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The Sacred Dance of India
The dance in India is an eloquent expression of an ancient civilization whose timeless wisdom continues to evoke the passionate search of man for conscious identity with God. Not the dance alone. All the arts were dedicated towards the quest for philosophical insights through disciplined endeavour and the synthesis of the varied forms was a necessity. A long dialogue in the Vishnu Dharmottara, between the rishi Vraja, and the sage Markandeya, emphasises the continuity and flow of one art into another.
Bharata, the author of the treatise on the performing arts, the Nātya Shastra, states: "There will be no wisdom, no learning, no art, nor craft, no device, nor action, that is not found within nātya."
"This art," he tells us, "is not merely for your pleasure. but exhibits bhāva (expression) for all the three worlds. I made this art ASTOIT wingsthe movement of the world, whether in work or play, proAC, Beace, laughter, battle or slaughter, yielding the fruit of righteousness to those wiB follow the moral law, a restraint for the unruly, a discipline for the followers ofira rule, to create wisdom in the ignorant, learning in Icin lars. affording sport to kings, and endurance to the sorrow-stricken, replele with the diverse mode
