Knowledge Tradition Text: Approaches to Bharata’s Natyasastra
Edited by AMRIT SRINIVASAN. Preface by GIRISH KARNAD

This volume commemorates an unusual textual experiment tried out with the Natyasastra at a seminar held in New Delhi some years back. The seminar was organized by Sangeet Natak Akademi under Shri Girish Karnad’s chairmanship and jointly convened by the late Professor K.J. Shah, Wittgenstein scholar and Professor of Philosophy at Dharwad University and Dr Amrit Srinivasan, Professor of Sociology at IIT Delhi.

Brought together now for the first time are the papers presented at the seminar, along with Professor Shah’s working translation of the First, Sixth and Seventh Adhyayas of the Natyasastra, specially prepared for the event.

Over and above the specialist concerns, the volume provides delightful food for thought even for the lay reader and public alike, by presenting to them one of the most original and difficult works on the most original and difficult works on theatre anywhere, in the familiar language of disciplines such as philosophy, history, sociology and indology. Today, the vast expansion of interest in India’s “intangible cultural heritage” in diverse settings of learning has created new needs. The volume attempts to meet these by inviting well wishers and practitioners of the arts to introspect and reflect on their practice, through the medium of Bharata’s Natyasastra,
presented for their delight on these pages.

145 x 225 mm / i-xii+180 pages
Published 2009 / Rs 325