BHARATA - The Natyasastra

The theory of rasa enunciated by Bharata has stimulated both creativity and critical discourse in the Indian arts for nearly two thousand years. The text of the Natyasastra is as relevant to literature, poetry and drama as it is to architecture, sculpture, painting, music and dance, its comprehensive treatment of artistic experience, expression and communication, content and form emerges from an integral vision which flowers as a many-branched tree of all the Indian arts.

The present treatise asks fundamental questions not only on this text but on the nature of the Indian textual tradition. It re-examines issues of authorship, dating, primary material, orality and text. It places the text I the context of an overarching worldview and analyses with incisive sharpness, the structure of the text, it traces the history of the inflows and outflows, of the pretext, the precursors, the commentators and the interpreters of the text. The analogy of the perennial flow of the river, with its multiple streams, without loss of continuity and identity but potential for change and renewal makes this work as fresh as unconventional in its approach. It makes compelling reading for the specialist and the lay reader.

About The Author:

Kapil Vatsyayan, through her books and articles and specially Classical Indian Dance in Literature and the Arts, The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts, Traditional Indian Theatre, Multiple Streams, Dance in Indian Painting, and Traditions of Indian Folk Dance has explored the aesthetics of the Natyasastra at the level of theory and practice. Besides, the six volume of the Gita Govinda in different miniature schools dwell at length on the interrelationship of text, image, sound and movement. Each of these works alongwith the volumes on Concepts of Space (akasa) and Time (kala) as also the unique exhibitions on these perennial themes has established a new model of understanding the Indian system, which moves concurrently along the physical and the metaphysical dimensions.

Kapila Vatsyayana's inter and multi-disciplinary work has been nationally and internationally acclaimed Elected Fellow of Sangeet Natak Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi, she is a recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fellowship and Shankaradeva Award. As founder, and being responsible for the conceptual plan and the programmes of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Art, her holistic integral vision has come to a fine fruition.

Click Here for More Books Published By Sahitya Akademi