Landscape in the Nā?ya?āstra and clues to its spatial origin: A study in 2019 (Dr. Padmaja Venkatesh Suresh and Megh Kalyanasundaram)

Abstract: What does the landscape described in the Nā?ya?āstra look like? How does it compare with the landscape described in, for instance, the Mahābhārata? Can a reading of Bharata’s Nā?ya?āstra in 2019 still yield clues about its spatial origin? Answers to these questions form the crux of this paper which also looks to a) address one of the many questions listed by scholar Kapila Vatsyayan (in her foreword to the 2016 book 'Nā?YA?āSTRA—Revisited' which contains her essay ‘Nā?YA?āSTRA—A history of criticism’) and b) to take one small step in a research area identified by another scholar Bharat Gupt (in his essay in 'Nā?YA?āSTRA—Revisited'). In answering the questions specified above, this paper looks to contribute to ‘the critical analysis on the journey of the text of Nā?ya?āstra’ (sub-theme 2 of the conference) and to foreground insights, from studying what seems like lesser-researched aspects of the text, insights, that would be relevant in the pursuit of the framework for a new critical edition of the Nā?ya?āstra.

Pdf of the paper can be accessed from here and here.