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[pclaus at s1.csuhayward.edu]

New Message
Date: April 3, 1996 
 
Indology List
indology at Liverpool.ac.uk
 
Dear Members
This is probably not what the original inquiry wanted, but ...
 
There are also folk debate traditions.  These are often embedded
in dramatizations.  Karnataka has several.  One (the name I
forget) is between a man and a woman who debate which gender is
superior.  Though consisting of many stock retorts, there is a
great deal of room for developing new ones and people can become
highly skilled in producing clever as well as humorous arguments. 
 
Then there is a form of Yakshagana (normally a drama form in
which stories from the Mahabharata and Ramayana are staged by
richly costumed actors), called Tale Maddale, in which the actors
wear no costume, but sit opposite one another on the floor.  They
take the parts of their characters (say, Rama, Sugriva, Vali,
etc.) and perform the drama.  At critical moments, they confront
one another questioning and debating the moral justification of
their actions. The actors in this form of the drama need to be
highly skilled in their verbal art, and rarely take a major role
before studying it 10-15 years, observing the performances of the
greatest artists of their day, attending up to a hundred
performances in a single year. Many local scholars participate in
these performances and the audiences are packed with the local
literati when renown performers challenge one another.
 
My own Kannada language skills have not been up to a full
appreciation of this art, but perhaps there are others on the
List who could give a description of the debate techniques used.
Stuart Blackburn has studied a somewhat similar verbal tradition
embedded in Kerala puppet performances.
 
Peter J. Claus                        
fax: (510) 885-3353
pclaus at csuhayward.edu