Question

What are the changes that have taken place in india art and aesthetics with reference to the natya shastra?

Answer 1

History of Indian Aesthetics

The things which attract you to an artwork.Where you feel pleasure in an artwork.It is not important that you capture reality. More important is what you thought. e.g. Van Gogh - Sunflower painting.  

History Of Indian Aesthetics - Brief Notes


History of Indian Aesthetics


1.   Art is the expression of a man's feelings and imagination on through a medium. When both are given a form, it is called art.


2.   Artist has total freedom to deny reality because they are supposed to be the creator of beauty.


3.   The things which attract you to an artwork.Where you feel pleasure in an artwork.It is not important that you capture reality. More important is what you thought. e.g. Van Gogh - Sunflower painting.  


4.   Aesthetics is a discipline in which authors and philosophers try to explain the concepts of beauty. Different philosophers and aestheticians have a lot of contradictions between them. But the standard of beauty is the same when it concerns.


5.   Indian aesthetics is earlier than the western aesthetics. Before Italian philosopher Croce there was no real aesthetics. In India, a lot of scholars were particularly interested in aesthetics. their main aim was to understand and find out the meaning of beauty.  


6.   Bharata was the first to write on aesthetics in Bharata's Natya Shastra. mainly in terms of Literature, Drama and Dance.


7.   Theory of aesthetics is, in fact, the theory of “sense of beauty”. In India, there was a separate discipline for the theory of beauty. Indians were not historically inclined, they did not record anything and always dedicated their works to Gurus and Gods.


8.   Bharata’s Natya Shastra (BNS)- the entire story is told in terms of music and dance and is not written for the folk artists. Purely classical form. Bharat Muni mentioned Indra the lord of heaven who had a lot of dancers. Natyashastra according to scholars were written during 2nd century B.C. or A.D. hence we can say that drama existed for a long time before.


9.   There is a missing link between Indus Valley Civilization and the Mauryan period, which means that BNS must have been written during the Shunga Dynasty and that this form must be known in Harappa but does not conclude due to lack of evidence. BNS was the first available theory of music, dance and drama But these forms existed long before.


10.   Bharata in search of true Beauty uses the word RASA (the essence of life, juice, Amrit) rasa is only to be felt, it is the source of all life. We live on fluid(water) and consider it to be the source of all life. this theory became very popular, but since it is difficult in identifying, there are antagonists and protagonists to identify them.


11.   In the 7th century, bhama and dandin rejected the theory of rasa, some said that beauty in the drama was sarcasm.


12.   In the 9th century, Anand Vardhan (Kashmiri Pandit) supported Bharata's rasa theory and Natya shastra. He researched and explained the theory in terms of dhwani, in the book called dhvanyaloka.


13.   10th century Abhinav Gupta (Kashmiri pandit family). He wrote a book called Abhinav Bharti and elaborated the theory of dhwani and rasa through sutra and commentaries (eg. kali das). In Abhinav Bharti, he picks out few important shlokas from these (maha kavyas) books and then category wise discussed them in his book Rhetorical Parts. By his analysis, he proves that the most important element in poetic is rasa.


14.   Mahakavi were great poets who wrote Maha Kavya - Kalidas, Valmiki, Shudra, Bhawabhuti, etc. were some of them. The format of all this literature is in form of plays and dramas.


15.   11th-century Mammat - Re-established theory of Dhwani. He is also the follower of rasa theory. His contribution was that he didn't borrow shlokas from the earlier poems, he also took into consideration the work of his contemporaries.


16.   Rudrat tried to dispose of the theory of rasa and said that it was not essential to the work of art. Rudrat & Dandin tried to prove their own elements like riti(style).


17.  Manahoran Ghosh in his translation of BNS uses the term “sentiment”, other writers have used the term “relish” for rasa.


18.   Aesthetics experience is described as “ Tasting of flavour ”. The taste in other words to the scholars if referred to as “Rasika“ a work of art possessing rasa is often described as “ Rasawant ” or “ Rasavat” .