Vijay Bali
Natya Shashtra (Drama Treatise) is one of the oldest surviving compositions in classical Sanskrit evolved by an Indian sage Bharat Muni in the year 500 BC or prior to the year 100 BC. It deals with performing arts viz Dance, Drama and Music. It sets the parameters through ethical laws for composers, actors, dancers, directors and organizers for stage shows to entertain royalty and general public alike. It emphasizes that spirituality and morality are equally important as the entertainment. Its main goal is to lift the spectators to believe that they are seeing ultimate reality and they transcend as if they are carried away from their actual self. It further examines how a performance can devast the psyche of spectators if violence, bloodshed and tragedy are shown on the stage for entertainment. It restrains superfluous mobile creativity which may malign stream of emotions and damage thought process of the spectators. It implies that the impact of visuals, sound of musical instruements, voice of singers and narrations by actors can play havoc with the sensualities of viewers if these are contrary to the ethical laws as propounded in the doctrine. These principles safeguard morality in a civilized society anywhere. As such cultural taboos of Natya Shashtra came into vogue since then and those are still treated as fundamental for critical evaluation of any art form.
