The origin of the Indian Drama--Aryan Mythology--Clown and
Columbine--Origin of the Chinese Drama--Inception of the Japanese
Drama--The Siamese Drama--Dramatic performances of the South Sea
Islanders, Peruvians, Aztecs, Zulus, and Fijis--The Egyptian Drama.


Of the Indian Drama we learn that the union of music, song, dance, and
Pantomime took place centuries ago B.C., at the festivals of the native
gods, to which was afterwards added dialogue, and long before the
advent, out of which it grew, of the native drama itself.

The progenitors of the Indo-European race, the Aryans--in Sanscrit
meaning Agriculturists--who crossed the Indus from Amoo, where they
dwelt near the Oxus, some two thousand years before Christ, were the
original ancestors and people of India.

The Aryan race (Hindus and Persians only speak of themselves as Aryans)
laid the foundation of the Grecian and Roman Mythology, the dark and
more sombre legends of the Scandinavian and the Teuton; and all derived
from the various names grouped round the Sun god, which in the lighter
themes the Aryans associated with the rising and the setting of the sun,
in all its heavenly glory, and with the sombre legends the coming of the
winter, and marking the difference between lightness and darkness.

In India the origin of dramatic entertainments has been attributed to
the sage Bharata (meaning an actor), who received, it is said, a
communication from the god Brahma to introduce them, as the latter had
received his knowledge of them from the Vedas. Bharata was also said to
be the "Father of dramatic criticism." Pantomimic scenes derived from
the heathen Mythology of Vishnu--a collection of poems and hymns on the