Greek Drama and the Kutiyattam

Abstract

The two most ancient forms of literary drama in the world are those of Greece and India. In the case of that of Ancient Greece, we possess only a fragment of the total literary output of antiquity, and those plays which have survived are mere skeletons of what was originally a brilliant performance art. A thousand years of continuous performance tradition perished in the collapse of civilization which overtook most of Europe in the seventh century A.D.' In India, particularly in Southern India, which has been relatively free of cultural disruption throughout its history, the performance tradition of Sanskrit drama (a tradition at the very least two thousand years old) has survived into the twentieth century in the form of the Kutiyattam of Kerala. It is well known that contacts between Indians, Greeks, and Roman citizens of the Eastern Mediterranean were extensive for a six-hundred year period from the fourth century B.C. to the third century A.D. Can a study of the Kutiyattam, conservator of the most ancient classical performance art in the world, reveal anything as an analogy of the style in which Greek Drama was performed? In answering this question, I will consider not the well-worked problem of the origin of the Indian theatre,2 but the likelihood of Greek influence on the development of Sanskrit drama. To suggest concrete models for the reconstruction of ancient Greek dramatic performance is outside my scope. However, a cursory look at the style of Kutiyattam may point the way to an appropriate approach for such a reconstruction. Direct Greek influence in large numbers begins in India with the land invasion of Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. Although this military adventure resulted in no Katharine B. Free is Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at Loyola Marymount University, and is currently in India as a Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies. Research for this article was begun with a grant from the U.S. Office of Education.