Krishna's hallIsaka dance

[N. Ganesan]

 >In my book ``Untersuchungen zu Har.sadevaŽs Naagaananda
 >und zum indischen Schauspiel"  [``Investigations into
 >Har.sadevaŽs Naagaananda and Indian Drama"] (Swisttal-
 >Odendorf 1997, p. 114 f.) I have made another proposal,
 >connecting the word ra"nga with the root ra(~n)j meaning ``to be
 >delighted". I think, to put it briefly, that ra"nga originally means
 >``entertainment, delight" and ra"ngapii.tha (attested already in the
 >Naa.tya"saastra, where it is the technical term for ``stage")
 >accordingly means a ``platform for an entertaining performance,
 >stage"; thus puurvara"nga would literally mean:
 >``PREperformance, PREplay" (and not ``PREstage"). Then, with
 >time, the word ra"nga as an abbreviation for ra"ngapii.tha came
 >to mean ``stage".

   I do not know about ra(~n)j,  And how it gets transformed to
   "ranga". However in Tamil, araGku/araGkam always meant "stage,
   islet, etc.,". It is likely that this tamil arangam is the sanskrit
   "ranga". Given below are some sangam and post-sangam quotes.

Consider the sangam text, naRRiNai (poem 3) where the "araGku" stage
for playing vaTTu, a game by children
      "In2 paruntu uyavum vAn2 poru neTu cin2ai
      pori arai vEmpin2 puLLi nIzal
      kaTTaLai an2n2a iTTu *araGku* izaittu
      kallA ciRAar nelli vaTTu ATum
      vil Er uzavar ve mun2ai cIRUr"

Another sangam text, akanAnURu talks about raised platform
for setting an oven. "tI il aTuppin2 araGkam pOla"

A sangam text, Kalittokai 74 where a girl dances on araGku.
   " vaL itaz uRa nITi vayagkiya oru katir
    avai pukaz araGkin2 mEl ATuvAL aNi nutal "

ParipATal quote for a girl dancing on arangam.
   " paTu kaN imiz koLai payin2Ran2ar ATum
    kaLi nAL araGkin2 aNi nalam puraiyum "

araGku(stage, raised platform) for playing vaTTu,
"araGku in2Ri vaTTu ATiyaRRE
nirampiya nUl in2Rik kOTTi koLal" - TirukkuRaL 401
"nirai iruntu mANTa aragkin2uL vaTTu
karai iruntArkku eLiya pOr"   -pazamozi (a didactic work like TirukkuRaL).

CilappatikAram where araGku is the islet between two rivers
(cf. srirangam = tiruvarangam) "ARRu vI aragkattu vIRRu vIRRu Aki".

CilappatikAram and Manimekalai epics have scores of
occurence for "araGku/araGkam" as dance stage. An example from Manimekalai.
  "akal man2ai aragkattu Aciriyar tammoTu
  vakai teri mAkkaTku vaTTaNai kATTi
  ATal puNarkkum aragku iyal makaLirin2
  kUTiya kuyiluvak karuvi kaN tuyin2Ru
  paNNuk kiLai payirum paN yAzt tIm toTai
  koLai val AyamOTu icai kUTTuNTu"...

Regards,
N. Ganesan






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