Натьяшастра: Древний трактат об исполнительском искусстве

Sanskrit text on the performing arts

The Nāṭya Shāstra (, Nāṭyaśāstra) is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE. The text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts. The subjects covered by the treatise include dramatic composition, structure of a play and the construction of a stage to host it, genres of acting, body movements, make up and costumes, role and goals of an art director, the musical scales, musical instruments and the integration of music with art performance. The Nāṭya Śāstra is notable as an ancient encyclopedic treatise on the arts, The text further inspired secondary literature such as the 10th century commentary Abhinavabharati – an example of a classic Sanskrit bhasya ("reviews and commentaries") – written by Abhinavagupta.

The title of the text is composed of two words, "Nāṭya" and "Shāstra". The root of the Sanskrit word Nāṭya is Nata (नट) which means "act, represent". The word Shāstra (शास्त्र) means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise", and is generally used as a suffix in the Indian literature context, for knowledge in a defined area of practice.

The composition date of Nāṭya Shāstra is unknown. Estimates vary between 500 BCE to 500 CE. The text may have started in the 1st millennium BCE, expanded over time, and most scholars suggest, based on mention of this text in other Indian literature, that the first complete version of the text was likely finished between 200 BCE to 200 CE. The Nāṭyaśāstra is traditionally alleged to be linked to a 36,000 verse Vedic composition called Adibharata, however there is no corroborating evidence that such a text ever existed. The text has survived into the modern age in several manuscript versions, wherein the title of the chapters varies and in some cases the content of the few chapters differ. Some recensions show significant interpolations and corruption of the text, along with internal contradictions and sudden changes in style. Scholars such as PV Kane state that some text was likely changed as well as added to the original between the 3rd to 8th century CE, thus creating some variant editions, and the mixture of poetic verses and prose in a few extant manuscripts of Natyashastra may be because of this. Bharat Gupt states that the text stylistically shows characteristics of a single compiler in the existing version, a view shared by Kapila Vatsyayan. The Agni Purana, a generic encyclopedia, includes chapters on dramatic arts and poetry, which follow the Natyashastra format, but enumerates more styles and types of performance arts, which states Winternitz, may reflect an expansion in studies of the arts by the time Agni Purana was composed.

The most studied version of the text, consisting of about 6000 poetic verses, is structured into 36 chapters. The tradition believes that the text originally had 12,000 verses. Somewhat different versions of the manuscripts exist, and these contain 37 or 38 chapters. Predominant number of its verses are in precise Anustubh meter (4x8, or exactly 32 syllables in every shloka), some verses are in Arya meter (a morae based Sanskrit meter), and the text has some text that is in prose particularly in chapters 6, 7 and 28. The structure of the text harmoniously compiles aspects of the theatrical arts into separate chapters. The text opens with the mythical genesis and history of drama, mentions the role of different Hindu deities in various aspects of the arts, and the recommended Puja (consecration ceremony) of a stage for performance arts. The text extends its reach into asking and understanding the goals of performance arts, the nature of the playwright, the artists and the spectators, their intimate relationship during the performance. The general approach of the text is treated entertainment as an effect, but not the primary goal of arts. The primary goal is to lift and transport the spectators, unto the expression of ultimate reality and transcendent values. The text allows, states Schwartz, the artists "enormous innovation" as they connect the playwright and the spectators, through their performance, to Rasa (the essence, juice). The "rasa theory" of Natyashastra, states Daniel Meyer Dinkgräfe, presumes that bliss is intrinsic and innate in man, it exists in oneself, that manifests non materially through spiritual and personally subjective means.

