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The Auditorium - its design and shape

The Natya Sastra as well as the ancient Tamil epic, Cilappadhikaaram speak vividly about the design and construction of auditorium, its lighting and acoustics. The methods and rules specified in them are valid and useful to this day.

The Natya Sastra says that the person who designs the auditorium undertakes a fast for a few days. They used to measure the various dimensions with thread and then lay the foundation stone, and begin their work. 

As per the Natya Sastra, the makeup room should be located behind the stage. The seats for audience, it states, should be designed something like an inclined plane, the level increasing as it reaches the farther end, away from the stage. The idea is that the stage should be clearly visible even to the persons seated in the last rows. The windows are designed in such a manner to enable free flow of air and light. 

It is amazing that even in those ancient days people took special care to see that lighting and acoustic qualities of a structure are preserved and were aware of the techniques to design and construct the hall so that even in those days when there was no microphone, the audience was able to listen to and enjoy music in the hall and had enough lighting to see what is happening on the stage. The Natya Sastra speaks of techniques for constructing the hall that does not diminish the quality of sound, does not echo and enhance its quality.

We saw earlier that there are three shapes in which an auditorium is designed - rectangular, square or triangular. And then there are three different sizes - large, medium and small. The large ones are meant for the Gods. The celestials are the audience. The apsaras and gandarvas are the performers. The medium sized halls are meant for kings and kings’ families. And the smaller ones are for general public. Bharata says that the smaller auditorium is the best for it preserves lighting and sound and all the audience is enabled to see the gestures and facial expressions of the artistes.

The Natya Sastra says that the hall must be beautified with wooden carvings. The measurements for all the three sizes of halls - large, medium and small - are specified separately for the stage, the makeup room - or the greenroom - and the hall. The measurements are in feet. 

Cilappadhikaaram speaks of the measurements in kOl. The word kOl means stick. Bamboo sticks of specific length were used for measurement purposes. It must have been around 2’. All the measurements for an auditorium are specified in kOl in Cilappadhikaaram. It is stated that the stage should measure 7 kOl wide, 8 kOl long, and 1 kOl high from the floor level. 

Pillars are installed on all the four-sides of the stage, each measuring four kOl.Beams and girders would be placed over the pillars. The pillars would be painted with pictures of demons in different colours. The lights would be placed in such a way that the shadow of the pillars doesn’t fall on the stage. The ceiling would be painted with various motifs. The Cilappadhikaaram speaks of the screens used in stages as well. They were known as ‘ezhini.’ There were different types of screens - opening on one side, opening from both the sides, rolling up etc. There were two entrances for such halls. The ‘arangEtru kaadhai’ in Cilappadhikaaram is replete with such details.

Like the Natya Sastra, Cilappadhikaaram was also written around 2000 years ago. Natya Sastra speaks about the rules of Natya. What Cilappadhikaaram speaks is about the rules for koothu - eleven different forms of dance. The Cilambu also speaks of Mudras, like Natya Sastra, though the names differ. Here are a few examples.

We can thus see that Natya was practised widely and hence reached its full and complete form long, long number of years ago.

Krishangini - Neeraja Nagarajan
Translated by Hari Krishnan

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