Charition mime

Last updated

The Charition mime is a Greek theatre play, in fact more properly to be called a farce or burlesque rather than a mime, which is found in Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 413. The manuscript, which is possibly incomplete, is untitled, and the play's name comes from the name of its protagonist. It is approximately dated to the 2nd century CE, [1] and the play was probably performed in Egypt, where the manuscript was found. [2]

Contents

The play alludes to earlier texts such as Iphigenia in Tauris and Odyssey . Charition (Χαριτίων), the protagonist, is a Greek girl held captive at a temple in India (like Iphigenia), and her brother comes to her rescue. The Greeks escape by getting the Indian king drunk, an element possibly borrowed from Odyssey. [3] The introduction of humorous elements suggest that it may originally have been written as a spoof. [4] The play's character makes it almost a burlesque, representing a type of drama which was prior to the play's discovery not known in antiquity. The manuscript contains signs at various points which are almost certainly instructions to play percussion instruments and, possibly, the aulos, a Greek double-piped reed instrument, which suggests that the use of music in Greek mime was much more extensive than was earlier thought. [5]

Plot

Chariton, a beautiful Greek girl, is captured by (or sold to) the king of a coastal kingdom in India. The king keeps her at the temple of the moon goddess (as a temple girl or a priestess). A Greek search party, including her brother and a jester, arrives to rescue her, after crossing the Indian Ocean. As Chariton, her brother and the fool are discussing their escape, a group of Indian women returning from a hunt encounter them. The jester defends the Greeks with his farts. He asks Chariton to steal items from the temple, but she refuses arguing that robbery would make the gods angry. On the brother's suggestion, the Greeks serve wine to the Indian king and his subjects, intoxicating them. The characters, including the king, then perform a dance for the moon goddess. The Greeks then discuss tying up the king, who has tripped over (as suggested by loud drums at the end of the music). The end of the play is lost, but the Greeks escape to their ship. [2]

Indian language dialogues

One of the most interesting features of the skit is the appearance of a number of characters who speak dialogues in an unknown language. This part was included as amusing gibberish for the contemporary audience, who did not understand it. The language may partly or wholly represent an ancient Indian dialect, as some words seem to be of Dravidian and Sanskrit origin. [6]

Shortly after the papyrus' modern publication, Dr. E. Hultzsch, a noted German indologist who had a strong command of the Dravidian languages, claimed that the words represented an ancient form of Kannada, and suggested possible readings for the dialogues in question which made sense in the context in which they were uttered, but couldn't justify their claims and lost it. [7] [8] His findings were criticised by others at the time for being speculative, but even most of Hultzsch's critics accepted that the language must have been a Dravidian language. [8]

Kannada
Apart from E. Hultzsch, B. A. Saletore's explanation of the locale of the story and Shastri's analysis of the language of the play suggest it is a form of Kannada. [9] The subsequent discovery of the Halmidi inscription, which contains a form of Kannada much earlier than the forms known at the time Hultzsch wrote his article, confirms many of his theories on the evolution of the language and might therefore add support to his readings.
Tulu
According to the Indian scholars Shivaprasad Rai [10] (1985) and U. Padmanabha Upadhyaya [11] (1996), the Indian language used in the play is Tulu. Manohar Laxman Varadpande identified the kingdom mentioned in the play with Malpe (which lies in the Tulu Nadu region). [12]
Sanskrit and Malayalam
T.Z. Mani, in Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, argues that the Indian languages may be Sanskrit and an early form of Malayalam. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dravidian languages</span> Language family mostly of southern India

The Dravidian languages are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kannada</span> Dravidian language of South India

Kannada, formerly also known as Canarese, is a classical Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a second or third language for around 15 million non-native speakers in Karnataka. The official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka, it also has scheduled status in India and has been included among the country's designated classical languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulu language</span> Dravidian language of Tulu Nadu region

