Abhinayadarpana is the most popular treatise on Hindu classical dance after Natyashastra of Bharata. The present-day Bharatanatyam is based on this treatise. Nandikeshwara is considered to be the author of this book. It is dated to the 5th century CE. Another well known treatise, Bharatanava, is also said to have been written by the same author.
The treatise is in the form of a dialogue between Indra and Nandikeshwara. Indra requests Nandikeshwara to teach Bharatanatya to him, and Nandikeshwara does so through his work Abhinaya Darpana.
Abhinaya Darpana starts with salutations to Mahadeva Shiva, who has in him expositions of all the four types of abhinayas. After eulogizing natya, Nandikeshwara deals with the characteristics of the sabha (the assembly), its leader – sabha nayaka, and ministers and the stage.
He also directs the positions of the hero/heroine, cymbal-player, drum-player, singer and tanpura-players on the stage. Further, Nandikeshwara gives the salient features of patra, the hero heroine. According to him, the dancer or the heroine must be beautiful, intelligent and sharp in executing angika abhinaya. She must be well versed in literature so that she can express the emotions of the lyrics and the situation properly. She should be perfect in rhythm. She must be of medium height and weight. Next, he deals with the characteristics of good bells. After this, he explains nata or the hero or male dancer: He should be handsome, a scholar, a good orator, should have a rich imagination and should know music.
Nandikeshwara further explains the external and internal factors of dance. He deals with natya lakshana, nica natya and natya karma.
The author deals with the origin of the word abhinaya and its meaning. He also explains the types of dance such as natya, nritya and nritta. Also discussed here are tandava and lasya (masculine and feminine, or emphatic and gentle) dance forms.
Nandikeshwara in Abhinayadarpana takes up only angika abhinaya in detail. He divides the whole body into anga, pratyanga and upanga. The movements of each part of the body are described. Again, the author divides angikabhinaya into mukhaja – expressing through the face, sarira – expressing through the major limbs of the body and cestakrita – expressing through complete body gestures.
The movement of the body starts with the head. Nandikeshwara gives nine types of shirobheda (head movements) with their characteristics and usages. Next, he deals with eight types of drishti bheda (glances) and four types of greeva bheda (neck movement), all with characteristics and usages.
Nandikeshwara describes a most important aspect of any dance style, hasta-lakshana (the hand gestures). He divides these into 28 asamyuta hastas, i.e. single-hand gestures, twenty four samyuta hastas, that is, double hand gestures and thirteen nrittahastas. There is some difference between the hastas explained in Natyashastra and Abhinaya Darpana.
Further, Nandikeshwara discusses movements of the feet. He divides them into four categories – mandala, utplavana, bhramari and cari. There are further classifications of each category. Cari’s explained by Nandikeshwara are noteworthy. He describes eight types of caris characterized by the usage of the feet in that particular movement.
Abhinayadarpana concludes with the description of gaits wherein the moving style of the elephant, peacock, swan, lion, snake, horse and the heroic gaits of men are explained.
Abhinayadarpana has its own merits. It is the earliest available treatise to define the terms nritya, nritta, and natya. Abhinayadarpana deals particularly with angikabhinaya, with special reference to hasta lakshanas. All these are common to the contents of all Hindu dance styles. So, Abhinayadarpana enjoys a key position amongst the treatises which deal with the art of dancing.