INTRODUCTION

The dramatic art, like all other great human discoveries, is the result of a long series of innovations and experiments. Its evolution is a process of continuous growth from the irregular and formless types to the more regular and definite, and of gradual transition from the simple and crude to the more complex and finished. Unfortunately, the links between the different stages of the gradual growth and development of the drama in :Bengal are broken and obscure. The Yatras 1 of Bengal, as they exist to-day, are evidently a very old type of popular play. They may possibly have lineally descended from similar dramatic representations and folk-plays current in the earliest period of Hindu history or even in a period before recorded history begins. But no decisive historical facts can be brought forward to corroborate either supposition. Whether in Bengali Yatras are a direct continuation of the ancient Vedic drama or whether they are connected with the dramatic activities of a much later time has been the subject of much discussion among various Indologists. Mr. E. P. Horrwitz thinks that "even the Vedic age knew Yatras, a venerable heirloom of Aryan antiquity. The gods of the ~gveda were hymned in choral processions. Some of the Samvada-hymns re-echo the rude mirth of the

primitive yatra-dances." 1 Dr. Hertel 2 regards the Yatras of Bengal as constituting a distinct stage in the evolution of Indian drama. In his view, the beginnings of the drama in India are to be sought in the dramatic rituals connected with Vedic hymns and dialogues and a later stage in the development is to be found in the Suparry,adhiiya, which is manifestly a much later Vetdic text. The Yatras of Bengal would in this case represent the form assumed by the Vedic drama in the latest stage of its evolution. Professor Max Muller was one of the first Sanskrit scholars to point out the connection of Indian drama with the dramatic rituals which are implicit in the Vedic dialogue-hyesns. He conjectured that the" dialogue was repeated at sacrifices in honour of the Maruts, or that possibly it was acted by two parties, one representing Indra, the other the Maruts and their followers." 3 Professor Sylvain Levi 4 supported Max Muller's suggestions and added that the arts of dancing and music were fully developed in the Vedic age. In 1908, Professor von Schroeder extended the ritual theory to support his contention that the Yatras developed out of the cults of K:r~l).a-Vi:;n:lU and RudraSiva originating from the same root as the Vedic dialogues and monologues. 5 Dr. A. Berriedale Keith,6 however, in his recent history of the Sanskrit drama, entirely dismisses the ritual theory of the origin of drama in India. He contends that the dramatic rituals associated with Vedic dialogues and hymns are merely liturgical in character and not dramatic at all in the true sense. "The dramas of the ritual, therefore," he thinks, "are in a sense somewhat out of the main line of the development of the drama, and the popular side has survived through the ages in a rough way in the Yatras well-known in Bengal, while the refined

3 and sacerdotalized Vedic drama passed away without a direct descendant. " 1

The suggestion that the Yatras of Bengal developed in close connection with the cult of K:r~I).a has received very wide support. As early as 1835, Professor Horace Hayman Wilson wrote: " The Yatra is generally the exhibition of some of the incidents in the youthful life of Krishna, maintained also in extempore dialogue, but interspersed with popular songs." 2 He put the Yatra in the same category as similar popular dramatic representations of "an inferior description" in the "vernacular dialects" such as the Rasas 3 of the Western Provinces of India. Lassen mentioned Jaydeb's Gita Gobinda 4 as a characteristic type of the oldest Indian drama and suggested that it may have been recited with appropriate song and dance in the manner of the Rasa performances. 5 Lassen, however, makes no mention of the Bengali Yatra. J. L. Klein 6 regards Gita Gobinda as a kind of " divine idyll" or " a Mystery play of the Hindus" and definitely connects it with the Bengali Yatra and also approves of the suggestion that it was used to represent in suitable costume, song and dance the adventures of K:r~I).a's youth. 7 Dr. Nisi Kanta Chattopadhyay, one of the first Bengali scholars to investigate the real nature of the Yatra, developed the theory of its probable origin in the K:r~I).a cult into an elaborate thesis 8 and attempted to show its close resemblance with the Mystery plays of the Middle Ages. Professor von Schroeder also mentioned Gita Gobinda as entirely typical of the

Bengali yatra.1 In Mr. E. P. Horrwitz's opinion all Yatras were like "sacred operas . . . frequently produced in connection with the religious processions of the Krishnaists." 2 Professor Sylvain Levi, in his extremely illuminating survey of the Hindu drama, Le Theatre Indien, fully approves of the view which finds the origin of the Yatra in Kpgla worship. He says: "Nees du Krishnaism, les Yatras sont resMes, pendant une carriere deja longue d'une siecle, fideles a leur inspiration originelle; Ie divin amant des bergeres n'a jamais cesse d'en etre Ie heros pre£ere." 3 Dr. Karl Mantzius, one of the well known European authorities on drama and stage-craft, finds it "natural to suppose that these popular religious plays mark an earlier stage of development in the Indian drama than the traditional art poems of the Middle Ages, and to draw the conclusion that ancient scenic art was closely connected with the worship of Vishnu." 4 "However," he adds, "we do not yet possess a definite proof that it is so."