Estimated reading time: 12 minutes
Every moment between acts, every voice from behind the curtain, every anticipatory summary serves a precise structural function. The five arthopakṣepakas, or Five Explanatory Devices, are among the most underappreciated tools in the entire Natyashastra. If you have ever wondered how a classical playwright bridges the space between acts without losing the audience, this is the answer.
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What are the five explanatory devices in Natyashastra?
The term arthopakṣepaka comes from artha (meaning, purpose, or content) and upakṣepaka (alluding or suggesting). Together, the word means “that which alludes or introduces dramatic content.” These five devices function as the connective tissue of any drama. They carry plot information, establish narrative context, bridge temporal gaps, and prime the audience for what is about to unfold.
“The Supporting Scene (viṣkambhaka), the Intimating Speech (cūlikā), the Introductory Scene (praveśaka), the Transitional Scene (aṅkāvatāra), and the Anticipatory Scene (aṅkamukha) are five Explanatory Devices (arthopakṣepaka).”
Let us look at each one with the granularity a practicing dramatist, director, or scholar actually needs.
1. The supporting scene (viṣkambhaka): setting the stage before the drama begins
The viṣkambhaka is a preliminary scene that appears before the first act of a Nataka (a major dramatic form). It does not belong to the act itself. Instead, it functions as a prologue that fills in backstory, sets the dramatic situation, and prepares the audience to understand what is about to happen on stage.
Think of it as the scene that answers the question: “Where are we, and how did we get here?”
Who appears in it
The viṣkambhaka employs madhyama (middling) characters, meaning characters of middle social rank. It is graced, meaning given dignity and authority, by a priest (purohita), a minister (amātya), or a kañcukin (an armour-bearer or royal chamberlain). These are characters with enough proximity to power to credibly convey crucial plot information.
Pure and mixed types
Bharata divides the viṣkambhaka into two sub-types:
- Pure (śuddha): Features only middling characters. No inferior characters appear. Here the tone is dignified and the content relatively unambiguous.
- Mixed (saṅkīrṇa): Combines middling and inferior characters. This allows for a wider tonal range, perhaps blending gravitas with comic undercutting, or allowing servant characters to comment on the information being shared.
It relates only to the opening segment (mukhasandhi) of the Nāṭaka. The mukhasandhi is the first juncture of the plot, the moment when the narrative seed (bīja) is planted and the dramatic situation is established. The viṣkambhaka essentially externalises that seed for the audience before the act begins.
A practical example
Imagine a Nāṭaka about a king whose kingdom is under threat from a rival. The first act may open with the king in his court. But before that act begins, a viṣkambhaka might show two ministers walking, discussing the threat in detail, naming the enemy, describing the political stakes, and perhaps hinting at a treaty gone wrong. By the time the king walks on stage in Act One, the audience is already fully oriented. Nothing needs to be awkwardly explained through dialogue.
This is not unlike the “cold open” structure in contemporary television drama, though the viṣkambhaka has specific formal rules that a Netflix cold open does not.
2. The intimating speech (cūlikā): the voice from behind the curtain
The cūlikā is a spoken passage delivered from behind the stage curtain (yavanikā) by a character who does not yet appear on stage. The character may be superior, middling, or inferior in rank. What matters is that the speech carries information that the onstage action cannot yet accommodate.
In olden days drama, the stage was a charged symbolic space. A character’s entry was not a trivial event. The cūlikā allowed the playwright to introduce crucial information, a warning, a command, a revelation, without requiring a full onstage appearance. The voice arrives before the body.
This device is particularly effective for creating anticipation. The audience hears authority before they see it. A king’s decree delivered from behind the curtain can hang over an entire scene before he appears in person.
In today’s performance
Directors working with classical Sanskrit texts should think of the cūlikā as a tool for temporal layering. The onstage scene occupies one temporal plane; the voice from behind the curtain introduces another plane, one that is about to collapse into the present action. If used well, it creates a genuinely theatrical effect of impending convergence.
