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.

 

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