The Tulu language is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in Dakshina Kannada and in the southern part of Udupi of Karnataka in south-western India and also in the northern parts of the Kasaragod district of Kerala. The native speakers of Tulu are referred to as Tuluva or Tulu people and the geographical area is unofficially called Tulu Nadu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulu Nadu</span> Region and proposed state in southern India

Tulu Nadu or Tulunad, is a region and proposed state on the southwestern coast of India. The Tulu people, known as 'Tuluva', speakers of Tulu, a Dravidian language, are the preponderant ethnic group of this region. The proposed region, which once existed as the district South Canara, encompasses the undivided territory of the contemporary Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka and Kasargod of Kerala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakshagana</span> Theatre form in India

Yakshagana is a traditional theatre, developed in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga and western parts of Chikmagalur districts, in the state of Karnataka and in Kasaragod district in Kerala that combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up, and stage techniques with a unique style and form. It is believed to have evolved from pre-classical music and theatre during the period of the Bhakti movement. It is sometimes simply called "Aata" or āṭa. This theatre style is mainly found in coastal regions of Karnataka in various forms. Towards the south from Dakshina Kannada to Kasaragod of Tulu Nadu region, the form of Yakshagana is called Thenku thittu and towards the north from Udupi up to Uttara Kannada it is called Badaga thittu. Both of these forms are equally played all over the region. Yakshagana is traditionally presented from dusk to dawn. Its stories are drawn from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata and other epics from both Hindu and Jain and other ancient Indic traditions.

South Dravidian is one of the four major branches of the Dravidian languages family. It includes the literary languages Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu, as well as several non-literary languages such as Badaga, Irula, Kota, Kurumba, Toda and Kodava.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tigalari script</span> Abugida writing system of the Brahmic family

Tigalari or Tulu script is a Southern Brahmic script which was used to write Tulu, Kannada, and Sanskrit languages. It was primarily used for writing Vedic texts in Sanskrit. It evolved from the Grantha script.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tandava</span> Divine dance performed by the Hindu god Shiva

Tandavam, also known as Tāṇḍava Natyam, is a divine dance performed by Hindu god Shiva. Shiva is depicted as dancing the Tandava in his form of Nataraja.

Bhāsa is one of the earliest Indian playwrights in Sanskrit, predating Kālidasa. Estimates of his floruit range from the 4th century BCE to the 4th century CE; the thirteen plays attributed to him are commonly dated closer to the first or second century CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beary</span> Indian ethnic group

The Beary are a community concentrated along the southwest coast of India, mostly in the Mangalore district of the south Indian state of Karnataka.

The Mudrārākshasa is a Sanskrit-language play by Vishakhadatta that narrates the ascent of the Emperor Chandragupta Maurya to power in India. The play is an example of creative writing, but not entirely fictional. It is dated variously from the late 4th century to the 8th century CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dravidian peoples</span> South Asian ethnolinguistic group

The Dravidian peoples, Dravidian-speakers or Dravidians, are a collection of ethnolinguistic groups native to South Asia who speak Dravidian languages. There are around 250 million native speakers of Dravidian languages. Dravidian speakers form the majority of the population of South India and are natively found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Dravidian peoples are also present in Singapore, Mauritius, Malaysia, France, South Africa, Myanmar, East Africa, the Caribbean, and the United Arab Emirates through recent migration.

Vishakhadatta was an Indian Sanskrit poet and playwright. Although Vishakhadatta furnishes the names of his father and grandfather as Maharaja Bhaskaradatta and Maharaja Vateshvaradatta in his political drama Mudrārākṣasa, we know little else about him. Only two of his plays, the Mudrārākṣasa and the Devichandraguptam are known to us. His period is not certain but he probably flourished in or after the 6th century CE. Some scholars such as A. S. Altekar, K. P. Jayaswal and Sten Konow theorized that Vishakhadatta was a contemporary of Chandragupta II, and lived in late 4th century to early 5th century. But this view has been challenged by other scholars, including Moriz Winternitz and R. C. Majumdar.

