Note 29 — IV DRAMATIC PRACTICE XIV THE INDIAN THEATRE

The time of the performance is not in many cases stated, but in a number of plays, including the Mālatīmādhava, Karṇasundarī, and the embryo drama in the Priyadarçikā, we find it assumed to be the moment when the sun is just appearing.29 The beat of drum announces the beginning of the drama, the preliminaries, often reduced to little more than a vocal and instrumental concert of brief duration, are completed, and the benediction pronounced, to be followed by the prologue proper and the drama.