engleski

The Nāṭyaśāstra: Art as Play of and for the Gods

Bharata's Nāṭyaśāstra, from the last centuries BC, is the oldest extant Indian text dealing with the art of drama, literature and music. In its introductory and final parts the author traces their origins back to the heavens, among the gods and goddesses. No lesser source could truly justify the existence of the arts and explain the high esteem assigned to them in India. Art is even taken as a valid path of spiritual liberation and goes by the lofty name of the fifth Veda. Starting from Bharata's Introduction, and the textbook in general, the paper demonstrates the ways in which, in India, art has traditionally been understood as a reflection of things transcendent, which includes both the divine and the demoniac. On earth, men perform the drama laid down and played by the gods in heaven. Such a vision of art inserts its true source beyond time and space, turns it into a devoted act of communion and spares artists the bad conscience so typical of cultures that have tended to see art as self-centred rebellion against God.

Bharata; Nāṭyaśāstra; nāṭya; drama; play; art; God; gods; demons

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