The strength of the knowledge systems of India – which we call Bhutiya Janana Paramapara – The time and location lies in their ability to develop and find new meanings. Although based in spiritual thought, these traditions were never stable. They offered flexible ways to understand the body, mind and universe – methods that can be expressed, practiced and passed. A famous vedentic image, of a spider spinning your web, helps us imagine this relationship: eternal, inseparable consciousness remains with one with weaving weaving weaving weaving. Scholar Kapila Vatsyayan described it as an integrated character of Indian aesthetics, where philosophy, rituals and performance are found to create living knowledge of avatar.
Within this framework, art and rituals are not different from life, but essential tools of self-composition. Through gestures, movement and storytelling, the dancers form abstract ideas and bring philosophy into alive experience. Each unit of movement in Indian dance bears a symbolic meaning, which connects the small world of the person to the vast order of the universe. Here, the meeting of Bhava (Bhavna) and Rasa (beauty experience) is beyond the performance. This creates a language where the coded gestures bridged the inner life of the dancer with a shared response of the audience.
A major lesson that sank the movement and gesture ceremony in Indian classical performance Acting darpanam (A fundamental Sanskrit text on Indian classical dance, focusing on Angika actya that serves as a guide for the dancer). The first known printed version was prepared by Kavi Lingamggunta Matrubhutya in Telugu (published in 1851). In 1887, Madbusi Tiruvanakaturaulu of Nidamangalam (Nida) published a prose translation in Telugu. The lesson reached the international audience through its first English translation, The mirror of gesturePublished in 1917 by Anand Komaraswamy and Gopala Krishnay Dugirala. A few decades later, Manmohan Ghosh brought another influential bilingual version in 1934, which was revised in 1957, which presented Sanskrit and English texts side-by-side.
Later translations further enhanced the reach of work within India. Drawing on the modified version of Manmohan, Vacaspati Gairola translated the lesson into Hindi, titled Indian Nataya Paramapara (1967). Later, Professor PSR Appa Rao published and demanded the differences between NIDA and Manmohan versions Nandikeswar’s acting Darpanam First Telugu (1987) and then in English (1997). Together, the efforts of these scholars ensured that Acting darpanam The Indian performance was accessible in linguistic and cultural boundaries, gaining its place as the foundation stone of traditions. Nevertheless, beyond these publications, the lesson has lived the most vibrant in the memories of the practice halls, classrooms and dancers.
A major lesson that sank the movement and gesture ceremony in Indian classical performance Abhinaya Darpanam.
Photo Credit: Hindu Archives
It was Rukmini Devi, who insisted on presenting for the first time Acting darpanam In the syllabus in Kalakshatra. From there, its educational heritage has been carried forward, especially by the Naturals Shanta and VP Dhananjayan, ensuring its continuous transmission for new generations of dancers.
In 2008, I attracted to publish a handbook on this heritage, titled Message in movementsEspecially designed for international students. I later came up with a more broad version – Abhinaya Darpam: A illustrated translation, Which is now in its fourth edition.
Academic scope
At the introductory level, Acting darpanam Provides a progressive structure to understand the gesture (currency), Movement units (Advu, Chari, Mandla) and their execution through kinestatic awareness. The dancers refine an internal view of movement through imagination of meditation, propharoception and muscle engagement.
Peace and VP Dhananjayan ensured Acting darpanamTransmission continued for new generations of dancers through a series of workshops. , Photo Credit: Hindu Archives
At intermediate and advanced levels, the text signal invites the discovery of cultural, rituals and symbolic meanings of gestures in the signal traditions. Bickering between purpose form and subjective expression. Physical practices in the form of sites of identification formation, interaction and transit. How the movements in classical dance infect ecological knowledge through symbolic contexts of natural elements, from medicinal plants to aquatic life – confirming a world vision, which keeps the other -oriented and sacred ecosy at the center.
In this extended structure, Acting darpanam The following dimensions can be optimized to attach: beauty awareness (experience the body as a site of thinking and change through focusing movement), cognitive awareness (understanding dance as an accurate and powerful non-mischievous language), using psychological awareness and using psychological awareness such as mealing, cultural awareness, biomechanics, biomacles, biomer (The study of joint articulation, muscle control and postural mechanics) and Natya-Yoga (integrating the moral principles of yoga in artistic practice and community engagement)-This aspect reflects the dancer as both to support the prevention of injury and optimal movement efficiency) and Natya-Yoga (artistic practice and community engagement) Seeker And citizens, give embodiment the values ​​that live beyond aesthetics that are in living morality.
Importance
Of about 29 known Sanskrit texts on Natia, Acting darpanam Movement stands for its granular meditation on gestures and expressive techniques. For contemporary dancer – contacted through Desi Margie Traditions, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Mohinitam Kathakali, or Sixu-This is not just a manual, but a mirror: reflecting the internal landscape of the dancer, shaping the body in a ship of sympathy, a keeper of memory and a path to self-knowledge. Lawned to its origin, yet currently resonant, it speaks for our ongoing discovery for meaning, related and change.
Published – 02 September, 2025 05:55 pm IST
