zarrilli- psychophysical approaches and practices in india

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Psychophysical Approaches and Practices in India: Embodying Processes and States of ‘Being–Doing’

Phillip B. Zarrilli

New Theatre Quarterly / Volume 27 / Issue 03 / August 2011, pp 244 271DOI: 10.1017/S0266464X11000455, Published online: 03 August 2011

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0266464X11000455

How to cite this article:Phillip B. Zarrilli (2011). Psychophysical Approaches and Practices in India: Embodying Processes and States of ‘Being–Doing’. New Theatre Quarterly, 27, pp 244271 doi:10.1017/S0266464X11000455

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Phillip B. Zarrilli

Psychophysical Approaches and Practicesin India: Embodying Processes and States of ‘Being–Doing’This essay articulates a South Asian understanding of embodied psychophysical practicesand processes with a specific focus on Kerala, India. In addition to consulting relevantIndian texts and contemporary scholarly accounts, it is based upon extensive ethnographicresearch and practice conducted with actors, dancers, yoga practitioners, and martialartists in Kerala between 1976 and 2003. During 2003 the author conducted extensiveinterviews with kutiyattam and kathakali actors about how they understand, talk about,and teach acting within their lineages. Phillip Zarrilli is Artistic Director of The LlanarthGroup, and is internationally known for training actors in psychophysical processes usingAsian martial arts and yoga. He lived in Kerala, India, for seven years between 1976and 1989 while training in kalarippayattu and kathakali dance-drama. His books includePsychophysical Acting: an Intercultural Approach after Stanislavski, Kathakali Dance-Drama: Where Gods and Demons Come to Play, and When the Body Becomes All Eyes.He is Professor of Performance Practice at Exeter University.

USHA NANGYAR is an accomplishedactress/dancer1 and teacher within the kuti -yattam style of staging Sanskrit dramaswhose origins date from the ninth centuryc.e. Kutiyattam is indigen ous to Kerala State,the Malayalam-speaking south western coastalregion of India. Within the kutiyattam tradi -tion of ‘solo acting’, one im portant set piecetakes place when an actor playing a specificcharacter visualizes and/or transforms intoa different character not present on stage.This process of visual iz a t ion is known as‘head to foot’ (padadik she sham) acting, and cantake the form of remem ber ing a lover orseeing a god or goddess.

In 2004, Usha Nangyar was approachedby dancer/choreographer, Gitanjali Kolanadfor instruction in this unique approach tovisualizing and ‘becoming’ a char ac ter. Gitanjaliwas researching and preparing a new soloperformance/adaptation of an Indian folktale, ‘The Flowering Tree’,2 in which Gitanjaliplays/dances the role of a sister who, aftermeditating upon and visualizing the god -dess, trans forms herself into a tree; when shesought instruction from Usha Nangyar onvisual izing and transforming into the god -dess. Usha instructed Gitanjali to:

breathe through the eyes whenever there is apoint of emphasis, as in this solo acting whenvisualizing the goddess. Close off all otheravenues of breath – do not use your nostrils, butinhale/exhale through your eyes. Hold all theorifices closed, and close your ears. It is like‘looking’ as in yoga.

Usha Nangyar’s instructions here reveal auniquely South Asian understanding andapproach to the inner and outer dimensionsof acting. First, Usha provides a very specificset of instructions about what Gitanjalishould do psychophysically during thisprocess of visualization and transformation,i.e., whenever there is ‘a point of emphasis’she must:

• close off all other avenues of the breath excepther eyes, including not breathing through hernose;

• sense throughout her body that all the body’sorifices are literally ‘closed’ including her ears,mouth, nose, and anus/genitals;

• finally and most importantly she must ‘breathe’only through her eyes.

But Usha’s instructions do much more thansimply provide Gita with a description ofwhat she should do physically. Secondly,

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they simultaneously provide a rich, phenom -eno logically descriptive account of what theactual process of embodiment is like from theactor’s perspective ‘inside’ the experience ofvisual ization and transformation. Thirdly, Usha’sinstructions provide a representation of theprocess of practice per se. This is evident whenUsha compares the actor’s psychophysicaltask of ‘breathing’ through her eyes to“looking” as in yoga’. She is pointing to thefact that the acting process here is psycho -physiologically like and therefore parallel tothat of a yogi’s act of ‘looking’, and – asexplained in detail later – to the fact that boththe actor and yogi assume a paradigm ormap of the yogic (subtle) body in their acts of‘looking’. To summarize, in her instructions,Usha simultaneously provides Gitanjali withall three of the following: practical instruc -tion, phenomenological description, and arepresentational model of what she is beingasked to do in practice.3

This essay provides a further exegesis ofUsha’s instructions and attempts to answerthe following questions that arise:

• What precisely does Usha mean when she saysthe actor must ‘breathe through the eyes’?

• How does the actor/practitioner close off allvenues of the breath except the eyes?

• What does it mean to ‘close the ears’ and ‘allthe orifices’ of the body?

• What do these instructions reveal about aSouth Asian approach to acting and embodi -ment? More specifically, what assumptions are

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Usha Nangyar in performance.

Gitanjali Kolanad in the process of visualization in‘The Flowering Tree’. Photos: Riaz Mehmood.



made about the inner (psycho) and outer(physical) dimensions of embodied experi -ence, the relationship between inner/outer(the actor’s awareness and embodiment), andabout the deployment of the actor’s awarenessand consciousness in the moment of per -formance?

• How does the practitioner train to becomevirtuosic in these psychophysical processes?

To answer these complex questions we mustexpand our discussion beyond kutiyattamper se to examine also: (1) the yogic practicesto which Usha refers; (2) what we knowabout acting and actor training in the earlyhistory of Indian theatre when Sanskritdramas were staged, and (3) other embodiedpractices unique to Kerala – the martial art,kalarippayattu,4 and kathakali dance-drama,which together can present a more completepicture of the techniques, processes, andmodes of representation through which anIndian psychophysical paradigm is actual -ized in practice. Finally, in order to expandour understanding of the importance of thisSouth Asian psychophysical paradigm beingdiscussed, the essay will conclude with abrief overview of how several contemporaryIndian practitioners are utilizing elements ofthis in their contemporary performancepractices.

‘It is Like “Looking”, as in Yoga’

What did Usha mean by ‘“looking”, as inyoga’?5 From his reading of the lateUpanishads and the Mahabharata, SouthAsian scholar David Gordon White gathersdescriptions of yogis who, like those towhom Usha refers, have developed specialpowers. White discusses yogis with thepower to leave their bodies via ‘rays (rasmi)that radiate outward from their eyes, heart,or fontanel, as a means to rising up to the sunor to entering the bodies of other creatures’(2009, p. 64). As White explains, this pheno -menon becomes a commonplace of medievalyogic theory and lore; however, thesenotions and practices are quite different from‘classical yoga’, where the emphasis is on‘turning the senses inward ‘to isolate themind–body complex from distractions of theoutside world’ (2009, p. 64).

The radiant sun appears to be the divine pro -totype for all of the epic practitioners who eitherrise via its rays to their apotheosis or who channelthemselves through rays to enter into otherpeople’s bodies. (White, 2009, p. 68)

Theories of perception within a numberof different Indian schools of philosophy

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Kutiyattam. Originally known as kuttu (drama),kutiyattam literally means ‘combined’ or ‘mixed’acting. Kutiyattam is a unique, regional style ofstaging dramas written in Sanskrit that began todevelop from earlier forms of Sanskrit dramaunder the patronage of King Kulasekharavarmam(978–1036 C.E.) in the southwestern coastalregion of India known today as Kerala State.The early history of Sanskrit theatre dates tobetween the second century B.C.E. and secondcentury C.E. when all aspects of theatricalpractice were recorded in the Natyasastra.This encyclopedic collection included informationon the mythological origins of drama, types ofplays, theatre buildings, music, psychophysicaltraining, how the actor embodies a character’sstates of being–doing (bhava), etc. It outlinesa complete theory of aesthetics (rasa) andexplains how pleasure is brought to an audiencein performance. The distinctive style of kutiyattamdeveloped very late in the history of Sanskrittheatre at a time when Sanskrit theatre anddrama were on the decline elsewhere in India(see Paulose, 2006, p. 65–101). By about thefourteenth century kutiyattam had developed itsdistinctive style and began to be performed ona regular basis in specially constructed templetheatres within the compounds of high-casteHindu temples as a ‘visual sacrifice’ to theprimary deity of the temple. The performancetradition has been sustained by the three sets oftemple servants who traditionally have the rightto train in and perform kutiyattam – Cakyarswho play male roles, Nambiars who providepercussion accompaniment on large copperdrums (milavu), and Nangyars who play thefemale roles. The Cakyars and Nangyars arehighly learned actors with a vast knowledgeof Sanskrit and Malayalam literature. Theytraditionally enact both solo performances,in which the actor elaborates stories fromencyclopedic collections of traditional tales(puranas), and the ‘combined acting’ of kutiyattamin which they stage selected acts of importantplays in the repertory. The example given hereexemplifies their approach to solo acting wherethe actor playing a character elaborates thestory by seeing and/or becoming anothercharacter in the story.



(Mimam saka, Samkhya, Vedanta, and Nyaya-Vaiseaika) all agreed that ‘ordinary (ocular)perception only reaches the “surface” ofthings’ as they come in contact with theirobjects:

The Nyaya-Vaisesika schools hold that while seatof the visual organ is the eyeball in its socket orthe pupil of the eye, visual perception in factoccurs when a ray of light (tejas) emitted by thepupil comes into direct contact, even conforms,with its object, from a distance. . . . The perceivingmind or sense organ differs from the sun, whoserays actually penetrate the earth or the bodies ofliving beings to infuse them with its vivifyingenergy or to definitively reabsorb their life breathsat death. (White, 2009, p. 70–1)

Yogi-pratyaksa or Yogi perception desig -nates the extra-ordinary ‘powers of vision’that yogis were understood to be able togenerate through their practices to ‘moreclosely approximate the divine model of theradiant sun’ (White, 2009, p. 68). This modelof the yogic power of ‘looking’ is also part ofthe ethnographic present.

As dis cussed in my ethnography of kalari p -payattu, in its most esoteric form of martialarts practice those who have devel oped yogicpowers are believed capable of attacking thephysical body’s ‘vital [or death] spots’ bysimply looking or pointing, i.e., they haveattained special powers that enable them,like the rays of the sun, to penetrate into thebody of another, and thereby to cause instantdeath without even touching the vital spots(Zarrilli, 1998, Chapter 5).

