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Studies in Indian Philosophy
derived from the word 'Nața', but on account of the different terminations added to Natu' the word stands for two entirely different concepts. The word Nāļya is formed by adding Sañ to Nața and means the action or performance of the actor. Nāļya is thus concerned with the staging of a drama or Nāțaka. Bharata himself defines Nātya as the imitation of that which takes place in the real world : Nanābhāvopasampannań nănāvasthāntarātmakaṁ, lokavsttānukaranan Nātyametat mayā krtam (1. 112 NS.). The word Nāțaka, on the other hand, is formed by adding Aka' (Vvul) to the word 'Nața' and is to be classed under the genus ' poetry ', eg. in "Kāvyesu Nāțakam ramyam”. It can very well be seen that though of course Nātya '3 and Nāļaka 4 are closely related to each other, 'Nāļaka' is connected more with the content or story aspect (e.g. in "Nīpādinām yaccaritam nānārasabhāvasambhịtam bahudhā sukhaduḥkhotpattikstam, bhavati hi tannāļakam nāma)5 and Nātya with the manifestation of the story on the stage. It should be borne in mind that when a Nāțaka is not staged it still remains a 'nāțaka' even if it has been reduced to spoken or written symbols. But it cannot be a nāțya unless it is staged.
This stage medium then, is an important aspect of Nātya. It is a medium in which the poets' or rather the artists' mental states become, so to speak, objectified; in Nāțaka; they become objectified in a different way, in wirtten letters or spoken sounds. In Sanskrit this medium is called sabda, "sound”. A Let us call the written or spoken symbols the language of poetry or Nāțaka, and the stage-medium the language of Națya. All the constituents of stage perfomances will thus form the language of Nāțya. It may be objected, and perhaps rightly, that at the time of Bharata this was not the conception of Nāļaka. But at any rate this was the conception of poetry or Kāvya, and the language or medium of Kavya was sabda. What is relevant for my purpose is to show that just as sabda is a medium for poetiy, it is not a medium for Nāļya. Bharata was interested in giving us a
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