The earliest form of the theatre of

India was the Sanskrit theatre. It began

after the development of Greek and Roman
theatre and before the development
of theatre in other parts of Asia.It emerged
sometime between the 2nd century BCE
and the 1st century CE and flourished
between the 1st century CE and the 10th,
which was a period of relative peace in
the history of India during which hundreds
of plays were written.
With the Islamic conquests that began in
the 10th and 11th centuries, theatre was
discouraged or forbidden entirely. Later,
in an attempt to re-a India as one of the
means of entertainment. As a diverse,
multi-cultural nation, the theatre of India
cannot be reduced to a single,
homogenous trend.

In contemporary India, the major
competition with its theatre is that
represented by
growing television industry and the
spread of films produced in the Indian
film industry based
in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), known
as "Bollywood". Lack of finance is
another major obstacle.

The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is
ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an
important part of the Hindu canon (smti),
considered to be itihsa. The Ramayana is one of
the two great epics of India, the other being the
Mahabharata. It depicts the duties of
relationships, portraying ideal characters like the
ideal father, ideal servant, the ideal brother, the
ideal wife and the ideal king.

The name Ramayana is a tatpurusha
compound of Rma and ayana ("going,
advancing"), translating to "Rama's
Journey".
The Ramayana is performed in most countries having the
Ramayana tradition. The performing tradition of the
Ramayana has manifested itself in a great range and
variety of forms, having regional and stylistic variations
from the dramatic recitation of the epic story with simple
mime to the highly stylised and codified forms of dance
and theatre and several forms of the puppet theatre the
processional and ritualistic "Ramlila" of North India and in
the highly stylised and codified dance
theatre "Kathakali" of Kerala; in the highly
theatrical "Khon" mask plays of Thailand and in the
extremely lyrical dance drama of Bali and the "Wayang
Kulit", the puppet theatre of Indonesia and Malaysia.
While the Ramayana theatre is an integral
part of the colourful and multiform
traditional theatre of Asia, it is distinguished
by many technical features. It is the most
representative and artistically rich sector of
the traditional theatre often adding a new
dimension to the epic story and giving new
interpretations to the characters. The epic
story with its legendary and mythical
motives, eminently suits the stylised and
convention-based traditional theatre of
Asian countries.
In the Ramayana tradition, the idea
of struggle between the forces of
good and evil is so basic that it
greatly influences the structure and
nature of theatrical forms of
various types. This idea of struggle
is maintained and conveyed
through a structuring of the form,
peculiar to the Ramayana Theatre
The general pattern is that in the first stage there is
confrontation between the two forces; in the
second stage, challenge; in the third, conflict and
combat; and in the fourth, the victory of the good
forces and defeat of the evil forces. This pattern is
followed in a variety of forms of theatre dealing
with the Ramayana theme. It is to highlight this
idea of a spiritual conflict that in almost all the
forms of the Ramayana theatre, combat scenes
dominate the performance, and are the most
important and dramatic. In many cases, these are
also most beautifully choreographed.
The performers as well as the audience take great
delight in these scenes and get a kind of spiritual
satisfaction in witnessing the defeat of the evil
characters. In India, the burning of huge effigies of
Ravana and his allies on the day of the enactment
of the battle between Rama and Ravana is a grand
ritualisation of this theme of the struggle between
good and evil. In the Wayang Kulit of Indonesia,
the Dalang introduces the principal characters and
suggests the beginning of the plot, a fight between
good and evil forces is the climax scene. At the
end, good triumphs over evil.

The original Ramayana was a 24,000
couplet-long epic poem attributed to the
Sanskrit poet Valmiki. Oral versions of
Rama's story circulated for centuries, and
the epic was probably first written down
sometime around the start of the Common
Era. It has since been told, retold, translated
and transcreated throughout South and
Southeast Asia, and
the Ramayana continues to be performed in
dance, drama, puppet shows, songs and
movies all across Asia.

Mahabharata, ( Sanskrit: Great Epic of the Bharata
Dynasty) one of the two Sanskrit great epic poems of ancient
India (the other being the Ramayana). TheMahabharata is an
important source of information on the development
ofHinduism between 400 BCE and 200 CE and is regarded by
Hindus as both a text about dharma (Hindu moral law) and a
history (itihasa, literally thats what happened). Appearing in
its present form about 400 CE, the Mahabharataconsists of a
mass of mythological and didactic material arranged around a
central heroic narrative that tells of the struggle for sovereignty
between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas (sons of
Dhritarashtra, the descendant of Kuru) and the Pandavas (sons
of Pandu). The poem is made up of almost 100,000 couplets
about seven times the length of the Iliadand
the Odyssey combineddivided into 18 parvans, or sections,
plus a supplement titledHarivamsha (Genealogy of the God
Hari; i.e., of Vishnu).
Although it is unlikely that any single
person wrote the poem, its authorship
is traditionally ascribed to the
sage Vyasa, who appears in the work
as the grandfather of the Kauravas and
the Pandavas. The date for the war that
is the central event of
the Mahabharata is much debated, but
it must have taken place sometime
before 500 BCE.
The story begins when the blindness of
Dhritarashtra, the elder of two princes,
causes him to be passed over in favour of
his brother Pandu as king on their fathers
death. A curse prevents Pandu from
fathering children, however, and his wife
Kunti asks the gods to father children in
Pandus name. As a result, Dharma fathers
Yudhishtira, the Wind fathers Bhima, Indra
fathers Arjuna, and the Ashvins (twins)
father Nakula and Sahadeva (also twins;
born to Pandus second wife, Madri).
The enmity and jealousy that develops between
the cousins forces the Pandavas to leave the
kingdom when their father dies. During their exile
the five jointly marry Draupadi (who is born out
of a sacrificial fire and whom Arjuna wins by
shooting an arrow through a row of targets) and
meet their cousin Krishna, who remains their
friend and companion thereafter. Although the
Pandavas return to the kingdom, they are again
exiled to the forest, this time for 12 years, when
Yudhishthira loses everything in a game of dice
with Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas.

Along with its basic plot and accounts of numerous myths,
the Mahabharata reveals the evolution of Hinduism and its relations
with other religions during its composition. The period during which
the epic took shape was one of transition from Vedic sacrifice to
sectarian Hinduism, as well as a time of interactionsometimes
friendly, sometimes hostilewith Buddhism and Jainism. Different
sections of the poem express varying beliefs, often in creative
tension. Some sections, such as theNarayaniya (a part of book 13),
the Bhagavadgita (book 6), the Anugita (book 14), and
theHarivamsha, are important sources of early Vaishnava theology,
in which Krishna is an avatar of the god Vishnu. Above all,
the Mahabharata is an exposition of dharma (codes of conduct),
including the proper conduct of a king, of a warrior, of an individual
living in times of calamity, and of a person seeking to attain freedom
from rebirth. The poem repeatedly demonstrates that the conflicting
codes of dharma are so subtle that, in some situations, the hero
cannot help but violate them in some respect, no matter what choice
he makes.