Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c6.s3.115

c6.s3.115

Music and dancing go together. The *Naṭa-naṭakas* are frequently mentioned in the stories.⁷ Much of this dancing seems to have been of an acrobatic character, like the javeline dance, or the pole dance.⁸ But serene dance, with waving hands, regulating foot-falls and graceful movements, performed with the accompaniment of the *vīṇā* or the *veṇu*, is also known.⁹ That inborn instinct of graceful movements led people to see this phenomena not only among human beings, but also in Nature (Cf., the Vedic *uṣas*) in beasts and birds. And people liked to train pea-cocks and pea-hens to utter sweet notes and dance at the snapping of fingers and clapping of hands.¹⁰