Kohala in the Sanskrit textual tradition (Study)
by Padma Sugavanam | 2011 | 95,782 words
This page relates ‘Manuscript Details of the Bharatashastra’ of the thesis dealing with Kohala’s contribution to the Sanskrit textual tradition of ancient Indian performing arts. The study focuses specifically on music (Gita), dance (Nritya), and drama (Natya). Although Kohala’s original works have not been found, numerous references to him across Lakshana-Granthas (treatises) and works by modern scholars indicate his significance.
Part 4.1 - Manuscript Details of the Bharataśāstra
The manuscript of Bharataśāstra is available in the GOML, Chennai (Acc. NO. -R20175/ SR 8893). The catalogue bears the title Bharataśāstra and refers to the author of this work as Kohalācāryakavi. But the cover of the manuscript has the title Nāṭyaśāstra. It is a palm leaf manuscript written in Telugu script. The manuscript is not in very good condition. Most leaves are badly eaten and some are broken. The catalogue mentions that the manuscript contains 350 folios, but only 232 are available now. The folios are in haphazard order. There are page numbers in telugu script in most folios. But some are blurred/ eaten/ broken. A few folios, in the beginning of the manuscript are numbered using roman numerals. According the authorities at GOML, these were made by the IGNCA team during their archival/ cataloguing project.