Natya Shastra

2025-09-10T15:15:27Z

87.77.189.104: /* Drama */ typo

{{Short description|Sanskrit text on the performing arts}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox religious text|image=Shiva as the Lord of Dance LACMA edit.jpg|alt=|caption=[[Nataraja|Shiva as the Lord of Dance]]|religion=[[Hinduism]]|verses=|author=[[Bharata (sage)]]|language=[[Sanskrit]]}}{{Hindu scriptures|image=1_dancing_Hindu_god_Shiva_Nataraja_Tanjore,_India.jpg|Other}}
{{Hinduism}}

The '''''Nāṭya Shāstra''''' ({{Langx|sa|नाट्य शास्त्र}}, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the [[performing arts]].<ref name="katherineyoung20">{{cite book|author1=Katherine Young |author2=Arvind Sharma |title=Her Voice, Her Faith: Women Speak on World Religions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUoEw0IQvPEC |year=2004|publisher=Westview Press |isbn=978-0-8133-4666-3 |pages=20–21 }}</ref><ref name="GuyBeckp138">{{cite book|author=Guy L. Beck|title=Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UzUMCAAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-61117-108-2|pages=138–139 |quote='''Quote:''' "A summation of the signal importance of the Natyashastra for Hindu religion and culture has been provided by Susan Schwartz, "In short, the Natyashastra is an exhaustive encyclopedic dissertation of the arts, with an emphasis on performing arts as its central feature. It is also full of invocations to deities, acknowledging the divine origins of the arts and the central role of performance arts in achieving divine goals (…)".}}</ref> The text is attributed to sage [[Bharata (sage)|Bharata]], and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE,{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=xxiv, 19–20}} but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE.{{Sfn|Wallace Dace|1963|p=249}}

The text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6,000 poetic verses describing performance arts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pollock |first=Sheldon Ivan |title=A rasa reader: classical Indian aesthetics |date=2016 |publisher=Columbia university press |isbn=978-0-231-17390-2 |series=Historical sourcebooks in classical indian thought |location=New York}}</ref> The subjects covered by the treatise include dramatic composition, structure of a play and the construction of a stage to host it, genres of acting, body movements, make up and costumes, role and goals of an art director, the musical scales, musical instruments and the integration of music with art performance.{{Sfn|Sreenath Nair|2015}}{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=3–4, 7–25}}
[[File:Natya Shastra.png|thumb|Natya Shastra in [[Thai art]]]]

The ''Nāṭya Śāstra'' is notable as an ancient encyclopedic treatise on the arts,<ref name="GuyBeckp138"/><ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/> one which has influenced dance, music and literary traditions in India.{{Sfn|Sunil Kothari|Avinash Pasricha|2001|p=117, 163}} It is also notable for its aesthetic [[Rasa (aesthetics)|"Rasa"]] theory, which asserts that entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal, and that the primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder, where they experience the essence of their own consciousness, and reflect on spiritual and moral questions.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |year=2005|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9|pages=102–104, 155–156}}</ref> The text further inspired secondary literature such as the 10th century commentary [[Abhinavabharati]] – an example of a classic Sanskrit [[bhasya]] ("reviews and commentaries") – written by [[Abhinavagupta]].{{Sfn|Ananda Lal|2004|p=308}} In April 2025, the ''Nāṭya Shāstra'' manuscript was added to [[UNESCO]]’s [[Memory of the World Register – Asia and the Pacific|Memory of the World Register]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2025-04-18 |title=Bhagavad Gita & Natyashastra manuscripts added to Unesco’s Memory of the World Register; PM Modi calls it 'proud moment' |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bhagavad-gita-natyashastra-added-to-unescos-memory-of-the-world-register-pm-modi-calls-it-proud-moment/articleshow/120400150.cms |access-date=2025-04-18 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The title of the text is composed of two words, "Nāṭya" and "Shāstra". The root of the [[Sanskrit]] word ''Nāṭya'' is ''Nata'' (नट) which means "act, represent".<ref>{{cite book|author=Chandra Rajan|title=Loom Of Time, Kalidasa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sj9hZYZrcFEC |year=1999|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-400078-4 |pages=29 }}</ref> The word ''Shāstra'' (शास्त्र) means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise", and is generally used as a suffix in the [[India]]n literature context, for knowledge in a defined area of practice.<ref name=lochtefeldshastra626>James Lochtefeld (2002), "Shastra" in ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism'', Vol. 2: N–Z, Rosen Publishing, {{ISBN|0-8239-2287-1}}, p. 626; See also for help [http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/2014/web/webtc/indexcaller.php?input=HK&output=SktRomanUnicode&citation=zAstra शास्त्र] in Monier William's Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, Archived by Koeln University, Germany</ref>

==Date and author==
{{Quote box | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right
|quote= '''Performance arts and culture'''
<poem>
Let Nāṭya (drama and dance) be the fifth [[Vedas|vedic scripture]].
Combined with an epic story,
tending to virtue, wealth, joy and spiritual freedom,
it must contain the significance of every scripture,
and forward every art.
</poem>
|source =— ''Nāṭyaśāstra'' 1.14–15<ref>{{Cite web|title=Natyashastra|publisher = Sanskrit Documents| url=http://sanskritdocuments.org/all_pdf/natya01.pdf}}</ref><ref name=mog17>{{cite web|title=The Mirror of Gesture|author=Coormaraswamy and Duggirala|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1917|page=4|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924012568535#page/n5/mode/2up}}; Also see chapter 36</ref>}}
The composition date of ''Nāṭya Shāstra'' is unknown. Estimates vary between 500 BCE to 500 CE.{{Sfn|Wallace Dace|1963|p=249}}{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}} The text may have started in the 1st millennium BCE,{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=xxiv, 19–20}} expanded over time, and most scholars suggest, based on mention of this text in other Indian literature, that the first complete version of the text was likely finished between 200 BCE to 200 CE.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Sreenath Nair|2015}} The ''Nāṭyaśāstra'' is traditionally alleged to be linked to a 36,000 verse Vedic composition called ''Adibharata'', however there is no corroborating evidence that such a text ever existed.{{sfn|Ghosh|2002|loc=p. 2 note 7–12}}

The text has survived into the modern age in several manuscript versions, wherein the title of the chapters varies and in some cases the content of the few chapters differ.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}} Some recensions show significant interpolations and corruption of the text,{{Sfn|Nina Mirnig|Peter-Daniel Szanto|Michael Williams|2013|p=350}} along with internal contradictions and sudden changes in style.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kale Pramod |title=The Theatric Universe: (a Study of the Natyashastra) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRdNBKIHnjkC |date=1974 |publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-81-7154-118-8 |pages=10–11}}</ref> Scholars such as PV Kane state that some text was likely changed as well as added to the original between the 3rd to 8th century CE, thus creating some variant editions, and the mixture of poetic verses and prose in a few extant manuscripts of ''Natyashastra'' may be because of this.<ref name=kpramodp8/>{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|pp=11–15}} According to Pramod Kale, who received a doctorate on the text from the University of Wisconsin, the surviving version of ''Natya Shastra'' likely existed by the 8th-century.<ref name=kpramodp8/>

