([email protected]) erforming art is not an unseen or abstract matter. It’s quite tangible and has different tastes from person to person.
As a touchable object, any structure has to be constructed to display it. Therefore, the stages are invented. This is the origin of stages in cultural history.
Before the performance of the first Assamese drama, Chihna Yatra, Sankardeva planned to visit Namghar. That is the Namghar where “Chihna Yatra” was played, built temporarily by bamboo and thatch. Bhaona was born into religion.
So, some rules are maintained as per religious norms. According to western society, there are four kinds of stages: proscenium, traverse, arena, and thrust. There is another popular Japanese stage, Kabuki.
Traverse, like Namghar, was the only stage that the people of Assam were acquainted with formally until the emergence of the new era. But even before the advent of the British, unknowingly, the stage (Namghar) of Bhaona had changed. During the reign of Ahom monarch Rajeshwar Singha (1751–1769), Bhaona was organised and presented in honour of the kings of Manipur and Cachar.
Nearly hundreds of actors participated simultaneously. It is not possible for hundreds of actors to perform in a Namghar at a time. So, definitely, makeshift arrangements of stages were made.
This also indicates that the Bhaona is one step away from the traditional stage of Namghar. Originally, Bhaona was a Lord Krishna-centric play, a product of the Bhakti movement. So some .
