Hindu Culture - Natyasastra

Hindu Culture  - Natyasastra   

 

Natya Shastra

The Natya Shastra (Sanskrit:   Nāṭyaśāstra) is an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance and music. It was written during the period between 200 BCE and 200 CE in classical India and is traditionally attributed to the Sage Bharata.
The Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope. While it primarily deals with stagecraft, it has come to influence music, classical Indian dance, and literature as well. It covers stage design, music, dance, makeup, and virtually every other aspect of stagecraft. It is very important to the history of Indian classical music because it is the only text which gives such detail about the music and instruments of the period. Thus, an argument can be made that the Natya Shastra is the foundation of the fine arts in India. The most authoritative commentary on the Natya Shastra is Abhinavabharati by Abhinavagupta.

Date and authorship

The text, which now contains 6000 slokas, is attributed to the muni (sage) Bharata and is believed to have been written during the period between 200 BCE and 200 CE. The Natya Shastra is based upon the much older Gandharva Veda (appendix to Sama Veda) which contained 36000 slokas. Unfortunately there are no surviving copies of the Natya Veda. Though many scholars believe most slokas were transmitted only through the oral tradition, there are scholars who believe that it may have been written by various authors at different times.
The document is difficult to date and Bharata's historicity has also been doubted, some authors suggesting that it may be the work of several persons. However, Kapila Vatsyayan has argued  that based on the unity of the text, and the many instances of coherent reference of later chapters from earlier text, the composition is likely that of a single person. Whether his/her name really was Bharata is open to question:  near the end of the text we have the verse: "Since he alone is the leader of the performance, taking on many roles, he is called Bharata",  indicating that Bharata may be a generic name. It has been suggested that Bharata is an acronym for the three syllables: bha for bhāva (mood), rā for rāga (melodic framework), and ta for tāla (rhythm). However, in traditional usage Bharata has been iconified as muni or sage, and the work is strongly associated with this personage.

Title and setting

Written in Sanskrit, the text consists of 6,000 sutras, or verse stanzas, incorporated in 36 chapters. Some passages are composed in a prose form.
The title can be loosely translated as A compendium of Theatre or a A Manual of Dramatic Arts. Nātya, or nāṭaka means Dramatic Arts. In contemporary usage, this word does not include dance or music, but etymologically the root naṭ refers to "dance".
The discourse is set in a frame where a number of munis approach Bharata, asking him about nāṭyaveda (lit. nāṭya=drama,performance; veda=knowledge). The answer to this question comprises the rest of the book, which is thus loosely a dialogue. Bharata says that all this knowledge is due to Brahma. At one point he mentions that he has a hundred "sons" who will spread this knowledge, which suggests that Bharata may have had a number of disciples whom he trained.

Performance art theory

The Natya Shastra ranges widely in scope, from issues of literary construction, to the structure of the stage or mandapa, to a detailed analysis of musical scales and movements (murchhanas), to an analysis of dance forms that considers several categories of body movements, and their impacts on the viewer.
Bharata describes 15 types of drama ranging from one to ten acts. The principles for stage design are laid down in some detail. Individual chapters deal with aspects such as makeup, costume, acting, directing, etc. A large section deals with meanings conveyed by the performance (bhavas) get particular emphasis, leading to a broad theory of aesthetics (rasas).
Four kinds of abhinaya (acting, or histrionics) are described – that by body part motions (angika), that by speech (vAchika), that by costumes and makeup (AhArya), and the highest mode, by means of internal emotions, expressed through minute movements of the lips, eyebrows, ear, etc. (sAttvika).

Rasa

The Nātyashāstra delineates a detailed theory of drama comparable to the Poetics of Aristotle. Bharata refers to bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform, and the rasas (emotional responses) that they inspire in the audience. He argues that there are eight principal rasas: love, pity, anger, disgust, heroism, awe, terror and comedy, and that plays should mix different rasas but be dominated by one.
Each rasa experienced by the audience is associated with a specific bhava portrayed on stage. For example, in order for the audience to experience srngara (the 'erotic' rasa), the playwright, actors and musician work together to portray the bhava called rati (love).

