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Compiler’s note: this glossary is not found in the treatise; it has been compiled for the Russian translation. The spelling is given in IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), the interpretations are brief and working — for the exact meaning, refer to the corresponding chapters. The ♪ buttons pronounce the term: the sound is synthesized in advance from the Devanagari spelling and is available in two voices. Parler — Indic Parler-TTS by AI4Bharat, trained on Sanskrit among other languages; system — the voice Lekha (hi_IN), which reads according to Hindi rules and tends to swallow the final short “a” (nāṭya → “natya” instead of “naatya”). Both are synthesis, not a recording of a reader, and are not a standard of pronunciation: be careful with aspirates, retroflexes, and vowel lengths.
Voice:
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nāṭya | nāṭya | नाट्य | drama, theatrical performance as a whole — the subject of the treatise. |
| Nāṭyaveda | nāṭyaveda | नाट्यवेद | “Veda of theatre”: knowledge of drama, traced back to Brahmā himself. |
| Śāstra | śāstra | शास्त्र | treatise, code of rules; hence also “Nāṭyaśāstra.” |
| Nṛtta | nṛtta | नृत्त | pure dance: movement for the sake of form, without conveying meaning. |
| Nṛtya | nṛtya | नृत्य | dance that conveys content and mood. |
| Tāṇḍava | tāṇḍava | ताण्डव | energetic, masculine dance, associated with Śiva. |
| Lāsya | lāsya | लास्य | soft, lyrical dance — the counterpart to tāṇḍava. |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rasa | rasa | रस | “taste”: the aesthetic experience arising in the spectator. |
| Bhāva | bhāva | भाव | state, feeling: that from which rasa is composed. |
| Sthāyibhāva | sthāyibhāva | स्थायिभाव | stable, dominant feeling that carries rasa through the entire play. |
| Vyabhicāribhāva | vyabhicāribhāva | व्यभिचारिभाव | transitory states that shade the dominant one. |
| Sāttvikabhāva | sāttvikabhāva | सात्त्विकभाव | involuntary bodily manifestations of feeling: tears, trembling, perspiration. |
| Vibhāva | vibhāva | विभाव | occasion, cause of feeling — the circumstances and object of experience. |
| Anubhāva | anubhāva | अनुभाव | external manifestation of feeling by which the spectator recognises it. |
| Śṛṅgāra | śṛṅgāra | शृङ्गार | the rasa of love and attraction. |
| Hāsya | hāsya | हास्य | the rasa of the comic. |
| Karuṇa | karuṇa | करुण | the rasa of compassion and grief. |
| Raudra | raudra | रौद्र | the rasa of anger and fury. |
| Vīra | vīra | वीर | the rasa of the heroic. |
| Bhayānaka | bhayānaka | भयानक | the rasa of fear. |
| Bībhatsa | bībhatsa | बीभत्स | the rasa of disgust. |
| Adbhuta | adbhuta | अद्भुत | the rasa of wonder and the marvellous. |
| Śānta | śānta | शान्त | the rasa of peace; added to the list later and not recognised by all. |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abhinaya | abhinaya | अभिनय | the way of conveying meaning to the spectator; divided into the four kinds below. |
| Āṅgika | āṅgika | आङ्गिक | acting with the body: gesture, posture, gait, glance. |
| Vācika | vācika | वाचिक | acting with speech: word, intonation, verse, song. |
| Āhārya | āhārya | आहार्य | costume, makeup, ornaments, staging. |
| Sāttvika | sāttvika | सात्त्विक | acting with the inner state, manifesting involuntarily. |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hasta | hasta | हस्त | hand gesture; it can be single, paired, or dance-related. |
| Mudrā | mudrā | मुद्रा | sign, seal; in later usage — the same gesture. |
| Karaṇa | karaṇa | करण | unit of dance movement; there are one hundred and eight canonical karaṇas. |
| Aṅgahāra | aṅgahāra | अङ्गहार | a sequence of karaṇas forming a complete phrase. |
| Cārī | cārī | चारी | movement of one leg — the lowest unit of locomotion. |
| Maṇḍala | maṇḍala | मण्डल | combination of cārīs: a pattern of movement across the stage. |
| Sthāna | sthāna | स्थान | stance, initial position of the body. |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tāla | tāla | ताल | rhythmic cycle on which the action is set. |
| Laya | laya | लय | tempo: slow, medium, fast. |
| Svara | svara | स्वर | tone, degree of the scale. |
| Grāma | grāma | ग्राम | basic scale from which modes are reckoned. |
| Mūrchanā | mūrchanā | मूर्छना | mode: a sequence of tones within a grāma. |
| Jāti | jāti | जाति | melodic type; also class, category. |
| Dhruvā | dhruvā | ध्रुवा | song accompanying the action and marking its turns. |
| Term | Sanskrit | Devanagari | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pūrvaraṅga | pūrvaraṅga | पूर्वरङ्ग | preliminary rite that opens the performance. |
| Raṅgapūjā | raṅgapūjā | रङ्गपूजा | worship of the stage deities before the play. |
| Nāndī | nāndī | नान्दी | blessing verse at the beginning. |
| Prarocanā | prarocanā | प्ररोचना | introduction that attunes the spectator to the play. |
| Sūtradhāra | sūtradhāra | सूत्रधार | “holder of the thread”: the leader of the troupe, the master of ceremonies of the performance. |
| Sandhi | sandhi | सन्धि | joint, juncture: a section of the plot in the play’s composition. |
| Vṛtti | vṛtti | वृत्ति | style of performance, manner of presentation. |
| Pravṛtti | pravṛtti | प्रवृत्ति | local customs: regional differences in costume, speech, and manner. |
| Siddhi | siddhi | सिद्धि | success of the performance; the treatise distinguishes its kinds and signs. |
| Nāyaka | nāyaka | नायक | hero of the play. |
| Nāyikā | nāyikā | नायिका | heroine of the play. |
| Vidūṣaka | vidūṣaka | विदूषक | clown, companion of the hero. |