White concludes his analysis with thefollowing commentary on this particularmodel of the Indian yogic body:

Rather than being unidirectional in its extensionbeyond its visible physical contours, the humanbody bristles with openings and extensions thatare nothing other than the rays of perception thatflow out of every sense organ to ‘touch and takethe measure of every being at every level in thehierarchy of transmigrations’, and in the case ofthe sun, Yogis, Buddhas and gods, to penetratethose beings and transform them as they please. . .[This particular] yogic body was, and remains, anopen system, capable of transacting with everyother body – human, divine, and celestial – in theuniverse. (2009, p. 74–5)

Although Usha compares the actor’s psycho -physical process of ‘looking’ to that of theyogi, she is of course not suggesting that

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Kathakali (literally, ‘story play’) is a genre ofdance-drama dating from the late sixteenthcentury, also indigenous to Kerala. It enactsstories from the two great Indian epics, theMahabharata and Ramayana, as well as storiesabout Krishna from the puranas. When kathakaliemerged as a new form of dance-drama, its firstactors were Nayars – a particular Hindu castemany of whom were practitioners of kalarippayattu.So kathakali’s well known intensive system ofpsychophysical training and massage originatedin kalarippayattu. Its aesthetic form, handgestures, plastic use of facial expression, andunderstanding of acting were all based uponand influenced by the much earlier tech niquesand aesthetics of kutiyattam. In both kutiyattamand kathakali easily distinguishable make-uptypes allow the audience to identify and under -stand each character. But unlike kutiyattam,where the actors deliver the lines of the Sanskrittext they are performing, in kathakali onstagevocalists deliver the entire dramatic text in aunique form of singing (sopanam). The actor-dancers speak the entire text with the completelanguage of hand gestures. (See Zarrilli, 2000.)

Kalarippayattu is a compound technical termthat refers to the traditional martial art andphysical therapy healing techniques unique tothe southwestern coastal region of Kerala, India(the same region in which kutiyattam is found).The first half of the compound term, kalari, refersto the place of training – a five-foot deep earthenpit, covered by thatched palm. The second halfof the compound term, payattu, is derived fromthe Tamil payil meaning ‘to become trained,accustomed, practice’, and refers to the martialexercises practised in the training space. Thekalari was a centre for psychophysical exercise,martial arts training, and physical therapy treat -ments in villages throughout Kerala. As revealedin India’s vast literary traditions, Indian martialarts have existed on the subcontinent sinceearly antiquity. Kalarippayattu as the distinctiveKerala martial art emerged by the twelfth centuryC.E. out of two earlier source traditions – ancientTamil martial practices indigenous to the farsouth of the subcontinent, and the Dhanur Vedic(‘science of the bow’) brought to the south aspart of the Aryan migration from north India (seeZarrilli, 2000, p. 24–60).



Gitanjali mimetically ‘imitate’ the yogi, noris she suggesting that the actor/dancer hasobtained the ostensible ‘powers’ of a yogi asdescribed above. Rather, she is pointing tothe fact that both actor and yogi engage inparallel psychophysiological processes. Bothassume a common understanding and para -digm of the ‘power’ to affect another whetherit is in the case of the Yogi actu ally to enter orattack an-other human being, or in the caseof the actor to imaginatively materi alize an-other, and/or transform into an-other. Theactor’s psychophysiological ‘looking’ is simi -lar in kind, not degree to the accomp lishedyogi’s ‘looking’. Both are psychophysio lo -gical processes which actualize a relationshipof the doer to the done that is actual andmaterial. The yogi operates at a cosmologicallevel, the actor-dancer at an aesthetic level.Both have their own reality effects.

Embodied Modes of Practice in SouthAsia: Shared Patterns and Assumptions

To gain a more nuanced understanding ofUsha’s instructions regarding ‘breathing’through the eyes, I turn to the practitioner’srelationship to and use of the breath inembodied practices. In a bio-medical sense, itis not possible of course literally to ‘breathe’through one’s eyes. However, as explainedin detail below, in South Asia the termtranslated as ‘breath’, prana or prana-vayu,also means ‘wind’ or ‘winds’ (whether ex -ternal in the environment or internal withinthe body), as well as ‘vital energy’, i.e., theforce of life itself. Prana as the ‘wind’ or ‘vitalenergy’ is therefore an animating force per se,and is not confined to the bio-medical modelof the ‘breath’.

In South Asia prana is the conceptual andpractical link between the gross, outer, phy -si cal body and inner experience. For Usha,working through the breath, the kutiyattamactor ‘sees’ and thereby animates/materi al -izes each specific aspect of the goddess thatappears before her – from the goddess’s headand hair, all the way down to her feet. In eachmoment of ‘emphasis’, as the actor ‘breathesthrough the eyes’ she animates a materialelement of this other.

Likewise, when Gitanjali transforms fromthe sister into the tree, her breath serves asthe psychophysical vehicle through whichshe (materially) ‘becomes’ this ‘other.’ Amajor aspect of the audience’s pleasure inthis type of acting is witnessing the actor’sembodied visualization and subsequenttrans formation into the other as it happens.

The centrality of the breath in South Asianmodes of embodied practice is reflected ininterviews conducted with masters ofkalarippayattu and kathakali dance-drama.One martial arts master summed up theimportance of controlling the internal ‘wind’and developing ‘wind power’ as follows:

Prana-vayu is the basis of all other powers, andonly by increasing one’s wind-power will thatper son’s mental power and physical power in -crease. The various steps, poses, and applicationsin martial arts practice need strength (balam);however, this strength can only be acquired whenone has control of the vital energy. Only by takingthe breath in and training it at the root of the navel(nabhi mula) can the practitioner spread the ‘special’power situated in the inner parts through theexternal organs.6

Kathakali actor/master teacher Padmanab hanNayar (1928–2007) makes explicit what isusually implicit:

Anything physical requires control of the vayu.All the arts . . . have their own specific ways ofusing the vayu. In kathakali, each of the inner statesof being–doing (bhava) require the specific devel -op ment and proper use of the vayu. . . . I system -atically train the actor in all the body movementsfor a role, and how to bring the vayu through thewhole body. . . .

The teacher should know how the vayu movesaround within the body for each specific bhava, andthen utilize the basic poses and movements of thetraining which help to train the student in thecircu lation of the vayu. . . . So you must make thestudent practice until he is perfect through repeti -tion, and then the vayu will come. I won’t stopuntil the student gets it correctly. The studentswill get bored, and I too will get bored, but I won’tstop until the student gets it correctly!

(Interview, 1 July 2003)

From the interviews cited thus far, it is clearthat like yogis, practitioners of kutiyattam,kalarippayattu, and kathakali assume thatlearn ing to awaken, control, and circulate the

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wind/vital energy (vayu) throughout the bodyis central to mastery in all three arts.

But how does the practitioner learn toawaken and circulate the inner wind in orderto become a virtuosic actor/dancer ormartial artist? Kathakali actor M. P. SankaranNamboodiri explained that ‘first, perfectionof the body is most important’ (interview,1978). Echoing this observation, a Muslimmaster of kalarippayattu explained how anystudent ‘who wants to become a master mustpossess complete knowledge of the body’.Therefore, training begins with meyyarap -patavu, or ‘body-control exercises’. The firststep in preparing, perfecting, or gainingcom plete knowledge of the body is by repeti -tion of the basic exercises and forms that con -stitute a specific mode of embodied practice.

The earliest description we have of this typeof training for the actor/dancer is recordedin the Natyasastra (c. second century b.c.e. tosecond century c.e.). An intensive, rigorous‘method of exercise’ involving preparatorypsychophysical exercises and complete mass-age of the body is prescribed as follows:

One should perform exercise . . . on the floor aswell as (high up) in the air, and should havebefore hand one’s body massaged with the (seasa -mum) oil or with barley gruel. The floor is theproper place (lit. ‘mother’) for exercise. Hence oneshould resort to the floor, and stretching oneselfover it one should take exercise.

(Ghosh, 1967, p. 209)

Traditionally, training began at an early ageunder the guidance of a master-teacher(guru), and in some traditions students livedin their master’s house from childhood. Asone masters basic preliminary exercises, theneophyte goes on to learn more advancedtechniques – in kutiyattam and kathakali theseinclude learning dance steps/choreography,movement patterns necessary to play variousroles in the repertory as well as an entiresystem of hand-gestures (mudras) and facialgestures (rasa-abhinaya).

Whether learning the preparatory exer -cises or more advanced techniques, thestudent mimics the master and/or seniorstudents, repeating over and over each daythe basic techniques until they become partof one’s body knowledge – ready at hand tobe used ‘unthinkingly’. For the young seven-to ten-year-old going through this type oftrain ing, the process is anything but roman -tic: it is difficult, hard work. Masters are strict,correcting the student in performance ofeach detail. Over time, this process or repe ti -tion has the potential to shape and transformthe neophyte into a mature, accomplished,virtuosic practitioner.

Exercises for the body at first appear tosimply be physical, i.e., they seem to be ‘thatwhich is external’. But as the forms arepractised assiduously and as they ‘comecorrect’, students begin to manifest physical,mental, and behavioural ‘signs’ (lakshana)that indicate change and effect a gradualtransformation not only of the body, but alsoof one’s relationship to doing the exercises.The exercises gradually become ‘that whichis internal’ (andarikamayatu). The relationshipbetween the doer and what he does has beenqualitatively transformed from an externalprocess that only engages the gross physicalbody to a psychophysical one in which thepractitioner’s inner experience, awareness,

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Two young kathakali performers-in-training demonstratethe kind of body flexibility gained through their psycho -physical training process. Pictured is a rehearsal(coliyattam) of the kathakali drama Lavanasuravadhamwhere the two brothers, Lava and Kusa, string theirbows in preparation for a fight. Photo: Phillip Zarrilli.



atten tiveness, and perception are ideallyengaged and altered.

One of the central ‘signs’ marking thistrans formation from external form to internalaction is when the teacher observes how ‘thevayu (wind/energy) comes’ fully into astudent’s practice. In order to understandboth this process of transformation of ‘thebody’ as well as what is meant by ‘that whichis internal’, we will briefly examine two keySouth Asian paradigms that inform psycho -physical processes and acting.

When Usha Nangyar compared the pro -cess of ‘looking’ by inhaling/exhaling‘through the eyes’ to that of yoga, as dis -cussed earlier, she makes explicit the fact thata yogic paradigm and understanding of em -bodied experience informs embodied practicethroughout South Asia. What Usha does notexplicitly mention is the second paradigm ofthe body and experience that informs train ingand embodiment throughout South Asia –India’s traditional system of medicine, Ayur -veda (literally, the ‘science of life’). Possessing‘complete knowledge of the body’ tradition -ally meant gaining knowledge of threedifferent but closely related ‘bodies’ of practice:

1. the fluid body of humours and saps;

2. the body composed of bones and muscles (andfor the martial arts practitioner the vulnerablevital junctures or spots of the body); and

3. the subtle, interior body.

The first two bodies are based on Ayurvedaand together constitute the gross, ‘physical/exterior body’ (sthula-sarira). The third – thesubtle, interior body (suksma-sarira) – is mostexplicitly identified with Kundalini/Tantricyoga, but this map of interior experienceinforms all systems of embodied practice inSouth Asia.

The ‘Physical/Exterior Body’ in Ayurveda

Since the yogic and Ayurvedic paradigms areubiquitous in South Asia, informing how‘the body’, the ‘mind’, their relationship, andexperience are traditionally understood inyoga, martial arts, and perfor ming arts, wewill briefly examine these two paradigms

before continuing our discussion of psycho -physical acting.