Music

After the Samaveda, which dealt with ritual utterances of the Vedas, the Natyashastra was the first major text that dealt with music at length. It was considered the defining treatise of Indian classical music until the 13^th century, when the stream bifurcated into Hindustani classical music in North India and Pakistan, due to the influence of Persian and Arabic music, and Carnatic classical music in South India, the stronghold of the Hindu kingdoms.
While much of the discussion of music in the Natyashastra focuses on musical instruments, it also emphasizes several theoretical aspects that remained fundamental to Indian music:

• Establishment of Shadja as the first, defining note of the scale or grama. The word Shadja   means 'giving birth to six', and refers to the fact that once this note (often referred to as "sa" and notated S) is fixed, the placement of other notes in the scale is determined.

• Principle of Consonance: Consists of two principles:

·         The first principle states that there exists a fundamental note in the musical scale which is Avinashi   and Avilopi   that is, the note is ever-present and unchanging.

·         The second principle, often treated as law, states that there exists a natural consonance between notes; the best between Shadja and Tar Shadja, the next best between Shadja and Pancham.

• The Natyashastra also suggest the notion of musical modes or jatis which are the origin of the notion of the modern melodic structures known as ragas. Their role in invoking emotions are emphasized; thus compositions emphasizing the notes gandhara or rishabha are said to be related to tragedy (karuna rasa) whereas rishabha is to be emphasized for evoking heroism (vIra rasa). Jatis are elaborated in greater detail in the text Dattilam, composed around the same time as the Natyashastra.

To prove the utility of śrutis in music, Bharata Muni, while explaining Shadja grama and Madhyam grama in chapters 28 and 30 of Bharat Natya Shastra, expounded the Sarana Chatushtai– the only experiment according to Bharata to obtain the correct physical configuration of Śruti Swara arrangement to Shadja Grama notes on any musical instrument (Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa, corresponding to 4-3-2-4-4-3-2, totalling 22 śrutis in a Saptak). Sarana Chatushtai in recent centuries has been demonstrated and proven by Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan in the year 1998 on flute as well as on sitar (this has also helped him develop a methodology for producing perfectly tuned flutes for different thatas). This is the only known correct interpretation of the Bharata Muni's Sarana Chatushtai after Bharata Muni himself and probably Sharang Dev.
The Natyashastra also suggests several aspects of musical performance, particularly its application to vocal, instrumental and orchestral compositions. It also deals with the rasas and bhavas that may be evoked by music.

Impact

Natyashastra remained an important text in the fine arts for many centuries; so much so that it is sometimes referred to as the fifth Veda. Much of the terminology and structure of Indian classical music and Indian classical dance were defined by it. Many commentaries have expanded the scope of the Natya Shastra; most importantly we may include Matanga's Brihaddesi (500–700 CE), Abhinavagupta's Abhinavabharati (which unifies some of the divergent structures that had emerged in the intervening years, and outlines a theory of artistic analysis) and Sharngadeva's Sangita Ratnakara (13^th century work that unifies the raga structure in music).  The analysis of body forms and movements also influenced sculpture and the other arts in subsequent centuries.  The structures of music outlined in the Natya Shastra retain their influence even today, as seen in the seminal work Hindustani Sangeetha Padhathi by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande from the early 20^th century. The theory of rasa described in the text has also been a major influence on modern Indian cinema especially in the Malayalam Film Industry.

List of chapters

• Origin of drama
• Description of the playhouse
• Puja (offering) to the Gods of the stage
• Description of the karana dance
• Preliminaries of a play
• Sentiments (rasas)
• Emotional and other states
• Gestures of minor limbs
• Gestures of hands
• Gestures of other limbs
• Cari movements

• Different gaits
• Zones and local usages
• Rules of prosody
• Metrical patterns
• Diction of a play
• Rules on the use of languages
• Modes of address and intonation
• Ten kinds of play
• Limbs of the segments
• Styles
• Costumes and make-up
• Harmonious performance
• Dealings with courtesans
• Varied performances
• Success in dramatic performances
• Instrumental music
• Stringed instruments
• Time measure
• Dhruva songs
• Covered instruments
• Types of character
• Distribution of roles
• Descent of drama on the Earth

