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Mahōrasop in a Thai Manōrā manuscript
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
Traditionally, in Thailand, theatrical performances and ancillary entertainments, feats, and games had an important ceremonial function. The generic term that is applied to them is mahōrasop. The context in which they are found in their most highly developed form is that of court ceremonial, though, since ceremonies in the country were often analogues of those held at court, performances of this kind had a wide distribution beyond the walls of the royal and princely palaces of the capitals. To-day, the tradition, even though progressively devitalized as a result of a century of cultural change, remains a living one.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 1967 , pp. 391 - 403
- Copyright
- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1967
References
1 cf. Skt. mahotgava ‘great celebration.’
2 As will be seen below, the descriptions of some of the entertainments themselves provide supporting evidence for this view.
3 The author is grateful to his colleague, Dr. P. S. Jaini, for discussing with him the Pali and Sanskrit versions, and to Dr. Khomkhai Nilprapassorn for valuable comment on the translation of the Thai text.
4 Details of the other types found in kāp, namely chabang and yānī, are to be found in Simmonds, E. H. S., ‘New evidence on Thai shadow-play invocations’, BSOAS, xxiv, 3, 1961, 545. See also Klaus Wenk, Die Metrik in der thailāndischen Dichtung, Hamburg, 1961.Google Scholar
5 Notes to the Thai text are grouped by verses. Verses are here numbered from 1. Verse 1 of the mahōrasop passage is actually verse no. 586 of the text as a whole. An orthographical variant is not normally noted when it involves only the presence or absence of a tone mark as between the MS version and the modern fixed convention.
6 A percussion instrument made of bamboo, used in outdoor performances of the maskedplay. For details see Dhanit Yupho, Thai musical instruments (trans. David Morton), Bangkok, Fine Arts Department, 1957, 8–9.
7 The hō call is a shout given by a leader and taken up by a chorus. It was used as a victory signal in war and is still employed in group activities of many kinds, especially those of a ceremonial nature.
8 The tenor of the passage suggests that the performance has not yet begun. The sounding of the krōng and the giving of the hō call were probably signals for the start of the play; cf. the Elizabethan practice of striking a staff on the stage as a commencement signal. The beating of drums as the signal for the preliminary invocation is mentioned in Bunnōtvāt kham chan(d), Bangkok, Vajirañāna Library, 1923, p. 22, v. 8.
9 Thotsakan (daśakaṇṭha ‘the ten-necked one’) is the usual appellation for Rāvaṇa in the Thai Rāmahian. Sadāyu (Jaṭāyus) can be killed only by Śiva's ring. Thotsakan seizes it from Sīdā's finger for this purpose. This method of killing Jaṭāyus appears neither in Vālmīki nor in the Tamil version of the Rāmāyaṇa.
10 Jaṭāyus is widely known as pakṣśrī ‘auspiciously winged one’. In Bali, pakshrīrāja is an epithet for Garuḍa.
11 This refers to the famous episode in which Mārīca, a male relative of Rāvaṇa, takes the form of a deer to lure Rāma away from Sītā so that Rāvaṇa may capture her.
12 Chaiyathat is a 
story written during the Ayuthaya period. In Bunnōwāt kham chan(d) it is mentioned as a puppet drama (p. 23, vv. 7–8).
13 The reference is to the central episode in Inao where the hero searches for the heroine who is disguised as a female religious ascetic. The earliest Thai versions of this tale are traditionally ascribed to the eighteenth century. They derive from the Javanese Panji cycle. The subject was usually performed as 
(dance-drama of the palace ladies).
14 Hun puppets are of various types. They are dressed dolls carried on short bamboo rods concealed in their skirt-like clothes. The more elaborate types also have strings which are Dperated from below. See Montri Tramote, ‘Thai puppet show’, 
(Bangkok), iv, 1960, 48—54. I n t h a t article the reign of King Boromakot is given as a century too late. Also, Chinese puppets may have been introduced earlier than is suggested by Montri Tramote.
