Narthakipati

The original Nikaya story is about a young son of a rich man falling in love with a beautiful girl from a touring acrobatics group and leading a nomadic life with them. When he feels insulted by his wife as a good for nothing person he becomes a perfect acrobat himself. But on seeing Buddha's calm face from the top of his acrobat's stick, he jumps down and walks away towards him leaving his family and profession for good. This basic story is changed by the present composer to make it more dance worthy. The acrobat group is portrayed here as a dance troupe with the young girl as an accomplished dancer. The rich man's son falls madly in love and runs away from his family against his father's wishes to marry her. After they get a son, his wife insults him unintentionally as a factotum for the troupe. Stung to the quick, he runs away and returns an accomplished dancer while his wife had in the meanwhile given up dancing. His family and friends then arrange a grand performance by him for Sariputta, Buddha's great disciple. Sariputta is greatly impressed but explains that all human emotions are tension producing and teaches him the ninth Rasa of Shanta or peace as an integral part of dance. This altered story highlights the Buddhist contribution to the aesthetics of dance namely shanta Rasa, though this contribution was not actually appreciated and incorporated till the mid 7th century through Harsha's Naganandam.