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Kooththanool by Saattanaar, believed to be a contemporary of Tolkappiar, begins with reference to Siva's dance with Uma and Sage Agathiya being asked to write the first text on dance, after which he traces subsequent texts, placing himself in the line of authors on 'Kooththu'. The text has nine sub-texts, each dealing with different aspects of dance such as rasa, body classification, landscapes and folk dances, music, tala, some of which are available, in full or in part.
(Lakshmi Ramaswamy in 'How Lakshanagrantas and Tamil texts are relevant to dance' by Rupa Srikanth, The Hindu Friday Review, April 25, 2019)

Tolkappiar has discussed rasas and rasa theory. He mentions eight rasas (no Srungara or Veera as in Natya Sastra, though pleasure and pride may be close). Srungara is given separate treatment with six stages of romance, three before marriage and three after marriage. Lakshmi says his Rasa Theory details four stages of occurrence just as modern psychology does: from outside impulse to sense organs to nervous system to reactions on the body. Each rasa has four causatives (vibhava). Tolkappiar details 32 Tunai Meiypadu (sub-rasas that may be equated to vyabhichari bhavas).
(Lakshmi Ramaswamy in 'How Lakshanagrantas and Tamil texts are relevant to dance' by Rupa Srikanth, The Hindu Friday Review, April 25, 2019)



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