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Ilango
Adigal refers to the sage of the Pothiyil Hills, but never even mentions
the name of Bharatha-Muni, even though his 'Arangetru-k-Kathai' leads us
to suppose that he must have been familiar with the subject-matter of Bharata's
Natya Sastra. And he makes Madhavi dance some of the minor dramatic forms
coming under the category of 'Nritya,' without using either that word or
'Natya,' but introducing instead the ambiguous term 'Nataka.' Even among
the eleven 'Adals' rendered by his danseuse heroine Madhavi, many are foreign
to the 'Natyasastra.' While Bharata's treatise refers but casually to the
existence of eighteen minor dramatic forms, (uparupakas), Ilango Adigal's
eleven adals seen to have been actual living folk dances of his time.
('The dance
forms of the early Tamils' by V Ramasubramaniam (Aundy). |
