Actor's Technique in Traditional Opera in Manipur

10.7021/PAJ.200507.0085

Ranjeet Chingtham

Meiti ； Manipur ； Lai-haraoba ； Moirang Parva ； Nurabi ； Saram Pakhangba

臺灣戲專學刊

11期（2005 / 07 / 01）

85 - 90

英文

The Meiti people developed in the land of Manipur in the northeastern corner of India. Meitis are mongoloid in origin with a sophisticated rice culture and economy. The Meitis art form originally developed as warrior dances and it later evolved into rituals that formed the fundamental basis of the religious practice of the Meiti people. The Meitis performed collective rituals that celebrated the fertility of the land and emphasized Man's role in keeping the cosmos in balance. The Traditional operas of the Meitis are born from these celebratory rituals. The origin of the Manipur opera were not known, but official text documented an ritual re-enactment on the penultimate day of the Lai-haraoba Festival of the meeting between Nurabi the goddess Panthoibi and Saram Pakhangba the God Nongpok Ningthou. The ritual re-enactment may have started a rudimentary antiphonal song forms known as Paosa, which is now known as Tangkhul-Nurabi, one of the precursors of Manipuri opera. These simple operatic forms became more sophisticated along with the cultural development of the Manipur state. The Moirang Parva is the best-known model of the Manipuri traditional opera. The Moirang Parva incorporates all elements from the cultural repositories of Manipur, notably clowning, graceful movements and refined aristocratic language by the noble characters. Rich songs are often combined in the dialogue exchanges, and sung with typical ethnic nuances. The technique of acting in the opera are based on the graceful presence of the actors with traditional features of nobility, with poise, grace and martial dignity, whereas the clowns exuded vulgar, crude, simple non-aristocratic manners, a lot of resistant wit and repartee, and destructive humor. These operas died out in the early decades after the middle of the twentieth century.