Drama, in this ancient Sanskrit text, is an art to engage every aspect of life, in order to glorify and gift a state of joyful consciousness. The text discusses the universal and inner principles of drama, that it asserts successfully affects and journeys the audience to a supersensual state of discovery and understanding. The stories and plots were provided by the Itihasas (epics), the Puranas and the Kathas genre of Hindu literature. The text also states that the god Brahma combined the elements of acting from the four Vedas: "recitation from the Rigveda, music from the Samaveda, mimetic art from the Yajurveda, and sentiments from the Atharvaveda." The text states that the playwright should know the bhavas (inner state of being) of all characters in the story, and it is these bhavas that the audience of that drama connects with. The hero is shown to be similar to everyone in some ways, trying to achieve the four goals of human life in Hindu philosophy, then the vastu (plot) emerges through the "representation of three worlds – the divine, the human, the demonic". The text goes into specifics to explain the means available within dramatic arts to achieve its goals. Just like the taste of food, states Natyashastra, is determined by combination of vegetables, spices and other articles such as sugar and salt, the audience tastes dominant states of a drama through expression of words, gestures and temperaments. These dominant states are love, mirth, sorrow, anger, energy, terror, disgust and astonishment. Further, states the text, there are 33 psychological states which are transitory such as discouragement, weakness, apprehension, intoxication, tiredness, anxiety, agitation, despair, impatience. There are eight temperamental states that a drama can deploy to carry its message. The text describes four means of communication between the actors and the audience – words, gestures, dresses, representation of temperament and aharya (make ups, cosmetics), all of which should be harmonious with the temperament envisioned in the drama. The text discusses the dominant, transitory and temperamental states, for dramatic arts, and the means that an artist can use to express these states, in chapters 6 through 7. The Natyashastra describes the stage for performance arts as the sacred space for artists, and discusses the specifics of stage design, positioning the actors, the relative locations, movement on stage, entrance and exit, change in background, transition, objects displayed on the stage, and such architectural features of a theatre; the text asserts that these aspects help the audience get absorbed in the drama as well as understand the message and the meaning being communicated. After the 10th century, Hindu temples were designed to include stages for performance arts (for example, kuttampalams), or prayer halls (for example, namghar) that seconded as dramatic arts stage, based on the square principle described in the Natyashastra, such as those in the peninsular and eastern states of India. Its chapter 31 asserts that there are seven types of songs, and these are Mandraka, Aparantaka, Rovindaka, Prakari, Ullopyaka, Ovedaka and Uttara. It also elaborates on 33 melodic alankaras in songs. These are melodic tools of art for any song, and they are essential. Without these melodic intonations, states the text, a song becomes like "a night without the moon, a river without water, a creeper without a flower and a woman without an ornament". A song also has four basic architectural varna to empower its meaning, and these tone patterns are ascending line, steady line, descending line and the unsteady line. The ideal poem produces bliss in the reader, or listener. It transports the audience into an imaginative world, transforms his inner state, and delivers him to a higher level of consciousness, suggests Natyashastra. Great songs do not instruct or lecture, they delight and liberate from within to a state of godlike ecstasy. The text defines the basic dance unit to be a karana, which is a specific combination of the hands and feet integrated with specific body posture and gait (sthana and chari respectively). Chapter 4 describes 108 karanas as the building blocks to the art of dance. The text states the various movements of major and minor limbs with facial states as means of articulating ideas and expressing emotions.

The Natyashastra is, states Emmie te Nijenhuis, the oldest surviving text that systematically treats "the theory and instruments of Indian music". Music has been an integral part of performance arts in the Hindu tradition since its Vedic times, and the theories of music found in the Natyashastra are also found in many Puranas, such as the Markandeya Purana. The text dedicates significant number of verses on actor training, as did the Indian dramaturgy literature that arose in its wake. Acting is more than physical techniques or rote recitation, it is communication through emotions and expression of embedded meaning and levels of consciousness in the underlying text. The actor, states the text, should understand the three Guṇas, that is Sattva, Rajas and Tamas qualities, because human lives are an interplay of these. The actor must feel a specific state within, to express it without. Thus, states Daniel Meyer Dinkgräfe, the guidelines in Natyashastra employ the ideas in Yoga school of Hindu philosophy, with concepts mirroring asanas, pranayama and dhyana, both for actor training and the expression of higher levels of consciousness. Chapter 24 is dedicated to females in performance arts, however other chapters on actor training include numerous verses that mention women along with men.

