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Photo: V. Ganesan
SerenityShanta is the mood of peace or tranquillity. Bharatnatyam danseuse Urmila Satyanarayanan seems to be depicting the peace that comes with true gyan or enlightenment.
Dance
Shanta: One of the navarasas (Learn the Lingo, 23 November 2008), shanta is the mood of peace or tranquillity. In the Natya Shastra, considered the source treatise on theatre arts in India, only eight rasas are listed. Later scholars and arts commentators included shanta as the ninth rasa. There are arguments for and against the inclusion of shanta as a rasa. For one, while love, anger, fear, etc., can be regarded as contrasting moods, shanta is sometimes described as the still pool in which all emotions subside, as in a sea of tranquillity. Therefore, some would argue, shanta ought not to be considered a rasa of its own. Another way of describing shanta is a state without emotions. Therefore, it is argued, it cannot be a rasa, which is the very essence of emotion.
Abhinava Gupta, who lived on the cusp of the 9th and 10th centuries and was one of the most influential commentators on the Natya Shastra, counted shanta as a rasa. As shanta came to be included in the list of rasas, the phrase navarasa (nine rasas) became common, rather than ashtarasa (eight rasas) of the Natya Shastra.
In dance renditions, shanta, the mood of tranquillity, is pervasive in characters like Gautam Buddha, once he attains enlightenment. It is also the mood of Shiva when in his meditative mode. A character imbued with shanta is Prahlad, young son of Hiranyakashyapu, who is so immersed in his devotion to Lord Narayana that he is depicted with a peaceful expression no matter what punishment his non-believing father metes out to him.
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Friday Review
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