Ayurveda is a compound term literallymean ing ‘the science’ or ‘knowledge’ of ‘life’.It is the indigenous form of medicine thatseeks to establish harmony with the environ -ment by maintaining equilibrium in a pro -cess of constant fluid exchange. The art ofthis tradi tional medical system is meant toestablish:

’junctions’ or ‘articulations’ between man and hisenvironment, through the prescription of appro -priate diets and regimens. . . . Equality, balance,and congruous articulations are meant for theconservation and restoration of these preciousfluids. . . . By means of [’restraints’] (brahmacarya). . . and various other psychosomatic disciplines,one should establish congruous junctions with thesurrounding landscapes and seasons, and thusone should protect one’s powers, one should hus -band one’s vital fluids.

(Zimmermann, 1986, p. 17–18)

The daily practice of psychophysical discip -lines is understood to establish congruenceamong the three humours: wind (vata),phlegm (kapha), and fire (pitta). The role ofexercise and massage in maintaining innerfluidity and articulation among the humourswas explained in antiquity in a medical textattributed to Susruta:

The act born of effort (ayasa) of the body is calledexercise (vyayama). After doing it, one shouldshampoo (vimrd) [massage] the body on all sidesuntil it gives a comfortable sensation. Growth ofthe body, radiance, harmonious proportions of thelimbs, a kindled (digestive) fire, energy, firmness,lightness, purity (mrja), endurance to fatigue,weariness, thirst, hot and cold, etc., and even aperfect health: this is what is brought by physicalexercise. . . . It is especially beneficial to him in thewinter and spring. But in all seasons, every day, aman seeking his own good should take physicalexercise only to half the limit of his strength, asotherwise it kills. When the [wind] vayu hithertoproperly located in the heart (hrdi) comes to themouth of the man practising physical exercise, itis the sign (laksana) of balardha, of his having usedhalf of his strength (Cikitsasthana, xxiv, 38–49).

(Zimmermann, 1986)

To maintain heath, one’s diet as well asmassage and vigorous exercise should beadapted to the seasonal cycles. Therefore the

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rainy season from June through August iscon sidered the best for intensive psycho -physical training and massage. During thesecool months the heat produced by vigorousexercise and massage is counterbalanced bythe seasonal accumulation of phlegm. Bycontrast, the very hot summer season fromMarch to the onset of monsoon is charac ter -ized by accumulation of the wind humour;therefore exercise should be either cut backor avoided altogether. Exercise and massageare understood to increase the circulation ofthe wind humour throughout the body, andthis, too, counterbalances the accumulationof phlegm during monsoon.

The fluid humoral body is supported bythe body as a frame of bones, muscles,ligaments, vessels, joints, as well as theirjunctures and vital spots. This body must beexercised daily to achieve flexibility andfluidity – a process assisted by massage andapplication of special oils to the entire body.

The Interior, Subtle Body of Yoga

The specific term yoga is derived from theSanskrit root, yuj, meaning ‘to yoke or join orfasten . . . make ready, prepare, arrange, fitout . . . accomplish’ (Monier-Williams, 1963,p. 855–6). Yoga encompasses any ascetic,meditational, or psychophysiological tech -nique which achieves a ‘binding’, uniting, orbringing together of the body and mind orconsciousness.

The wide variety of yogic pathways dev -el oped historically in South Asia included:karma yoga or the law of universal causality;maya yoga or a process of liberating oneselffrom cosmic illusion; nirvana yoga or a pro -cess of growing beyond illusion to attainatonement with absolute reality; and hathayoga or specific techniques of psycho-physio -logical practice. The most popular and visibleform of yoga practised today are versions of‘classical’ hatha yoga whose major source isusually traced to the Hatha-yoga-pradipika(’Illumination of the Yoga of Force’) datingsomewhere between the thirteenth andeighteenth centuries, and the more modernreform ations of ‘classical’ yoga now beingcalled ‘modern postural yoga’ (de Michelis,

2005; Mark Singleton, 2010; Doniger, 2011).This yoga includes repetition of breath-controlexercises, forms/postures (asana), combinedwith restraints/constraints on diet and beha -viour. These practices are understood to acton both the physical body (sthula sarira) andthe subtle body (suksma sarira) most oftenidentified with Kundalini-Tantric yoga.

The physical body and subtle body ofyoga are not absolute categories. Exercise ofone body is understood naturally to affectthe other. They are fluid conceptual andprac tical counterparts. Specific parts of thesubtle body are thought to correspond tospecific places in the physical body. Theseare analogous/homologous correspond encesand are never exact. The two are so fun da -mentally related that what affects one bodyis understood to affect the other.

As early as the Rg Veda (1200 b.c.e.)ascetic practices (tapas) are mentioned.7 Bythe time of the composition of the Upanishads(c. 600–300 b.c.e.), specific methods forexperiencing higher states of consciousnessand control of the self were well developed.The earliest use of the term ‘yoga’ is in theKatha Upanisad, where the term means ‘thesteady control of the senses, which, alongwith the cessation of mental activity, leads tothe supreme state’ (Flood, 1996, p. 95).

Philosophical assumptions informing yogavary widely, and range from monist (all isone) to dualist (all is two) to atomist (all ismany). Yoga’s psychophysical practices havenever been ‘confined to any particular sec -tarian affiliation or social form’ (Flood, 1996,p. 94). As a consequence, both yoga philo -sophy and practices are found throughoutSouth Asia and inform all modes of em -bodied practice as well as the visual andplastic arts.

From the earliest stages, yoga developedas a practical pathway toward the transform -ation of both the body and the conscious ness(and thereby ‘self’). The ultimate goal wasspiritual release (moksa) through renunci -ation by withdrawal from the world and thecycles of rebirth. Some yogic pathwaysprovide a systematic attempt to control boththe wayward body and the potentially over -whelming senses/emotions that can create

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disequilibrium in daily life. Rigorous prac -tice therefore can lead to a sense of detach -ment (vairagya) through which the yoginwithdraws completely from daily life and itsactivities, and is understood to achieve astate where he transcends time (kalalita). Theyogis and yogic powers discussed at thebeginning of this essay reveal a type of yogioriented towards and open into the world.

Yoga philosophy and its practices havealso always informed and been directlyadapted by non-renunciants – i.e., those whokeep their feet firmly within the spatio-temporal world. Traditionally this includedIndia’s martial castes (ksatriyas) who served asrulers and/or those martial artists/warriorsin the service of rulers, as well as a widevariety of artists – actors, dancers, musicians,painters, and sculptors.

Rulers, martial artists, and performing/plastic artists had to live and act very muchin and upon the world and/or its social order.Rulers/ksatriyas were required to govern,maintain the cosmic order mirrored in themicrocosm of worldly kingdoms, and be ableto use well-honed martial skills to maintainorder. Artists/performers were expected tobring pleasure and aesthetic joy to the diversegods of the Hindu pantheon and/or thoseone was serving and entertaining. Theirmodes of embodiment are more like the ‘opensystem’ discussed by White (2009, p. 74–5).

In contrast to the ‘classical’ yoga practiti -oner-as-renunciant who withdraws fromeveryday life, for martial artists and actor/dancers especially, ‘yogic’ practices do notnecessarily lead to renunciation and/or dis -engagement from daily life. Rather, as thepractitioner engages in yoga-based psycho -physical practices, ideally the ego becomesquiet and the emotions calm. One is betterable to ‘act’ within their respective socio-cultural domain while still in the world. Themartial or performing artist who practisesyoga-based psychophysical techniques doesso to transcend personal limitations to better‘act’ rather than withdraw from the world. Inthe South Asian context, later in life, whenone’s duties and social obligations have beenfulfilled, the individual might choose tobecome a renunciant and follow the radical,

ideal pattern of the yogi who withdrawsfrom life.

Of most relevance to our discus sion ofpsychophysical acting is the relation ship bet -ween the physical and subtle bodies. Theyare integrally related. The concept and speci -fic inner alchemy of the subtle body historic -ally developed separately from Ayurveda aspart of ascetic and yogic practice and appearsfully developed after about the eighthcentury c.e. The essential elements of thesubtle body usually identified in these later

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The cosmic energy (kundalini or Sakti ) is understoodand represented as coiled within the lowest centre,where it sleeps until awakened. Pictured here is onetypical ‘map’ of the subtle body with each of the cakras,arrayed along the spine, represented by a flower. Toeither side are the two main channels (nadis).



texts include structural elements known aswheels or centres (cakra), channels (nadi), anddynamic elements including the vital energyor wind (prana, vayu, or prana-vayu) and thecosmic energy (kundalini or Sakti) sleepingcoiled within the lowest centre.

Through the channels or conduits (nadi)flows the vital energy or inner wind. Thechannels usually range in number from tento fourteen. Of the three most importantchannels two (ida and pingala) reach from thelower end of the spinal column (muladhracakra) to the left and right nostrils. Betweenand intertwined with them is the central chan -nel (susumna-nadi). It too originates at the‘root’ of the spinal column and stretches tothe top of the head. All the channels origi -nate at the lower end of the spinal columnand form an intricate network through thebody linking muladhara-cakra with the variouslimbs and sense organs.

The wheels or centres (cakra) number fromfive to eight and take the form of a stylizedlotus (padma). They are arrayed verticallyfrom the base of the spine (along the corres -ponding central susumna nadi) up to andthrough increasingly refined and more subtlecentres. These centres are places within thesubtle body where latent functions, oftenrepresented as half-opened buds, await theinvigorating exercise of the internal energy.The number of petals indicates the frequencyof vibration once a cakra is activated.

Moving from ‘That which is External’ to‘That which is Internal’

The ‘breath’ or ‘vital energy’ within is theconceptual and practical link between thephysical and subtle bodies of Ayurveda andyoga, and the key to understanding the‘internal’. The natural form that the windhumour took in classical Ayurveda was itsform in nature as wind or breath.8 Wind isunderstood to spread throughout the bodyand to be responsible for all activity, just asatmospheric wind is thought to be respon -sible for all activities in the natural world.Within the physical body, specific activitiesare identified with specific forms of wind orbreath (see Zarrilli, 2000, p. 131; Filliozat,

1964, p. 210-11; and Flood, 2009). The termprana or prana vayu is used generically torefer to any type of wind activity within thebody, whatever its form, as well as to thespecific wind/energy/life-force of the breath.

This equation of breath or wind as the vitalenergy or ‘life-force’ (jivan) was explained tome by kalarippayattu master teacher Guruk -kal Govindankutty Nayar, when he askedrhetorically:

Who am I? My hands, legs, nose, etc.? Who am I?My hands, legs, breast? That, all of these is prana.Just to close your eyes – that is one prana. Yawningis another prana. Therefore, life itself (jivana) isprana.

Another martial arts master explained howprana is :

the vayu which rules the body as a whole. Prana isthe controlling power of all parts of the body.Vayu is not just air, but one power (sakti). That iswhat rules us completely. Prana means jivana –‘life’, individual soul.

In kutiyattam, kathakali, and kalarippayattutrainings, the vayu is gradually awakened,con trolled, and spread throughout the bodyin one or more of the following three ways:

1. By overt practice of special breath-control exer -cises as taught by some but not all specificteachers;

2. ’correct’ daily practice of preparatory bodycon trol exercises such as yoga asanas, or kalarip -payattu and kathakali training exercises; and

3. ’correct’ practice of other psychophysicalforms – such as the circulation of ‘vital energy’to enliven hand or facial gestures in kutiyattamand kathakali.

