The Representation of Gods and Heroes able are the sort of stage directions and critical writing quoted above. These only tell us that fairly complicated spectacle was possible in this theatre, and that it enchanted the viewers. g^ Questions that follow are: what manner of reality did spectacle create? As also, what is the place of illusion on stage? Matters of reality and illusion get all the more complex when spectacle is transformed into 'miracle' in mythological drama. This happens in the work of Radhey-shyam Kathavachak (1890-1939). Radheyshyam was perhaps one of the most prolific writers of mythological drama. He was at the same time an ardent champion of 'hindutva' and chose to write his plays in fairly sanskritized Hindi at a time when Urdu was the more popular language of Parsi theatre. Nat: And listen (Nati stops). This is a Hindu play. It is written in Hindi. Tell the actors that in their emoting and in their enunciation, they must preserve the honour of Hindi and the Hindu jati (people, community, nation); today we have to show the greatness of the brave Aryans.6 It is part of Radheyshyam's effort to promote hindutva, perhaps, that leads him to concentrate on mythologicals. It is by this choice of theme, too, that he needs to transform spectacle to miracle. In terms of perception, what do stage tricks do? Give a sense of a miraculous 'other world' on stage? Make an approximation of the 'mythical' past? Make material the miracle and thereby provide access, by means of realism, to the deeds of gods? Making the miracle material is only possible with the help of modem technology. Spectacle/miracle marks the entry of European realism on the Indian stage. At that moment a new set of relationships between devotee and dpity is also opened out, as also different modes of worship, idealization, and desire. This entry of realism in the Parsi theatre, and this opening out of relationships inside and outside the theatre, is what I am concerned to investigate in this paper. Let me begin by setting out briefly some basic information available to us about the Parsi theatre and its history. Parsi theatre companies, as the name suggests, were companies started by Parsis in Bombay in the 1850s. These companies took as their model British amateur theatricals, and later, also the touring companies that came from England. They took from these companies styles of advertisements, hand bills, printed tickets and stage machinery. But above all, they took to performing in the proscenium arch theatres, a type of theatre construction brought to India by the British. Even though it might appear self-evident, let me note here that architecturally the proscenium arch theatre creates a shift in stage vocabulary. The stage relations set up in the proscenium arch are radically different from those in open staging of the kind common in pre-colonial and early colonial India. Journal of Arts &f Ideas