PAPER 3

Origin of Dance

In hindu mythology, dance is believed to be conceived by Brahma. He

inspired the sage Bharata Muni to write the Natya Shastra, a treatise on
performing arts, from which a codified practice of dance and drama
emerged.

Who was Bharata Muni? One view is that he was a muni, or sage, who
single handedly wrote the Natya Shastra. Another is that he was a
theoretician who made a neat compilation of material gathered from
the writings of others. Yet another is that bharata is not the name of a
person at all but a word, an acronym formed by combining the initial
syllables of bhava, raga and tala, which stand for expression, musical
mode, and rhythm, respectively, and constitute the three essential
ingredients of the dance art. The word bharata is also found in early
shastras to denote a member of the community of actors and dancers,
and it is likely that this connotation found its way into the Natya
Shastra. The most commonly accepted version however is that Bharata
Muni was an ascetic-scholar who took upon himself the responsibility
of producing a canonical treatise on the theory and practice of the arts
of drama, dance and music as known in his time, and to this treatise he
gave the name Natya Shastra.

Natya Shastra consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6,000

poetic verses (shlokas) describing performing 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,
bodyvmovements, make up and costumes, role and goals of an art
director, the musical scales, musical instruments and the integration of
music with art performance.

The 6th and 7th chapter of Natya Shastra describe ‘Rasa’ and ‘Bhaava’.
Thereafter, 8th and 9th Chapter explain body movements. The Hand
Gestures used in Indian classical dance form are also explained in Natya
Shastra.

There are two types of hand gesture Asamyukta Hasta & Samyukt
Hasta. Asamyukta Hasta Mudra means single hand gestures
(Kaladarpan), which are of 28 types. Samyukt Hasta Mudra means two
hand gestures (Kaladarpan).

To understand the Natya Shastra, it is necessary to know what is natya,

which consists of nritta and nritya. Nritta implies pure and simple
dance. The movements of body and limbs are made for their own sake,
for their own beauty and decorative effect. The movements do not
convey any special meaning. Whereas, Nritya is dance which is
essentially expressional and it conveys meaning. This is accomplished
through the use of suggestive facial expressions, codified gestures of
the hands and symbolic poses of the body.

In other words dance which relates to sentiments (rasa) and

psychological state (bhaava) is called nritya and dance which does not
relate to any psychological state (bhaava) is called nritta.