About
Kohala — Son of Bharata Muni, Early Authority on Dramaturgy and Music
Kohala · Kohalacharya · Kohalakavi
Kohala is one of the hundred sons of Bharata Muni — the sage traditionally credited with composing the Natyashastra, the foundational Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts — and is among the most frequently cited early authorities in the Sanskrit musical and dramaturgical tradition. He is named in the first chapter of the Natyashastra as one of Bharata's sons assigned to put the Natyaveda into practice, and is also mentioned in the thirty-sixth chapter of the same text, where it is stated that Kohala will treat in a supplementary work those topics in dramaturgy that Bharata's text has left unaddressed. Kohala is cited as an authority on music — particularly on the subject of tala, or rhythmic measure — by Dattila, by the Brihaddeshi of Matanga, by the Sangitamakaranda, by Parshvadeva in his Sangitasamayasara, and by Abhinavagupta in his Abhinavabharati commentary on the Natyashastra. A work ascribed to him called the Sangitameru is mentioned by Abhinavagupta, and two further works — the Talalakshana and the Kohalarahasya — are also attributed to him in the tradition, though the authenticity and preservation of these texts is uncertain. Kohala is regarded in the tradition as among the most important of the early post-Bharata writers on music and drama.
✦ The Name
The name Kohala does not receive etymological commentary within the primary texts that cite him. It functions as a proper name throughout the tradition. The honorific Kohalacharya — Kohala the teacher — is applied to him in some later sources, reflecting his status as a foundational authority in the lineage of performing arts scholarship. The compound name Kohalakavi appears in some manuscript traditions.
✦ Lineage and Relationship to Bharata
- Father (in the Natyashastra's account): Bharata Muni — the sage to whom the Natyashastra is attributed, who received the Natyaveda from Brahma, the creator deity, and transmitted it to his hundred sons. The scholarly commentary tradition notes that the sons named in the Natyashastra may represent actual authors or lineages of practitioners within the performing arts tradition rather than biological descendants of a single individual, and Kohala's listing among them is understood in this light.
- Association with Dattila: Kohala's opinion on tala is cited by Dattila in the Dattilam, making Dattila's text the earliest surviving external reference to Kohala's teaching. This cross-citation indicates that the two figures and their respective bodies of teaching were regarded as contemporaneous or closely related authorities within the early tradition of music scholarship.
✦ The Natyashastra's Reference to Kohala's Supplementary Treatise
The thirty-sixth chapter of the Natyashastra contains a statement that Kohala will address in a supplementary treatise those topics on dramaturgy that remain unfinished in Bharata's work. This passage, which takes the form of a forward reference or prophecy within the text, is significant for two reasons. First, it suggests that Kohala was regarded as sufficiently close in time to the Natyashastra's composition — or as sufficiently integrated into its intellectual tradition — to be named as the designated continuator of its project. Second, it implies the existence of a work by Kohala on dramaturgy that was known to the Natyashastra's compiler. No such complete supplementary treatise by Kohala survives in recoverable form, though fragments and citations preserved in later works allow some reconstruction of his views.
✦ Works Ascribed to Kohala
Three works are ascribed to Kohala in the tradition. The Sangitameru is mentioned by Abhinavagupta in his Abhinavabharati, establishing that a text of this name associated with Kohala was known by the tenth to eleventh century CE. The Talalakshana and the Kohalarahasya are also attributed to him in later sources. Whether these represent genuine survivals of his original teaching, compilations organised under his name by later authors, or works that merely reflect his doctrinal positions, cannot be determined from available evidence. Kohala's views on tala are also preserved in citations within the Dattilam, the Brihaddeshi, and Abhinavagupta's commentary, making these secondary citations a significant source of his surviving doctrine even where the primary attributed texts are not fully recoverable.
✦ Significance in the Tradition
Kohala occupies a position of considerable importance in the history of Indian musicology and dramaturgical theory. He is named alongside Bharata and Narada as one of the old masters by Sharngadeva in his Sangitaratnakara, a thirteenth-century compendium that became one of the most authoritative medieval summaries of the Indian musical tradition. This placement in a triad of foundational authorities — across a span of more than a thousand years of the tradition — reflects the sustained regard in which Kohala was held. His particular authority on tala, the domain of rhythmic organisation in music and dance, is consistent across all the sources that cite him.
✦ Questions of Date and Identity
The date of Kohala cannot be established with precision. The Natyashastra's own statement that Kohala will speak of the remaining topics in a supplementary work implies that the two figures were not widely separated in time. Given that the Natyashastra itself is dated by scholars to between approximately 200 BCE and 200 CE, Kohala is presumed to belong to roughly the same period. The earliest external reference to his teaching is in the Dattilam, which itself is dated to the same broad range. Whether Kohala was a single individual or a name under which a school of teaching was organised is a question that the available evidence does not permit to resolve.
✦ References
- Natyashastra of Bharata Muni, Chapter I, verse 26: Names Kohala as one of Bharata's hundred sons in the list of those assigned to propagate the Natyaveda.
- Natyashastra of Bharata Muni, Chapter XXXVI, verse 63: States that Kohala will address in a supplementary work those topics on dramaturgy not treated in Bharata's text; the primary source establishing Kohala as a designated continuator of the Natyashastra's project.
- Dattilam of Dattila: Cites Kohala's opinion on tala; the earliest surviving external reference to Kohala's teaching and a primary source for his doctrine on rhythmic measure.
- Matanga, Brihaddeshi (c. 6th–7th century CE): Refers to Kohala's views no fewer than five times in discussions of notes, tana, and jati; a major secondary source for reconstructing Kohala's musical doctrine.
- Abhinavagupta, Abhinavabharati (c. 10th–11th century CE): Cites Kohala at least twice in the chapters on music and mentions the Sangitameru as a work attributed to Kohala; the source through which the title of Kohala's major surviving attributed work is known.
- Sharngadeva, Sangitaratnakara (13th century CE): Names Kohala among the foundational old masters of the Indian musical tradition alongside Bharata and Narada.
- Padma Sugavanam, Kohala in the Sanskrit Textual Tradition (Shodhganga doctoral study): