The Structure of Hand Gestures in Indian Dancing According to Bharata’s „Nāṭya-Śāstra“

The investigation suggests a structural analysis of the language of hand gestures in classical Indian
dancing based on a written text – the ninth chapter of the ‘Nāṭya-Śāstra’. This text is considered to be
the first proof for a sign system, which has been used as means of symbolic interaction on the Indian
subcontinent for over more than two millennia and is still vivid now in several variations, known through
the names of the classical dance forms as ‘Bharatanāṭyam’, ‘Kuchipuḍi’, ‘Oḍissi’, ‘Kathākali’,
‘Mohiniyāṭṭam’, ‘Manipuri’, ‘Kathak’, ‘Chau’, ‘Kūṭiyāṭṭam’ etc.

Since Ikegami (Ikegami, 1973), this sign system has been continuously chosen as a topic of
investigation in the discourse of semiotics, but it is here for the first time that the investigation is based
on the original Sanskrit text and the three original commentaries ‘Abhinavabhāratī’, ‘Bālakrīḍā’ and
‘Madhusūdanī’.

For the purpose of continuing the tradition of investigating this sign system in the semiotic discourse,
the method of Straificational Grammar (SG) is once again applied. SG advocates that language usage
and production is stratificational in nature and that the linguistic structure of the language in question
comprises several structural layers (strata). Each layer (stratum) provides actualization or realization for
the next higher level. Here a language structure analysis in four strata is suggested, with particular
focus on the hand gestures, which are considered here as elements on the third layer (the lexemic
stratum).

In the established terminology, first used by Ekman & Friesen (Ekman & Friesen, 1969), these hand
gestures are identified as emblems and in the suggested four strata structure they are realizations of
the elements of the second layer (the morphemic stratum), and provide actualizations for the forth layer
(the sememic stratum). According to the analysed texts, there are particular names (nāma) for any
single hand form (hasta) used for performing an emblem (mudra) in Indian dancing. For illustrating the
distinction between the verbal description of the meaning of a particular hand gesture and the verbal
description of the hand form used for performing the gesture itself, the investigation applies the dyadic
sign model of Ferdinand de Sausure.

The description of the meaning of a hand gesture is used further for defining the elements on the forth
layer (the sememic stratum) and the Sanskrit names of the hand forms are used for defining the
elements on the second layer (the morphemic stratum). A database collecting 477 emblems where all
hand gestures which carry an explicitly described meaning in the analysed texts is appended in table
format.

The full text in German language is available for free download at:
http://opus.kobv.de/tuberlin/volltexte/2008/2034/pdf/mueller_biliana.pdf