1.

Abinaya dharpanam:
Abhinaya dharpanam was written by Nandhikeshwara. Abhinaya dharpanam is also called as “the
mirror of gestures”. According to lingapuranam, Nandikeshwara is the son of a blind woman. She
used to pray before God for an intelligent son and after getting a son she named him 'Nandi'. Nandi
became a scholar who was then called Nandikeshwara. He had a deep knowledge of Natya Kala,
Music, History.

Abinaya dharpanam is divided into 2 segments.

a)first segment:

This first segment deals with personality of a dancer, salutation, etc…

 Qualities of audience
 Dance theatre
 Qualities of dance and its growth
 Qualities of sabhapathi(deity of personality)
 Qualities of dancer and the dance related musicians
 Method of salutation
 Salutation to god
 Qualities of the audience
 Time and space for performance

b)second segment-body movements:

This segment is full of mudras, which serves as an symbolic representation of a person or

relationship etc..E.g:if you want to show manmatha you will hold katakamukham in right and shikhara in
left.

 8 eye movements(dhridhti bhedas)

 4 neck movements(greeva bhedas )
 9 hand movements(shiro bhedas)
 28 single hand gestures(asamyutha hastas)
 23 double hand gestures(samyutha hastas)
 10 hands on dasavataras
 16 dhevatha hastas
 12 hands on relationship

2. Qualities of a dancer:
We have a perfect 10 qualities of a dancer, which are listed below.

 Agility
 Steadiness
  Geomentry of postures
 Circle movements
 The eye
 Endurance
 Memory
 Bhakthi towards dance
 Speech
 Singing

3.Nritya:
Nritya is a form of dance which mostly relates to your inner soul which is sentiment. Nritya
consists of different rasa and bhavas. This form of dance tests the dancer on their way of expressing
their feelings to the all mighty through rasa and bhava. Some of the examples of nritya are padam,
varnam etc…

4. Angika abhinya:
Angika abinaya is one of the type of abhinaya . From the name itself we can understand this
type of abinaya uses the body(angikam) parts. Angika abinaya uses gestures like
angas(head,hands,etc..), pratyangas(arms, shoulders,etc…), upangas(eye balls, etc..).

Vachika abinaya:

Vachika abinaya is the type of abhinaya which includes music used in dance. This type of abinaya
includes swaras, jathis, talam. We can say that this abinaya is the musical support to the dance and the
dancer.

Aharya abinaya:

This type of abinaya involves the attire of the dancer, like costume, makeup, jewels. The
costume is also as important for a realistic performance. The characters costume can reach the audience
faster than their personality.

Satvika abinaya:

Satvika abinaya involves various state in relation to sentiment. This type of abinaya is an
expression of a particular sentiment experienced by a dancer. This involves 8 states, they are.
perspiration, change of color, change of voice, tears, falling unconscious, motionlessness, horripilation.

5.origin of natya:
Natya was the work of God Brahma, the creator, who was asked to give mankind a fifth Veda,
which, unlike the four earlier Vedas, could be understood by everyone, even those who did not know
Sanskrit . Thus Brahma created the Natya Veda. First brahma gave the natya veda to bharata in the court
of siva with gandharvas and apsaras performing natya, nrtya and nrtta. Then siva remembering tandava
which caused bharata to instruct this to ganas . on account of his love to bharata, he also gave the
instructions on lasya through parvathi. Then these arts were taught to the milk maids of dwaraka, then
these women taught it to other countries around the world. This is the origin of natya