One typical yoga practice is literally to closeoff all the body’s orifices the better to con -centrate one’s vital energy as well as one’s‘mind’. When done fully and ‘correctly’,psycho physical exercises and forms of em -bodied practice operate at both the physicallevel and on a subtle, interior level. Thepractitioner gradually frees himself fromthe flux of the body’s agitation, and/or theevery day psycho-mental stream of con scious-ness. The ‘interior’ affected by psychophysi caltraining includes consciousness, awareness,and perception as they are deployed in doing

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the exercise/form. This process reflects ageneral cultural assumption that long-termpractice of psy cho physical disciplines leadsto discoveries. Discussing what one learnsthrough yoga practice, the Bhagavad-Gita(4.38) tells us, ‘He who attains perfectionthrough the practice of yoga discovers of hisown accord, with time, the brahman present inhis soul’ (Varenne, 1976, p. 58, italics mine).Varenne cites the Amritabindu Upanisad asfurther illustration of the idea that ‘know -ledge’ in a discipline of embodied practice isassumed to be ‘already there’, hidden,waiting to be discovered:

And knowledge is hidden in the depth of eachindividual just as in milk the butter we cannot seeis hidden; this is why the wise practitioner mustcarry out a churning operation within himself,employing his own mind without respite as thechurning agent. (Varenne, 1976, p. 59)

What is meant by the term ‘mind’ here? InSouth Asia there are three important Sanskritterms which can be translated as ‘mind’. Theterm buddhi specifically refers to the rationalmind, i.e., such mental processes as judge -ment, evaluation, inference, deliberation, con-ducting systematic research, etc. The termmana or manasa may be translated (as in thepassage above) as ‘mind’; however, it actu -ally means:

both mind and heart, as well as mood, feeling,mental state, memory, desire, attachment, interest,attention, devotion, and decision. These terms donot have a single reference in English, and mustbe understood through clusters of explicit andimplicit meanings. . . . The terms of emotion andthought, mind and heart are not opposed.

(McDaniel, 1995, p. 43)

Another Sanskrit term, cittam, means think -ing, mind, intelligence, will, or heart. Whenused in relation to martial arts, yoga, oracting, both mana and cittam are under stoodas consciousness itself – i.e., awareness, per -ception, or the attunement/direction of one’sattention-in-action. Unlike the term buddhi(rational mind), the use of mana or cittamassumes that the ‘mental’ element engagedin doing a psychophysical practice is notrational thought ‘in the head’, but an oper a -

tion of the mind/awareness/consciousness-itself in-the-body as it engages a specificpsychophysical task. As Haridas Chaudhuriexplains, in yoga-based psychophysical dis -ci plines such as kalarippayattu, kutiyattam, orkathakali,

mind and body are not heterogenous but homog -enous. They are different evolutes or modes ofmanifestation of the same fundamental creativeenergy. . . . In the same way, the outside physicalenvironment and the mind–body evolves fromthe same primal energy, too. Since there ishomogenous and existential continuity here, thefact of interaction between mind and mattercauses no problem. The dualism of mind andbody is a product of our discursive under stand -ing. It is a division inserted by dichotomousthinking within the continuum of our multi -dimensional experience.

(Chaudhuri, 1977, p. 255–6)

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In practice of kalarippayattu, the leg should becomeso flexible that it can be easily kicked so that it touchesthe hand. Pictured is Sathyan Narayanan Nayar of theCVN Kalari, Thirvananthapuram, executing the first legexercise.



The goal of all virtuosic psychophysical sys -tems is reaching a state of masterly ‘accomp -lishment’ (siddhi) in which the doer and doneare one. At the highest level, a master’spractice seems ‘effortless’. The practitionerreaches a state of being/doing within whichone is free to practise ‘the principle of non-action in action’ – i.e., one is in a position topractice ‘I act, yet it is not I but Being actsthrough me’ (Chaudhuri, 1977, p. 252). Thisis a self-actualized mode of realization that is(ideally) egoless in its action. The dancer isdanced; the song sings the vocal artist; thekalarippayattu practitioner’s body is so flex -ible that it ‘flows like a river’; the kutiyattamact ress materializes the other as she is visual -ized and transformed. The yogi is freed formeditation; the martial artist is freed to fight;the actor/dancer is freed to ‘become’.

The actor enters into an optimal relation -ship with an action, i.e., the relationship isone of unmediated, fully embodied being/doing. The actor does and/or apprehends ineach present moment. In performance, theactor ‘is that’ which he does. As one kathakaliactor explained, the actor ‘becomes one withthe character’ (’natan kathapathravumai tadat -myam prapikanam’) in a psychophysical sense.9

One way of understanding this optimalstate of awareness and actualization in actingis through a key passage in Nandikesvara’s

Abhinayadarpanam – a Sanskrit text usuallydated somewhere between the tenth andthirteenth centuries. The passage describesthe optimal state of being/doing from theactor/performer’s perspective. It explainshow the actor realizes India’s rasa/bhava aes -thetic in performance:

Where the hand [is], there [is] the eye;Where the eye [is], there [is] the mind;Where the mind [is], there [is] the bhava; Where the bhava [is], there is the rasa.

From the actor’s point of view ‘inside’ aperformance, the ideal state of awarenessone inhabits is a non-conditional state ofbeing/doing. The use of the state-of-beingverb (‘is’) clearly indicates that there is nointentionality or conditionality in thisoptimal state. It is an emergent state – wher -ever the actor’s attention (eye) is directed,the actor’s mind/heart/awareness is fullypresent. With the actor’s mind/heart/aware-ness fully present in the moment, the actorembodies the state of being/doing (bhava)specific to the dramatic context in eachmoment. Simultaneously, when the actor isfully present embodying a specific bhava,then the audience will experience aestheticbliss (rasa).

Drawing upon principles of yoga, theIndian actor’s body is traditionally trained

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Two students of the kalarippayattu master, Sreejayan Gurukkal, execute the deep tanjamppayattu steps.



through a long-term process to become asuitable vehicle through which this idealaesthetic experience might be actualized.Conventions guiding acting and movementranged from lokadharmi – the ‘ordinary’ and‘concrete’ – to natyadharmi – that which is‘extraordinary’ and ‘ideational’. The ‘concrete’is what is easily recognizable, such as a ges -ture mimetically representing a deer. The‘ideational’ is that which is elaborated, ab -stracted, transformed, or distilled and there -fore more decorative, abstract, and stylized.As genres of performance, kutiyattam andkathakali both possess ‘ordi nary/concrete’and ‘extraordinary/idea tional’ aspects insimilar but different proportions

More specifically to understand psycho -physical acting process in India, we examinein detail the kathakali actor’s training andapproach to actualizing ‘the interior’ whenacting/dancing roles within the kathakalirepertoire.

The Psychophysical Actor at Work inKathakali Dance-Drama

Intensive training of the kathakali actor/dancer traditionally began from the age ofseven or eight. (Today’s students may be tenor much older.) Formal instruction is a longand arduous process that lasts eight hours aday, six days a week, for between six and tenyears. When their formal training is com -plete, young actors at first dance preliminarydances and/or play minor roles and onlygradually work their way into medium-sizedand major roles. It is generally agreed thatkathakali actors usually do not reach maturityas performers until about the age of forty.

The formal years of training are under stoodgradually to reshape the actor’s body mind.Basic techniques must first be mast ered,including preliminary body preparationexer cises and massage, meticulous isolationexercises for the eyes and facial muscles/facial mask, a complete vocabulary of handgestures (mudras) and facial expressions (rasa-abhinaya), rhythmic patterns, and set dancesteps and choreography.

All these elements are woven into thefabric of a complete performance of a dance-

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Above: one of kathakali ’s twenty-four root hand-gestures (mudras) – urnanabha. Note how the palmand fingers are energetically animated/activated.

Below: one of kathakali’s nine basic facial gestures (rasa-abhinaya). Pictured is fury, anger, or wrath (krodhabhava). Here the ‘wind’ is pushed into the lower eyelids.Photos: Phillip Zarrilli.



drama text.10 In addition, the young studentmust grow and mature as an individual, en -gage in study and reflection of the dramatictexts and the collections of stories and epicson the basis of which specific dramatic textshave been authored, develop his imagin -ation, and integrate all these into shapingand playing small, medium-sized, and largeroles in the repertory.

The specific techniques of training, as wellas the application of those techniques toplaying roles combine to render the entirebody flexible, balanced, and controlled. Overtime these techniques help the individual toawaken, discover, and creatively embodyand utilize the inner ‘wind/breath/life-force’(prana, prana-vayu) in performance.

Preliminary Body Preparation and Exercise

With the onset of the cool, seasonal mon -soonal rains, beginning as well as advancedkathakali students start their annual cycle oftraining by undergoing the same process of‘body preparation’.11 Based on Kerala’s martialart, kalarippayattu, daily training begins withthe repetition of a rigorous physical regimeof body-control exercises and oil massage –given with the teacher’s feet and hands.12

Together the exercise and massage graduallyrender the body flexible, balanced, con trolled,and reshaped to suit kathakali’s aesthetic styleand stance – a grounded, wide stance withsplayed knees and full turn-out, arched back,use of the outsides of the feet, and upturnedbig toes. After applying oil to his entire body,the student pays respects with his body toLord Ganesha – the elephant-headed incarn -ation of Lord Vishnu who is prayed to beforeany new undertaking – by prostrating him -self on the floor. He then performs a series ofjumps (cattam) as well as jumping steps, andfinally progresses through an elaborate seriesof body-control exercises.

Either before or immediately followingmassage, additional exercises are performedincluding the splits (suci, literally meaning‘needles’), circling the body, body-flips, andfootwork patterns (kalsadhakam). Anotheressen tial part of the early morning trainingregime designed to develop a young actor’s

expressivity is repetition of eye exercises(kannusadhakam) performed in nine differentdirections and three different speeds.

The most obvious expressive meansthrough which the actor conveys a char -acter’s states of being/doing (bhava) withinthe dramatic context of a story include notonly the eyes, but hand gestures and facialexpressions. Therefore, the young actor musttechnically master both modes. This meansexercising the fingers, wrists, and hands, aswell as the sets of facial muscles (cheeks, lips,etc.) required fully to embody each expres -sive state.

Kathakali’s language of gesture andexpressive use of the eyes is part of itsinheritance from the Natyasastra via kutiyat -tam. Both kathakali and kutiyattam base theirgesture language of twenty-four root mudrason a regional text, the Hastalaksanadipika – acatalogue of basic hand poses with lists ofwords which each pose represents (seePrekumar, 1948; Venu, 1984; Richmond,1999). The two terms, mudra and hasta, referto the twenty-four root gestures performedwith a single hand, combined hands, or mixedhands. Meanings are only created when theactors use the basic alphabet literally to‘speak’ with their hands.

The kathakali actor’s face is a pliant vehiclefor displaying the constantly shifting mani -festations of a character’s inner states of be -ing/doing (bhava) through which he servesas a vehicle for the audience’s aesthetic

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Eye Exercises (kannusadhakam)

Students sit cross-legged on mats with alengthened spine and focus their gaze directlyahead. The instructor sits in front of the students.The student places the thumb of each handgently on the lower lid, and the index finger liftsthe upper lid. The teacher traces patterns withhis index finger in nine patterns as the studentkeeps his focus on the teacher’s finger. Thegeometrical designs pass through nine differentpoints and include straight lines up and downand on the horizontal plane, diagonals, circles,and figure eights. Each pattern is taught in slow,medium, and fast speeds.



experience of rasa. The nine basic states in -clude: the erotic, love, or pleasure; the comic,mirthful, or derision; the pathetic/sad ness;fury, anger or terrible; repulsive or disgust;

the wondrous or marvellous; and peace orat-onement.