For a summary of this tale in French see Jean Drans, Hisloire de Nang Manora et histoire de Sang Thong, Tokyo, 1947. The čhindā spell provided t h e user with the power to call up wild animals. It was employed by the hero later in the story.
15 Sang Sin Chai is a tale with many variants and is common to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, being drawn from the Paññāsa-jātaka. Kumphan is the woman's husband. The Kumbhandas are a class of supernatural beings similar to the Yaksas. They form the retinue of Virūjhaka, ruler of t he southern quarter of the universe in the Thai Traiphüm.
16 A Mon phrase imitated?
17 A Lao phrase imitated. The expressions are probably imitations of phrases used by the puppet-masters as part of their patter for the (perhaps comic) fighting scenes.
18 In Burmese style; in contrast to Thai puppets operated from below.
19 Perhaps by Tavoyan refugees in Ayuthaya following the wars of the mid-eighteenth century. There was also a massive influx from Tavoy into Ayuthaya a century earlier, while Henry Burney mentions Tavoyan entertainers in Bangkok in 1826.
20 A vulgar gesture in terms of Thai behaviour.
21 Imitative of Chinese speech.
22 This type of folk-song, involving an extempore verse exchange between a man and a woman, is mentioned in Bunnōwāt kham chan(d), p. 24, v. 6, where the aspect of altercation is emphasized as here. For a general discussion of the subject see Prince Bidyalangkarana, ‘The pastime of rhyme-making and singing in rural Siam’, Journal of the Siam Society, xx, 2, 1926, 101–27.Google Scholar
23 Rabam is the most frequently mentioned entertainment in literary, legal, and historical texts. Mentions are to be found in Kot Monthian Bān (the Palatine Law) which is, at least in part, of early Ayuthayan origin (fourteenth-fifteenth centuries A.D.), and in the Sukhothai inscription of Mount Sumanakūt, A.D. 1359. The term is of Khmer origin and referred originally to temple dances of a ritual character. See Coedes, G., ‘Origin et evolution des diverses formes du theatre traditionnel en Thailande’, BSEIC, NS, XXXVIII, 3–4, 1963, 1–16.Google Scholar The form rmâm occurs in the earliest Khmer inscription, A.D. 611. See also Groslier, B.-P., ‘Danse et musique sous les rois d'Angkor’, Felicitation volumes of Southeast Asian studies presented to Prince Dhani Nivat …, Bangkok, Siam Society, 1965, ii, 283–92.Google Scholar
In Kot Monthian Bān, para. 139, rabam is clearly associated with a ceremony of expulsion of evil influences resulting from blood shed within the palace precincts.
24 This type of folk-song is mentioned in Ru'ang Nāng Nophamāt as being performed in the afternoon or at dusk in fifth and sixth month ceremonies (pp. 78, 80).
25 This is clearly a dance for women. The outer garments may have been of muslin in the common Burmese fashion. The flower from which the dye was obtained in this instance was 
kham, perhaps for 
kham dāeng, producing kamela dye. See G. B. McFarland, Thai-English dictionary, Stanford, Calif., 1941, 200–1.
26 The Chinese lion, a ‘pantomime’ figure operated by two men concealed within its skin. An Annamese lion is mentioned in the Inao of King Kama II. Bot 
Inao, ratchakān thi 
, Bangkok, Khurusaphā Press, 1949, p. 1095, I. 13.
27 Mongkhrum, an athletic dance, is mentioned with great frequency as an accompaniment to royal ceremonies in Thai literary, historical, and legal texts from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries on. An alternative name is kulā tī mai which points to its Indian origin. A full description with illustration is given by G. E. Gerini in his history of the royal tonsure ceremony, Chuḷakantamaṅgala, Bangkok, 1895, 122–5. The nonsense chorus in v. 17 here is identical with that quoted by Gerini.
