Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
Nāṭyaśāstra
Rasa — the theory that aesthetic emotion arises from the convergence of determinants, consequents, and transitory feelings in the receptive spectator
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Nāṭyaśāstra |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Cyclical |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | not engaged |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| Observer · Theological Method | Narrative |
| Energy · Extent | not engaged |
| Energy · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Energy · Conservation | not engaged |
| Energy · Dispersibility | not engaged |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | not engaged |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Nāṭyaśāstra
The text presupposes Hindu cyclical cosmological time: Brahma creates drama within the eternal cosmic cycle. Performance unfolds in continuous, lived time. The aesthetic experience of rasa is temporal — it arises, develops, and resolves within the duration of the performance.
Space
Nāṭyaśāstra
The stage (raṅga) is the spatial medium of dramatic expression. The Nāṭyaśāstra devotes extensive chapters to stage design, spatial orientation of performers, and the three-dimensional configuration of the performance space.
Matter
Nāṭyaśāstra
Bodies, costumes, sets, instruments — the material apparatus of performance — are the medium through which rasa is communicated. The text treats material reality as substantival and artistically significant.
Observer
Nāṭyaśāstra
The spectator (sahṛdaya) is essential: rasa arises in the spectator, not just on the stage. The observer is embodied, active (aesthetic experience requires cultivated receptivity), and plural. Drama is divinely ordained: Brahma created nāṭya-veda for all beings.
Energy
Nāṭyaśāstra
Energy is not a topic of the Nāṭyaśāstra.
Information
Nāṭyaśāstra
Aesthetic information is relational: rasa arises from the relation between performance and spectator. The rasa-sūtra is a relational formula. Information is conserved through the guru-śiṣya tradition of transmission.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Is rasa produced in performance, manifested from latent dispositions in the spectator, or inferred by intellectual judgment? The Nāṭyaśāstra's rasa-sūtra is ambiguous, and Indian aestheticians debated the question for a millennium. The text also oscillates between prescriptive rules (how drama should be performed) and descriptive theory (how aesthetic experience works) — a tension between normative poetics and empirical aesthetics.