Costume and Stage Presentation
Domain 8 tests aharya abhinaya - how costume, make-up and stagecraft carry meaning - and the practical business of preparing a stage.
Costume by style
- Bharatanatyam: silk saree stitched in the 'fan' or pyjama style, pleats fanned at the front, temple jewellery, head and hair ornaments, nose ring, salangai anklets, alta on fingers and feet.
- Kathak: churidar with angarkha and dupatta, or a flared skirt with odhni; heavy ghunghroo; minimal face make-up; no towering headgear.
- Kathakali: the chutti ridge built on the jaw from rice paste and lime, a large crown, and colour-coded character types - pacha (noble green), kathi (arrogant, red-streaked), thadi (bearded), kari (demoness, black), minukku (women and sages).
- Odissi: patta saree, usually silk with a contrasting border, silver jewellery and the tahia headpiece.
- Manipuri: kumil barrel skirt and phanek; the stiff potloi for Ras Leela; no ankle bells.
- Mohiniyattam: white kasavu with gold border, minimal ornament.
Stage presentation
Enter from stage right after an anjali; keep the face lit; never turn your back fully to the audience during abhinaya; acknowledge the guru and musicians; leave the floor respectfully. Aharya covers make-up, costume, ornaments and set - it is one of the four abhinaya, so it is examined as theory, not only described.
Worked example
'A character enters with a green painted face, a white chutti ridge and a towering crown.' Reasoning: the chutti is the Kathakali signature, so the form is Kathakali. The green face is pacha, the noble type (Krishna, Rama, Arjuna). Green with a red-streaked beard would be kathi, the arrogant type. Answer: Kathakali, pacha.
Traps
Giving Manipuri a ghungroo. Describing Odissi in gold temple jewellery - silver is traditional. Treating Kathakali make-up as light or simple. Ignoring that aharya can be asked as theory rather than as a description of a photograph.