Indian dancing

INDIAN DANCING

moved in nine different ways, while the eyeballs have also their nine individual movements.

Kathakali hand gestures are of twenty-four varieties for singlehand poses and forty for double-hand poses. They are akin to the gestutes outlined in the Natya Shastra, but many of them are very vatied, as may be observed from the plates on pages 83 to 96, showing comparisons of Bharata Natyam and Kathakali representations.

COSTUME, MAKE-UP, AND DECOR

Make-up and costume in Kathakali are elaborate, and take hours of ptepatation. Masks that give almost a ghoulish effect are generally used. The face itself is painted vividly so that the expressions it assumes may be clearly visible.

The colouring of the face vaties according to the character portrayed. A faint green is used for saffik, or vittuous and noble characters: their opposites, the tamsik ot raksha chatacters, have layers of chutti, ot white lines of rice paste, outlining the face from one ear to the other, with the nose reddened and a white spot on the tip of it as large as a marble; such vicious characters wear red beards. For women, the colouring is white on a base of yellowish red.

Kathakali costumes have a barbaric splendour. A series of scarfs is woven round the neck, while the skirt is full and billowing. On the head is balanced a tall cone backed by a circular ring of the same material, both being painted in bright colours.

The garments are cumbersome, but they lend a spectacular, almost awe-inspiting, effect to a Kathakali performance, heightened by the eloquent mime in its mr¢ya which predominates over the pure nrtta, though the latter is vigorous in itself. Women do not normally take part in Kathakali, the female roles being taken by men, who perform the /asya movements. Although the pure Kathakali dance in its /asya style and in certain aspects may be taught to women, they cannot dance a sixteen-hour ballet, and consequently they ate exempted by tradition from the study of pure Kathakali. The bhayanaka and vibhatsa rasas mimed by the dancers are almost perfect in their interpretative qualities and are some of the best specimens of the att of matya.