Nandikeshvara Biography 
Nandikeshvara was the great theorist on stage-craft of ancient India and the author of Abhinaya Darpana. He was the redoubtable rival of Bharata Muni and some scholars even consider himto be Bharata’s master. His work, Abhinaya Darpana has been translated to English titled, The Mirror of Gesture - Being the Abhinaya Darpana of Nandikesvara and the translation work was done by Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy for Harvard University Press. Bharatarnava is another noted work written by Nandikeshvara. Indian and Western historians place Nandikeshvara’s life time between the 5th and the 2nd centuries BC.
According to Ramakrishna Kavi, Nandikeshvara preceded Bharata Muni. Some legends also say that he was Bharata’s guru. Yet both these playwrights have given significant contribution to the traditional abhinaya. Bharata is considered as the father of Indian theatrical art forms, who compiled Natyashastra. His works have greatly influenced Bhasa. The most concrete example of Nandikeshvara’s teachings have survived thanks to Bhasa, one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit. Bhasa has written that in his stage direction a good number of theoretical instructions were received from Nandikeshvara.
A few years before World War First, a few of the manuscripts written by Bhasa were recovered from Padmanabha-Pura in Kerala. Those manuscripts in palm were dated to over 2000 years old which consisted of 11 texts written by Bhasa which represents the Dravidisation of Sanskrit before the commence of Christian era. His works have also been acknowledged by great scholars like Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, Jayadeva, Shudraka and Banabhatta. Before 2000 years, compilations on Sanskrit works based on the art of dance have been made several times with commentary by other specialists of successive centuries.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 14, 2014