At first, each expression is learned throughcontinuous repetition and correction. Begin -

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The Natyasastra clearly establishes the rasa–bhava aesthetic as the central theoretical andpractical organizational concept for theatre whenit states, ‘Nothing has meaning in drama exceptthrough rasa.’ The actor’s task is fully to realizeand embody states of being–doing (bhava) asthe vehicle through which aesthetic experienceis provided for spectators. Rasa is so called‘because it is capable of being tasted’ (Ghosh,1967, p. 105). The analogy of rasa as the tastingor savouring of a meal is offered to explain theprocess by which a theatrical performance of aplay attains its own coherence.

‘The “taste” of the various ingredients of a mealis both their common ground and organizes themas its end’ (Gerow, 1981, p. 230). What the actorsbring towards the audience, and offer as the ‘meal’to be tasted, is each character’s states of being/doing (bhava) specific to the ever-shifting dramaticcontext of the drama. The accompanying rasasare made available for ‘tasting’ as each bhava isembodied and elaborated in performance.

The Natyasastra identified eight permanent statesof being/doing (sthayibhava). Each of the variousstates or moods arises from the actor’s process ofembodiment as they play characters in the drama,as well as the process of aesthetic perception perse. Playwrights and composers structured theirwork around those modes most useful to theelaboration of the dramatic context. In this sense,the ‘seed’ of the rasa experience is implicit in adrama, and made explicit by the actors as they

perform. In the rather simple one-act farce TheHermit/Harlot, the Prologue as well as the playproper elaborate the comic (hasya rasa). Inperformance, the expressive form(s) that ‘thecomic’ takes and the audience response varieswithin the context of the drama per se. Here iswhat the Natyasastra has to say about theexpression of the comic (hasya):

‘This is created by . . . showing unseemly dress orornament, impudence, greediness, quarrel,defective limb, use of irrelevant words, mentioningdifferent faults, [etc.] The result is represented] byconsequents like the throbbing of lips, the nose,and the cheek, opening the eyes wide or contract -ing them, perspiration, colour of the face, andtaking hold of the sides.’ (Ghosh, 1967, p. 172.)

In the first part of the passage, the text lists how tocreate a comic situation. In the second part of thepassage, the text discusses the psychophysicalembodiment of the ‘comic’ state of being–doing.

It is important to differentiate between theaesthetic experience of ‘emotion’ and everydayemotion. While the basis for the permanent statesof being–doing embodied by actors are the wayswe react ‘emotionally’ in everyday situations –being attracted by someone or something, orbecoming angry, or guffawing while we hold oursides with laughter – these ‘everyday’ emotionsare not the same as the aesthetic experience ofrasa. The Natyasastra focuses on how to evokethis aesthetic experience of rasa in the audience.

The nine basic bhavas/rasas and their facial expressions

bhava rasa(states of being/doing the actor embodies) (‘tasted’ by the audience)

1. pleasure or delight (rati ) corresponds to the erotic (srngara) 2. laughter or humour (hasa) the comic (hasya)3. sorrow or pain (soka) pathos/compassion (karuna)4. anger (krodha) the furious (raudra)5. heroism or courage (utsaha) the heroic/valorous (vira)6. fear (bhaya) the terrible (bhayanaka)7. disgust (jugupsa) the odious (bibhatsa)8. wonder (vismaya) the marvellous (adbhuta)9. at-onement (sama) at-onement/peace (santa)*

*The twelfth-century commentator Abhinavagupta identified this ninth state of at-onement/peace.

Rasa–Bhava Aesthetic Theory



ning instruction in how to assume the basicfacial expression for rati bhava – the erotic,love, or pleasure – is usu ally very technical,much like the following:

Open the upper lids as wide as possible. Keep thelower lids slightly closed. With the lips make asoft, relaxed smile, but do not show the teeth.Keep the gaze focused straight ahead. Havingassumed this position, begin to flutter the eye -brows. Keeping the shoulders still, and using theneck/head, move the head first to the right, andthen to the left – back and forth. While keepingthe external focus fixed ahead on one point, movethe head to a 45-degree angle to the right, con -tinuing to flutter the eyebrows. Repeat to the left.

Similar instructions for assuming the comicor mirthful (hasa bhava) are as follows:

Slightly raise the upper bridge of the nose bet weenthe eyebrows and slightly turn down the out sidesof the eyebrows. Keep the eyelids slightly closed,and the lips drawn down on each side. Indent theupper lip muscles on the outsides.

Vasu Pisarody explains how at first manystudents simply ‘move [their] facial muscles’.It is only after six to ten years of training thata ‘fuller understanding of the states ofexpres sion’ arises through the training as wellas further reading and personal experience.Eventually the student ‘realizes what he haddone at first [i.e., simply moving his facialmuscles] . . . wasn’t enough’ (interview, 1993).

The Subtler, ‘Inner’ Art of Kathakali Acting

As students progress through the trainingprocess, a subtler process of ‘internal’ con -nection is gradually realized. Each handgesture ‘spoken’ and each state of being–doing embodied is enlivened/animatedthrough circulation of the breath (prana-vayu)– that inner energy or life-force assumed tobe present and channelled for emphasis intospecific gestures, facial expressions, throughthe eyes or lower eyelids, etc. There is theexternal form – the appropriate use of thehands and/or engagement of the facial mask– and the internal dynamic that animateseach ‘form’ – the enlivening action of theprana-vayu.

At the periphery of his awareness, themature kathakali actor senses or feels the formas it is animated and takes shape. He fullyem bodies the erotic state with his entire body–mind. He is that state of being/doing at themoment it is brought to actualization.Actual izing ‘free’ circulation of the vitalenergy (prana-vayu) within allows the practi -tioner to release and shape this ‘energy’ dyn -am ically for the performance of each nuanceof a role. As the vital energy circulates withinand is shaped through training exercises andperformance techniques, there is the ‘felt’experiential quality to the flow of prana-vayuthroughout the entire body (palms, feet, topof the head, etc.).

Optimally, the kathakali actor attains astate in which his bodymind is fully andconstantly ‘energized’ as/when he moves.For example, when performing the eroticstate (rati bhava) the actor animates hisexternal facial mask via this specific breath -ing pattern:

Beginning with a long, slow, and sustained in-breath, the eyebrows move slowly up and down.The eyelids are held open halfway on a quickcatch-breath, and when the object of pleasure orlove is seen (a lotus flower, one’s lover, etc.), theeyelids quickly open wide on an in-breath, as thecorners of the mouth are pulled up and back,responding to the object of pleasure.

(Author’s description)

Throughout this process the breathing isdeep and connected through the entirebodymind via the root of the navel (nabhimula); that is, it is not shallow chest breath -ing, nor is the activity of the breath only inthe face. The characteristic breath patternassociated with the erotic sentiment is slow,long, sustained in-breaths with which theobject of love, pleasure, or admiration isliterally taken in: that is, the sight, form, etc.of the beloved or a beautiful lotus flower is‘breathed in’. This dynamic and intricateprocess is exemplified in Usha Nangyar’sinstructions to Gitanjali about how psycho-physiologically to take in the goddess shesees before her with/through her breath.

The amount of force brought into thedirection and circulation of the vayu dependson the specific state of being–doing actual -

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ized. For the erotic sentiment, much lessovert force is given to the breath than, forexample, when actualizing ‘fury’ and send -ing the breath/wind into the lower lids. Eachexpressive state has its own unique patternand strength in use and circulation of vayu.

Students are instructed to breathe onlythrough their nose, and not the mouth – a simpleinstruction which, when adhered to alongwith maintenance of correct spinal align -ment when performing a variety of exercises,develops breathing which originates at theroot of the navel. Correct instruction alsocomes from the hands-on manipulation ofthe student’s body by the teacher. Askathakali teacher M. P. Sankaran Namboodiriexplains,

Without a verbal word of instruction the teachermay, by pointing to or pressing certain parts of thebody, make the student understand where thebreath/energy should be held or released.

When a student assumes kathakali’s basicposition with the feet planted firmly apart,toes gripping the earth, it creates a dynamicset of internally felt oppositional forces asthe energy is pushed down from the navelthrough the feet/toes into the earth, while itsimultaneously pushes up through the spine/torso, thereby supporting and enliv en ing theupper body, face, hands/arms.

This centred groundedness is behind allaspects of kathakali performance includingdelivery of elaborate hand-gestures. Psycho -physi o logically, each gesture originates inthe region of the root of the navel (nabhimula) as the breath/energy extends outwardthrough the gesture, optimally giving it fullexpressivity appropriate to the dramaticmoment.13 When teaching some of the basicfacial expressions, some teachers instructstudents literally to ‘push the breath/energy’from the root of the navel into a certain partof the face. When creating the furious senti -ment (krodha bhava) the teacher may ask thestudent to push the vayu into the lower lidsin order to create the psychophysiologicallydynamic quality necessary to actualize ‘fury’.

During the 2003 interview with Padman -ab han Nayar, he demonstrated and explainedsome of the myriad ways in which the vayu is

present throughout the body of the kathakaliactor-dancer, and how it moves through andsupports the actor’s embodiment and deliv -ery of all aspects of performance, includingthe hand gestures (mudras) and facial expres -sions. Taking the basic stance of the kathakaliactor/dancer learned at the beginning oftraining – the feet are just beyond shoulderwidth, knees are splayed, and the feet turnedon to the outside with the big toes pointingup – Padmanabhan Nayar explained how, inorder to sustain this position correctly, theactor/dancer must engage the vayu in fourplaces:

1. through the four toes (except the big toe) asthey ‘grip’ the floor;

2. the knees as they open wide to the sides; 3. the small of the back which is constantly

length ened and flat and on the opposite side ofthe body, the ‘root of the navel’ (nabhi mula);

4. and the neck as the chin is tucked in.

‘The vayu should never be held in the chestas that will push the chest forward andshoul ders back.’ From this basic foot parallelposition, the vayu sustains the left foot as itslides across the body and extends upwardwith the big toe extended.

Padmanabhan Nayar also described howproper awakening and circulation of the breathis developed in the fundamental train ing ofthe kathakali actor/dancer through the repeti -tion of the beginning body exercises (meyyur -ap padavu). For example,

You must be doing jumps (cattam) twenty-fivetimes. But when you finish these twenty-five, thestudent should not open his mouth, but be breath -ing only through his nose. Through exercises likethis, correct use of the vayu will come.

As we talked, Padmanabhan Nayar demon -strated how, when embodying the lotusflower, the actor’s fingers open as the petals.Here the ‘actor should bring the vayu into thefingers as the petals so that the vibration ofthe petals is there’.