The author of the ''Natya Shastra'' is unknown, and the Hindu tradition attributes it to the ''[[Rishi]]'' (sage) [[Bharata (sage)|Bharata]]. It may be the work of several authors, but scholars disagree.<ref name=kpramodp8>{{cite book|author=Kale Pramod |title=The Theatric Universe: (a Study of the Natyashastra) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRdNBKIHnjkC |date=1974 |publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-81-7154-118-8 |pages=8–9 }}</ref>{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|pp=9–10}} Bharat Gupt states that the text stylistically shows characteristics of a single compiler in the existing version, a view shared by [[Kapila Vatsyayan]].{{Sfn| Kapila Vatsyayan | 2001|p=6}}{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}<ref name=ghosh>{{cite book|editor = Manmohan Ghosh |title= Natyashastra|publisher = [[Asiatic Society]] |location= Calcutta|year = 1950}} See introduction p. xxvi for discussion of dates</ref> The ''[[Agni Purana]]'', a generic encyclopedia, includes chapters on dramatic arts and poetry, which follow the ''Natyashastra'' format, but enumerates more styles and types of performance arts, which states Winternitz, may reflect an expansion in studies of the arts by the time ''Agni Purana'' was composed.{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=11}}

===Historical roots===
The ''Natyashastra'' is the oldest surviving ancient Indian work on performance arts.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12">{{cite book|author=Susan L. Schwartz |title=Rasa: Performing the Divine in India |url=https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa |url-access=registration |year=2004|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-13144-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa/page/12 12]–15}}</ref> The roots of the text extend at least as far back as the ''Naṭasūtras'', dated to around the mid 1st millennium BCE.{{sfnm|Ananda Lal|2004|1p=16|Natalia Lidova|1994|2pp=111–113}}

The ''Natasutras'' are mentioned in the text of [[Pāṇini|Panini]], the sage who wrote the classic on [[Vyakarana|Sanskrit grammar]], and who is dated to about 500 BCE.{{sfn|Natalia Lidova|1994|pp=111–113}}{{Sfn|Farley P. Richmond|Darius L. Swann|Phillip B. Zarrilli|1993|p=30}} This performance arts related [[Sutra]] text is mentioned in other late Vedic texts, as are two scholars names Shilalin ([[IAST]]: Śilālin) and Krishashva (Kṛśaśva), credited to be pioneers in the studies of ancient drama, singing, dance and Sanskrit compositions for these arts.{{sfnm|Natalia Lidova|1994|1pp=111–113|Tarla Mehta|1995|2pp=xxiv, xxxi–xxxii, 17}} The ''Natyashastra'' refers to drama performers as Śhailālinas, likely because they were so known at the time the text was written, a name derived from the legacy of the vedic sage Śilālin credited with ''Natasutras''.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|1994|p=112}} Richmond et al. estimate the ''Natasutras'' to have been composed around 600 BCE.{{Sfn|Farley P. Richmond|Darius L. Swann|Phillip B. Zarrilli|1993|p=30}}

According to Lewis Rowell, a professor of Music specializing on classical Indian music, the earliest Indian artistic thought included three arts, syllabic recital (''vadya''), melos (''gita'') and dance (''nrtta''),{{Sfn|Rowell|2015|p=9}} as well as two musical genre, ''Gandharva'' (formal, composed, ceremonial music) and ''Gana'' (informal, improvised, entertainment music).{{Sfn|Rowell|2015|pp=11–12}} The ''Gandharva'' subgenre also implied celestial, divine associations, while the ''Gana'' was free form art and included singing.{{Sfn|Rowell|2015|pp=11-12}} The Sanskrit musical tradition spread widely in the Indian subcontinent during the late 1st millennium BCE, and the ancient [[Tamil classics]] make it "abundantly clear that a cultivated musical tradition existed in South India as early as the last few pre-Christian centuries".{{Sfn|Rowell|2015|pp=12–13}}

The art schools of Shilalin and Krishashva, mentioned in both the [[Brahmana]]s and the [[Kalpa (Vedanga)|Kalpasutras and Srautasutras]],{{sfn|Natalia Lidova|1994|p=112}} may have been associated with the performance of vedic rituals, which involved storytelling with embedded ethical values.{{sfn|Natalia Lidova|1994|p=112}} The [[Vedanga]] texts such as verse 1.4.29 of ''Panini Sutras'' mention these as well. The roots of the ''Natyashastra'' thus likely trace to the more ancient vedic traditions of integrating ritual recitation, dialogue and song in a dramatic representation of spiritual themes.<ref name=varadpande45/>{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|pp=181–182}} The Sanskrit verses in chapter 13.2 of [[Shatapatha Brahmana]] (~800–700 BCE), for example, are written in the form of a riddle play between two actors.<ref>ML Varadpande (1990), History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1, Abhinav, {{ISBN|978-8170172789}}, page 48</ref>

{{Blockquote|
The Vedic sacrifice (''[[yajna]]'') is presented as a kind of drama, with its actors, its dialogues, its portion to be set to music, its interludes, and its climaxes.
|[[Louis Renou]]|Vedic India<ref name=varadpande45>ML Varadpande (1990), History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1, Abhinav, {{ISBN|978-8170172789}}, pages 45–47</ref>}}

==Structure==
[[File:Sitara Thobani Odissi classical dance mudra India (16).jpg|thumb|170px|The Natyashastra discusses dance and many other performing arts.]]
The most studied version of the text, consisting of about 6000 poetic verses, is structured into 36 chapters.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}} The tradition believes that the text originally had 12,000 verses.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=1–25}} Somewhat different versions of the manuscripts exist, and these contain 37 or 38 chapters.{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=7}}{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|p=11}} Predominant number of its verses are in precise [[Sanskrit prosody|Anustubh meter]] (4x8, or exactly 32 syllables in every ''shloka''), some verses are in Arya meter (a morae-based Sanskrit meter), and the text has some text that is in prose particularly in chapters 6, 7 and 28.{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=7}}{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|pp=15–16}}

The structure of the text harmoniously compiles aspects of the theatrical arts into separate chapters.{{Sfn| Kapila Vatsyayan | 2001}} 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 (Hinduism)|puja]] (consecration ceremony) of a stage for performance arts.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Sreenath Nair|2015}}<ref name="GuyBeckp138"/> The text, states Natalia Lidova, then describes the theory of [[Tandava|Tāṇḍava dance]] ([[Shiva]]), the theory of [[Rasa (aesthetics)|rasa]], of bhāva, expression, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, standing postures.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn| Kapila Vatsyayan | 2001}}{{Sfn|Radhavallabh Tripathi|1991|pp=14–31}}

Chapters 6 and 7 present the [[Rasa (aesthetics)|"Rasa"]] theory on aesthetics in performance arts, while chapters 8 to 13 are dedicated to the art of acting.{{Sfn|Tieken|1998|p=171}}{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=8-9}} Stage instruments such as methods for holding accessories, weapons, relative movement of actors and actresses, scene formulation, stage zones, conventions and customs are included in chapters 10 to 13 of the ''Natyashastra''.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Sreenath Nair|2015}}{{Sfn|Radhavallabh Tripathi|1991|pp=32–46}}

