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]
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]
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]
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]
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.
Kannada, formerly also known as Canarese, is a 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.
Tulu 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.
Tulu Nadu or Tulunad is a region and a 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. South Canara, an erstwhile district and a historical area, encompassing the undivided territory of the contemporary Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka State and Kasaragod district of Kerala state forms the cultural area of the Tuluver.
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Tigalari, also known as 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. It is referred to as Tigalari lipi in Kannada-speaking regions and Tulu speakers call it as Tulu lipi. It bears high similarity and relationship to its sister script Malayalam, which also evolved from the Grantha script.
Tandava, 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.
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The Dravidian peoples are an ethnolinguistic supraethnicity composed of many distinct ethnolinguistic groups native to South Asia. They speak the Dravidian languages, which have a combined total of about 250 million native speakers. Dravidians form the majority of the population of South India and Northern Sri Lanka.
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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 mime involving a noblewoman plotting with her two slaves to poison an old man.
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.
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Uliyar Padmanabha Upadhyaya was an Indian Tulu scholar. Born in 1932 to his father Sitaram Upadhyaya, who was Shivalli Madhva Brahmin priest and reputed scholar in the court of Raja of Travancore. He was native of Uliyargoli near Udupi. Upadhyaya was a linguist whose subject spans languages; Tulu, Kannada, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Tamil Hindi, French and English. He started his career in 1958 as the assistant librarian in Oriental manuscript library. He taught at St.Joseph College, Bengaluru (Bangalore) and at Deccan College of Post graduate and Research in Pune (Poona) for decades. He was married to Susheela Upadhyaya who died at 77 and also contributed to Tulu and Kannada literature and culture. The Rashtrakavi Govinda Pai Samshodana Kendra had published the Lexicon in Udupi. Dr.Uliyar Padmanabha Upadhyaya died on July 17, 2020 He said Tulu language has potential to become a classical language.