According to Padmanabhan Nayar, theresult of the presence of such a deep, yogic,psychophysical connection through the vayuis that the actor becomes a ‘musician inside’.He then ‘plays’ the psychophysical score of

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each role. Just as the original sounding of theSanskrit aum is understood to ‘vibrate’ theuniverse, so ideally at a micro-level withinthe actor, when vayu is ‘correctly’ circulatedand fills out the external expressive form,there will be an inner ‘vibration’ which moveswithin the actor. So if the actor plays the‘right note inside, then the bhava comes outfrom the inside. . . . Then only will themovement be according to the character.’

The process of the kathakali actor beginsnot with the personal, the behavioural, or themotivational aspect of playing an action, butrather with the psychophysiological formsthrough which the ‘emotional’ is eventuallyexpressed as the student grows and matures.The student actor’s personal feelings are notthe point of origin for the creation of a facialor hand-gesture, or for the full realization ofa state of being–doing; however, one’s experi -ence of life and imagination are used to fillout the outer forms. As he enters the processof embodying the hand-gesture for lotus, thekathakali actor momentarily ‘becomes’ a lotusflower as he ‘sees’ its beauty, and ‘smells’ itsfragrance. He ‘is’ that – i.e., the flower itselfas well as the appreciation of the beauty andfragrance of the flower. Constantly in thebackground is the actor’s ‘real-life’ pleasureencountering the beauty and fragrance of thelotus.

Some teachers also prompt their youngstudents to engage their imagination in speci-fic ways. K. Kanan Nayar explains how heasked his students when practising the heroicstate to:

Imagine an elephant. For the erotic state, a lotus.For the furious, imagine a lion. For wonder, imag -ine a sudden action. I then ask them later intraining if they are, for instance, performing won -der, imagine being in a big city. Or imagine beingin a forest, seeing elephants, snakes, etc.

(Interview, 1976)

Vasu Pisharody asks his students to ‘showthe feelings of an experience he can under -stand’. Vembayam Appukoothan Pillai ex -plains the actor’s expression of bhava as

how we feel toward a person or thing. For example,srngara is the emotion we feel towards a thing or aperson we like. When we see this person or thing,

our mind is enlarged. Similarly, for hasya, it is thefeeling we get when we see a funny thing. Sorrowis the feeling we have when we experience diffi -cul ties, etc. (Interview, 1993)

Along with the circulation of the inner wind,engaging the young actor’s imagination, per -ceiving consciousness, or ‘mind’ contri butesto the full embodiment of each expressivestate.

Each moment the kathakali actor uses tocreate a character is always shaped by whatis considered ‘appropriate to the action’. Theperformer’s engagement in this process ispart of an aesthetic that is culturally shapedand identified as ‘acting’. Therefore, theactor’s engagement in his work is clearlydifferentiated from both the experience ofemotion in everyday life, and from otheractivities such as that of the ritual performerwho enters a state of trance or possession.Trance/possession are a different type ofwork and experience from that of the actor.

As one actor explained when differen tia -ting between everyday experience and hiswork as an actor:

It is not right to have real tears on stage: it doesnot fit our stylized type of theatre. But the emotionof crying must be there and it will affect the audi -ence. As an actor you must always use your emo -tions, knowing that you are onstage. There mustbe balance. After the long period of training, thegestures, the technique become automatic. Youdon’t have to concentrate on them; then you canreally fill in the role, add the emotion, and so on.

Enacting an aesthetic state of being/doing inkathakali is a fully physicalized and embodiedpsychophysiological task which ideally en -gages the actor’s bodymind completely.

The Kathakali Actor in Performance: King Rugmamgada’s Law

Kathakali’s dramatization of stories from thepuranas and epics place at centre stage avariety of idealized but usually flawed epicheroes. One heroic figure is King Rugmam -gada. In King Rugmamgada’s Law (Rugmam -gada Caritam) the playwright MandavalapalliIttiraricha Menon (c. 1747–94) dramatized atest of the King’s devotion to Lord Vishnu.14

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The full text has ten scenes, but today onlythe final three (8 to 10) are performed.15 Theplay focuses on how a holy day of fastingand meditation known as ekadasi becamecentral to worship of Lord Vishnu. On ekadasidevotees of Vishnu are supposed to remainpure and chaste while fasting and meditating.

The three scenes usually performed todaybegin when Brahma – along with Siva andVishnu, one of the three main gods in theHindu pantheon – sends the enchantressMohini to test King Rugmamgada’s devo -tion to Vishnu by having Mohini obstruct hisobservation of ekadasi. When Mohini firstarrives at Rugmamgada’s court, he does notknow that she has been sent by Brahma totest him. When he sees Mohini, he immedi -ately falls in love with her, and invites her tojoin his court as one of his consorts. (As was

typical in the distant past, along withconsorts King Rugmamgada had a primarywife to whom a son, Dharmamgada, andheir to the throne was born.) Mohini agrees,but on condition that he never deny heranything she desires. Rugmamgada agreesby taking an oath that he will indeed neverdeny her anything she desires.

In Scene 10 of the play, it is ekadasi day.After undergoing the necessary purificatoryrites, King Rugmamgada is seated onstagemeditating on Vishnu. Mohini enters in anamorous mood, dances, and then addressesRugmamgada as follows:

O my lover,one whose body is as handsome as Kama,one as deep as the ocean,one who resembles Kama in amorous games,

please come to me with delight!

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Kalamandalam Gopi Asan in a performance of Rugmamgada Caritam. Above: Rugmamgada sits in a state ofdisbelief over what has been asked of him. Opposite: loosening his hair, Rugamagada enters a transformative stateof ‘fury’ in which he will be able to sacrifice his son as required. Photos: Phillip Zarrilli.



(Today) I haven’t yet had the slightest gratification from love play.

As Mohini is about to touch him, Rugmam -gada draws away from her, explaining how

O young lady,I will do everything you desire, (but) today

is the auspicious ekadasi day.All Kama’s sports are prohibited.O young lady, my life-blood, my life-blood.

O auspicious one, (today one) must avoid rich foods,

Oiling the body, and other pleasures.(One) should only meditate on Vishnu.

(Zarrilli, 2000, p. 164)

Mohini insists on being pleased, but Rug -mam gada resists. She asks him, as a King,whether it is ‘proper to break a vow like this?’For a King to break any vow would mean hisfailure to ‘uphold the truth’ and thereforeuphold the world on which his truthfulnessis founded.

Rugmamgada continues to refuse, insist -ing that he must complete his day of fastingand meditation. Mohini is adamant, but offersRugmamgada a way out of his dilemma:

You may observe this great rite if you meetone condition:

Place your son, Dharmamgada, on his mother’slap and gracefully cut (his neck) with yoursword.

King Rugmamgada is shocked, and becomesangry.

Alas! O wicked one! How can you make suchhideous demands?

Give up such cruelty and state what you want.

Mohini responds:

If both father and mother freely do (as I haveasked) without

Shedding a single tear, then you may observe(the rites) without hindrance.

(Zarrilli, 2000, p. 165)

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King Rugmamgada’s test of devotion toVishnu means that he has no choice but tocut off his son’s head as Mohini demands.The climactic, highly emotional scene16 ofthe play in production is one in which thesenior actor playing the role of the Kingenacts his inner conflict between three emo -tions: anger at Mohini for her demand to cutoff his son’s head; pathos at the potential lossof his only son and heir to the throne; and theheroic recognition that he cannot transgressa vow he has taken, i.e., as a King he mustuphold the truth by cutting off his son’shead. Throughout the scene his heroic dutyis represented by the sword he holds in hishand – a symbol of his power and authority.

Kathakali’s approach to psychophysicalacting is clearly and simply demonstratedwhen a master actor, such as KalamandalamGopi, plays the role of Rugmamgada in thisscene. The dramatic and performative focusis on Rugmamgada’s mental state of torment– an excruciating rollercoaster ride as the Kingattempts over and again to eradicate both the‘fear’ he has at having to execute his dutyand the tremendous ‘pathos’ he feels overthe forthcoming death of his son at his ownhand. Rugmamgada attempts to summon upthe heroic courage necessary to do his duty.As a King, he must erase this personal ‘fear’and anguish, and regain the mental equili b -rium and ‘mental power’ necessary to sacri -fice his son.

But just as he raises the sword and isabout to ‘cut the boy’s neck and maintain thegood fame of our dynasty’, he loses his innerresolve when he sees the boy lying on hismother’s lap before him, drops the sword,and falls to the ground, fainting. This isanything but ‘heroic’ behaviour; however, itmakes tremendous (melo)drama.

Desperate, Rugmamgada turns to LordVishnu, and demands that Vishnu providehim with the ‘courage to sacrifice my son,thus protecting the truth, in order to main -tain the good fame of our dynasty’. Forkathakali connoisseurs in the audience, thisparticular moment in the performance is thehighlight, when the actor sequentially enactsin quick succession the three conflicting statesof being/doing which have produced Rug -

mam gada’s mental confusion and inabilityto act. The actor moves deftly from a full,psychophysical embodiment of anger as hegazes, eyes blazing, at Mohini, to pathos ashe looks at his son, to the heroic as he looksto and takes courage from his sword. Each ofthese immediate changes from one ‘emotional’state to another is achieved through thecirculation/manipulation of the vayu – thatwhich fully animates/activates the actor’sbodymind.

Finally, in a moment of realization of whatis demanded of him in the moment to fulfilhis overriding duty, Rugmamgada leans for -ward, loosening his long hair, and draws itsstrands to either side of his head. As he raiseshimself up, Rugmamgada’s eyes are wideopen, revealing the fact that he has nowentered a fourth state of being/doing – ‘fury’(raudra). In this transformative state, he hastranscended his personal emotional confusionand reached a state beyond fear in which hewill be able to cut off his son’s head. It is onlyin this state that he can announce:

I have no fear. What you see with your nakedeye is perishable. The truth is the only thingthat is imperishable. Therefore, now whatshould I do? Cut the boy’s neck and protectthe truth itself! (Zarrilli, 2000, p. 168)

In this transformed state, just as the King liftshis sword to ‘sacrifice’ his son as required,Vishnu intervenes and reveals to Rugmam -gada the fact that Lord Brahma had sentMohini to test his devotion.

Returning to Usha Nangyar’s instructionsto Gitanjali with which we began this essay,it should by now be clear what Usha meantfor the actor to ‘breathe through the eyes’. Byundergoing extensive, in-depth psycho phys -ical training, the inner breath/wind/animat -ing energy is circulated throughout theactor’s body and allows the actor fully toinhabit and embody each state of being–doing – such as Rugmamgada’s transform -ative state of ‘fury’. As we have seen, this isespecially manifest in the actor’s use of hiseyes and facial expressions even as theactor’s entire bodymind fully engages eachexpressive state. In Usha’s instructions toGitanjali, ‘breathing through the eyes’ when -

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ever there is a moment of emphasis allowsthe actor to concentrate all one’s animatingenergy and power into those psychophysi -ological moments of materialization of an-other in the processes of visualization andmaterialization.

Psychophysical Acting in ContemporaryIndian Performance

In the final part of this essay, I will brieflyexamine psychophysical acting in contem -porary Indian performance. During the nine -teenth century the British brought Wes terndrama and theatrical practices such as use ofthe proscenium stage to India along withEnglish education and financial/industrialpractices.17 The arrival of English drama inIndia was part of the expansion of the Britishempire via the activities of the British EastIndia Company – at first in the three citieswhere the Company established its bases,i.e., Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai (Bombay),and Chennai (Madras). The earliest theatricalactivity was by the British for the British.