In modern productions of works like Abhijñānaśākuntala (Kalidasa’s Shakuntala), offstage voices and sounds are used to suggest narrative worlds beyond the visible stage. The cūlikā formalises that instinct within Bharata’s structural grammar.
3. The introductory scene (praveśaka): bridging two acts
The praveśaka sits between two acts. Its function is to summarise the dramatic segments (sandhi content) that connect one act to the next. Where the viṣkambhaka opens the play, the praveśaka opens a new act by contextualising what has happened in the interim.
How it differs from the viṣkambhaka
The viṣkambhaka appears only at the beginning of a Nāṭaka and relates to the first dramatic juncture. The praveśaka can appear between any two acts and covers a broader summary of intervening segments. It is also not limited to middling characters alone, making it somewhat more flexible in terms of who can deliver its content.
This mostly appears in the Nāṭaka and the Prakarana (a social drama featuring invented characters, as opposed to the Nāṭaka which uses figures from mythology or history). This is an important qualifier. Not every dramatic form employs the praveśaka.
Why this is crucial for directors today
Classical Sanskrit dramas can cover enormous spans of time and geography within a single work. Vikramorvaśīya (Kalidasa) spans years. Mṛcchakaṭika (Shudraka) moves across social strata and multiple locations. The praveśaka gives the audience a narrative anchor between acts, preventing disorientation when time has passed or circumstances have shifted significantly.
A director staging a Sanskrit drama today should treat the praveśaka as a deliberate narrative intervention: it tells the audience exactly what they need to know before entering the new act’s emotional and dramatic world.
4. The transitional scene (aṅkāvatāra): the mid-act pivot
The aṅkāvatāra is the most structurally flexible of the five devices. It can appear between two acts or within a single act. Its defining characteristic is its relationship to the bīja, the narrative seed, the originating dramatic intention or purpose that drives the entire play.
Where the praveśaka summarises intervening plot content, the aṅkāvatāra relates to dramatic purpose. It signals a pivot in the action that serves the overarching narrative goal. This makes it less about informing the audience of what happened and more about redirecting their attention toward what matters.
The significance of bīja in this context
The bīja in Natyashastra is the first cause, the seed that contains the entire dramatic consequence within it. When Bharata says the aṅkāvatāra relates to the purpose of the bīja, he means that this transitional scene marks a moment where the original narrative impulse either complicates, deepens, or turns toward resolution. It is structurally aware of where the play is going.
How to interpret ankavataara?
Consider the aṅkāvatāra as a tonal and purposive hinge. If a play begins with a king’s exile (the bīja), an aṅkāvatāra might appear mid-drama when the circumstances of that exile undergo a fundamental change, perhaps an unexpected ally appears, or a reversal of fortune occurs. The transitional scene registers this shift and points the narrative forward.
This device has no direct equivalent in Aristotelian dramatic theory, which is worth noting. Aristotle’s Poetics identifies peripetia (reversal) and anagnorisis (recognition) as key dramatic moments, but he does not formalise structural interstitial devices the way Bharata does. This reflects a fundamentally different approach to dramatic architecture: Indian classical theory is far more prescriptive about the mechanics of transitions.
5. The anticipatory scene (aṅkamukha): previewing what comes next
The aṅkamukha is a preview device. It summarises the “detached beginning” of an upcoming act before that act formally opens. Either a male or female character can deliver it.
What “detached beginning” means
In dramatic theory, an act does not always begin with the most narratively immediate scene. There may be implied action, events that have occurred offstage or in the gap, that the act’s main action presupposes. The aṅkamukha summarises this implied or detached beginning so that the audience enters the act already holding the relevant information.
A modern cinematic equivalent of this is found in Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge. To prevent the massive 229-minute runtime from bogging down, the film uses rapid, stylized exposition sequences at the beginning of crucial narrative blocks to catch the audience up on undercover operative Jaskirat’s offscreen maneuvers, mapping out the geopolitical board before dropping the viewer directly into the next high-stakes action sequence.
