Vachika Abhinaya

Vrittis is the abhinaya of speech, jesture and emotion.

Origin of vritti:

Once, devine Vishnu by his maya withdrew all the worlds and turned them into an ocean and lay on a snake bed. There, the 2 asuras, madhu and kaithabha intoxicated with their strength and itching for a battle began to threaten him. The Asuras, and the imperishable attacked each other with various harsh words of abuse that even the ocean shook. God brahma, listening to the various words being shouted felt perturbed and asked as to what this exchange of abuse was. “Abuses and counter-abuses are flowing without an end. Is this Bharati-Vritti.[that is the way the words are used.]. Kill the two demons.”

Listening to Brahma, lord Vishnu said, “I have invented this Bharati to serve my purpose. It will be the Bharati style of a speaker, since words [ie., language = Bharati] is predominant. Now I shall kill them.”

During the fight, the steps of Vishnu were placed in various holds here and there and they became a heavy burden [bhara] to the earth and the bharati style came into existence because of the “bhara”.

The bow of Vishnu called sarnga, as it was turned this way and that way, was brilliant and flashing in quick turns, and it’s steadily increasing sattva [strength] created the sattvati style

The knot in which Vishnu tied his hair [kesha] and his various graceful angaharas, brought into existence the Kaisiki style. During the course of the fight various caris were used as the fighters were full of samrambha [enragement] and avegha [excitement] and these various movements of the fight produced the arabhati style. Whatever movement Vishnu employed, Brahma made it the origin of a Vritti and accepted it by remarks whose meanings accorded to the movement. When both madhu and kaitabha were killed by Vishnu, Brahma said to the enemy-destroyer, “Oh Vishnu! You have destroyed the demons by graceful angaharas which were unusually straight forward, expressive and graceful. Therefore, this style of wielding weapons of all kinds shall be known throught the world as Nyaya

The Four Vrittis:

The sages utilized that behaviour of words and gestures as the abhinaya conceived the natyaveda and sage Bharata has used them for plays as ordered by Brahma since they’re desirable and naturally arise out of various cari movements. The Bharati Vritti was taken from the Rigveda, the Sattavati from Yajurveda, the Kaisiki from the Samaveda, and the arabhati from atharvanaveda.

1. The Bharati Vritti: This is the style in which prominence is given to speeches made in Sanskrit. It is employed only by male actors who annopunce their own names. There are four varieties of this Vritti :
Ų Prarocana. It is that part of purvaranga in which success, victory, good luck and destruction of sin are described or prayed for.

Ų Amukha. Also called Prastavana by some, it is that part ion the beginning where Natti, that is the female associate and the visdhushaka or Pariparsvaka [actor friend] carry on a dioalogue with sutradhara regarding some relavent topic using interesting words. Anukha has five elements in it, that is, uddhatyaka, kathoddhata, prayogatisaya, pravrttika, and avalagita.

2. Sattvati Vritti. It is that which is endored with the quality of Sattva [vigour] and where there is nyaya and good behaviour, where there is exuberance of joy and absence of shoka [sorrow] is Sattvati Vritti. In it, there is very little karuna [pathos] and shringara [erotics] but plenty of veera [heroism] atbhuta [wonder] and roudra [terror]. It has four varieties:

Ų Utthapaka is a challenge.

Ų Parivartaka, avoiding the relevance of a challenge, taking to some other thing made necessary with reason.

Ų Samhlataka, irrelevant critism of something rising out of challenge or otherwise.

Ų Sanghataka: Breaking an alliance for reasons of a friend’s clever talk of fate or one’s own shortcomings.

3. Kaisiki Vritti: This vritti is one where the artistes are mostly women, wearing charming costumes in a colourful way and where there is plenty of dancing and music and the story is of love and it’s enjoyment. The four varieties are:

Ų Narma: Playful jest. Narma, which mostly abounds in humour, is of three kinds. That based on love, that on pure love, and the last on sentiments, other than heroic. This kindof jest, may be mixed with words of jelousy, anger, self-rebuke, and deception by others.
Ų Narma-sphurja. Nervous enjoyment. In this, lovgers meet for the first time on the one hand words and dress excite them, and on the other, there is fear.

Ų Narma-Sphota. Incomplete enjoyment. In this, the sentiment of love is not completely enjoyed as various other emotions contribute to it.

Ų Narma-Garbha: Love in masquerade. In this, the hero out of necessity not only acts incognito, but does it with intelligence and affection.

4. Arabhati Vritti: Here, one finds daring[of a wrong kind] in the form of deceit, fraud, falsehood etc., This too has four varieties.

Ų Sanksiptaka [one with symbols]. In this there should be many modals of articals animals, dress etc., relevant to the plot.

Ų Avapata [Commotion] In this, there are occasions of fear and joy, flight, flurry etc.,

Ų Vastutthapana. Emphasized event. It includes a stage event in which all rasas are mixed, or which gives shelter to someone in fear.

Ų Sampheta. Conflict This includes excitement, fights, fraud, betrayal etc.,