There is no difference between marks and words in the sense that there is between observation and accepted authority, or between verifiable fact and tradition. (Foucault, The Order of Things)
The Mudra is a kinetic event. It is an act of structuring hands in motion. The assemblage of the gestural sequence of fingers in mudra generates abstract symbols using spatial and rhythmic properties of movements. By arranging patterns of dancing fingers in the hands, mudra notates the visibility and emergence of the body as a process of the dancer's expression of meaning, emotion and rhythmic experience in performance. In the Sanskrit language, where the term and practice originated, mudra means a symbolic position of the hand that literally means seal.[i]The word also refers to a series of corporeal techniques such as eye positions, body postures and breathing techniques found in the Esoteric rituals, Yoga, Hindu and Buddhist art and the performing arts in India (Hirschi 2000: 2).[ii] Although hand gestures are integral to many human civilizations and are available in various cultural and linguistic traditions in the world, a massive repository of systematically classified hand gestures is specific to Asian cultures.
Video 1: Twenty-four hand gestures in Kutiyattam Performed by Arya Madhavan