নেপালের নাটক পরম্পরা ও বড়ু চণ্ডীদাসের শ্রীকৃষ্ণকীর্তন| The Tradition of Nepali Drama and Śrikyşņa Kīrtan by Baru Chandidas

Abstract

The history of Srikisņa Kirtan made us know that the only original manuscript of it was found at the village of Kankilya near Bishnupur in the West Bengal of India. But the author Makoto Kitada has recently discovered a number of analogical songs in different copies of ancient books written in Bengali-Maithili language in Nepal. Such interesting discovery has made the author suggest renovate our thinking about Srikrsna Kirtan. Makoto observed that performance of drama started in the Malla dynasty in Nepal. The first drama of Nepal composed in Newari language, which is available in a complete form, Muladeva Shashideva Akbyana was written by Bhaktapur's king Jagat Prakash Malla at the end of the sixteenth century. This drama was performed at Bhaktapur Royal Palace. Despite of the end of Malla dynasty in 1768, the tradition of Malla Drama continued in the city of Patan and in the village of Pharping, south to Kathmandu. This tradition of drama performance is still alive in the name of Kartik Nach. However, the performance goes for several nights and the living tradition of performing Kartik Nach at Pharping village contain more trustworthy elements of ancient Malla Drama of Nepal.

In the Malla period, the performers, besides performing Maithili song, used toperform a number of Bangla songs. A number of Bangla songsare analogous to the songs of Sriktsna Kirtan by BaruChandidas. The author discovered in Nepal manuscripts containingsongs on Radha-Krishna, written in Bangla and Maithili. It was found that some Maithili songs are actually written by Vidyapati and some of the Bangla songs by BaruChandidas. In Nepal, there are Bangla drama books, like, Krishnacharitraand Parijatabaruna which contain songs analogous to the songs of Srikrina Kirtan. Thus, he concludes that there are songs about Radha Krishna in different books written in Bangla and Maithili languages which are performed for ages in the Nepali drama tradition of Malla Dyanasty. So, we should give a changed thinking about Srikışna Kirtan.

This article discrib that The Müladeva-lalideva-äkhana-natak is the first Newari drama available in acomplete form. There are several Newari dramas in fragments, earlier than this work. Besides, Bengali and Maithili dramas are much earlier.