Lectures on Natyasastra (An Old and Rare Book)

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It gives me great pleasure in placing this monograph before the scholars of Sanskrit and Indology. The monograph is a collection of lectures delivered by Prof. Radha Vallabh Tripathi, Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Sagar University, Sagar on Natyashastra during December 1989. The Centre has been concentrating on training and research in four disciplines viz., Veda, Vyakarana, Nyaya & Mimarhsa. It wants to develop its interest in Indian Dramaturgy and Poetics also. With this aim in mind, I had requested Prof. Tripathi to deliver these lectures. I am thankful to him for having accepted my request and for having delivered these lectures. I am also thankful to him for making me available these lectures in writing for publication. Dr. Tripathi is an authority on the Natyashastra. I am confident that the scholars will derive ample pleasure from these lectures.

With this volume we are starting a new series of C. A. S. S. Publications under the heading Class F. The present monograph forms No. 1 of this Class.

The present monograph comprises lectures delivered by me in December 1989 as a visiting fellow in the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Poona. They cover a wide range of topics related to the Natyashastra.

The Natyashastra attributed to Bharatamuni is the most extensive momumental work in our tradition on Aesthetics and Rhetoric, theatre and drama, including other performing arts as well. The very interdisciplinary nature of this voluminous compendium makes it impossible for a single scholar to master the whole text. During the course of my lectures at the CASS, I felt the growing need for collaboration of not only the experts in music, musicology, theatre, ancient Indian art and architecture, but also of the scholars of Vedic literature and Dharmasastra for a sound understanding of the Natyashastra. I hope this work will create interest amongst scholars of Indology in the Natyashastra.

I am grateful to Prof. V.N. Jha, Director of the CASS, for providing me with an opportunity to re-organise my studies on Natyashastra. Thanks are also due to Mrs. Saroj Deshpande and other scholars of the CASS who joined these lectures and stimulated me to make my studies on Natyashastra up-to-date. I sincerely thank the authorities of Poona University for undertaking this publication.