TO INCREASE the resemblance to the early ballets, the Ras Leela in Manipur normally begins late at night, after a program of Kirtan-singing, which sanctifies the occasion and puts the audience in the proper mood to appreciate the transcendental beauty of the Ras Leela.

A true Ras Leela then continues until the hour called "Mangal Arati", the first hour of worship in Hindu temples, when dawn has barely streaked the night sky. At the end of the Ras Leela, the dancers actually perform the Arati in front of the Krishna-image or the dancer who has taken the role of Krishna, garlanding the deity and circling him with a plate bearing the sacred flame.

THE MOST interesting aspect of Manipuri tradition, for the dance researcher at least, is that the dances on which the classical Ras Leela was based are still being performed in their original form (the Maibi ritual and Lai Haraoba festival), their original setting (the village green) and for their original purpose (propitiation of the ancestral deities).

Due to the difficulty of access of the entire state of Manipur, and the fact that the government of India has limited the number of visitors from outside the state, the old rituals have not yet degenerated into tourist attractions, as have the hula dances of the Pacific Islands, and many other similar ancient dance forms.

It is therefore a fertile field for the researcher, a living laboratory where one can see how dance as a universal human activity has arisen out of the equally universal need to ritualize our experience.

AS WITH any ancient tradition which is brought out of a closed society and exposed to outside influence, Manipuri dance is thought to be in danger of radical change and possible corruption.

A threat is felt by adherents of the Lai Haraoba tradition to have come from the influence of the Natya Shastra, the artistic "Bible" which informs the mainstream classical dance styles of India. Most non-Manipuri dance scholars believe that Manipuri dance is actually another branch of that Natya Shastra tradition.

The Natya Shastra is a lengthy treatise on theatrical arts compiled sometime between the 4th century B.C. and the 2nd century A,D, which can be compared in influence with the "Poetics" of Aristotle. In the words of Dr. Padma Subramaniam:

"The earliest extant literature on the subject of Indian Dance is Bharata's Natya Shastra. The term "natya" encompasses in itself all the artistic elements of the theater art.

Dance was only a part of drama in ancient India. But drama itself was mostly danced. There was hardly any bifurcation between these arts in the true Hindu theater.

"Natya" was the term that indicated this composite whole. The term "sangeeta" was always referred to in its triple aspects, viz. "Gita"(song), "Vadya" (instrumental music) and "Nritta" (dance).

"Natya" included these three plus drama too.

The Natya Shastra is an unsurpassed compendious work dealing with all these elements in totality and running to thirty-six chapters. It is highly probable that this composite work was written during the course of a few centuries, by authors of the same pen name.

Hence this work may be considered as an extraordinary compilation of a series of supplemental treatises on the subject. This clearly proves the exclusive importance that the nucleus of the original treatise on Natya and its author Bharata enjoyed in the ancient Hindu society."4

IN MANIPUR, there are two theoretical camps, fiercely divided, on the question of at which point in history the influence of the Sanskrit Natya Shastra tradition was introduced into the Manipuri dance technique.

The earliest point of time at which this event might possibly have occurred is during the reign of King Bhagyachandra, A.D. 1759 - 1798. At that time, the Bengali kirtan (devotional songs) tradition had been introduced in Manipur, and members of the royal family were probably fascinated by other aspects of their exotic new religion. Also, King Bhagyachandra did travel outside of Manipur to the neighboring kingdom of Ahom (Assam) during a period of political upheaval.

At that time he might have encountered a dance form rooted in the Natya Shastra tradition. There was a "devadasi" system in existence in Assam until the early part of the twentieth century.5 "Devadasi" is a Sanskrit term for a woman dedicated to a particular Hindu deity, residing in a temple, whose duties included dancing in the temple precincts. These temple dancers are acknowledged to have been the preservers of several ancient dance forms in India. There was, however, never any devadasi system in Manipur itself.

ON THE OTHER HAND, since most of the religious instruction received in the early days of Hinduism in Manipur came from Bengali Brahmins, and there is no tradition of dance based on the principles of the Natya Shastra indigenous to Bengal, one hesitates to assume that those missionary Brahmins would have imparted any kind of technical expertise to the dancers of Manipur.

In fact, in examining the "Achouba Bhangi Pareng", the first composition attributed to King Bhagyachandra in the new Ras Leela style, one finds none of the telltale "footprints" that mark dance styles rooted in the Natya Shastra tradition. Here are none of the 108 Karanas (poses), nor Abhinaya Hastas (hand positions) The movements are ritualistic rather than interpretive.

When performing the Achouba Bhangi Pareng , the dancer is not acting out the words of a song, but rather following a prescribed series of steps, turns, and gestures, which constitute a kind of magic formula.

It is not possible to rearrange or omit any part of the dance, and no member of the audience may leave the dancing area during the performance of the Bhangi Pareng, at the risk of exposing not only himself but the entire assembly of dancers, musicians, and observers to evil influence.

The steps and hand movements themselves are based on the steps used in the Lai Haraoba, with several taken from the Manipuri martial arts form known as "Thang-Ta", sword-dance. The gestures have their own descriptive names in Meiteilon, the Manipuri language.

Since each element of the Achouba Bhangi Pareng can be traced to its root either in the Lai Haraoba or Thang-Ta, both of which activities existed before the Hindu or Sanskrit influence reached Manipur, it would be gratuitous to assert that this dance is based on the principles of the Natya Shastra.

| Read Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V |

To be continued ...