The Natyashastra and other ancient Hindu texts such as the Yajnavalkya Smriti assert that arts and music are spiritual, with the power to guide one to moksha, through empowering the concentration of mind for the liberation of the Self (soul, Atman). These arts are offered as alternate paths (Marga Natya or yoga), in strength similar to the knowledge of the Shrutis (Vedas and Upanishads). Various medieval scholars, such as the 12th century Mitaksara and Apararka, cite Natyashastra and Bharata in linking arts to spirituality, while the text itself asserts that beautiful songs are sacred and performance arts are holy. The goal of performance arts, states Natyashastra is ultimately to let the spectator experience his own consciousness, then evaluate and feel the spiritual values innate in him, and rise to a higher level of consciousness. The function of drama and the art of theatre, as envisioned in Natyashastra states Daniel Meyer Dinkgräfe, is to restore the human potential, man's journey of "delight at a higher level of consciousness", and a life that is enlightened.

Abhinavabhāratī is the most studied commentary on Natyashastra, written by Abhinavagupta (950–1020 CE), who referred to Natyashastra also as the Natyaveda. Abhinavagupta's analysis of Natyashastra is notable for its extensive discussion of aesthetic and ontological questions, such as "whether human beings comprehend performance arts as tattva (reality and truth in another plane), or is it an error, or is it a form of superimposed reality (aropa)? Abhinavagupta asserts that Natyashastra and performance arts appeal to man because of "the experience of wonder", wherein the observer is pulled in, immersed, engaged, absorbed, and satisfied. The performance arts in Natyashastra, states Abhinavagupta, temporarily suspends man from his ordinary world, transfers him into another parallel reality full of wonder, where he experiences and reflects on spiritual and moral concepts, and in there is the power of arts to transform the inner state of man, where the beauty of the art lifts him into the goals of Dharma (correct living, virtues, duties, right versus wrong, responsibilities, righteous). Abhinavagupta is also known for his Advaita Vedanta treatises and a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, where he touches upon the aesthetics in Natyashastra. The detailed Natyashastra review and commentary of Abhinavagupta mentions older Sanskrit commentaries on the text, suggesting the text was widely studied and had been influential.

The first chapter of the text declares that the text's origins came after the four Vedas had been established, and yet there was lust, covetousness, wrath and jealously among human beings. The text was written as a fifth Veda, so that the essence of the Vedas can be heard and viewed, in Natya form to encourage every member of the society to dharma, artha and kama. The text originated to enable arts that influence the society and encourage each individual to consider good counsel, to explain sciences and demonstrate arts and crafts widely. The text is a guide and progeny of what is in the Vedas, asserts the Natysashastra. The text re asserts a similar message in the closing chapter, stating for example, in verses 36.20–21 that performance arts such as drama, songs, music, and dance with music are equal in importance as the exposition of the Vedic hymns, and that participating in vocal or instrumental music once is superior to bathing in river Ganges for a thousand days. Nāṭyaśāstra, states Natalia Lidova, has been far more than "a mere compendium on drama". It provided the foundation of theatrical and literary works that followed, which shaped the post Vedic culture. It has been an important source book of Hindu performance arts and its cultural beliefs regarding the role of arts in the social (dharmic) as well as the personal inner life of man in Hinduism. The movements of dance and expression in the Natyashastra are found carved on the pillars, walls and gateways of 1st millennium Hindu temples. The specifications provided in the Natyashastra can be found in the depiction of arts in sculpture, in icons and friezes across India. The Rasa theory of Natyashastra has attracted scholarly interest in communication studies for its insights into developing texts and performances outside the Indian culture.