By the mid- to late nineteenth century Eng-lish plays were being translated into Indianlanguages and Indian-language dramas werewritten and performed by amateur Indianactors for Indian audiences. But as Erin Meeexplains:

The spread of English drama was part of colon -izing Indian culture; it was designed not only toshape artistic activity but to impose on Indians away of understanding and operating in the worldand to assert colonial cultural superiority.

(2008, p. 1)

In response to colonization, from the latenineteenth through the mid-twentieth cen -turies there ensued a lengthy period of poli -tical struggle for social reform and Indianindependence (achieved in 1947). Through -out this period Indian reformers wrote andproduced a wide variety of modern text-based dramas that promoted social and/orpolitical reform and even revolution.18 Theuse of drama techniques for social reformand educational purposes has remained anextremely important part of contemporarytheatre practice in India to the present.19

A Return to Indigenous Indian Modelsand Psychophysical Practices

The models for the vast majority of the veryearly Indian plays and productions wereWestern; therefore, processes of acting wereusually not informed by the types of indige -n ous Indian psychophysical principles andtechniques discussed earlier. Indeed, duringthe late nineteenth and very early twentiethcenturies many of the traditional genres ofIndian performance were looked down uponby English-educated Indians. Western sportswere preferred over indigenous practicessuch as yoga. In contrast to Western modelsof text-based spoken drama, kathakali wassometimes called a ‘dumb-show’.

This began to change in the post-independence period when – in response tothe dominance of Western models of drama,theatrical practice, and aesthetics – a numberof Indian theatre artists began to search forindigenous paradigms, techniques, and sub -jects that could create distinctively ‘Indian’modes of contemporary theatre. As Erin Meereports in her book-length study of thismovement, Theatre of Roots: Redirecting theModern Indian Stage, these impulses

became known as the theatre of roots movement –a post-independence effort to decolonize the aes -thetics of modern Indian thatre by challenging thevisual practices, performer-spectator relation ships,dramaturgical structures and aesthetic goals ofcolonial performance. (2008, p. 5)

Three of the most important figures in thismovement were the playwright/actor, GirishKarnad (b. 1938) of Matheran, near Mumbai,the playwright/director, Kavalam NarayanaPanik kar (b. 1928) of Kerala, and RatanThiyam (b. 1948) of Manipur.20

Girish Karnad’s seminal dramas such asHayavadana (1971), Nagamandala (1988), andAgni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain, 1994)drew upon elements of Western drama, butintermingled with Indian structure, form,content, and aesthetic considerations. Themain plot in Hayavadana was drawn from aneleventh-century collection of Sanskrit stories,The Ocean of Stories (Katharsarisagara), butintermingled elements from Thomas Mann’s

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The Transposed Heads and of Karanataka’sYaksagana performance tradition. He wascreating ‘a hybrid theatre that reflects thecomplex subjectivities of post-Independencereality’ (Mee, 2008, p. 142).

When Kavalam Panikkar began workingin theatre he wanted to create a theatre thatwas a distinctively Indian form of ‘visualpoetry (drishya kavya) – poetry for the eyes aswell as the ears’ (Mee, 2001, p. 6; BrianSingleton, 1999). For inspiration he turned toSanskrit theatre and drama and numerousindigenous Kerala performance traditionsthat he had experienced since childhood –vocal music (chanting of the Vedas and theunique Sopanam style of singing), and thepsychophysical techniques and systems dis -cussed earlier (kalarippayattu, kathakali, andkutiyattam, as well as Mohiniattam, Kerala’sdance tradition performed by women.

When he established his own company,Sopanam, Panikkar wanted his actors to befully trained in sarirabhinaya – acting with/through their entire bodies; therefore, earlyin the company’s history, he had mem bers ofthe company train in kalarippayattu withGurukkal Govindankutty Nayar of the CVNKalari, Thiruvananthapuram.21

A second highly visible and importantcontemporary theatre director to have madeextensive use of indigenous regional tradi -tions in creating his unique theatre aestheticis Ratan Thiyam of Manipur. When heestablished his co-operative ensemble – theChorus Repertory Theatre – Thiyam beganto make extensive use of a variety of dis -tinctive local Meitei arts to train his actingensemble – traditional forms of dance (Pung-cholum and Raslila), storytelling (Wari leeba),and the martial art, thang-ta. Similar to theway in which kalarippayattu provides a com -plete training of the individual’s bodymind,thang-ta practitioners ‘learn to activate anduse each and every body part’ as they simul -taneously develop an ‘inner awareness’ inwhich they constantly adjust and readjust‘energy and body movement . . . rather thansight’ (Mee, 2008, p. 256).

The rediscovery of the value of indigen -ous Indian psychophysical principles ofembodiment through traditional systems of

training led India’s major actor traininginstitutions such as the National School ofDrama in New Delhi (founded in 1959 byEbrahim Alkazi) and the Calicut School ofDrama (Trissur, Kerala) to introduce bothtraditional genres of performance (kathakali,yaksagana, kutiyattam) and/or practice ofyoga and martial arts like kalarippayattu intotheir curricula alongside Western modes ofacting, voice, and movement training.22

However, too often there has not been anattempt to integrate the elements and prin -ciples of these disparate practices into a clear,practical, and coherent methodology throughwhich acting students may understand pre -cisely how to apply what they are learn ing tospecific dramaturgies, whether Indian, Wes -tern, or hybrid.23

The ‘roots’ movement has not been re -stricted to contemporary theatre practice.Among contemporary Indian choreog raphers,Chandralekha (1928–2006) was the firstmajor dancer/choreographer to utilize yogaand kalarippayattu training as she reinventedbharatanatyam – the ‘classical’ form of dancepractised in the South Indian state of TamilNadu – for the contemporary prosceniumstage. Chandralekha began to take into hercompany young men who were accomp -lished kalarippayattu practitioners. Given theiryears of training in kalaripayattu, they wereeasily assimilated into Chandralekha’s com -pany and choreography – some of whichused kalarippayattu sequences such as thesalutation with the body known as vanakkamas part of the choreography. When thekalarippayattu practitioners joined Chandra -lekha’s company the entire group began touse yoga and kalarippayattu as their basicpsychophysical training.24

Performers Trained in TraditionalPsychophysical Disciplines

In the final section of this essay, I turn myattention to recent developments. Ratherthan focus on institutions and companies, Ilook at a younger generation of individualactors, dancers, and performance makerswho have been trained in depth in tradi -tional psychophysical disciplines such as

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bharatanatyam, kathakali, etc., but whoseartistry and performance vocabulary haveexpanded beyond the traditional genres.

Arguably the best known among inter -nation ally recognized theatre actors whoorigin ally trained in a traditional performingart before becoming a well-known contem -porary stage actor is Yoshi Oida – a long-timemember of Peter Brook’s company based inParis, and now an independent theatredirector/actor. Yoshi’s earliest training wasin Japanese kyogen with Okura-san. It is clearfrom Yoshi’s books how central his under -standing of the techniques and aesthetics ofkyogen and noh are to his understanding ofacting processes (Oida with Marshall, 1997,1992).

This ‘younger’ generation of Indian per -formers began their training during the1970s and 1980s. They have brought theelements, principles, and techniques of theirtraditional psychophysical trainings into anencounter with alternative, new forms oftheatre and performance. For example, NavtejJohar originally trained as a bharatanatyamdancer at Rukmini Arundale’s, Kalakshetra(Chennai), and with Leela Samson at theShriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra (New Delhi).Johar is also a long-time student and prac -titioner of yoga, having trained in Patanjaliyoga at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram(Chennai), under the guidance of Sri T. K. V.Desikachar. He began teaching yoga in 1985

and in his teaching today freely merges yogapostures (asana), breathing exercises (prana -yama), visualization, meditation, and Vedicchanting.

As a dancer Johar has performed atvenues throughout the world, and hasworked with a number of well-known inter -national companies and choreographers –The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, theChandralekha Group, Yoshiko Chuma, andthe New York City Opera, among manyothers. Johar’s choreographic work includessolo and ensemble works – ‘classical’ bharata -nat yam as well as contemporary performancepieces, street theatre, performance instal -ations, site-specific events, musicals, andspectacles. One particularly striking piece ofsolo performance is ‘Never Failed Me Yet’

(1999), which clearly made use of Johar’sextraordinary ability to inhabit both innerand outer worlds of performance.

As a final example I will discuss the workof Maya Krishna Rao who creates her con -temporary work out of her years of trainingand performance of kathakali, her interactionwith a wide variety of contemporary app -roaches to performance-making, and mostrecently her encounters with new media.Trained from a young age at the InternationalCentre for Kathakali in New Delhi, MayaRao learned kathakali from such excellenttraditional masters as Guru Madhava Panik -kar who came to the New Delhi Centre on itscreation in 1960 (see Zarrilli, 1984, p. 304–8).These master teachers introduced Maya Raoto kathakali not through the female roles, butrather through training her in the strongmale roles, providing her with a firmfoundation in the ‘strong’ (tandava) aspectsof playing kathakali characters. Only later inher training did she begin to learn, anddiscover the joys of, the repertory’s femaleroles. Throughout her years of performanceand teaching, often at the National School ofDrama in New Delhi, Maya Rao’s work hasbeen inspired by and based on her kathakalitraining.

One example of her creative application ofher psychophysical training in kathakali toher contemporary performance work is hersolo performance, Khol Do, first performed in1993, and inspired by the short story bySaadat Hasan Manto. In a programme noteMaya Rao explains the context which led toher adaptation of the story for performance:

Khol Do is set in the riots that ended the division ofIndia and the creation of a new state, Pakistan.Millions left their homes to cross the new borderto make a new home. Sirajuddin was one suchwho left India and travelled by train to Lahore [inwhat became Pakistan]. By the time he got off, hewas nearly unconscious. For days he sat on theplatform staring at the dusky sky. Where was hisdaughter Sakina? When had he got parted fromher? He could only remember the running crowdand Sakina’s dupatta, or veil, falling to the ground.When he turned to pick it up she had urged,yelling in the melee, ‘Don’t bother with it.’ In therefugee camp, the heavily armed eight young malevolunteers had been solicitous. ‘If Sakina is alive

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we will find her for you,’ they had said reassur -ingly. How was old Sirajuddin to know they hadalready found her but they were not through withher, yet? (Rao, 1999)

While inspired by this story, Maya Rao’sperformance – the first of a series of soloperformances she began to create in 1993 – isneither an exercise in storytelling nor akathakali-style enactment of the story. In thissense it is not kathakali per se. In an interviewshe explains how she has been

looking for a physical language where every actionmay set off different signals of experience. Theeventual form is not kathakali, yet is inspired by it.

(Interview, 1999)

Maya Rao’s performance is an hour-longunrelenting, forcefully embodied physicaliz -ation that communicates through her body -mind the complete and unrelenting pathosand terror of the experience of dislocation. Itis not a literal telling of this horrific story, butrather a suggestive/performative embodi -ment of elements that communicates theviolence and horror of this experience.