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 413 is stage notes of an adaptation of Euripides' Iphigeneia in Tauris. The setting is shifted from Greece to India. The anonymous adaptation is known as the Charition mime after the main character. It is of interest for some dialogue in an Indian language. The verso of the papyrus features an unrelated incomplete mime, the Moicheutria, involving a noblewoman plotting with her two slaves to poison an old man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behrupiya</span> Indian Impressionist

A behrupiya or bahrupiya is an impressionist in the traditional performing arts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Once popular and widespread, the art form is now in decline with most practitioners living in poverty. It was once common for behrupiyas to make a dramatic entrance at wedding or other festivities dressed as a policeman, priest, or other figure and create a commotion. The social norm surrounding these appearances was that the behrupiya usually collected no money if he was detected as an impersonator. However, if he was able to successfully convince his audience of his fake identity, he would then reveal it and be awarded a baksheesh for having entertained the group.

Byari or Beary is a geographically isolated dialect of Malayalam spoken by the Byaris who are part of the Muslim community in Tulu Nadu region of Southern Karnataka and Northern Kerala. The community is often recognized as Byari s or Byari Muslims. Byari is influenced by Tulu phonology and grammar. Due to the trading role of the community, the language acquired loan words from other languages of Tulu, Kannada, and from Perso-Arabic sources.

Kirttivarman, also known as Kīrtivarman, was a king of the Chandela dynasty of India. He ruled the Jejakabhukti region. He revived the Chandela power by defeating the Kalachuri king Lakshmi-Karna.

Tamil loanwords entered the Greek language through the interactions of Mediterranean and South Indian merchants during different periods in history. Most words had to do with items of trade that were unique to South India. There is a general consensus about Tamil loanwords in Ancient Greek, while a few of the words have competing etymologies.

Uliyar Padmanabha Upadhyaya was an Indian Tulu scholar. His monumental book, Tulu Lexicon edited by him and his wife, was the standard work in Tulu linguistics.

References

  1. ↑ Timothy J. Moore (2012). Roman Theatre. Cambridge University Press. p. ix. ISBN   9780521138185.
  2. 1 2 Ruth Webb (2008). Demons and Dancers: Performance in Late Antiquity. Harvard University Press. pp. 108, 129. ISBN   9780674031920.
  3. ↑ Tim Whitmarsh & Stuart Thomson (2013). The Romance between Greece and the East. Cambridge University Press. p. 288. ISBN   9781107038240.
  4. ↑ Daniélou, Alain (1985), Histoire de l'Inde, Fayard, Paris. ISBN   2-213-01254-7.
  5. ↑ Hall, Edith (2002), "The singing actors of antiquity," in Pat Easterling & Edith Hall, ed., Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN   0-521-65140-9. Page 5.
  6. ↑ D.L. Page. Greek literary papyri. London Heinemann. p. 337.
  7. ↑ Hultzsch, E. (1904), "Remarks on a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1904: 399-405.
  8. 1 2 Salomon, Richard (1991). "Epigraphic Remains of Indian Traders in Egypt". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 111 (4): 731–736. doi:10.2307/603404. JSTOR   603404.
  9. ↑ Varadpande, Manohar Laxman (1987). History of Indian theatre, Volume 1. Abhinav Publications. p. 260. ISBN   978-81-7017-221-5.
  10. ↑ Edith Hall (2013). Adventures with Iphigenia in Tauris: A Cultural History of Euripides' Black Sea Tragedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 133. ISBN   978-0-19-539289-0.
  11. ↑ U. Padmanabha Upadhyaya (1996). Coastal Karnataka. Rashtrakavi Govind Pai Samshodhana Kendra. ISBN   9788186668061.
  12. ↑ Manohar Laxman Varadpande (2014). Ancient Indian and Indo-Greek Theatre. Abhinav. p. 98.
  13. ↑ Thattunkal Zachariah Mani. "Charition Drama: The Origin of Christianity in Kerala". In John Chathanatt (ed.). Encyclopedia of Indian Religions: Christianity. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 208–218. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-2241-2_14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.