Brecht In Hindi: The Poetics of Response 
 
 
Vasudha Dalmia-Lf*deritz 
 
 
 
 
    Much has been said and written about the importance of Brecht for 
the countries of the so-called Third World. It has even been suggested 
that the two-dimensional dance-theater of Asia, with no experience of 
realistic or realistic-naturalistic depiction could approach Brecht 
straight as it were.1 On the other hand there are complaints that 
Brecht's theater has been "culinarized", commercialized, not under-

stood. Yet the wide-spread belief that traditional theater forms are 
peculiarly suited for adaptation of Brecht, that Brecht offers incentive
to 
revive and use meaningfully these very forms, persists and is voiced 
again and again. Certainly there is no denying the factuality of Brecht's

presence in the form of repeated productions and adaptations of his 
plays and this increasingly in folk and even dialect versions. Obviously,

there is need of Brecht's theater. And perhaps the question of "why

Brecht" can provide us with an answer to the question of "how Brecht".

    After a brief historical survey of theater aesthetics and drama, as 
far as it appears relevant in the context of Brecht on the modern Indian

stage, I shall focus primarily on the similarities posited between the 
conventions of Indian folk theater, here restricted to one North Indian 
form as traditionally practised, and Brecht's epic theater, dealing only
in 
passing as it were, with the "naturalistic" tradition as it developed
in 
India in transaction with the West.2 
 
Poetics and Drama 
 
     The principle of rasa around which a whole system of aesthetics 
was to evolve, appears for the first time in a treatise on drama, the 
N4tya 16stra in its present form from about the sixth century of the 
Christian era, in its oldest parts going back to the second or third 
century before Christ.3 
     Rasa is "sap", "essence", "taste", and
it is the principle which holds 
together the disparate parts which go into the making of a drama.4 The 
Nhtya Nstra maintains that the eight generally existing dominant 
states, sthAylbha va, correspond to the eight rasas. These states are 
complex and appear in association with causes, effects and concomi- 
tant states. When these last three appear as elements of poetic 
expression, as vibhAva, determinants, i.e. persons and situations 
forming constellations which determine the course of action, anubhava, 
consequents, i.e. the corresponding theatrical expression and finally, 
vyabhicarTbhhva, accompanying transitory states, they bring about the 
 
 
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