Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s3.t5: Natyashastra

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s3.t5

Language
English

Natyashastra

v2.c11.s3.t5.1

*Natyashastra*, regarded as the Dramaturgy or Theory of Drama was written by Bharatamuni, a dramatic scholar and musicologist in ancient India. It is the earliest work in theory of drama in India. Natya means dance in Sanskrit, and then changes into the drama integrating music, dance, language, etc. According to legend, Bharatamuni was a writer with the same status with Valmiki and Vyasa. He was a great scholar, and his book *Natyashastra* is a classic handed down from ancient times. But, the process of writing *Natyashastra* was very long, lasting about 300 or 400 years, therefore, the writing style is not unified in the previous and subsequent parts, and there is repetition and paradox. The earliest version is rumored to have had 6,000 *shloka*, while the existing versions include 36 chapters of southern version and 37 chapters of northern version, with about 5,000 Shloka, and it was updated by constant additions, deletions and revision by people of several generations. For the time of finishing the book, some people think that the time was in the 2^nd century BCE, while the majorities believe that it was in the 4^th or 5^th century CE, and finally, it is decided as before the 7^th century CE.

v2.c11.s3.t5.2

*Natyashastra* covers the text theory of drama, music and dance, and standard of stage practice. The first chapter discusses the origin, nature and function of drama. The second to fifth chapters discuss the theater and dance, etc. The sixth and seventh chapters expound the theory of rasa. The concept of “rasa” is from vedic literature, with the original meaning of “juice”, “fluid”, “flavour” etc and in the *Upanisad* it is extended to “one of the five objects of sense (colour, sound, smell, taste and touch). Bharatamuni follows the concept of “taste”, and gives it more comprehensive and profound meaning, making the theory of taste become a theoretical center for stage performance practice. Bharatamuni also puts forward another important concept “feeling”, and thinks it is the cause and means of producing “taste”, it can refer to the situation, character, event, and also action or emotion, thus, “producing the taste associated with various performances”. The theories of feeling and taste in *Natyashastra* exert a profound influence upon Indian literature and art at that time. Later, they are widely used in the fields of poetics and art, and are still the soul of the aesthetic theory system in India up to now, as Bharata Gupt says: “Taste is not only the soul of poetry and drama, but also the soul of music, dance and painting”. *Natyashastra* thinks that feeling in the drama includes “common feeling”, “unsteady feeling” and “true feeling”, among them, eight common feelings include “love, laugh, sadness, anger, courage, fear, boredom and shock”, and unsteady feeling is actually “flexible feeling”, like true feeling, it is also attached to common feelings. These common feelings will produce the tastes that

v2.c11.s3.t5.3

Cover page of '*Nāṭyaśāstra*'

v2.c11.s3.t5.4

the audience can enjoy through body, language and dress-up performance, namely, erotic, funny, compassionate, violent, heroic, horrible, disgusted and surprised tastes. Bharatamuni also specifies the colour of the eight tastes as well as gods what they represent. Later, Abhinavagupta identifies the ninth taste “calmness” in his '*Abhinava Bharati*'.

v2.c11.s3.t5.5

Nine types of eye expressions in Indian dance

v2.c11.s3.t5.6

Chapters 8 to 14 of *Natyashastra* discuss the application of hands, feet and eyes in dance and drama. When discussing role shaping, Bharatamuni expounds the rules of using plots closely connected with it. He divides the plot into five stages (Avasthana): start (Arambha), efforts (Prayatna), hope (Praptisambhava), recognition (Niyataphlaprapti) and success (Phalayoga). And five elements of the plot include seed (Bija), oil drop (Bindu), episode (Pataka), small episode (Prakari) and end (Karya). In addition, he also stipulates the drama’s “five Sandhi”, 21 Sandhyantara and 56 Sandhyanga. Above various factors are interrelated and correspond to each other to form the inner structure of the drama, which makes the “emotional and meaningful form” of the drama be presented completely, so as to achieve the purpose of role shaping. Bharatamuni conducts a lot of induction and classification of dramatic roles, and stipulates the modal performance of various roles. He divides the body movement into body, facial expression and posture. Body includes head, hands, chest, waist, rib and foot; and facial expression covers eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, cheeks and chin. He makes detailed description of the movement, posture and emotional expression of each part. For example, head movements include 13 kinds, such as nod, shaking head, alternate turning, raising head and others, which are used in the hint, rejection, questioning, arrogance, respectively. Eyes expression includes 36 kinds, such as side-looking, gaze, half-open eyelid and glare, which are used in the expression of eight tastes, eight common feelings and other emotions, respectively. In addition, he also defines six movements of nose, eight of cheek, six of chin and nine of neck. Hand gesture includes 28 one-hand gestures and 23 two-hand gestures, with each gesture having its own name and various uses. For example, one-hand gesture Pataka means flag, and in different places, it can represent more than 40 meanings such as the beginning of dance, clouds, forest, rejection, God of Wind and sleeping. If two hands cooperate in the same or different gestures, they can derive more meanings. For example, the left-hand thumb and middle, finger ring are held on the chest to make Simha Mukha gesture, which represents the deer, with right-hand thumb and ring finger, little finger held on the right corner of the eye, which represents the deer’s eyes, and they are used to describe a beautiful girl.

v2.c11.s3.t5.7

Leg and hand movements in Indian dance

v2.c11.s3.t5.8

Chapters 15 to 22 of *Natyashastra* discuss the language performance. Chapter 23 and the following chapters discuss the clothing, makeup, role, actors, audience and music, etc. Bharatamuni also make detailed stipulation of the theatre, setting of the troupe, sacrifice and performance, dress-up, acting movements and others.

v2.c11.s3.t5.9

India’s performing arts have been following the principles stipulated by Bharatamuni in *Natyashastra* for 2,000 years, so that the artistic image, posture, gestures and facial expressions of modern Indian dance are mainly based on such theory.

v2.c11.s3.t5.10

The time of Chinese people’s studying Bharatamuni’s *Natyashastra* is only about half a century. Jin Kemu has ever used a chapter in the *Sanskrit Literature History* published in 1964 for introducing “literary theory”, of which the first section briefly introduces the content and significance of *Natyashastra*. The next year, he translated some important chapters of *Natyashastra* and put them into his book *‘Collected Translations of Theory of Classical Literature and Art’*. Huang Baosheng has discussed the origin of Sanskrit drama and made discussions on the different aspects of *Natyashastra*, deeply and systematically in the *Indian Classical Poetics*, published in 1993. He translated 11 chapters of *Natyashastra* and put them into the *Collection of Sanskrit Poetics Works*, published in 2008. *Natyashastra* is of guiding significance for Indian literature research in China, and Chinese artists of Indian dance and their teaching activities.

v2.c11.s3.t5.11

*(Jin Shanshan)*

Linked texts (2)