Bharata Muni

Bharata (Hindi: भरत) was an ancient Indian theatrologist and musicologist who authored the Natya Shastra, a theoretical treatise on ancient Indian dramaturgy and histrionics, especially Sanskrit theatre. It is dated to between 1st-century BC to 3rd-century CE.^[1]
Indian dance and music find their root in the Natyashastra. Besides propounding the theory of three types of acting Bharata has discussed in detail classical Indian vocal/instrumental music and dance since they are integral to Sanskrit drama. Bharata classified Sanskrit theatrical forms (Natya/Rupaka) into ten types; what is known to the west as drama is but one among these, namely, Nataka.
Bharata also outlines a set of rasas or moods/emotions which were to be influential in defining the nature of Indian dance, music, and theater.
The Natyashastra comprises 36 chapters and it is possible that it was a creation of more than one scholar. Bharata is considered as the father of Indian theatrical art forms

Indian aesthetics

Indian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience, or with representing them symbolically.

Rasa theory

Introduction

Of particular concern to Indian drama and literature are the term 'bhAva' or the state of mind and rasa (  lit. 'juice' or 'essence') referring generally to the emotional flavors/essence crafted into the work by the writer and relished by a 'sensitive spectator' or sahṛdaya or one with positive taste and mind. Rasas are created by bhavas. They are described by Bharata Muni in the Nātyasāstra, an ancient work of dramatic theory.
Although the concept of rasa is fundamental to many forms of Indian art including dance, music, musical theatre, cinema and literature, the treatment, interpretation, usage and actual performance of a particular rasa differs greatly between different styles and schools of abhinaya, and the huge regional differences even within one style.

Experience of rasa (rasAnubhava)

A rasa is the developed relishable state of a permanent mood, which is called sthAyI bhAva. This development towards a relishable state results by the interplay on it of attendant emotional conditions which are called Vibhavas, anubhAvas and sancharI/ vyAbhichArI bhavas. The production of aesthetic rasa from bhAvas is analogous to the production of tastes/juices of kinds from food with condiments, curries, pastes and spices. This is explained by the quote below:
Vibhavas means karana or cause. It is of two kinds: Alambana, the personal or human object and substratum, and Uddipana, the excitants. Anubhava, as the name signifies, means the ensuants or effects following the rise of the emotion. vyAbhichArI bhavas are described later.

Vedic concept

The Rishi Praskanva insists (Rig Veda I.46.6) that the sources of knowledge some of which are open and some hidden they are to be sought and found by the seekers after Truth, these sources are not available everywhere, anywhere and at all times. In this context Rishi Agastya (Rig Veda I.187.4) stating thus –

reminds the ardent seekers about the six kinds of Rasa or taste which food has but which all tastes cannot be found in one place or item, for these tastes are variously distributed throughout space. Food, in this context, means matter or objects or thoughts, which are all produced effects, effects that are produced owing to various causes. The Rasas are the unique qualities which bring about variety in things created whose source is one and one only.  

Lists of rasas

Eight primary rasas

Bharata Muni enunciated the eight Rasas in the Nātyasāstra, an ancient work of dramatic theory. Each rasa, according to Nātyasāstra, has a presiding deity and a specific colour. There are 4 pairs of rasas. For instance, Hasya arises out of Sringara. The Aura of a frightened person is black, and the aura of an angry person is red. Bharata Muni established the following.

• Śṛngāram   Love, attractiveness. Presiding deity: Vishnu. Colour: light green
• Hāsyam   Laughter, mirth, comedy. Presiding deity: Pramata. Colour: white
• Raudram   Fury. Presiding deity: Rudra. Colour: red
• Kāruṇyam   Compassion, mercy. Presiding deity: Yama. Colour: grey
• Bībhatsam   Disgust, aversion. Presiding deity: Shiva. Colour: blue
• Bhayānakam  ) Horror, terror. Presiding deity:  Kala]]. Colour: black
• Vīram (  Heroic mood. Presiding deity: Indra. Colour: yellowish
• Adbhutam   Wonder, amazement. Presiding deity: Brahma. Colour: yellow

Śāntam rasa

A ninth rasa was added by later authors (See History section). This addition had to undergo a good deal of struggle between the sixth and the tenth centuries, before it could be accepted by the majority of the Alankarikas, and the expression Navarasa (the nine rasas), could come into vogue.

