ABSTRACT
Articulate dramatic forms in ancient India adopted very particular, stylized ways of acting and of dealing with emotions on stage. In Indian drama the performers, according to dramatic norms, should be able to impersonate the different emotional states without experiencing them directly: these states should actually appear to them as elements of a ritualized story that they only have to enact. The discourse on the ritual way in which Indian traditional dramas and dances are enacted is certainly polyphonic. The classification of the performing arts in the two opposed categories “classical”/“folk” was used by the pioneers of the renaissance of the Indian performing arts in a deliberate manner. Emotions were conveyed to the audience through the three media of music — both vocal and instrumental — verbal recitation and body language, in a complex pantomime that affected the spectators on multiple sensorial levels.
