How Drama (Natya) Came
To Be
As Told by Bharata Muni
in the Natyasastra
The world
was given over to sensual pleasures: greed,
jealousy and anger. Indra, king of
the gods, approached Brahma, the god of creation.
Indra asked that Brahma create a form of diversion that could be seen and
heard, and that would be accessible to the four occupational groups (castes, or
varna).
Brahma
meditated on the four sacred hymns of the Hindu people.
Brahma took elements from the four Vedas to create this new diversion.
From the Rg Veda, he took recitation, from the Sama Veda came song, from
the Yajur Veda came acting and from the Atharva Veda came aesthetics.
These elements combined to form a fifth sacred text, or Veda, that was
called Natya (drama).
Brahma asked
Indra to compose plays and have the gods enact them.
Not considering it appropriate for gods to act, Indra asked that priests
(Brahmana) be recruited for this task. Bharata
and his one hundred sons were called upon to serve as the first actors.
They were taught by Brahma himself.
Brahma also
created heavenly nymphs to act and dance, as well as musicians to play and sing
in accompaniment to the show. The
first performance depicted the defeat of the demons by the gods, led by Indra.
The demons,
being offended by the story, were angry. They
caused the actors to forget their lines and movements. Brahma called upon Visvakarma, his heavenly architect, to
devise a space that would be sanctified and thus protected from the demons.
All parts of the facility were consecrated with rituals, beginning with
the ground-breaking, through construction, to the inauguration ceremony.
The show
resumed in the newly sanctified theatre structure, but the evil spirits
continued to plague the actors. At
last, in an effort at reconciliation, Brahma summoned the demons and explained
to them the purpose of the drama. Drama
was meant to educate and entertain. No
one would be excluded from seeing it (even the demons).
No topic could be excluded from consideration, even the defeat of demons
in battle.
Different gods were assigned to protect different parts of the performance structure. Brahma himself sanctified the center. Sacred ceremonies (yajna) and sacrifices (puja) were performed. Finally, Brahma declared that those who correctly observe the ritual sacrifices connected with performance would be protected from evil and would be successful in their undertakings.
