19th October, 2012

Ntya and an Account of Rasa from Bharatamunis

Ntyashastra
-Utkarsha Kotian

1. What is Ntya?
According to Manmohan Ghoshs translation of the Ntyashastra (for the Royal
Asiatic Society, 1959), western understanding of the word Ntya is usually thought to
be Drama. The similarity to the Greek theatre and its comparison to Ntyashastra
lead to this translation. However, Ghosh mentions in his introduction to the translation
that as early as 1890 the western world realised that Indian Ntya is different from the
Greek drama. In the reading of Ghoshs translation of the Ntyashastra; the
explanation by Brahma (progenitor of all beings in Vedic mythology) leads us to
understand that ntya means performance.
Brahma gives the Daityas an explanation of what ntya is, when they instigated by the
Vighnas, attack the first ntya by Bharatamunis sons. He says that ntya is simply a
depiction of the three worlds (Devlok world of the benevolent divine beings,
Asurlok world of the evil divine beings and Manushyalok world of the humans);
and its activities. Hence it is not an exclusive representation. It is an imitation of all
that the beings do and their behaviour. In this sense, Bharatamunis narration of the
Ntyashastra is similar to the Greek for of theatre which is mimetic in nature.
In his description to the Daityas, Brahma tells them the characteristics and the purpose
of ntya as well. Ntya, he lists, is a combination of devoutness, wealth, love, violence
etc. He says that ntya gives various attributes to support positive behaviour and
discourage negative ones.
For example: ntya gives
the pious behaviour of those who practise religion, the passion of those who indulge
in sexual pleasure, the repression of those who go by a wicked path, the act of self
restraint of those who are discipline

Further, Brahma describes the purpose of ntya to be subjective, depending on the

actions (good, bad, indifferent) of the consumer. Hence, what one may derive from the
ntya could vary from courage, to restfulness and entertainment to instruction on the
conduct to life.
He further states that ntya is not just a performative art but encompasses every aspect
of life since every activity is connected to and will be seen in art, lore and emotions
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19th October, 2012

Hence, the replication of the behaviour of all, when represented or recreated in a

physical form for various purposes, is ntya.

2. Account of Rasa from the reading of the text.

Rasa or the sentiment is one of the main components of ntya. While a literal
translation would be flavour, Ghosh prefers to call it the sentiment of the ntya.
Rasa could also mean to relish, since rasa refers to the pleasure derived out of an act
that could be called its theme (sentiment).
There are 8 rasas that Bharatamuni mentions to the sages who ask him (to) explain
how the Sentiments enumerated by experts in dramatic art attain their special
qualities

He lists them as: Erotic (sringara), Comic (hasya), Pathetic (karuna), Furious
(raudra), Heroic (vira), Terrible (bhayanaka), Odious (bhibhatsa) and Marvellous
(adbhuta). It is out of these rasas or sentiments that the bhava or the emotional states
arise.
According to Bharatamuni, without the rasa, all speech is meaningless, since it is the
sentiment that adds meaning to any work. A combination of stimulants (vibhava),
physical experiences (anubhava) and emotional state (vyabhicari bhava) gives rise to
the sentiment.
This he compares to the experience of relishing food or deriving the rasa out of
food. By a proper combination of spices, vegetables and other food articles, the right
taste is acquired and similar in the case of the sentiment.
Hence, just like a connoisseur of food derives pleasure and satisfaction from various
combinations of the spices, vegetables etc. that make different dishes; an ideal
spectator of ntya derives the rasa out of a performance that has the various
combinations of the vibhava, anubhava and vyabhicari bhava.
Later, Bharatamuni explains the co-dependence of the bhava (emotions) with the rasa
(sentiments). The rasa he says are derived from the bhava even though popular belief
may say theyre born out of mutual contact. He proves this by saying that the
sentiment or the theme cannot exist unless the emotion already exists, since the
purpose of ntya is to make the spectator feel the bhava (bhavayanti) through the
rasa. However, no emotion exists that did not arise from a sentimental experience.
Hence, one feels (bhava) astonished because of the underlying sentiment (rasa) of
marvellousness.

19th October, 2012

In further descriptions of the rasa, Bharatamuni elaborates and explains their origins.
He says that the main sentiments (rasas) are Erotic, Furious, Heroic and Odious. From
these the other four sentiments are derived. So, the Comic comes from Erotic, the
Pathetic comes from the Furious, the Marvellous from the Heroic and the Terrible
from the Odious.
All the sentiments have their colours that help an actor better portray the rasa. For
example, Erotic is light green, Comic is white, Pathetic is grey and so on. Each rasa
has a presiding deity, such as Vishnu for the Erotic, Pramatha for Comic, and Yama for
Pathetic etc.
To arouse these rasas, Bharatamuni comments on the combination of the stimulants
(vibhava) and the physical experience (anubhava). However, though there are fortynine emotions (bhavas) that contribute to the sentiment (rasa) only the original eight
are the rasas. He explains this by a metaphor of how some human beings are better
than the others though they all have the same physical attributes. Here he hints at rasa
being of higher value of that which is suggested to be an acquired taste.
Hence, if the emotions (bhava) are properly depicted by the actor, the sentiment or
rasa of the play is acquired by the spectator giving him the pleasures and the meaning
of the ntya.