Natyasastra of Bharatamuni (Set of Four Volumes)

The present edition of the Natya-Sastra of Bharata is reprinted and edited in a new form. The English translation of Natya-Sastra by M.M. Ghosh was published hundred years before. It was well received by the scholars at that time and was considered the best. Now, first time Sanskrit with Romanized text with the English translation of M.M. Ghosh, along with the Abhinava Bharati- the celebrated oldest commentary by erudite scholar Acarya Abhinava Gupta is being published for 21st-century scholars for further research. During one hundred years many new editions of Natya-Sastra have been published. Many types of research have been included in these editions.

This will facilitate and activate the scholars of Indian dramaturgy and aesthetics, to do further research and enlighten the Indological in addition to Indian draw works.

The present edition of the Natya Sastra of Bharata is reprinted and edited in a new form with Romanised English. The English translation of Natya Sastra by M.M. Ghosh was published hundred years before. It was well received by the scholars at that time and was considered the best. Now, the translation of M.M. Ghosh, along with the Abhinava Bharati-the celebrated oldest commentary by erudite scholar Acarya Abhinava Gupta is being published for 21st-century scholars for further research. During one hundred years many new editions of the Natyasastra have been published. Many types of research have been included in these editions. I congratulate Mr. Subhash Jain of the New Bharatiya Book Corporation, Delhi for this scholarly edition of Natyasastra, the only earliest authority on Dramaturgy along with the commentary of Kashmirian aesthete cum-philosopher viz. Abhinava Gupta. This will, I hope, facilitate and activate the scholars of Indian Dramaturgy and aesthetics, to do further research and enlighten the Indological world in addition to Indian dramatic works.

Nonetheless, from the text of the Natyasastra, we do learn something about the author as also his larger artistic family of a hundred sons, if not biological descendants. The Natyasastra begins with a salutation to Pitamaha (Brahman) and Mahesvara (Siva)-a rare combination and attributes all that is to follow on the sastra of Natya to Brahman. The sages (muni) approach Bharata, the master of Natya (drama), and ask him, 'How did the Natyaveda originate? For whom is it meant?' It is in reply to this question that Bharata first insists on a state of preparedness. The listeners must be cleansed and attentive before he begins his discourse. Later, after he has told them of Brahman's state of yoga, his concentration and his determination (sankalpa) to create a fifth Veda, the question arises of passing it on to a person. It is here that Bharata uses the singular and says, Brahma said to me, 'O, the sinless one, you, with your hundred sons, will have to put it (the Natyaveda) to use."

Thus I learnt the Natyaveda from Brahma and made my able sons study it as also learn its proper application' (1.24-25). Then follows a list of his hundred sons which includes names which have been identified with contemporary or later authors, especially Kohala, Dattila, Tandu, Salikarna, etc. However, the basic information we receive from this narration is that Bharata was indeed the teacher and preceptor of a school or academy with pupils or sons and that each of these may have been both performer and theoreticians.

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