of Trideva is a later development, which could roughly be identified as Puranic. The three of them occupy specific positions in the Natyaśastra; Brahma represents the aggregate of the vācika (verbal) aspect in art at all levels, Siva representing the āngika (bodily movement in gestures, postures, dances etc.) aspect and Vișnu combining the sāttvika (mental) aspect with the other two. In Nātyaśāstra Brahmā creates the Nātyaveda or Nātyaśāstra (Chapter I), Šiva adds dance through Tandu, his gana (Chapter IV) and Vișnu acts in the four vṛttis ( Chapter XX ), which are again verbally formulated by Brahmā ( ibid. ). Thus all the three are indispensable in the manifestation of the different aspects of art (drama being a total art). Our author seems to be influenced by Sakta Tantra, where Para Sakti stands for the Ultimate Reality. Hence, he has added Parā Sakti to the above three, implying that these (three) are aspects of the 'movement' of the Sakti. He could not leave out these three because, perhaps, of their strong roots in the Nāţyaśāstra. All the above four have been said to be nāda-rūpa i.e. with form made of nāda. Ksemarāja's commentary on Svacchanda Tantra (IV. 407) says that the Parā tanu (transcendent body) is known as nādaśaktyātmā i.e. with nāda-śakti as its essence. Nāda-šakti could be identified with the nāda of BrD. In this section the author is proceeding from the manifest state of nāda to its most unmanifest and transcendent state. Starting with music, then coming to the 'world' and then to the three Devas and Para Sakti, he has gradually described the gross, immanent and transcendent states of nāda ( cf. 'nādatanu' for Šiva in S R I, 1.1 and 'nādātmaka' for Brahmā, Vișnu and Maheśvara in S R I, 3.2). Kallinātha, commenting on SRI, 3.2 equates nāda with parā vāk. 9. Brahma-granthi (lit. the Brahma-knot) is the name of the centre of energy in the human body situated below the navel. (cf. SRI, 1.1; I, 2.145 cd- 147 and I, 3.4a) 10. 'Prāṇa' in its primary sense, denotes breath, but it has a wide significance. The word is frequently used in Vedic literature and is one of the three primary creations of ālman, the other two being vāk and manas (cf. Brh Up I, 5.3). In the Nātyašāstra āngika (bodily) abhinaya is rooted in prāņa manifested as anga (body), vācika (verbal) is rooted in vāk and sāttvika (mental) in manas. In the Upanişads the word prāņa has been used in two senses viz. (1) Prāņana the act of breathing and (2) the agent of this function (cf. Brh Up I, 4.7 and Kauş Up III, 2 for the two meanings respectively). Hence the act of breathing, in other words, the vital air or vital force is implied. 11. Vahni is used as a synonym of agni here, denoting the heat or energy in the body. 12. In verse 5 nāda is said to arise from bindu and here the opposite viz. the origin of bindu in nāda is spoken of. This apparent contradiction can be resolved in the following way. Initially the order of manifestation is sakti, nada, bindu and then the bindu again splits into three viz. bindu, nāda and bija. This bindu is identified with

Siva, and bija with Sakti and nada is a combination of the two. The first passage (verse 5) which is broken, seems to refer to the second process and bija appears to have been replaced with mātṛkās. The present passage where bindu is born of nāda could be construed to refer to the first order of manifestation. (cf. MM Gopinath Kaviraj, Bhāratīya Saṃskṛti Aur Sādhanā, pp. 23, 33, 34). 13. V\bar{a}k + maya = v\bar{a}nmaya, of the essence of speech or consisting of speech. 'Vāk' covers a very wide range, including nāda (tone) and syllable (varṇa) and that way it could comprise of both music and literature. But by convention, 'vānmaya' stands for literature as distinct from geya (music)-⁸ (Siśupālavadha II, 72) "Lo! the variety of vānmaya (literature) is infinite like that of geya (music)." In Sangitasastra also vak is identified with the text of music- (SRIII, 2 ab) "Vāk (text) is known as mātu and geya (music) is known as dhātu." 14. Kanda lit. means a bulbous or tumorous root. Hence it is a synonym of brahma-granthi (see note 9 above) (Also cf. SRI, 2.147, 150). 15. The word nada has been split into 'na' and 'da' and these two syllables have been spoken of as padas. This is the way of interpretation known as nirvacana, where a word is split into syllables and each syllable is accepted as meaningful in itself. This is distinct from etymological derivation ( vyutpatti ) where a word is derived from a root (prakti) to which a suffix (pratyaya) is added.³ The way of nirvacana is peculiar to Tantra. All the same, the two words viz. vyutpatti and nirvacana or nirukti are also sometimes used as interchangeables. This is how the dual verbal component (pada) of 'nāda' could be explained. 16. cf. S R I, 3.5 where the order of the first two has been reversed and names of the third and fourth types of nada have been changed as follows - 1. atisūksma 2. sūksma 3. pusta 4. apuşta and 5. kytrima.⁴ Pārśvadeva (Sam S Sā II, 22-24) presents a paraphrase of this portion of BrD, mentioning the name of Matanga, with the difference that the order and names have been changed as in S R. This change of order seems to have been prompted by the idea that 'very subtle' should be the first type and 'subtle' the → second one so that the 'very subtle' is located in the lowest portion in the vocal apparatus, and 'subtle' in the next higher one; this seems to be the rational order. I had occasion to ask the opinion of MM Pt. Gopinath Kaviraj on the order described by Matanga and he had said that this view was correct, there was nothing wrong with it. Hence the reverse order given by S R and other texts need not be taken as a correction or rationalisation, but as a different opinion represented in tradition.