My Journey with Natyashastra (Part 1): A Personal Academic Exploration
A decade ago, in March 2013, I visited Manish Da’s (Manish Mitra, the director of the Kasba Arghya theatre group) home for the first time for a lu...
Archive · Natyasastra
Selected treatises, reflections, and commentaries on Natyasastra within the civilisational corpus.
A decade ago, in March 2013, I visited Manish Da’s (Manish Mitra, the director of the Kasba Arghya theatre group) home for the first time for a lu...
Natyashastra is not merely a handbook or manual for the art of Theatre; it is a philosophy that speaks of Purushartha (the four aims of human life) wi...
Without further preamble, let us now consider the chapters and topics of the Natya Shastra. For until we know exactly which aspects are being discusse...
Insight from the Corpus
“Krishna is also used in the sense of "karshate iti Krishna"—meaning one who attracts. In Yoga philosophy, he is the presiding deity of the Ajna chakra. He attracts and pulls up Arjuna, who is stuck in the Manipura chakra. This is the essence of the Gita in Yoga philosophy.”
No matter how much Sri Krishna directs towards Brahmajnana in the Gita and advises against desiring the fruits of one’s actions, if Arjuna did not f...
The Nāṭyaśāstra stands as a seminal treatise on Indian classical theater, encapsulating a comprehensive framework known as the Eleven Nāṭya Sa...
According to Bharata, the Nāṭyaveda was divinely revealed by Brahmā himself, compiling the essence of all four Vedas and serving as the quintessen...
Reader's Pause
“A republican framework rests on three principal constituents: the administrator, the administration, and the administered. The operative word is republican — of the people, by the people, for the people. The administrator exists to serve; the people are what matter. Sustaining both the system and the people's faith in it is the responsibility of the Election Commission.”
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