Context:
On the occasion of World Heritage day, India achieved a significant milestone as manuscripts of the Bhagavad Gita and Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra were inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
More on the news:
- This is a global honour, bringing India’s total inscriptions on the UNESCO list to 14.
- Manuscripts of the Bhagavad Gita and Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra are among 74 new documentary heritage collections that have been added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register as of April 17.
- With these additions, the Memory of the World Register now includes 570 documentary collections from across the globe.
About Bhagavad Gita
- The Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture, dated to the 2nd or 1st century BCE, forms part of the epic poem Mahabharata.
- It contains 700 verses in 18 chapters, written within the Bhīṣmaparva (adhyāya 23-40) of the epic Mahabharata.
- It takes the form of a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna with armies lined up for the great war intended to free Arjuna of dejection.
- It is a central text in the continuous, cumulative ancient intellectual Indian tradition, synthesising various thought movements such as, Vedic, Buddhist, Jain and Cārvāka.
- Due to its philosophical breadth and depth , the Bhagavad Gita has been read for centuries across the globe and translated into many languages.
About Natyashastra
Bharatmuni’s Natyashastra is a foundational Sanskrit text on Indian dramaturgy and performing arts, considered the fifth Veda.
Preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, it is believed to have been codified around the 2nd century B.C., and is considered the essence of Nāṭyaveda.
- Nāṭyaveda an oral tradition of performing arts comprising 36,000 verses, also known as the Gāndharvaveda.
It serves as a foundational guide to Indian theatre, poetics, aesthetics, dance, and music and lays down an elaborate framework for various art forms, covering nāṭya (drama), abhinaya (performance), rasa (aesthetic essence), bhāva (emotion), and saṅgīta (music).
One of the most significant declarations in the Natyashastra is Bharatamuni’s assertion that “no meaning can blossom forth without rasa”, a timeless insight that continues to influence global literature and art.