• Śāntam Peace or tranquility. deity: Vishnu. Colour: perpetual white

Shānta-rasa functions as an equal member of the set of rasas but is simultaneously distinct being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss. Abhinavagupta likens it to the string of a jeweled necklace; while it may not be the most appealing for most people, it is the string that gives form to the necklace, allowing the jewels of the other eight rasas to be relished. Relishing the rasas and particularly shānta-rasa is hinted as being as-good-as but never-equal-to the bliss of Self-realization experienced by yogis.

Other additions

In addition to the nine Rasas, two more appeared later (esp. in literature): Additional rasas:

• Vātsalya   Parental Love
• Bhakti   Spiritual Devotion

However, the presiding deities, the colours and the relationship between these additional rasas have not been specified.

List of bhavas

According to the nATyashAstra, bhAvas are of three types: sthAyI, sanchari, sAttvika based on how they are developed or enacted during the aesthetic experience. This is seen in the following passage:

Some bhAvas are also described as being anubhAva if they arise from some other bhAva.

sthAyI

The Natyasastra lists eight bhavas with eight corresponding rasas:

• Rati (Love)
• Hasya (Mirth)
• Soka (Sorrow)
• Krodha(Anger)
• Utsaha (Energy)
• Bhaya (Terror)
• Jugupsa (Disgust)
• Vismaya (Astonishment)

Sanchari

Sanchari Bhavas are those crossing feelings which are ancillary to a permanent mood.  A list of 33 bhAvas are identified therein.
nirvedaglAnisha~NkAkhyAstathAsuuyA madaH shramaH .
Alasya.n chaiva dainya.n cha chintAmohaH smR^itirdhR^itiH ..18..
vrIDA chapalatA harSha Avego jaDatA tathA .
garvo viShAda autsukya.n nidrApasmAra eva cha ..19..
supta.n vibodho.amarShashchApi avahitthaM athogratA .
matirvyAdhistathA unmAdastathA maraNameva cha ..20..
trAsashchaiva vitarkashcha vidnyeyA vyabhichAriNaH .
trayastri.nshadamI bhAvAH samAkhyAtAstu nAmataH ..21..

sAtvika

The sAtvika-bhAvAs themselves are listed below.
stambhaH svedo.atha romA~nchaH svarabhedo.atha vepathuH .
vaivarNyaM ashru-pralaya ityaShTau sAtvikAH smR^itAH ..22..
These are explained by Bharata and dhanika as below:

Thus, physical expression of the feelings of the mind are called sAttvika.

The Rasas in the Performing Arts

The theory of rasas still forms the aesthetic underpinning of all Indian classical dance and theatre, such as Bharatanatyam, kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri, Kudiyattam, Kathakali and others. Expressing Rasa in classical Indian dance form is referred to as Rasa-abhinaya. The Nātyasāstra carefully delineates the bhavas used to create each rasa.
The expressions used in Kudiyattam or Kathakali are extremely exaggerated theatrical expressions. The opposite of this interpretation is Balasaraswathi's school of subtle and understated abhinaya of the devadasis. There were serious public debates when Balasaraswathi condemned Rukmini Devi's puritanistic interpretations and applications of Sringara rasa. The abhinaya of the Melattur style of abhinaya remains extremely rich in variations of the emotions, while the Pandanallur style expressions are more limited in scope.

History

Natyashastra

Rasa theory blossoms beginning with the Sanskrit text Nātyashāstra (nātya meaning "drama" and shāstra meaning "science of"), a work attributed to Bharata Muni where the Gods declare that drama is the 'Fifth Veda' because it is suitable for the degenerate age as the best form of religious instruction. The Nātyashāstra presents the aesthetic concepts of rasas and their associated bhāvas in Chapters Six and Seven respectively, which appear to be independent of the work as a whole. Eight rasas and associated bhāvas are named and their enjoyment is likened to savoring a meal: rasa is the enjoyment of flavors that arise from the proper preparation of ingredients and the quality of ingredients.

