figures of the performers. And these, the wall and the screens, possibly
did not contain anything other than the usual decorative designs. This
simplicity in the character of the scenic apparatus was a nacesscry con-
comitant of the peculiar technique of the Hindu drama, and its cause
may be looked for in ite early history. The introduction of magnificent
scenery appears to be a later development in the history of drama.
Similarly the back scene of the Shakaspearean stage consisted of a bare
walli and anything in the way of spectacular effect was created by the
movements and grouping of actors
The production of an impression by means of painted scenery would
have been alien to the taste of the ancient Hindus who were more or less
conscious of the limitation of realism in their various arts. In order to make
the spectators visualise the place and time of the dramatic story in hand,
the Hindus had a different device. Numerous descriptions of place and
time composed in rhythmic prose and verse, which are scattered over the
classical Hindu plays, served very efficiently indeed the purpose of painted
scenery. When properly read or sung, these passages very easily created
an illusion of the place or the time described. The elaborate description
of Vasantasena's magnificent reisdence in the Mrcchakatika was calcu-
lated to call up vividly its picture before the mind's eye. The same
thing may be said of the grand description of the Dandaka forest in
the Uttararamacarita. This device of making a scene lively, has been
utilized by Shakespeare also. In appreciation of his very beautiful des-
cription of place and time, one critic says "The plays are full of such des-
criptive passages as can nullify the achievements of decorators and
mechanics." It has already been mentioned that in the Shakespercan
stage too painted scenery was unknown.
There being no scenery of any kind in the Hindu theatre which made
no effort at realism, the spectators were required to use their imagination
to the utmost. The demand on tho spectator's imagination made by the
ancient Indian producers of plays was further testified by their rules of
conventional Zonal division (kaksa-vibhaga) of the stage (XIV. 1-15).
Some of these are as follows :
A Zone might change with the actor walking a few steps over the
stage.'' Any ancient Hindu play will furnish numerous examples of this
convention. For etample in the first Act of the Sakuntala tho king appears
for the first time at a distance from Kanva's hermitage, but shortly after-
wards he enters it by simply taking a few steps over the stage, looking
around and saying. "This is the entrance of hermitage and let me enter it".
By the same kind of convention the inside and outside of a house was
> Dae to this kind of convention, scenes of the Hindu plays ware not clearly
separated as thay aro in a modern drama. This puzzled J?. Hall who says :