The chapters 14 to 20 are dedicated to plot and structure of underlying text behind the performance art.{{Sfn|Tieken|1998|p=171}} These sections include the theory of [[Sanskrit prosody]], musical meters and the language of expression.{{Sfn| Kapila Vatsyayan | 2001}} 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.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Biswanath Bhattacharya|Ramaranjan Mukherji |1994|pp=161–163, 292–293}} The text lists ten kinds of play, presents its theory of plot, costumes, and make-up.{{Sfn|Trimbak Govind Mainkar|1978}}{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=8-9}} The text dedicates several chapters exclusively to women in performance arts, with chapter 24 on female theater.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=104–106}} The training of actors is presented in chapters 26 and 35 of the text.{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=8-9}}

The theory of music, techniques for singing, and music instruments are discussed over chapters 28 to 34.{{Sfn|Tieken|1998|p=171}}{{Sfn| Kapila Vatsyayan | 2001}} The text in its final chapters describes the various types of dramatic characters, their roles and need for team work, what constitutes an ideal troupe, closing out the text with its comments of the importance of performance arts on culture.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn| Kapila Vatsyayan | 2001}}

==Contents==
{{Quote box | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right
|quote= '''Dramatic arts'''
<poem>
Natyashastra praises dramatic arts as a
comprehensive aid to the learning of virtue,
proper behavior, ethical and moral fortitude,
courage, love and adoration of the divine.
</poem>
|source =— Susan L. Schwartz<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/>}}

The contents of the ''Natyashastra'', states Susan Schwartz, are "in part theatrical manual, part philosophy of aesthetics, part mythological history, part theology".<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/> It is the oldest surviving encyclopedic treatise on [[dramaturgy]] from India, with sections on the theory and practice of various performance arts.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Katherine Brisbane |title=The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Volume 5: Asia/Pacific |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2qKAgAAQBAJ |year=2005|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-92978-8 |pages=159–160|display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Theo D'haen |author2=David Damrosch |author3=Djelal Kadir |title=The Routledge Companion to World Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=soqoAgAAQBAJ |year=2011|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-65576-0 |pages=45 }}</ref> The text extends its reach into asking and understanding the goals of performance arts, the nature of the playwright, the artists and the spectators, their intimate relationship during the performance.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/>{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=24}} ''Natya'' topics as envisioned in this text includes what in western performing arts would include drama, dance, theatre, poetry and music.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/> The text integrates its aesthetics, axiology and description of arts with mythologies associated with Hindu [[Deva (Hinduism)|Deva]]s and [[Devi]]s.<ref name="GuyBeckp138"/><ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/> Performance arts, states ''Natyashastra'', are a form of Vedic ritual ceremony (yajna).<ref>ML Varadpande (1990), History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1, Abhinav, {{ISBN|978-8170172789}}, page 7</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Martin Banham |title=The Cambridge Guide to Theatre |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh |url-access=registration |year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43437-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000banh/page/519 519] }}</ref>

The general approach of the text is treated entertainment as an effect, but not the primary goal of arts. The primary goal is to lift and transport the spectators, unto the expression of ultimate reality and transcendent values.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/><ref name=dmdp155>{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |year=2005|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9|pages=155–156}}</ref> The text allows, states Schwartz, the artists "enormous innovation" as they connect the playwright and the spectators, through their performance, to ''Rasa'' (the essence, juice).<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/><ref name=dmdp102>{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |year=2005|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9|pages=102–104}}</ref>

The "rasa theory" of ''Natyashastra'', states Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, presumes that bliss is intrinsic and innate in man, it exists in oneself, that manifests non-materially through spiritual and personally subjective means.<ref name="dmdp102"/>{{Sfn|Sreenath Nair|2015|pp=15–38, Section 1, Chapter by Vatsyayan}} Performance arts aim to empower man to experience this ''rasa'', or re-experience it. Actors aim to journey the spectator to this aesthetic experience within him.<ref name="dmdp102"/> Rasa is prepared, states ''Natya Shastra'', through a creative synthesis and expression of ''vibhava'' (determinants), ''anubhava'' (consequents) and ''vyabhicharibhava'' (transitory states).<ref name="dmdp102"/>{{sfn|Radhavallabh Tripathi|1991|pp=22–28}} In the process of emotionally engaging the individual in the audience, the text outlines the use of eight sentiments – erotic, comic, pathetic, terrible, furious, odious, heroic and marvellous.<ref name="dmdp102"/>{{Sfn|Ananda Lal|2004|pp=61–64}}{{Sfn|Wallace Dace|1963|pp=249–254}}

=== Concept of ''Natya'' ===
The ''Natyashastra'' defines drama in verse 6.10 as that which aesthetically arouses joy in the spectator, through the medium of actor's art of communication, that helps connect and transport the individual into a super sensual inner state of being.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=3}} The ''Natya'' connects through ''[[abhinaya]]'', that is applying body-speech-mind and scene, wherein asserts ''Natyashastra'', the actors use two practices of ''dharmi'' (performance), in four styles and four regional variations, accompanied by song and music in a playhouse carefully designed to achieve ''siddhi'' (success in production).{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=3}}

The verse details the eleven essential components of drama and dramatic production:

# ''Rasa''
# ''Bhāva''
# ''Abhinaya''
# ''Dharmī''
# ''Vṛtti''
# ''Pravṛtti''
# ''Svara-gāna-ātodya'' (accompanying vocal and instrumental music)
# ''Raṅga -'' (places of performance)
# ''Siddhi'' (success of the production)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mehta |first=Tarla |title=Sanskrit play production in ancient India |date=1995 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |isbn=978-81-208-1057-0 |edition=1st |series=Performing arts series |location=Delhi |pages=3}}</ref>

=== Stage ===
The text discusses a variety of performance arts as well as the design of the stage.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwLJc3pBzzUC |date=1997 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-362-5|pages=43–46, 61–65, for various arts see 39–70}}</ref> The text details three architectural styles for the playhouse:

# ''Vikrista'' (oblong)
# ''Caturasra'' (square)
# ''Tryasra'' (triangular)<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm50999926 |title=The Oxford encyclopedia of theatre & performance |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-860174-6 |editor-last=Kennedy |editor-first=Dennis |location=Oxford; New York |pages=927 |oclc=ocm50999926}}</ref>
Drama did not require painted scenery, instead utilizing costumes and makeup. Well aware of the limitations of realism, descriptions of the setting were interwoven in rhythmic verse and prose. Further, detailed zonal rules outlined how to portray settings inside and outside a house, as well as settings near or far. For example, change in acts would convey travel to distant lands.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bharat Muni |url=https://archive.org/details/NatyaShastra/natya_shastra_translation_volume_1_-_bharat_muni/page/n3/mode/2up |title=Natya Shastra |pages=LXI-LXII}}</ref>

===Drama===
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Namrata Rai Kathak Dancer.jpg
| alt1 = Kathak
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| image2 = Kuchipudi Performer DS.jpg
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| image3 = Rasa Lila in Manipuri dance style.jpg
| alt3 = Manipuri
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| alt4 = Bharatanatyam
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| image6 =
| alt6 = Janus
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| footer = Various classical dance forms
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Drama, in this ancient Sanskrit text, is an art to engage every aspect of life, in order to glorify and gift a state of joyful consciousness.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=5}}

