Dr Swarnamalya Ganesh, Assistant Professor of Practice at SIAS, Krea University published a book section, Major Breakthrough in Minor Drama Forms – Understanding Uparūpaka-s through Places, Performances and Indigenous Custodians, as part of Uparūpaka-s- in Indian Performing Arts, published by The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (ISBN 978-93-91622-83-1).
In this critical research, Dr Ganesh draws connections, textually, historically (inscriptional and archaeological) as well as performatively between Sanskrit treatises on Rūpaka-s or drama traditions and the Pān communities of the Sañgam literatures, tracing them to the tribal Pānā custodians, such as the servicing communities like Pardān-s and many others. This research brings us closer to and more definitively placing many theatrical and performing traditions in the continuum of tribal and early practices of various communities, thus helping answer some long standing “origin theories” tied around prestige networks like that of Sanskrit and gentrification of performing arts.