Kashmiri aestheticians

The theory of the rasas develops significantly with the Kashmiri aesthetician Ãndandavardhana's classic on poetics, the Dhvanyāloka which introduces the ninth rasa, shānta-rasa as a specifically religious feeling of peace (śānta) which arises from its bhāva, weariness of the pleasures of the world. The primary purpose of this text is to refine the literary concept dhvani or poetic suggestion, by arguing for the existence of rasa-dhvani, primarily in forms of Sanskrit including a word, sentence or whole work "suggests" a real-world emotional state or bhāva, but thanks to aesthetic distance, the sensitive spectator relishes the rasa, the aesthetic flavor of tragedy, heroism or romance.
The 9th - 10th century master of the religious system known as "the nondual Shaivism of Kashmir" (or "Kashmir Shaivism") and aesthetician, Abhinavagupta brought rasa theory to its pinnacle in his separate commentaries on the Dhvanyāloka, the Dhvanyāloka-locana (translated by Ingalls, Masson and Patwardhan, 1992) and the Abhinavabharati, his commentary on the Nātyashāstra, portions of which are translated by Gnoli and Masson and Patwardhan. Abhinavagupta offers for the first time a technical definition of rasa which is the universal bliss of the Self or Atman colored by the emotional tone of a drama.

Inclusion of bhakti

In the literary compositions, the emotion of Bhakti as a feeling of adoration towards God was long considered only a minor feeling fit only for Stothras, but not capable of being developed into a separate rasa as the sole theme of a whole poem or drama. In the tenth century, it was still struggling, and Aacharya Abhinavagupta mentions Bhakti in his commentary on the Natya Shastra, as an important accessory sentiment of the Shanta Rasa, which he strove with great effort to establish. However, just as Shantha slowly attained a state of primacy that it was considered the Rasa of Rasas, Bhakti also soon began to loom large and despite the lukewarmness of the great run of Alankarikas, had the service of some distinguished advocates, including Tyagaraja. It is the Bhagavata that gave the great impetus to the study of Bhakti from an increasingly aesthetic point of view.

Attention to rasas

Poets like Kālidāsa were attentive to rasa, which blossomed into a fully developed aesthetic system. Even in contemporary India the term rasa denoting "flavor" or "essence" is used colloquially to describe the aesthetic experiences in films.

Abhinavabharati

Abhinavabharati is a commentary on ancient Indian author Bharata Muni's work of dramatic theory, the Natyasastra. It is the only old commentary available on this work. The Abhinavabharati was written by Abhinavagupta (ca.950-1020), the great Kashmiri Saivite spiritual leader and a yogi.
In this monumental work, Abhinavagupta explains the rasasutra of Bharata in consonance with the theory of abhivyakti (expression) propounded in Anandavardhana's (820-890) work Dhvanyaloka ("aesthetic suggestion"), as well as the tenets of the Pratyabhijna philosophy of Kashmir.
According to Abhinavagupta, the aesthetic experience is the manifestation of the innate dispositions of the self, such as love and sorrow, by the self. It is characterised by the contemplation of the bliss of the self by the connoisseur. It is akin to the spiritual experience as one transcends the limitations of one's limited self because of the process of universalisation taking place during the aesthetic contemplation of characters depicted in the work of art. Abhinavagupta maintains that this rasa (literally, taste or essence). Rasa, the final outcome  is the summum bonum of all literature.

Anandavardhana

Anandavardhana (820–890) was the author of Dhvanyaloka, a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion". The philosopher Abhinavagupta wrote an important commentary on it.
Anandavardhana is credited with creating the dhvani theory. He wrote of dhvani (meaning sound, or resonance) in regard to the "soul of poetry."  "When the poet writes," said Anandavardhana, "he creates a resonant field of emotions." To understand the poetry, the reader or hearer must be on the same "wavelength." The method requires sensitivity on the parts of the writer and the reader.

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

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