As part of Khol Do, Maya Rao occasionallyuses specific kathakali gestures, facial expres -sions, and choreographic elements, but theseare woven into the fabric of this totally psy -cho physical performance score developedout of a lengthy process of improvisationand devising. During the creative process ofdevising the performance, Maya Rao

kept trying physical actions to generate that rangeof thought and emotions that are part of theatmosphere of the story. The result is, singlegestures may have no particular meaning, butresonances that create multiple meanings.

(Rao, 1999)

At the core of her creative process arekathakali’s interior modes of acting – the totalengagement of her bodymind through thebreath/energy in physicalization of specificstates/tasks/actions. Her process is oneintended to discover how ‘to shift danceenergy to a moment in a person’s life whenwords are not being used to signal the tradi -tion’ (Rao, 1999) – an approach to crea tionthat is psychophysical, not psychological.

Khal Do was created by Rao as a memberof the theatre group Vismaya. Founded in1993 under the chairpersonship of the lateShri P. N. Haksar, Vismaya draws uponIndia’s diverse traditions of dance, music,literature, and the other arts to create newforms of theatre, using the arts as a means ofeducation. The company’s work has increas -ingly incorporated elements of live camerafeed and multi-media design by AmiteshGrover. Their productions include Rain -maker, Departures, A Deep Fried Jam, The FourWheel Drive, and, most recently, Lady MacbethRevisited, performed in its most recent ver sionas part of the 2010 Bharat Rang MahotsavFestival, New Delhi.

During rehearsals for this, kathakaliencountered Shake speare in the form of thedemon-king, Ravana. As Rao explains in aprogramme note,

Ravana entered . . . probably to meet his kindredspirit, Lady M. Yes, in many ways these two seemalike – both, often, have very little notion of theconsequences of their actions. And so, to honourboth, I have used a sequence of mudras and themusic with it from a celebrated Ravana piece of akathakali play. They seemed just right for LadyMacbeth as well. (2010, p. 157)

What is significant about Rao’s work is that‘even though she does not use the code ofkathakali, she is clearly influenced by theprinciples of the form’ (2010, p. 156), and thedeep, intensive psychophysical engagementin acting process which is produced by yearsof kathakali training. In Rao’s new forms ofartistry, kathakali is constantly present, butremains completely in the background. Thissubtle use of kathakali points to how suchtraditional modes of psychophysical trainingprovide the individual actor/performer witha process that addresses simultaneously boththe subtle, interior processes of working with‘energy’ as it ‘fills out’ each action in a per -formance score, and the ability to design andshape a performance score through use ofthe entire body.

The diverse body of work being createdtoday by traditionally trained contemporaryperformers such as Johar and Rao is helpingto change the complexion of the Indian

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performance scene. Crucially for such per -for mers, they have spent a significant periodof time immersing themselves in one or moretraditional modes of psychophysical train -ing, and these have provided them with asolid foundation for their own ever-evolvingcreative work.25

Notes

1. From the earliest period of the development ofSanskrit theatre and drama in India b.c.e., performerswere equally skilled as actors and dancers.

2. Gitanjali Kolanad is a well known bharatanatyamdancer-choreographer who trained at Kalakshetra inChennai. She and the author were researching, adapt -ing, and co-creating a new solo bharatanatyam dancetheatre performance based on A. K. Ramanujan’s trans -lation of the traditional tale, ‘The Flowering Tree’. Theperformance premiered in Chennai and Toronto in 2004.

3. Here ‘theory’ as a representational model isalready thoroughly embedded within and made explicitwithin the practice per se. In When the Body Becomes AllEyes . . . , my 1998 ethnography of kalarippayattu, Iarticulated an analytical framework for understandingthe relationship between embodied practices and thediscourses/representations through which such prac -tices are transmitted. See also Gavin Flood’s recentanalysis in which a similar framework is articulated(2009).

4. Similar to other Asian cultures, the martial arts ofSouth Asia were historically diverse and regionallyspecific. I focus here on kalarippayattu of Kerala. Otherextant Indian martial arts still practised today includethang-ta (Manipur); ati-tata (also known as ati-murai,varma-ati, and – incorrectly – as ‘southern-style kalarip -payattu’) and silambam (both Tamil Nadu); and Indianwrestling (throughout North India).

5. The yoga discussed here is not the yoga that mostpeople perform in contemporary yoga classes. Someelements of this more popular yoga are discussed laterin the essay.

6. This master requested anonymity.7. For further information on the contested history

and diversity of yoga practices and philosophy seeFlood (1996, p. 75–102), Varenne (1976), Filliozat (1991),Feuerstein (1980), and White’s exhaustive study ofsiddha yoga traditions in medieval India (1996). Twoimportant recent studies of the reinvention of what isnow often called ‘modern postural yoga’ which hasbecome so popular in the West are de Michelis (2005),and Mark Singleton’s controversial Yoga Body (2010). Seealso Doniger’s balanced review of Singleton (2011).

8. Filliozat traces both the organic sense of breathand the association between wind and breath from theperiod of the Vedas through the classical Ayurveda ofSusruta and Caraka and the psychophysiology of yoga.As early as the Vedas breath (prana) and wind (vayu orvata, from Indo-Iranian pre-history ‘the principle ofactivity’) were assimilated to each other (1964, p. 184–5).The technical vocabulary of the Vedic texts was laterdeveloped into a full ‘system of pneumatic cosmo-physiology’ in which the animating power of wind tookthe shape of breath or Atman (ibid., p. 65–6). The

Atharvaveda affirmed the identity of breath and wind: ‘itis the wind which is called the breath; it is on the breaththat all that was and all this is, all is based’ (ibid., p. 64–5).

9. A fundamental assumption of Indian thought isthe Upanishadic statement, tat tvam asi, ‘you are that’(Chandogya Upanisad 6.1 6, p. 12–13). Indian philosophy,cosmology, and everyday life are played out against theunderlying assumption that one might ‘become one with’.Rather than dualities, it reflects the fact that microcosmand macrocosm, self and universe, subject and object arenot set against one another, but are correlative.

10. See Zarrilli (2000) for a complete account ofkathakali dance-drama texts and translations of fourplays from the repertory.

11. For a complete description of the exercises andtraining summarized here, see Zarrilli, 1984, p. 107–43.

12. When kathakali began to emerge as a distinctivegenre of performance in Kerala under the patronage ofrulers of small principalities, its first performers wereNayars trained in the traditional Kerala martial art,kalarippayattu. These kalarippayattu-trained Nayars werepledged to serve their ruler/patron. At first their annualtraining would have simply been the traditional, rigorouskalarippayattu training. As different styles of kathakalideveloped, the training evolved from kalarippayattu’spreliminary body-training into a distinctive form ofkathakali training based on the earlier kalarippayattu. (Forfurther information see Zarrilli, 2000, p. 19ff).

13. This deep, inner, psychophysiological connec tionto the ‘root of the navel’ (nabhi mula) is a common placeassumption in kalarippayattu practice. As Moham med -unni Gurukkal explained about the performance ofbreath exercises, when performed correctly, ‘Your mindis simply on what you are doing. There is a grip orpower at the base of the navel (nabhi mula) at the fullpoint of inhalation.’ During vigorous practice, sustainedbreathing is maintained so that there is a constant‘gripping’ (piduttam) which comes naturally to the lowerabdomen. This is where the traditional loin cloth (kacca;lengoti) is securely wrapped and tied to ‘hold in’ the lifeforce.

14. See Zarrilli, 2000, Chapter 8, p. 159–74, for atranslation of King Rugmamgada’s Law and for moredetailed commentary. The play is based on the story ofKing Rugmamgada found in Chapter 21 of the PadmaPurana.

15. Many plays still in the active repertory havebeen ‘edited’ to shorten them to three- or four-hourperformances. It is commonplace for an all-night per -form ance today to include three shortened plays focus -ing on scenes of most interest to connoisseurs. Since1930, when the best-known Malayali poet, MahakaviVallathol Narayana Menon, founded the now well-known Kerala State Arts School (Kerala Kalaman -dalam), kathakali has been adapted both by practitionersfrom within the tradition and by artists and entre pre -neurs from without. These experiments have includedkathakali for tourist audiences, writing and staging newplays based on traditional epic/puranic sources, trans -forming kathakali techniques and choreography intomodern forms of Indian stage dance and/or dance-drama, and writing and staging new plays based onnon-traditional sources and/or current events, such asthe 1987 leftist production of People’s Victory, whichpitted the personified hero (World Conscience) againstthe personified villain (Imperialism). Non-Hindu mythsor non-Indian plays such as the stories of Mary Mag -dalene, the Buddha, and Faust, as well as the Iliad and



King Lear, have also been adapted for kathakali-styleproductions. .

16. This scene is actually a performative ‘interpo -lation’ or elaboration on the dramatic text invented bykathakali actors at some point in the history of the play’sproduction. What distinguishes such interpolations fromthe original dramatic text is that they are not sung, butsimply enacted without repetition by the actor or actors,through action and hand gestures.

17. It is beyond the scope of this essay to provide acomplete history of the emergence of contemporaryIndian theatre. See Chatterjee (2007), Dharwadkar(2005), Mee (2008), Solomon (1994, 2004), and Chapter12 in Richmond, Swann, and Zarrilli (1990). For adiverse collection of contemporary Indian plays inEnglish translation, see Mee (2001).

18. For one historical example see Zarrilli (2006, p.391–9) and Bhaasi, T. (1996).

19. For two of many examples see Eugene Van Erven(1992, p. 114–39) and Zachariah and Sooryamoorthyabout the work of Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP)which uses drama as one of its primary tools for edu -cation (1994).

20. Mee provides detailed information in a chapterabout the practices of Panikkar (Chapter 2), Karnad(Chapter 3), and Thiyam (Chapter 5) in the context of the‘roots’ movement. On Panikkar see also Singleton (1999).

21. The author regularly trained and practisedkalari p payattu with Sopanam actors at the CVN Kalariduring the 1980s.

22. While Ebrahim Alkazi was still Director of theNational School of Drama during the 1970s, the authorintroduced students and staff at the NSD to kalarip -payattu and its potential for training contemporary actors.

23. See my Psychophysical Acting (2009) for a book-length discussion of these issues and one attempt atintegration. Psychophysical Acting provides an overviewof how the principles discussed here have informed myown approach to training contemporary actors.

24. For a book-length account of Chandralekha’s lifeand choreography, see Bharucha (1995).

25. Yet another model is that provided by SajeevPurushothama Kurup. Kurup originally trained for sixyears as a kathakali dance-drama actor-dancer. Afterseveral years of professional performance experience inKerala within the kathakali tradition, he decided to seekout new forms of training so that he could expandbeyond traditional kathakali and enter into contem -porary performance practice. Sajeev was admitted to theTheatre Training Research Programme in Singapore andundertook an intensive three-year professional actor-training programme which combines traditional Asianpsychophysical disciplines of training ( jingxi, noh, way -ang won, kutiyattam) with contemporary Western app -roaches to acting, movement, and voice.

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zarrilli- psychophysical approaches and practices in india

Documents

southwestern coastal region

modern indian stage

traditional psychophysical disciplines

oxford university press

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king rugmamgadas law

contemporary indian performance

training contemporary actors