142312 UE Myths of origin in the Natyasastra. Accounts of creation in dramaturgy, dance and music (2022S)

The Nāṭyaśāstra (NŚ), attributed to the sage Bharata and mostly dated to the beginning of the Common Era, is primarily a technical handbook for the production and performance of theatrical plays. Although the treatise mostly limits itself to stating rules, only rarely providing an underlying rationale for these, it does narrate some myths of origin. Despite the large number of theatrical topics the NŚ covers, these myths only concern the creation of:

(a) the theatrical art as a whole, including the creation of the apsarases and of the jarjara staff (adhyāya 1: Nāṭyotpatti)

(b) the tāṇḍava dance (adhy. 4: Tāṇḍavalakṣaṇa)

(c) the theatrical styles or vṛttis (adhy. 22: Vṛttivikalpa)

(d) the mṛdaṅga drums (adhy. 33: Avanaddhātodyavidhāna)

On the basis of Manomohan Ghosh's two-volume edition of the NŚ (1956, 1967) we will read selected passages of these mythological narratives from a comparative perspective, looking at similarities and dissimilarities, and reflecting on why only these particular elements are provided with an origin myth of their own. Other editions of the NŚ will be consulted as well, and myths of origin in other works dated to roughly the same period taken into account.