Work · South Asia
Natyashastra
variously dated c. 200 BCE – 200 CE
Sanskrit treatise on drama, dance, and music attributed to the sage Bharata, as old as or older than many Greek theoretical texts studied in the West.
The Natyashastra covers theatre architecture, acting, gesture, music, costume, and the theory of rasa — the aesthetic 'flavour' experienced by spectators. It presents a mythic origin of drama given by the gods as a 'fifth Veda' accessible to all.
Its scope makes it a powerful counterexample to the idea that systematic dramatic theory begins in Greece.