The Natya Shastra is a Sanskrit text on the performing arts, and is the principal work of dramatic theory, encompassing dance and music, in classical India. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated between 200 BCE and 200 CE. Today we will explore, What is Natya Shastra and why is it important in drama.
What Is Natya Shastra
The text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts. It is the outcome of several centuries of theatrical practice, as actors passed their tradition and learnings orally from generation to generation. Like many other canonical texts from ancient times, it is formed as a loose dialogue – between Bharata Muni and a number of other Munis who approached him with queries. It is a detailed theory of drama, comparable to the poetics of Aristotle. Topics covered by the text include dramatic composition, the structure of a play and the construction of a stage to host it, genres of acting, body movements, makeup and costumes, role and goals of an art director, the musical scales, musical instruments and the integration of music with art performance.
The Natyashastra is the oldest surviving ancient Indian work on performance arts. The roots of the text extend at least as far back as the Natasutras, dating to around the mid-1st millennium BCE. The most studied version of the text, consisting of about 6000 poetic verses, is structured into 36 chapters. The tradition believes that the text originally had 12,000 verses. Somewhat different versions of the manuscripts exist, and these contain 37 or 38 chapters.
The text opens with the mythical genesis and history of drama, mentions the role of different Hindu deities in various aspects of the arts, and the recommended Puja (consecration ceremony) of a stage for performing arts. The text then describes the theory of dance (Shiva), and the theory of expressions, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, and standing postures.
Chapters 6 and 7 present the theory of aesthetics in performance arts, while chapters 8 to 13 are dedicated to the art of acting, with chapters 10 to 13 focusing on the use of different stage instruments, Stage Combat Swords and Other Weapons, placement, and scene construction in the space.
Chapters 14 to 20 are dedicated to the script: the plot and structure of the underlying text behind the performance art. These sections include the theory of Sanskrit prosody, musical meters, and the language of expression. Chapter 17 presents the attributes of poetry and figures of speech, while chapter 18 presents the art of speech and delivery in the performance arts. The text dedicates several chapters exclusively to women in performance arts (Chapter 24) and the training of actors (chapters 26 and 35).
The theory of music, singing, and playing of musical instruments is presented in chapters 28 to 34. The final few chapters of the Natya Shastra describe the various types of dramatic characters, their roles, and the need for teamwork for a successful performance.
Why Is Natya Shastra Important?
The Natya Shastra is notable as an ancient encyclopedia on the arts, one which has influenced dance, music, and literary traditions in India (and the world) for centuries. It is probably the world’s largest and most comprehensive theater and dance manual, established through centuries of manual work. It is a keystone in the development, teaching, and progress of performance arts.
It can be said that Bharata adopted a universal approach and affirmed that art universalizes emotions, making them an instrument of appeal to the spectators. It can be said that Natya Shastra has relevance more for practitioners than for academicians.
But the Natya Shastra has been far more than a mere compendium of drama – It provided the foundation of theatrical and literary works that followed, which shaped the Indian and East Asian cultures. It has been an important sourcebook of Hindu performance arts and its cultural beliefs regarding the role of arts in the social (dharmic) as well as the personal inner life of man in Hinduism.
The Natysashastra text has been influential in other arts as well. The 108 dance forms described in the Natyasastra, for example, have inspired Shiva sculptures of the 1st-millennium BCE, particularly the Tandava style, and the movements of dance and expression in the Natyashastra are found carved on the pillars, walls, and gateways of 1st-millennium Hindu temples. specifications provided in the Natya Shastra can be found in the depiction of arts in sculpture, icons, and friezes across India.
Rasa Theory
But one cannot answer the question “what is the Natya Shastra why is it important” without mentioning the Rasa theory.
Natya Shastra claim that the purpose of drama is to entertain the audience. Much like we discussed in the Key Elements in Mime, the performance can directly create emotion in the audience. Here, it is referred to as bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform, and the rasas, the emotional responses that they inspire in the audience.
Meaning that the Rasas are created by Bhavas (the state of mind of the performer). The eight basic bhavas are love, humor, energy, anger, fear, grief, disgust, and astonishment. These bhavas are not conveyed directly to the audiences but are portrayed through cause and effect. By observing these emotions that are depicted in the performance, the audience experiences eight main responses (called “rasas”) – Love (Sringara rasa ), Pity (Karunyam rasa), Anger (Raudram rasa), Disgust (Bibhatsam rasa), Heroism (Veeram rasa), Terror (Bhayanakam rasa), Awe (Adbhutam rasa) and Comedy (Hasya rasa ).
The theory of Rasa is dealt with in chapters 6 and 7 of the Natya Shastra, which recommends that plays should mix different rasas, but be dominated by one. It is one of the most important theories developed by the text, and the two chapters are considered to be the landmarks in the history of Sanskrit poetics and aesthetics.
The Rasa theory remains extremely relevant to this day, with many workshops and schools of performance using these elementary emotions for their training.