple dance that ruled the plot for literary works, and at the same time, as noted, was mostly narrative in nature. The sources of plots were primarily the puranas and the epics 'Mahabharata' and 'Ramayana', as well as the works of classical Indian literature as the 'Gita Govinda' by Jayadeva (12th century AD). The traditional category of rasa was used for the analysis of the plots, that allowed concluding that the main rasa of dance dramas, based on 'Mahabharata' and 'Ramayana', is 'faith-rasa' (heroic), and of solo presentations – 'sringara-rasa' (erotic) or 'bhakti-sringara' (the feeling of love to the deity).