Navarasa and Ramayana

Ramayana  in the view of Navarasas
Hey guys! Here is my latest article and this time I'll be looking at Some facets of Puranas as seen in Indian classical dance! Being a passionate lover of art myself, I'll express myself in the easiest way possible with detailed explanation :) those who are more aware of Indian Classical Dance than me, please rectify my errors with your comments and do add in more :) Happy Reading….
Yours Truly,
Soups :) Cheerio :)

The ancient Indian  text on Dramaturgy, the Natyashastra written by Bharatamuni has expounded on the arts of Music, Dance and theatre of which in dance, the Abhinaya or expression part plays a vital role of the performance. Expression of the face, eyes, eyebrows and different body movements are important in Abhinaya. The facial expressions are usually around the “NAVARASAS” or nine emotions of any human being. These basic nine emotions are such which any human experiences in his or her life, there is no chance that any human hasn’t gone through these emotions…..yesterday after watching our serial Siya Ke Ram, when I saw how Ram was in pain at the fact that he was away from the love of his life, I thought why not we look at Ram and Sita and how and where they express each of these emotions in life.

1. SRINGARAM – The emotion of Love…….the primary expression of life itself…. let's start from the birth of a child to its death, it is always loved and it loves others who surround it. A child, a new born is loved by everyone for its innocence and its “Cute” features :) as the child grows and reaches adolescence, the partial meaning of Srinagaram evolves that is Infatuation. Everyone has a certain infatuation to the opposite gender at this period of adolescence which definitely is natural. And when the adolescent grows up to be an Adult and likes to spend the rest of the life with a person, that is the true meaning of Sringaram arises which is true and mature love. This we can very clearly see in our couple Siya-Ram (I am just looking at these characters in specific, I don't mean that the others aren't like them…everyone is the same). The maturity of love in the eyes of Ram and Sita are not restricted to love at first sight but also because they have heard of each other's greatness, their features perfectly match each other and they complete each other with their virtues such as, Ram is righteous  and Sita is extremely knowledgeable etc. The Meeting at Pushpa Vatika or the Gauri mandir is not just an eye opener to love at first sight physically but also an emotional attachment where their souls are entwined.

2. VEERAM – The emotion of Valour…..Valour is something we see in all our historical heroes and heroines. The idea of valour itself begins with the basic quality of bravery. The large number of rulers we have had in India is a proof for the same. There are many to name, Rani Laxmibai, Chatrapati Shivaji and many more. The idea of Valour in Ramayana comes of course during the war between Ram and Ravan. Each army member is ready to give up his life for serving his master. Sita also is a very brave woman. She didn't budge when Ravan mercilessly warned her to marry him. She instead looked at him with a fiery in her eyes and promised to be the cause of Ravan’s death.

3. KARUNYAM – The feeling of Compassion…..An emotion attributed to Sita mostly, it's also a part of Ram and Lakshman. Sita obviously was very compassionate to everyone including the Rakshasis who guarded her at Lanka. After the death of Ravan, Hanuman wanted to punish them for their deeds but Sita had prevented him from doing that. Ram was compassionate towards the squirrel who was helping the building of the bridge. It accidentally stepped into the way of the Vanars who treated it badly. Ram stopped them and blessed the squirrel by rubbing three of his fingers on its back. It is believed that the three white stripes on a squirrel’s back are the blessings  and gratitude offered by Ram.

4. ADBHUTAM – The expression of amazement or wonder….this is a part of everybody's lives. Ram expresses this feeling when he is astound at the ability of the Vanar Sena to build the bridge to Lanka is a short period of time.

5. HASYAM – The feeling of Laughter…..there can be none in the world who couldn't have been without laughing at least once in life. The antics of the Vanar sena is one thing that bring the idea of Laughter to me.

6. BHAYAM – The emotion of fear……fear is part of everybody's life. Everyone has fear in one form or the other, some fear old age, some fear embarrassment, some fear loss of money, some fear failure and the greatest fear of all is the fear of Death and getting separated from a loved one…..Sita is afraid when she hears Mareech screaming for help in Ram’s voice and vice versa Ram is afraid when he comes back with Lakshman and doesn't find Sita. Fear is not something one can avoid in my opinion fear can be removed to a great extent if our mind is under our control.

7. BEEBHATSAM – The feeling of disgust…..who is not disgusted in the world? People feel disgusted at many things that are not up to their expectations, dirt being the best example. Ram and Sita never really were disgusted but I think Sita slightly was when Ravan compared himself to Ram and Sita knowing how Ram truly was, was disgusted at the fact that Ravan actually went about comparing himself to someone who was truly a good person.

8. RAUDRAM – The emotion of anger…..Anger is both a boon and a bane. Anger at silly reasons is a bane where one wastes everyone’s energy and time. Anger against injustice is a quality to vouch for. Anger is a virtue that needs to be used at the right time and place. Ram and Sita too use this quality well. Ram, if he were a normal person, would have got angry at the fact that his step mother Kaikeyi who loved him so much actually wanted to send him to exile, but he didn't. But he did get angry at the fact that Ravan despite being a very knowledgeable man set his eyes on a married woman with wrong intentions and Ram punished him for that. Sita gets angry at Ravan for trying to convince her to marry him and it is said that she could have burnt him to ashes with one look from the corner of her eye but didn't do so as she wanted Ram to slay Ravan.

9. SHANTAM – The feeling of peace….peace is something everyone wants and is searching for from the surroundings. One must understand that peace lies within one and not outside. If one wants to seek it, one must look inside oneself. Ram and Sita are embodiments of peace, something that they never got in their lives. But they do teach us how we can look for peace within and surrounding ourselves.


The other emotions such as joy, happiness, sorrow, jealousy, greed etc though are not attributed under the Navarasas, they too play an important role in the Abhinaya aspect of any dance performance. Every character exhibits different emotions and to experience each is what makes a human a human.

Jai Siya Ram :)