The Divine Origin
In the beginning of Treta Yuga (second of the four Yuga cycles), the Gods observed people digressing from Dharma. They understood that the knowledge in the four vedas did not percolate among people due to several reasons. They go to Brahma, the creator of all life and knowledge, asking him to create something that should be able to take the true essence of knowledge and spirituality to people in a form that they can enjoy, process and consume. Brahma then condenses the entire knowledge system from the four vedas into the fifth veda – Natyashastra.
Recitative Text – Rig Veda; Music – Sama Veda; Abhinaya – Yajur Veda; Rasa – Atharva Veda;
The first two are quite direct given that Rig veda is about words and hymns while Sama veda is about the melody of these words put together. Yajur Veda, on the other hand is about the sacrificial ceremonies that focus on ceremonial acts. These ceremonial or symbolic acts is about representing some belief through actions and other things, which is a predecessor to imaginative emoting or Abhinaya. When it comes to Atharva Veda, it is said to be the veda which is focussed on the people, their well-being, including worldly pleasures. It is only natural that Rasa, the ultimate aim of performing arts, the taste that the audience can enjoy, derives its essence from the Atharva veda.
Now Brahma bestows upon Bharata Muni the humongous responsibility to compile this knowledge, and the first shloka of the text goes like:
Pranamya Shirasa Devau Pithamaha Maheshwarau Natyashastram Pravakshyami Brahmanaa Yadhuthahritham
I bow my head to Pitamaha (Brahma) and Maheshwara (Shiva) and shall proceed to recite or explain the natyashastra that which was conceptualised and given to me by Brahma.
He then goes on to complete the entire text which includes everything, including how a stage should be, what are the different types of plays, characterisations of the Nayika (female protagonist) and Nayaka (male protagonist), appropriate make-up and accessories for the artists, how an accompanying musical team has to be and very importantly, the core philosophical idea: The Rasa Theory. More about all these shall be discussed later. Now, let’s get back to the mythology trajectory.
Staging of the Grand Show
Now, Bharata Muni aspires to present a grand show for the Gods. He imparts the knowledge to his 100 sons and Brahma to creates 24 apsaras, on the request of Bharat Muni to learn and perform the graceful component of dance – Kaisiki Vritti. On the festival of Indradhvaja (an ancient festival celebrated to mark the victory of Gods under the leadership of Indra over the demons) * , Bharata presented the show of ‘Amritha Mandhana’ – a drama portraying the defeat of asuras at the hands of devas. Well of course the Asuras got humiliated by the extravagant display of their defeat, leading to cause of disturbances and disruptions to the show. Sidetrack: Indra had to intervene and control them, standing as a protector for the actors. Main track: Bharata now feels the need for having an indoor protected stage to keep disturbances and distractions away*, for ambience needs to be right for the successful creation of rasa.
Vishwakarma, the divine architect, comes into the scene and constructs an auditorium as prescribed by Bharata Muni in one of his chapters. The second show is now presented dramatically depicting the ‘Tripura Dahanam’ – highlighting the prowess of Shiva (story for another time). Pleased by the show Shiva arranges for his assistant, Tandu to teach the Tandanva (dance of Shiva) to Bharata Muni, who added it to his text. Karanas is also very crucial aspect added as a result of this knowledge transaction.
Wrapping up…
Yes, so this is how drama/performing arts reached the realm of humans from the divine world, with a very specific purpose: to spread the idea of dharma – righteous living. Art is a powerful tool of communication, to reach into the deeper selves of the audience and instigate them to think. When you have such a powerful knowledge, it becomes our responsibility to learn to use it. This ancient art can be adaptable to the extent that it becomes relevant to this modern context. Let’s talk about what is haunting our lives in the world of this time, in the language of Bharatnatyam.
How to read our content?
In general, be it our content or the mythology or the discourses of the old world, read it with multiple lenses on: your spiritual lens, the philosophical lens, the social lens, the lens of symbolism and most importantly, the contextual lens. For example, when we are talking about construction of an indoor stage to keep asuras away, it can be read through multiple lenses:
- Social Lens: This act can be seen as the act of separation of art from everyone (asuras could simply be the people who were not part of the higher social strata) to restrict it just to the elite or upper castes, given the socio-political context of that time.
- Contextual Lens: If we read this as history, then simply the victory of one group humiliates the other. Well, the victorious ones are always re-scripted to be the righteous ones (the power of powerful ones to rewrite the past that suits them the best). In this case, may be neither the devas nor the asuras were fighting over a concept as straight-forward as Dharma and Adharma. It could have just been a fight where one group lost.
- Philosophical Lens: In this lens, we get one level deeper. For rasa to be generated, the audience has to be in complete focus and become one with the artists. In order to reach such an intense connection, all the noises in the heads of the audience that disrupts their ability to completely merge with the play, need to be distanced. And creating an indoor auditorium might mean more than a physical space – it could be a mental space that you create where you are devoid of your worldly issues. In such a plane you get to transcend to a new realm of spirituality, where rasa meets you.
- Symbolic Lens: This is just the physical interpretation of the philosophical lens.
Spiritual Lens: This is the result of your philosophical lens. What you start seeing symbolically takes you to the level of philosophy. What you start seeing philosophically takes you to the level of spirituality. It is a connected journey that can only be experienced. In this instance of the construction of an auditorium, the spiritual take away is that for you to be filled by spirituality – the higher awareness of life, you might have to outgrow your darknesses, stabilise your noises and be focussed on consuming great knowledge.
Read all the * marked in the article with the above lenses for better insight and more balanced understanding.