Both the praveśaka and the aṅkamukha function as act-openers with summary content. The distinction is subtle but meaningful. The praveśaka summarises the connecting dramatic segments between acts (the sandhi content). The aṅkamukha specifically previews the detached beginning of the act itself, the narrative preamble that the act’s visible action builds upon.
Example from Kalidasa for explanatory devices
In Abhijñānaśākuntala, the gap between certain acts is significant. Shakuntala leaves the hermitage, travels to court, is cursed, rejected, and lost, all before the act dealing with her reappearance opens. An aṅkamukha would have a character briefly establish this preamble before the act’s main action begins. The audience does not need to reconstruct events; they are given the frame and invited into the picture.
How the five explanatory devices work together
| Device | Position | Characters | Primary function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viṣkambhaka | Before Act 1 | Middling (and inferior in mixed type) | Backstory, opening situation |
| Cūlikā | From behind curtain | Any rank | Offstage information delivery |
| Praveśaka | Between acts | Variable | Summary of intervening segments |
| Aṅkāvatāra | Between acts or within an act | Variable | Pivot related to narrative seed |
| Aṅkamukha | Before a new act | Male or female | Preview of detached act opening |
These five devices collectively solve the problem of narrative continuity in a drama that unfolds across multiple acts, often spanning months or years of story time compressed into hours of performance.
Why the arthopakṣepakas matter for dancers and performers
For a Bharatanatyam or Kathakali performer working on abhinaya within a dramatic context, understanding these devices changes how you interpret the structure of a composition. When you perform a narrative piece (padam or aṭṭaprakāram), you are often inhabiting the interstitial spaces the Natyashastra maps so carefully. The anticipatory gesture, the offstage voice rendered through facial expression, the transitional moment that reorients the audience, all of these are realities in performance. These are real explanatory devices applications.
The cūlikā, for instance, has a beautiful performative parallel in sūcī abhinaya (pointing gestures that indicate presence beyond the visible field). You are constantly indicating what is not yet seen, giving voice to the offstage.
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Frequently Asked Questions
They are the viṣkambhaka (Supporting Scene), cūlikā (Intimating Speech), praveśaka (Introductory Scene), aṅkāvatāra (Transitional Scene), and aṅkamukha (Anticipatory Scene). Together they are called arthopakṣepakas, structural devices that carry plot information between and within acts of Sanskrit drama.
The viṣkambhaka appears only before Act 1 and relates to the opening dramatic segment. The praveśaka appears between any two acts and summarises the narrative segments connecting them. Both orient the audience, but at different points in the drama.
Yes. Bharata permits a superior, middling, or inferior character to deliver the cūlikā from behind the curtain. Rank does not restrict this device, which makes it the most flexible of the five in terms of who can use it.
No. Unlike the other inter-act devices, the aṅkāvatāra can appear both between two acts and within a single act. Its placement depends entirely on where a pivot related to the narrative seed (bīja) is dramatically needed.
Not all five apply universally. The praveśaka, for example, is specified for the Nāṭaka and Prakaraṇa forms only. Bharata’s prescriptions are form-specific, and applying a device to the wrong dramatic genre would violate the structural grammar of the Natyashastra.
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Final thoughts
The five explanatory devices are Bharata’s answer to one of drama’s most persistent challenges: how do you move across time, space, and narrative complexity without losing your audience? His solution was not a single technique but a carefully differentiated vocabulary of structural devices, each suited to a specific dramatic moment and purpose.
The viṣkambhaka grounds the audience before the drama begins. The cūlikā delivers authority before it becomes visible. The praveśaka holds the acts together across temporal gaps. The aṅkāvatāra pivots the action with awareness of the drama’s original purpose. The aṅkamukha previews what the audience needs to enter the next act fully prepared.
Together, they form a system. And that system, written roughly two thousand years ago, still holds lessons for anyone who tells stories on a stage.
References
- Bharata Muni. Natyashastra
- Dhanañjaya. Daśarūpaka (The Ten Forms of Drama)
- Abhinavagupta. Abhinavabhāratī (Commentary on the Natyashastra)
- Levi, Sylvain. Le Théâtre Indien. Paris
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