The Nāṭya Shāstra (, IAST: Nāṭya Śāstra) is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata (Bharat Muni), and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE.
It is believed to be codified in the 2nd century BCE, the text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6,000 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, makeup and costumes, role and goals of an art director, the musical scales, musical instruments and the integration of music with art performance.
The Nāṭya Shāstra is notable as an ancient encyclopedic treatise on the arts, one which has influenced dance, music and literary traditions in India. It is also notable for its aesthetic "Rasa" theory, which asserts that entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal, and that the primary goal is to transport the individual in the audience into another parallel reality, full of wonder, where they experience the essence of their own consciousness, and reflect on spiritual and moral questions. 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. In April 2025, Bharat Muni's Nāṭya Shāstra manuscript was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
Etymology 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.James Lochtefeld (2002), "Shastra" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N–Z, Rosen Publishing, , p. 626; See also for help शास्त्र in Monier William's Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, Archived by Koeln University, Germany
Date and author
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 Nāṭya Shāstra 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. At some point it was revised in the 9th century Kashmir, where there was a new and intense commercial interest in the work.https://sheldonpollock.org/archive/pollock_rasa_2016b.pdf 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 Nāṭya Shāstra may be because of this. According to Pramod Kale, who received a doctorate on the text from the University of Wisconsin, the surviving version of Nāṭya Shāstra likely existed by the 8th-century.
The author of the Nāṭya Shāstra is unknown, and the Hindu tradition attributes it to the Rishi (sage) Bharata. It may be the work of several authors, but scholars disagree. Bharat Gupt states that the text stylistically shows characteristics of a single compiler in the existing version, a view shared by Kapila Vatsyayan. See introduction p. xxvi for discussion of dates The Agni Purana, includes chapters on dramatic arts and poetry, which follow the Nāṭya Shāstra 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.
Historical roots The Nāṭya Shāstra is the oldest surviving ancient Indian work on performance arts. The roots of the text extend at least as far back as the Naṭasūtras, dated to around the mid 1st millennium BCE.
The Natasutras are mentioned in the text of Panini, the sage who wrote the classic on Sanskrit grammar, and who is dated to about 500 BCE. This performance arts related Sutra text is mentioned in other late Vedic texts, as are two scholars names Shilalin (IAST: Śilālin) and Krishashva (Kṛśaśva), credited to be pioneers in the studies of ancient drama, singing, dance and Sanskrit compositions for these arts. The Nāṭya Shāstra refers to drama performers as Śhailālinas, likely because they were so known at the time the text was written, a name derived from the legacy of the vedic sage Śilālin credited with Natasutras. Richmond et al. estimate the Natasutras to have been composed around 600 BCE.
According to Lewis Rowell, a professor of Music specializing on classical Indian music, the earliest Indian artistic thought included three arts, syllabic recital (vadya), melos (gita) and dance (nrtta), as well as two musical genre, Gandharva (formal, composed, ceremonial music) and Gana (informal, improvised, entertainment music). The Gandharva subgenre also implied celestial, divine associations, while the Gana was free form art and included singing. The Sanskrit musical tradition spread widely in the Indian subcontinent during the late 1st millennium BCE, and the ancient Tamil classics make it "abundantly clear that a cultivated musical tradition existed in South India as early as the last few pre-Christian centuries".
The art schools of Shilalin and Krishashva, mentioned in both the Brahmanas and the Kalpasutras and Srautasutras, may have been associated with the performance of vedic rituals, which involved storytelling with embedded ethical values. The Vedanga texts such as verse 1.4.29 of Panini Sutras mention these as well. The roots of the Nāṭya Shāstra thus likely trace to the more ancient vedic traditions of integrating ritual recitation, dialogue and song in a dramatic representation of spiritual themes. The Sanskrit verses in chapter 13.2 of Shatapatha Brahmana (~800–700 BCE), for example, are written in the form of a riddle play between two actors.ML Varadpande (1990), History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1, Abhinav, , page 48
Structure
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, states Natalia Lidova, then describes the theory of Tāṇḍava dance (Shiva), the theory of rasa, of bhāva, expression, gestures, acting techniques, basic steps, standing postures.
Chapters 6 and 7 present the "Rasa" theory on aesthetics in performance arts, while chapters 8 to 13 are dedicated to the art of acting. Stage instruments such as methods for holding accessories, weapons, relative movement of actors and actresses, scene formulation, stage zones, conventions and customs are included in chapters 10 to 13 of the Natyashastra.
The chapters 14 to 20 are dedicated to plot and structure of underlying text behind the performance art. These sections include the theory of Sanskrit prosody, musical meters and the language of expression. Chapter 17 presents the attributes of poetry and figures of speech, while chapter 18 presents the art of speech and delivery in the performance arts. The text lists ten kinds of play, presents its theory of plot, costumes, and make-up. The text dedicates several chapters exclusively to women in performance arts, with chapter 24 on female theater. The training of actors is presented in chapters 26 and 35 of the text.
The theory of music, techniques for singing, and music instruments are discussed over chapters 28 to 34. The text in its final chapters describes the various types of dramatic characters, their roles and need for team work, what constitutes an ideal troupe, closing out the text with its comments of the importance of performance arts on culture.
Contents
The contents of the Nāṭya Shāstra, states Susan Schwartz, are "in part theatrical manual, part philosophy of aesthetics, part mythological history, part theology". It is the oldest surviving encyclopedic treatise on dramaturgy from India, with sections on the theory and practice of various 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. Natya topics as envisioned in this text includes what in western performing arts would include drama, dance, theatre, poetry and music. The text integrates its aesthetics, axiology and description of arts with mythologies associated with Hindu Devas and Devis. Performance arts, states Nāṭya Shāstra, are a form of Vedic ritual ceremony (yajna).ML Varadpande (1990), History of Indian Theatre, Volume 1, Abhinav, , page 7
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 Nāṭya Shāstra, 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. Performance arts aim to empower man to experience this rasa, or re-experience it. Actors aim to journey the spectator to this aesthetic experience within him. Rasa is prepared, states Nāṭya Shāstra, through a creative synthesis and expression of vibhava (determinants), anubhava (consequents) and vyabhicharibhava (transitory states). In the process of emotionally engaging the individual in the audience, the text outlines the use of eight sentiments – erotic, comic, pathetic, terrible, furious, odious, heroic and marvellous.
Concept of Natya The Nāṭya Shāstra defines drama in verse 6.10 as that which aesthetically arouses joy in the spectator, through the medium of actor's art of communication, that helps connect and transport the individual into a super sensual inner state of being. The Natya connects through abhinaya, that is applying body-speech-mind and scene, wherein asserts Nāṭya Shāstra, the actors use two practices of dharmi (performance), in four styles and four regional variations, accompanied by song and music in a playhouse carefully designed to achieve siddhi (success in production).
The verse details the eleven essential components of drama and dramatic production:
Rasa Bhāva Abhinaya Dharmī Vṛtti Pravṛtti Svara (sound) Gāna (song) Ātodya (orchestra)