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SAMBODHI Thus, a poet or a dramatist is the first creator of Nātya. He adopts word as his medium. According to NS, the contents presented by the poet or the dramatist through this medium of word comprise lokavrtta (behaviour of the people) or bhāva (that which has already happened or that which is going to happen in our world). The word 'avasthā' is also used sometimes to denote the contents of Nātya". The poet creates Nātya by re-telling that which has already happened. The NS terms it as bhāvānukirtana', while the tradition of epics defines it as 'anuvyāharana's.
The stage-performance tends to re-design this literary of dramatic piece. It has to be trans-created through the language and idiom of theatre by the actors. In the creative process of an actor performing on the stage, his own body becomes his medium. Through his speech physical gesticulations, concentration within his own psyche and by proper utilisation of the stage-properties, he creates a threatric Universe. This process has been termed as 'anukarana' (re-doing) in NS.
The performance of the actor is re-captured through aesthetic sensibility and imagination by an ideal spectator. This is the culmination of the creative process of Nātya, where the creativity of a dramatist and the efforts of the actor enable the audience to identify themselves with the world belonging to a different plane of time and space. According to NS, this is anudarsana or anubhāvana (re-seeing or feeling again). Abhinavagupta substitutes it by the term 'anuvyavasāyat which is imbued with philosophical meaning.
Thus from the poet's point of view, Nātya is basically anukīrtana. It is anukarana for the actor; and anudarśana or anubhāvana for the audience. The process of creating the Nātya undergoes through a trio comprising the poet's vision, the actor's disposition and the sensibility of the spectator. But this creative process does not go in a linear order, and none of the three elements responsible for the creation of Nātya works in isolation to the others. Nor can it be singled out from the others. The trinity of anukirtana, anukarana and anudarsana forms one single cause for the manifestation of Nātya. We can define the Nātya-hetu (cause of Nātya) on the lines of Mammata in the following way : अनुकीर्तनानुकरणानुदर्शनानि तस्य नाट्यस्य उद्भवे निर्माणे समुल्लासे च हेतुर्न हेतवः ।
In case anyone of these members of the trio appears to be missing, its effects materialise through the assimilation of its characteristics by the other two.
This intricate process of creation of Nātya running on three levels in a cyclic order involves multi-dimensional structure of time and space. Bharata rightly says that the word of Nātya incorporates all the three worlds'l. The three worlds involve not only multi-dimensional space, but various dimensions of time also. If Nātya is re-doing or retelling of that which has happened, it is also corelated with that which is happening or going to happen. The past and the present are, thus, treated together in Nātya and this treatment also tends to extend beyond the spheres of the past and the present, expanding its frontiers towards future. It reveals the shape of things to come : you will
Hica 2014 I (NS I. 14)