The text discusses the universal and inner principles of drama, that it asserts successfully affects and journeys the audience to a supersensual state of discovery and understanding. The stories and plots were provided by the Itihasas (epics), the [[Puranas]] and the Kathas genre of Hindu literature.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=5}} The text also states that the god Brahma combined the elements of acting from the four Vedas: "recitation from the ''Rigveda'', music from the ''Samaveda'', mimetic art from the ''Yajurveda'', and sentiments from the ''Atharvaveda''."<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford encyclopedia of theatre and performance |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-19-860174-6 |editor-last=Kennedy |editor-first=Dennis |location=New York, NY |pages=3}}</ref>

The text states that the playwright should know the ''bhavas'' (inner state of being) of all characters in the story, and it is these bhavas that the audience of that drama connects with.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=5}} The hero is shown to be similar to everyone in some ways, trying to achieve the [[Puruṣārtha|four goals]] of human life in Hindu philosophy, then the ''vastu'' (plot) emerges through the "representation of three worlds – the divine, the human, the demonic".<ref name=sallybanesp27/>{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=5–19}} Drama has dharma, it has artha, it has kama, it has humor, fighting and killing. The best drama shows the good and the bad, actions and feelings, of each character, whether God or man.<ref name=sallybanesp27/>{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=5–19}}

According to ''Natyashastra'', state Sally Banes and Andre Lepecki, drama is that art which accepts human beings are in different inner states when they arrive as audience, then through the art performed, it provides enjoyment to those wanting pleasure, solace to those in grief, calmness to those who are worried, energy to those who are brave, courage to those who are cowards, eroticism to those who want company, enjoyment to those who are rich, knowledge to those who are uneducated, wisdom to those who are educated.<ref name=sallybanesp27/>{{Sfn|Adya Rangacharya|1998}} Drama represents the truths about life and worlds, through emotions and circumstances, to deliver entertainment, but more importantly ethos, questions, peace and happiness.<ref name=sallybanesp27>{{cite book|author1=Sally Banes|author2=Andre Lepecki|title=The Senses in Performance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gLPBni9awkYC |year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-46070-0|pages=27–28}}</ref>

The text goes into specifics to explain the means available within dramatic arts to achieve its goals. Just like the taste of food, states ''Natyashastra'', is determined by combination of vegetables, spices and other articles such as sugar and salt, the audience tastes dominant states of a drama through expression of words, gestures and temperaments.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|pp=105–106}} These dominant states are love, mirth, sorrow, anger, energy, terror, disgust and astonishment. Further, states the text, there are 33 psychological states which are transitory such as discouragement, weakness, apprehension, intoxication, tiredness, anxiety, agitation, despair, impatience.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|pp=102, note the text lists all 33}} There are eight temperamental states that a drama can deploy to carry its message.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|pp=102–103}} The text describes four means of communication between the actors and the audience – words, gestures, dresses, representation of temperament and ''aharya'' (make ups, cosmetics), all of which should be harmonious with the temperament envisioned in the drama.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|p=103}} The text discusses the dominant, transitory and temperamental states, for dramatic arts, and the means that an artist can use to express these states, in chapters 6 through 7.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|pp=103–147}}

The ''Natyashastra'' describes the stage for performance arts as the sacred space for artists, and discusses the specifics of stage design, positioning the actors, the relative locations, movement on stage, entrance and exit, change in background, transition, objects displayed on the stage, and such architectural features of a theatre; the text asserts that these aspects help the audience get absorbed in the drama as well as understand the message and the meaning being communicated.<ref name=kpramodp13>{{cite book|author=Kale Pramod |title=The Theatric Universe: (a Study of the Natyashastra) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRdNBKIHnjkC |date=1974 |publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-81-7154-118-8 |pages=13–31}}</ref><ref name="Liu2016p222">{{cite book|author=David Mason |editor=Siyuan Liu|title=Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1iFCwAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-27886-3 |pages=222–225 |display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Chris Salter |title=Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBJbIP0fMr0C |date=2010 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-19588-1 |pages=xxii–xxiii }}</ref> After the 10th-century, [[Hindu temple]]s were designed to include stages for performance arts (for example, ''[[Koothambalam|kuttampalams]]''), or prayer halls (for example, ''namghar'') that seconded as dramatic arts stage, based on the square principle described in the ''Natyashastra'', such as those in the peninsular and eastern states of India.<ref name="Liu2016p222"/>

===Song and dance in arts===
The ''Natyashastra'' discusses Vedic songs, and also dedicates over 130 verses to non-Vedic songs.{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|pp=45–46}} Chapter 17 of the text is entirely dedicated to poetry and the structure of a song, which it states is also the template for composing plays.<ref>{{cite book|author=Susan L. Schwartz |title=Rasa: Performing the Divine in India |url=https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa |url-access=registration |year=2004|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-13144-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa/page/17 17]–18}}</ref> Its chapter 31 asserts that there are seven types of songs, and these are ''Mandraka'', ''Aparantaka'', ''Rovindaka'', ''Prakari'', ''Ullopyaka'', ''Ovedaka'' and ''Uttara''.{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|p=46}} It also elaborates on 33 melodic [[alankara]]s in songs.{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=29}} These are melodic tools of art for any song, and they are essential. Without these melodic intonations, states the text, a song becomes like "a night without the moon, a river without water, a creeper without a flower and a woman without an ornament".{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=30}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Manjusree Tyagi|title=Significance of compositional forms in Hindustani classical music |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXgHAQAAMAAJ |date=1997 |publisher=Pratibha |isbn=978-81-85268-63-7 |page=89}}</ref> A song also has four basic architectural ''varna'' to empower its meaning, and these tone patterns are ascending line, steady line, descending line and the unsteady line.{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=30}}

The ideal poem produces bliss in the reader, or listener. It transports the audience into an imaginative world, transforms his inner state, and delivers him to a higher level of consciousness, suggests ''Natyashastra''.<ref name=schwartzrasa18>{{cite book|author=Susan L. Schwartz |title=Rasa: Performing the Divine in India |url=https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa |url-access=registration |year=2004|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-13144-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa/page/18 18]–19}}</ref> Great songs do not instruct or lecture, they delight and liberate from within to a state of godlike ecstasy.<ref name="schwartzrasa18"/> According to Susan Schwartz, these sentiments and ideas of ''Natyashastra'' likely influenced the devotional songs and musical trends of the [[Bhakti movement]] that emerged in Hinduism during the second half of the 1st millennium CE.<ref name="schwartzrasa18"/>

Indian dance (''nritta'', नृत्त) traditions, states Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, have roots in the aesthetics of ''Natyashastra''.<ref name="katherineyoung20"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |year=2005|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9|pages=6–7}}</ref> The text defines the basic dance unit to be a ''karana'', which is a specific combination of the hands and feet integrated with specific body posture and gait (''sthana'' and ''chari'' respectively).{{Sfn|Sunil Kothari|Avinash Pasricha|2001|pp=117–118}}{{Sfn|Nina Mirnig|Peter-Daniel Szanto|Michael Williams|2013|pp=186–187}} Chapter 4 describes 108 ''karanas'' as the building blocks to the art of dance.{{Sfn|Sunil Kothari|Avinash Pasricha|2001|pp=117–118}}{{Sfn|Nina Mirnig|Peter-Daniel Szanto|Michael Williams|2013|pp=174–177}} The text states the various movements of major and minor limbs with facial states as means of articulating ideas and expressing emotions.{{Sfn|Sunil Kothari|Avinash Pasricha|2001|pp=117–118}}{{Sfn|Ananda Lal|2004|pp=95–99}}

