
Dance in India has been deemed sacred because of its innate capacity to visualise & actualise the deepest philosophical concepts through gestures, movements & the art of suggestion. Immediate collective transcendence is possible only through dance when the dancer disappears & melts away in the dance & when the audience is transported to the realm of `rasa srishti`, the pure aesthetic delight. Any attempt to transcribe & describe dance through words is bound to remain incomplete as dance is a visual art. In India, it has sat atop a pyramid of various art forms which have had an oral & written history. As dance in India freely uses literary & poetic works taken from all vernacular languages, its repertory is rich beyond imagination. Vocal & instrumental music provides a constant accompaniment to translate ideas contained in these literary texts. Profusion of intricately carved sculptures on temple-walls have kept the forms alive even through dark periods of unsympathetic foreign rule. Dance has inspired a wealth of stone, metal & wood carvings, frescoes, murals & miniature paintings as well as textiles reflecting a panorama of dance movements. Special ornaments in gold, ruby, emerald, diamond or silver used by dancers have had a tradition of being crafted by h&. The art of decorating hair with different kinds of arrangements of flowers & fragrant leaves according to seasonal availability & suitability was specially taught as an additional accomplishment of a dancer. This book points at many such ideas & urges the reader to take a plunge in the ocean of ambrosial knowledge, which is called `natya vidya`.