Legend of Dushianta and Sakuntala
Stage Directors: Anna-Ksenia Vishnevskaya, Timur Salikhov
Stage Choreographer: Yekaterina Dobrovolskaya
Music by Igor Ustinovich
Music Director: Veronica Kuznetzova
Translation into Khanty language: Timofey Moldanov, Eudokia Nyomysova
Translation into Mansi language: Lyudmila Panchenko
Ob-Ugrian People’s Theatre – Sun is preparing a new performance “Legend of Dushianta and Sakuntala”. It is based on a well-known drama “Shakuntala” by Calidas and Old Indian epic “Makhabkharata”. The performance is produced by Moscow young stage directors Anna-Kseniya Vishnevskaya, Timur Salikhov and stage choreographer Yekaterina Dobrovolskaya.
The first performance of some extracts of the new show was held in Exhibition hall of People Friendship House on the 24th of September in 2008.
It is a story of great love like the legends of Tristan and Izolde, Romeo and Juliette on its scale. Dramatic art, ethnical dance and singing are naturally interlaced in the performance.
This show is consistent for the theatre because the relationship between Ob Ugrians and Indian has historical roots. Plunging into culture of these peoples we can find quite a number of parallels between them. We hope that the performance “Legend of Dushianta and Sakuntala” will be a bright cultural event in the sphere of theatre art.
Khanty and Mansi language scientists are brought into the work at the show. So Khanty and Mansi folklore will be organically interwoven with Old Indian epic.
Ob’ Ugrians and Indians
Severe North and South of plenty, for the first sight, are not compatible. What is common in the cultures of the Khanty and the Mansi and Indians? Nevertheless there is a commonality and some parallels in wide cultural fields: in language, folklore, world-outlook, religious cults and way of life.
For example, the Khanty and the Mansi call wind vot (vat), but Old Indians - vata. Road is pant for the Khanty and pantha for Old Indians. We can find description of great northern mountains as a ‘desired Ripa top’ in Rigveda, and a word rep in Khanty language means ‘mountain’, etc. It is scientifically proved that a number of corresponding words in the languages of Ob’ Ugric peoples and old tribes of India is extensive, among them there are numerals, cattle-breeding terminology, names of animals and plants.
If we turn to folklore and philosophy, we can see many common things and ideas. For instance, the Hindu dancing God Shiva lives in the Ripa mountain. Ecstasy dances and intoxicating drinks are connected with the cults of Shiva. And there is a word shivematy in Khanty that means ‘to begin to whirl; to lose conscious; to be drunk’. The name of Old Hindu God Mitra (literal meaning ‘friend’) riding horses about sky is retained in Khanty in the meaning ‘miracle’. And until now Ob-Ugrian Mir-susne-hum (‘a Man looking after the world’) is regarded as a sky rider on a white horse. Scientists established that many aspects of Ob’ Ugrian’s cults of horse such as a sacrifice and erotic element are connected with old rituals of India and Indo-China.
On the territory of Ob’-Irtysh basin it is found 40 hydronyms with the root morpheme indra (yendra, yondra, andra, etc) and it is proved that they go back to the theonym Indra, the central figure of Vedic pantheon. An Indian writer Anil Janvijay considers that the Indian Goodness of welfare Lakshmi which is also called Golden Woman has some similarity with Ob’-Ugric Sorni pai ‘Golden woman’.
Representations of a mythic giant bird (Old Hindu Garuda and Ob’-Ugric Kare) and an eight- or six-legged powerful animal (the name of Indian Sharabkha is traced back to Khanty and Mansi shorep, sharpa ‘elk’) are similar.
The image Ob’-Ugric an earth bull (muv khor or ma kor) digging trenches to build river-beds is tied up with the Indian monster Makar (part-elephant, part-crocodile and part-fish), closely connected with the water god.
If we turn to everyday life we can find that Ob’ Ugric women’s way of wearing head shawl and their custom of face covering has some analogues in India and South Asia.
So, we can see Ugro-Indian parallels in a number of aspects. Are they accidental?
It is scientifically proved that tribes which came to India once upon time took a great part in formation of Indian peoples. They called themselves Arians. Some scientists consider that Arians had their proto-home in the south of Eastern Europe, and they had contacts with some Finno-Ugric peoples from the Volga region till the territories behind the Urals. In India a scientist Rahul Sankrityana has an interesting idea of it. In his opinion, once their ancestors lived on the territory of West Siberia near the Ob’, and to prove his idea he gives some argumentations. Therefore the parallels in culture of Ob’ Ugric and Indian peoples reflect their ancient joint history.