===Music and musical instruments===
The ''Natyashastra'' is, states [[Emmie te Nijenhuis]], the oldest surviving text that systematically treats "the theory and instruments of Indian music".{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=3–4}} Music has been an integral part of performance arts in the Hindu tradition since its Vedic times,<ref>{{cite book|author=Guy L. Beck |title=Sacred Sound: Experiencing Music in World Religions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-IeHbqAfSsC |year=2006|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|isbn=978-0-88920-421-8 |pages=114–123 }}</ref> and the theories of music found in the ''Natyashastra'' are also found in many [[Puranas]], such as the [[Markandeya Purana]].{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=3–4, 7–25}}

{{multiple image
| perrow = 2
| total_width = 240
| align = right
| image1 = Veena.png
| alt1 = Veena
| width1 = 600
| height1 = 400
| image2 = Banshri.jpg
| alt2 = Flute
| width2 = 165
| height2 = 215
| image3 = Lukobadya nagara.jpg
| alt3 = Pushkala Nagara drums
| width3 = 454
| height3 = 325
| image4 = Cymbals (PSF).png
| alt4 = Cymbals
| width4 = 2046
| height4 = 2491
| footer = Musical instrument types mentioned in the ''Natyashastra'' (string, flute, drums and cymbals).<ref name="BaumerBrandon1993p117"/>
}}

Prior to the ''Natyashastra,'' the ancient Indian tradition classified musical instruments into four groups based on their acoustic principle (how they work, rather than the material they are made of).{{Sfn|Rowell|2015|pp=13-14}} The ''Natyashastra'' accepts these four categories as given, and dedicates four separate chapters to them, one each on stringed instruments ('tat' or [[chordophones]]), hollow instruments ('sushir' or [[aerophones]]), solid instruments ('ghan' or [[idiophones]]), and covered instruments ('avanaddha' or [[membranophones]]).{{Sfn|Rowell|2015|pp=13-14}}

Chapters 15 and 16 of the text discuss [[Sanskrit prosody]] in a manner similar to those found in more ancient [[Vedanga]] texts such as the ''Pingala Sutras''.{{Sfn|Nina Mirnig|Peter-Daniel Szanto|Michael Williams|2013|pp=350–351}}{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|pp=248–292}} Chapters 28 through 34 are dedicated to music, both vocal and instrument based.{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=9, 654}} Chapter 28, discusses the harmonic scale, calling the unit of tonal measurement or audible unit as ''Shruti'',{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|p=14}} with verse 28.21 introducing the musical scale as follows,<ref>NA Jairazbhoy (1985), [http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/prevol2.pdf Harmonic Implications of Consonance and Dissonance in Ancient Indian Music], Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology, University of California Los Angeles, pages 28–31</ref>

{{Blockquote|
<poem>
तत्र स्वराः –
षड्‍जश्‍च ऋषभश्‍चैव गान्धारो मध्यमस्तथा ।
पञ्‍चमो धैवतश्‍चैव सप्तमोऽथ निषादवान् ॥ २१॥
</poem>
|''Natya Shastra''|28.21<ref>Sanskrit: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/natya28.html?lang=sa Natyashastra Chapter 28], नाट्यशास्त्रम् अध्याय २८, ॥ २१॥</ref>{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=21–25}}}}
{| class="wikitable" align=center style = " background: transparent; "
|+ Musical scale in ''Natya Shastra''{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=13–14, 21–25}}{{Sfn|Cris Forster|2010}}
|-style="text-align: center;"
| width=40px style="background: #ffad66;" | [[Swara|Svara]] (Long)
| width=40px | Shadja (षड्ज)
| width=40px | Rishabha (ऋषभ)
| width= 40px | Gandhara (गान्धार)
| width= 40px | Madhyama (मध्यम)
| width=40px | Panchama (पञ्चम)
| width= 40px | Dhaivata (धैवत)
| width=40px | Nishada (निषाद)
| width=40px | Shadja (षड्ज)
|-style="text-align: center;"
| width=40px | Svara (Short)
| width=40px | Sa (सा)
| width=40px | Ri (री)
| width= 40px | Ga (ग)
| width= 40px | Ma (म)
| width=40px | Pa (प)
| width= 40px | Dha (ध)
| width=40px | Ni (नि)
| width=40px | Sa (सा)
|-style="text-align: center;"
| width=40px | [[Image:Musical notes.svg|80x80px]] (''shadja-graama'')
| width=40px | [[Image:C 1-1.png|80x80px]]
| width=40px | [[Image:Note D.svg|80x80px]]
| width= 40px | [[Image:Note eeb flat.svg|80x80px]][[Image:Note E.svg|80x80px]]
| width= 40px | [[Image:Note F.svg|80x80px]]
| width=40px | [[Image:Note G.svg|80x80px]]
| width= 40px | [[Image:Note AA.svg|80x80px]]
| width=40px | [[Image:Note bb flat.svg|80x80px]][[Image:Note BB.svg|80x80px]]
| width=40px | [[Image:Note CC.svg|80x80px]]
|-style="text-align: center;"
| width=40px | Varieties
| width=40px | C
| width=40px | D♭, D
| width= 40px | E♭, E
| width= 40px | F, F♯
| width=40px | G
| width= 40px | A♭, A
| width=40px | B♭, B
| width=40px | CC
|}

The music theory in the ''Natyashastra'', states Maurice Winternitz, centers around three themes – sound, rhythm and prosody applied to musical texts.{{Sfn|Maurice Winternitz|2008|p=654}} The text asserts that the octave has 22 ''shrutis'' or microintervals of musical tones or 1200 cents.{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|p=14}} This is very close to the ancient Greek system, states Emmie Te Nijenhuis, with the difference that each ''shruti'' computes to 54.5 cents, while the Greek enharmonic quartertone system computes to 55 cents.{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|p=14}} The text discusses ''gramas'' ([[Scale (music)|scales]]) and ''murchanas'' ([[Mode (music)|modes]]), mentioning three scales of seven modes (21 total), some of which are the same as the Greek modes.{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|p=32-34}} However, the Gandhara-grama is just mentioned in ''Natyashastra'', while its discussion largely focuses on two scales, fourteen modes and eight four ''tanas'' ([[Musical note|notes]]).{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|pp=14–25}}<ref>{{cite book|author1=Reginald Massey |author2=Jamila Massey |author2-link=Jamila Massey |title=The Music of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FSBJWkZofsC |year=1996|publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-332-8 |pages=22–25 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Richa Jain |title=Song of the Rainbow: A Work on Depiction of Music Through the Medium of Paintings in the Indian Tradition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p6OfAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Kanishka |isbn=978-81-7391-496-6|pages=26, 39–44}}</ref> The text also discusses which scales are best for different forms of performance arts.{{Sfn|Emmie Te Nijenhuis|1974|p=32-34}}

The ''Natyashastra'' describes from chapter 28 onwards, four types of regular musical instruments, grouping them as stringed giving the example of [[veena]], covered giving the example of drums, solid giving the example of cymbals, and hollow stating flutes as example.<ref name="BaumerBrandon1993p117">{{cite book|author1=Rachel Van M. Baumer|author2=James R. Brandon|title=Sanskrit Drama in Performance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ix-RShGgZUAC |year=1993|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-0772-3 |pages=117–118 }}</ref> Chapter 33 asserts team performance, calling it ''kutapa'' (orchestra) which it states to have one male and one female singer with nine to eleven musical instruments accompanied by players.<ref name="BaumerBrandon1993p117"/>

===Male and female actors===
The ''Natyashastra'' enshrines the male and female actors in any performance art to be the most important.<ref name=kpramodp52/> The brightness of performance, or its lack, impacts everything; a great play that is poorly performed confuses and loses the audience, while a play that is inferior in significance or meaning becomes beautiful to the audience when brilliantly performed, states ''Natyashastra''.<ref name=kpramodp52>{{cite book|author=Kale Pramod |title=The Theatric Universe: (a Study of the Natyashastra) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRdNBKIHnjkC |date=1974 |publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-81-7154-118-8 |pages=52–54 }}</ref> A performance art of any form needs auditors and director, states the text, whose role is to work together with the actors from the perspective of the audience and the significance or meaning the playwright of the art work is attempting to convey.<ref name=kirkwood92/>

{{Quote box | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right
|quote= '''Training actors'''
<poem>
For an actor who is not yet perfect,
the techniques described in the ''Natyashastra'',
are a means to achieve
perfection, enlightenment, moksha,
and run parallel to reaching this state through
yoga or meditation practices.
</poem>
|source =— Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |year=2005 |publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9 |page=79 }}</ref>}}
The text dedicates significant number of verses on actor training, as did the Indian dramaturgy literature that arose in its wake.<ref name="HaneyMalekin2001p114">{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |editor=William S. Haney and Peter Malekin |title=Humanism and the Humanities in the Twenty-first Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F1cjv5An4x8C |year=2001 |publisher=Bucknell University Press |isbn=978-0-8387-5497-9 |pages=114–117}}</ref><ref name=madhavan44/> The ideal actor training, states ''Natyashastra'', encourages self-development within the actor and raises the actor's level of consciousness, which in turn empowers him or her to express ideas from that higher state of consciousness.<ref name="HaneyMalekin2001p114"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |year=2005|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9|pages=166–167}}</ref> Acting is more than physical techniques or rote recitation, it is communication through emotions and expression of embedded meaning and levels of consciousness in the underlying text.<ref name="HaneyMalekin2001p114"/><ref name=madhavan44>{{cite book|author=Arya Madhavan|title=Kudiyattam Theatre and the Actor's Consciousness|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7Rkr6sSiGIC |year=2010|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-420-2798-5 |pages=44–49, 151–196 }}</ref>

The actor, states the text, should understand the three [[Guṇa]]s, that is ''Sattva'', ''Rajas'' and ''Tamas'' qualities, because human lives are an interplay of these.{{Sfn|Sreenath Nair|2015|pp=75–76}}<ref name="HaneyMalekin2001p114"/><ref>{{cite book|author1=Michael Groden |author2=Martin Kreiswirth|author3=Imre Szeman|author-link3=Imre Szeman |title=The Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory & criticism |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=N6QRAQAAMAAJ |year=2005|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-8010-0 |pages=518 }}</ref> The actor must feel a specific state within, to express it without. Thus, states Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, the guidelines in ''Natyashastra'' employ the ideas in [[Yoga]] school of Hindu philosophy, with concepts mirroring ''asanas'', ''pranayama'' and ''dhyana'', both for actor training and the expression of higher levels of consciousness.<ref name="HaneyMalekin2001p114"/>

Specific training on gestures and movements for actors, their performance and significance, are discussed in chapters 8 through 12 of the ''Natyashastra''.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|pp=148–212}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |year=2005 |publisher= Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9 |pages=104–109 }}</ref> Chapter 24 is dedicated to females in performance arts, however other chapters on actor training include numerous verses that mention women along with men.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|pp=148–212, 489–490}}{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}}{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=104–106}}

===The goals of art: spiritual values===
The ''Natyashastra'' and other ancient Hindu texts such as the [[Yajnavalkya Smriti]] assert that arts and music are spiritual, with the power to guide one to [[moksha]], through empowering the concentration of mind for the liberation of the Self (soul, Atman).{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|pp=45–46}} These arts are offered as alternate paths ([[Marga Natya]] or yoga), in strength similar to the knowledge of the [[Shruti]]s (Vedas and Upanishads).{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|pp=45–46}} Various medieval scholars, such as the 12th-century Mitaksara and Apararka, cite ''Natyashastra'' and Bharata in linking arts to spirituality, while the text itself asserts that beautiful songs are sacred and performance arts are holy.{{Sfn|Pandurang Vaman Kane|1971|pp=45–46}}

The goal of performance arts, states ''Natyashastra'' is ultimately to let the spectator experience his own consciousness, then evaluate and feel the spiritual values innate in him, and rise to a higher level of consciousness.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/><ref name="dmdp155"/> The playwright, the actors and the director (conductor) all aim to transport the spectator to an aesthetic experience within him to eternal universals, to emancipate him from the mundane to creative freedom within.<ref name="dmdp102"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Susan L. Schwartz |title=Rasa: Performing the Divine in India |url=https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa |url-access=registration |year=2004|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-13144-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rasa00susa/page/14 14]–15, 56–60, 96–98}}</ref>

The function of drama and the art of theatre, as envisioned in ''Natyashastra'' states Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, is to restore the human potential, man's journey of "delight at a higher level of consciousness", and a life that is enlightened.<ref>{{cite book |author=Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KiJn_o4R5MC |title=Approaches to Acting: Past and Present |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4411-0381-9 |page=155 |quote='''Quote:''' (…) "the function of the art of theatre, described in the Natyashastra is to restore full human potential, life in enlightenment. The concept of beauty in Indian tradition is, therefore, conceived and presented as the experience of delight at a higher level of consciousness."}}</ref>

==Ancient and medieval secondary literature: bhasya==
{{Quote box | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right
|quote= '''When is a play successful?'''
<poem>
''Drishtaphala'' [visible fruits] like banners or
material rewards do not indicate success of
a play production.

Real success is achieved when the play is
performed with skilled precision,
devoted faith and pure concentration.
To succeed, the artist must immerse the
spectator with pure joy of rasa experience.

The spectator's concentrated absorption and
appreciation is success.
</poem>
|source =— Abhinavagupta on ''Natyashastra'' (Abridged) Trans: Tarla Mehta{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|p=24}}}}
''[[Abhinavabharati|Abhinavabhāratī]]'' is the most studied commentary on ''Natyashastra'', written by [[Abhinavagupta]] (950–1020 CE), who referred to ''Natyashastra'' also as the ''Natyaveda''.{{sfnm|Ghosh|2002|1loc=p. 2 note 3|Ananda Lal|2004|2pp=308, 492}} Abhinavagupta's analysis of ''Natyashastra'' is notable for its extensive discussion of aesthetic and ontological questions, such as "whether human beings comprehend performance arts as ''tattva'' (reality and truth in another plane), or is it an error, or is it a form of superimposed reality (''aropa'')?{{Sfn|Ananda Lal|2004|p=308, 492}}

Abhinavagupta asserts that ''Natyashastra'' and performance arts appeal to man because of "the experience of wonder", wherein the observer is pulled in, immersed, engaged, absorbed, and satisfied.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=7}} The performance arts in ''Natyashastra'', states Abhinavagupta, temporarily suspends man from his ordinary world, transfers him into another parallel reality full of wonder, where he experiences and reflects on spiritual and moral concepts, and in there is the power of arts to transform the inner state of man, where the beauty of the art lifts him into the goals of [[Dharma]] (correct living, virtues, duties, right versus wrong, responsibilities, righteous).{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=7}} Abhinavagupta is also known for his [[Advaita Vedanta]] treatises and a commentary on the [[Bhagavad Gita]], where he touches upon the aesthetics in ''Natyashastra''.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=1-2}}

The detailed ''Natyashastra'' review and commentary of Abhinavagupta mentions older Sanskrit commentaries on the text, suggesting the text was widely studied and had been influential.<ref name=kpramodp10/> His discussion of pre-10th century scholarly views and list of references suggest that there once existed secondary literature on the ''Natyashastra'' by at least Kirtidhara, Bhaskara, Lollata, Sankuka, Nayaka, Harsa and Tauta.<ref name=kpramodp10/> However, all text manuscripts of these scholars have been lost to history or are yet to be discovered.<ref name=kpramodp10>{{cite book|author=Kale Pramod |title=The Theatric Universe: (a Study of the Natyashastra) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRdNBKIHnjkC |date=1974 |publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-81-7154-118-8 |pages=9–10}}</ref>

==Influence==
[[File:Temple troglodytique dédié à Shiva (Badami, Inde) (14146091479).jpg|thumb|200px|The ''Natyashastra'' influenced other arts in ancient and medieval India. The dancing Shiva sculpture in [[Badami cave temples]] (6th–7th century CE), for example, illustrates its dance movements and ''Lalatatilakam'' pose.<ref>{{cite book|author=Archana Verma |title=Performance and Culture: Narrative, Image and Enactment in India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iAArBwAAQBAJ |year=2011|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-2832-1 |pages=10–12}}</ref>]]
The first chapter of the text declares that the text's origins came after the four Vedas had been established, and yet there was lust, covetousness, wrath and jealously among human beings.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|1994|p=113}} The text was written as a fifth Veda, so that the essence of the Vedas can be heard and viewed, in ''Natya'' form to encourage every member of the society to [[dharma]], [[artha]] and [[kama]]. The text originated to enable arts that influence the society and encourage each individual to consider good counsel, to explain sciences and demonstrate arts and crafts widely.{{Sfn|Tarla Mehta|1995|pp=8–9}}{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|1994|pp=113–114}} The text is a guide and progeny of what is in the Vedas, asserts the ''Natysashastra''.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|1994|pp=113–114}} The text re-asserts a similar message in the closing chapter, stating for example, in verses 36.20–21 that performance arts such as drama, songs, music, and dance with music are equal in importance as the exposition of the [[Vedas|Vedic hymns]], and that participating in vocal or instrumental music once is superior to bathing in river Ganges for a thousand days.{{Sfn|Ghosh|2002|p=555}}

Nāṭyaśāstra, states Natalia Lidova, has been far more than "a mere compendium on drama". It provided the foundation of theatrical and literary works that followed, which shaped the post-Vedic culture.{{Sfn|Natalia Lidova|2014}} It has been an important source book of Hindu performance arts and its cultural beliefs regarding the role of arts in the social ([[dharma|dharmic]]) as well as the personal inner life of man in Hinduism.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/><ref name="dmdp155"/><ref name=kpramodp10/>

The ''Natysashastra'' text has been influential in other arts. The 108 dance forms described in the ''Natyashastra'', for example, have inspired Shiva sculptures of the 1st-millennium BCE, particularly the [[Tandava]] style which fuses many of these into a composite image found at the [[Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram|Nataraja temple]] of Chidambaram.{{Sfn|Dalal|2014|p=278}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Brenda Pugh McCutchen |title=Teaching Dance as Art in Education |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0yjXGJ3EEoC |year=2006|publisher=Human Kinetics|isbn=978-0-7360-5188-0 |pages=450 }}</ref> The movements of dance and expression in the ''Natyashastra'' are found carved on the pillars, walls and gateways of 1st-millennium Hindu temples.<ref>{{cite book|author=Frank Burch Brown |title=The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GkvSAQAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517667-4 |pages=192–}}</ref>

The specifications provided in the ''Natyashastra'' can be found in the depiction of arts in sculpture, in icons and friezes across India.<ref name="Schwartz2004p12"/>

{{Blockquote|
[In Indian arts] the imagery of the [[Upanishads]] and the elaborate ritual of the [[Brahmana]]s is the ground plan for each of the arts, be it architecture, sculpture, painting, music, dance or drama. The artist repeats and chisels this imagery by giving it concrete shape through stone, sound, line or movement.
|Kapila Vatsyayan, ''The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts''|<ref>{{cite book|author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwLJc3pBzzUC |date=1997 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-362-5 |page=41 }}</ref>}}

The ''Rasa'' theory of ''Natyashastra'' has attracted scholarly interest in communication studies for its insights into developing texts and performances outside the Indian culture.<ref name=kirkwood92>{{cite journal | last=Kirkwood | first=William G. | title=Shiva's dance at sundown: Implications of Indian aesthetics for poetics and rhetoric | journal=Text and Performance Quarterly | volume=10 | issue=2 | year=1990 | pages=93–110 | doi=10.1080/10462939009365961 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Brihaddeshi]]
*[[Dance in India]]
*[[Dattilam]]
*[[Raga]] – melodic mode
*[[Rasa (aesthetics)|Rasa]] – aesthetics in performance arts
*''[[Sangita Ratnakara]]'' – one of the most important medieval eras Sanskrit texts on music and dance
*[[Tala (music)]] – musical meter, beat

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
*{{cite book| author=Ponangi Sri Rama Apparao| title=Special aspects of Nāṭya śāstra| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kP5jAAAAMAAJ| year=2001 |publisher=National School of Drama}}
*{{cite book| author1=Biswanath Bhattacharya| author2=Ramaranjan Mukherji| title=Sanskrit Drama and Dramaturgy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3fgHAQAAMAAJ| year=1994|publisher=Sharada|isbn=978-81-85616-30-8}}
*{{cite book|title= Nāṭya-mañjarī-saurabha : Sanskrit dramatic theory| author=GK Bhat| year=1981| publisher= Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute| language= en, sa| oclc= 11717230}}
*{{cite journal | author =Wallace Dace | title=The Concept of "Rasa" in Sanskrit Dramatic Theory | journal=Educational Theatre Journal | volume=15 | issue=3 | year=1963 | pages=249–254 | jstor=3204783 | doi=10.2307/3204783 }}
*{{cite book|last= Dalal |first=Roshen |title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zrk0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120|year=2014 | publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-81-8475-277-9 }}
*{{cite book|author=Cris Forster |title=Musical Mathematics: On the Art and Science of Acoustic Instruments |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j_aERAAACAAJ |year=2010|publisher=Chronicle |isbn=978-0-8118-7407-6 }} [http://www.chrysalis-foundation.org/Bharata-s_Vina.htm Indian Music: Ancient Beginnings – Natyashastra]
*Gautam, Sanjay K. [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo22879445.html Foucault and the Kamasutra: The Courtesan, the Dandy, and the Birth of Ars Erotica as Theater in India] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016).
*{{cite book | last = Ghosh |first = Manomohan |title = Natyashastra |year = 2002 |isbn =81-7080-076-5| url= https://archive.org/stream/NatyaShastra/natya_shastra_translation_volume_1_-_bharat_muni#page/n1/mode/2up |publisher= Royal Asiatic Society }}
*{{cite book|author=Pandurang Vaman Kane| title=History of Sanskrit Poetics| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLiCSTFOGnMC |year=1971| publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0274-2 }}
*{{cite book|author1=Sunil Kothari|author2=Avinash Pasricha|title=Kuchipudi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xa8FamiJJKgC |year=2001|publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-359-5}}
*{{cite book|author=Natalia Lidova|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |doi=10.1093/obo/9780195399318-0071 |title= Natyashastra }}
*{{cite book|author=Natalia Lidova |title=Drama and Ritual of Early Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TKarwqJJP0C |date=1994 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1234-5 }}
*{{cite book|author=Ananda Lal |title=The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DftkAAAAMAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-564446-3}}
*{{cite book|author=Trimbak Govind Mainkar |title=Sanskrit Theory of Drama and Dramaturgy: The Theory of the Saṁdhis and the Saṁdhyaṅgas in Bharata's Naṭyaśāstra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ne1jAAAAMAAJ |year=1978|publisher=Ajanta Publications |isbn=9780836425642 }}
*{{cite book|author=Tarla Mehta |title=Sanskrit Play Production in Ancient India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7naMj1UxIkC |year=1995|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1057-0 }}
*{{cite book| author=Adya Rangacharya |title=Introduction to Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5rjAAAACAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers |isbn=978-81-215-0829-2 }}
*{{cite book|first=Lewis |last= Rowell|title=Music and Musical Thought in Early India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5_UCgAAQBAJ |year=2015|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-73034-9}}
*{{cite book|author=Sreenath Nair|title=The Natyashastra and the Body in Performance: Essays on Indian Theories of Dance and Drama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nE9hBgAAQBAJ |year=2015|publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-1221-8}}
*{{cite book|author= Emmie Te Nijenhuis |author-link=Emmie te Nijenhuis |title=Indian Music: History and Structure |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrgfAAAAIAAJ |year=1974|publisher= BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-03978-3 }}
*{{cite book|author1=Farley P. Richmond|author2=Darius L. Swann|author3=Phillip B. Zarrilli|title=Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OroCOEqkVg4C |date=1993 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0981-9 }}
*{{cite book| author=Radhavallabh Tripathi |title=Lectures on the Nāṭyaśāstra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBFkAAAAMAAJ|date=1991 |publisher=Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Poona| oclc= 26975430 }}
*{{cite journal|last = Tieken|first= Herman|title= Poetique du theatre Indien: Lectures du Natyashastra (Review)|journal= Asian Folklore Studies|volume= 56|issue=1|year =1998}}
*{{cite book|author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Bharata, the Nāṭyaśāstra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKW1PAAACAAJ |year=2001|publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-81-260-1220-6}}
*{{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Classical Indian dance in literature and the arts |year=1977 |publisher=Sangeet Natak Akademi |oclc= 233639306}}, [http://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/toc/z2008_2719.pdf Table of Contents]
*{{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Indian classical dance |year=1974 |publisher=Sangeet Natak Akademi |oclc= 2238067}}
*{{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Aesthetic theories and forms in Indian tradition |year=2008 |publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal |oclc= 286469807| isbn= 978-8187586357}}
*{{cite book| author=Kapila Vatsyayan |title=Dance In Indian Painting |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=58fUibaZdGYC |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-153-9}}
*{{cite book|author1=Nina Mirnig|author2=Peter-Daniel Szanto|author3=Michael Williams|title=Puspika: Tracing Ancient India Through Texts and Traditions: Contributions to Current Research in Indology Volume I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OKNZBAAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Oxbow|isbn=978-1-78297-044-6}}
*{{cite book |author =Maurice Winternitz |author-link= Moriz Winternitz |title=History of Indian Literature Vol 3 (Original in German published in 1922, translated into English by VS Sarma, 1981) |year=2008 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=New Delhi |isbn= 978-8120800564 }}
* ''[[Nātyakalpadrumam]]'', Māni Mādhava Chākyār (1975), Sangeet Natak Academi, New Delhi
* ''Dramatic Concepts: Greek and Indian, Bharat Gupt (2014), DK Printworld, Delhi

==External links==
* {{cite web|title=Museum for Natya Shastra / Bharatanatiyam at Bharata Ilango Foundation For Asian Culture (BIFAC) in Pattipulam, ECR, Chennai|date=29 December 2019 |publisher=CasualWalker|url=http://casualwalker.com/bharata-museum-of-performing-arts-at-bharata-ilango-foundation-for-asian-culture-bifac-in-pattipulam-ecr-chennai-museum-of-natyasastra-bharatanatiyam-visit-travel-guide}}
* [https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-natyashastra Natya-shastra full English translation by Manomohan Ghosh], including additional footnotes and commentary extracts. The Bibliography and Table of Contents of vol. 1 (1951) are missing from the web version. It contains a number of typos and of notes missing and generally skips Sanskrit quotations present in the printed version, providing only their English translation. On the other hand, chapters 28 to 36 from vol. 2 (1961) are included in the web version whereas vol. 1 stops at chapter 27 and contains only a preliminary version of chapters 34, 35 and 36.
* {{cite web |title=Natya Shastra (Chapters 1–27) |author= Manomohan Ghosh (Transl) |url=https://archive.org/details/NatyaShastra |year=1951 |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bengal]], Calcutta}}
* {{cite book|author=Manomohan Ghosh (Transl) |oclc= 603994750|title=The Natyashastra : a treatise on Hindu dramaturgy and histrionics (Chapters 28–36) |year=1961}}
*[http://sanskritdocuments.org/sanskrit/by-category/natyashastra.php Natya shastra] Manuscript (with 37 chapters), in Sanskrit (Chapters 31, 32 and 34 missing)
*[https://archive.org/stream/NatyaShastraWithCommentaryOfAbhinavaGuptaByMRamakrishnaKavi/NatyaShastraWithAbhinavaGuptasCommentaryByMRamakrishnaKavi#page/n1/mode/2up Natya Shastra with Commentary of Abhinavagupta], 10th-century commentary, Compiled by M Ramakrishna Kavi, in Sanskrit (Vol. 2 only; the complete work is in 4 vols.)
*[http://www.bharatiyadrama.org/theatreacc.htm Theatre layout with diagrams according to Natyashastra]{{dead link|date=May 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, Prachi Shah, Bhartiya Drama
*Related Bibliography: {{cite book| author=Judy Van Zile |title=Dance in India: An Annotated Guide to Source Materials |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8T9Fk2Xqbj0C |year=1973|publisher=Theodore Front Music | isbn=978-0-913360-06-4 }}

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