Performing arts: classical dance & the natya tradition
The Natyashastra, the eight Sangeet Natak Akademi-recognised classical dances, their grammar, exponents and exam-tested distinctions for UPSC GS-1.
The Natyashastra and the theoretical scaffold
Indian classical dance descends from a single foundational text: the Natyashastra, attributed to the sage Bharata Muni and dated by most scholars between 200 BCE and 200 CE. Composed in Sanskrit across 36 chapters, it is the world's earliest comprehensive treatise on dramaturgy, treating dance (nritta and nritya), drama (natya), music and aesthetics as a single integrated discipline. It is styled the 'fifth Veda' (panchama veda), accessible to all varnas, and its origin myth has Brahma drawing recitation from the Rigveda, song from the Samaveda, gesture (abhinaya) from the Yajurveda and rasa (aesthetic flavour) from the Atharvaveda.
The Natyashastra's most examinable contribution is the Rasa theory: the eight original rasas are shringara (love), hasya (comedy), karuna (compassion), raudra (anger), veera (heroism), bhayanaka (fear), bibhatsa (disgust) and adbhuta (wonder); the ninth, shanta (peace), was added later, most influentially by the Kashmiri aesthetician Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1016 CE) in his commentary, the Abhinavabharati. Each rasa is evoked by a corresponding bhava (emotional state).
Nritta, nritya, natya and the abhinayas
Classical dance is analysed through three categories: nritta (pure rhythmic movement, no meaning), nritya (expressive, meaning-bearing dance combining rhythm with emotion) and natya (dramatic enactment with narrative). Expression is conveyed through four abhinayas: angika (body and gesture), vachika (speech and song), aharya (costume, ornament, make-up) and sattvika (involuntary emotional states such as tears or trembling).
The later text Abhinaya Darpana by Nandikeshvara codifies the hastas or mudras — single-hand gestures (asamyukta hasta, 28 in number) and combined-hand gestures (samyukta hasta, 24 in number). These vocabularies, together with the karanas (108 basic units of dance movement carved on the gopurams of the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram), form the technical grammar a candidate must recognise.
Institutionally, the apex body is the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA), India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, established in 1952 (formally inaugurated 28 January 1953). The SNA officially recognises eight classical dance forms: Bharatanatyam (Tamil Nadu), Kathak (North India), Kathakali and Mohiniyattam (Kerala), Kuchipudi (Andhra Pradesh), Odissi (Odisha), Manipuri (Manipur) and Sattriya (Assam). Sattriya, founded by the Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva in 15th-century Assam, was the most recent addition, granted classical status by the SNA in 2000. The Ministry of Culture, by contrast, sometimes lists nine by including Chhau, which UNESCO inscribed on its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010 — a recurring source of confusion in objective questions.