28 Bdbēng (labēng is a colloquial form which nevertheless appears in this spelling in the seventeenth-century Samutthalehōt kham chan(d), Bangkok, Vajirañāna Library, 1925, p. 16, vv. 5, 6) probably reached the Thai as a result of Khmer influence, as was the case with many other entertainments and feats. Gerini, who gives a detailed description (op. cit., 127–9) derives the term from Khmer reng ‘to arrange in ranks’. The peacock is the mount of the god Kāla. The rabēng actors represent Gandharvas on their way to Mount Kailāsa. The roistering Gandharvas attempt to shoot the peacock but are rendered insensible for a short period by arrows shot by Kāla. There is a very close resemblance between sections 2 and 7 of v. 18 here and 11. 11 and 12 of the rabeng song quoted by Gerini. Shooting the peacock in connexion with the rabēng dance is mentioned in Bunnōwāt kham chan(d), p. 24, w. 3, 4, and in the Inao of Rama II, p. 1095, 1. 14.
29 In this and subsequent verses to no. 31, 12 separate types of dance, feat, and fight are described.
30 Ram phāen in Ru'ang Nāng Nophamāt, pp. 71, 80. Len phāen in Kot Monthian Bān, paras. 158, 172.
81 In Bunnōwāt kham chan(d), p. 25, v. 1, and in Ru'ang Sang Nophamat, loc. cit. In Kot Monthian Bān, loc. cit., there is a variant: tai chu'ak nang ‘creeping along a hide rope’.
32 Thus, they appear to be at their ease, carrying out the Thai equivalent of shaving. Bunnōwāt kham chan(d), p. 25, v. 2, has a similar passage:
‘Lying extended along the wire, they pluck their beards, hanging down and swaying like bats. [We] are thrilled to the marrow; [we] are scared on their behalf’.
33 Because their dangerous occupation makes it not worth while registering them for state labour obligations.
34 This is a reference to the khwan or personal spirit whose presence within the individual body is essential for life and health.
35 This extremely arduous invulnerability feat is mentioned only rarely in Thai texts (see below, p. 403). A similar passage occurs in Bunnōwāt kham chan(d), p. 25, v. 5:
‘Men lie on spears and swords, sharp enough to end their lives. Mortars are placed on the middle of their bodies. They bear them without difficulty as the pestles pound’.
36 This verse lacks the first five of its seven groups. The subject is probably ram dāp, the sword dance.
37 Juggling with swords is a commonly mentioned feat.
38 
literally ‘dagger and quarter-staff’. The term is a generic one for formalized dance-fights with weapons.
39 The Thai term bā čhī is the equivalent of the Malay lotah, a nervous condition in which the sufferer automatically imitates actions performed in front of him.
40 For a precedent for the naming of particularly skilled individual performers in texts describing entertainments see Simmonds, E. H. S., ‘Thai narrative poetry: palace and provincial texts of an episode from Khun Chāng Khun Phāen’, Asia Major, NS, x, 2, 1963, 291–2.Google Scholar
Suphanburi is one of the provinces of western Thailand traditionally renowned for the boldness of its fighting men.
41 The MS contains only the first three groups of this verse.
42 Kham Phāk Rāmakian, Bangkok, Vajirañana Library, 1918, p. 6, v. 5.
43 e.g. Kot Monthian Bān, paras. 158, 163.
44 University of Edinburgh Library. Oriental Coll., MS no. PL 42.
45 The translation of a similar passage from t h e first invocation given in Kham Phāk Rāmakian appears in The Nang by Prince Dhaninivat (Thai Culture Series, no. 12), Bangkok, 1954, 10
46 Especially Th. Pigeaud, Javaanse volksvertonigen, Batavia, 1938. A similar feat is illustrated at p. 301 (pi. xxvn).
47 See the detailed account in Simmonds, E. H. S., ‘New evidence on Thai shadow-play invocations’, BSOAS, xxiv, 3, 1961, 542–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar