Volume 6 Issue.1: 2019 Page No 1-6
BHARATA
MUNI’S NATYASHASTRA: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY
Dr. M.
RAMESHWOR SINGH
Assistant
Professor, P.G. Department of English
D.M. College
of Arts, DMU, Imphal, Manipur
Abstract
The Natyashastra is a
notable ancient encyclopaedic treatise on arts which has influenced
dance, music and literary traditions in India. According to Susan L.
Schwartz, ‘Natyashastra praises dramatic arts as a comprehensive aid
to the learning of virtue, proper behaviour, ethical and moral
fortitude, courage, love and adoration of the divine.’ The text
extends its reach into asking and understanding the goals of
performance arts, the nature of the playwrights, the artists and the
spectators, their intimate relationship during the performance. The
text integrates its aesthetics, axiology and description of arts
with mythologies associated with Hindu gods and goddesses. The
general approach of the text is to treat entertainment as an effect,
but not the primary goal of arts. The primary goal is to lift and
transport the spectators into the expression of ultimate reality and
transcendent values. It is notable for its aesthetic ‘Rasa’ theory,
which asserts that entertainment is a desired effect of performance
arts and it transports the individual in the audience into another
parallel reality, full of wonder, where he experiences the essence
of his own consciousness and reflects on spiritual and moral
questions. The present paper is an attempt to re-assess and simplify
the complex text so that the common readers may easily comprehend
its nuances.
Key words: Natyashastra,
literary tradition, performance arts, entertainment, rasa theory.
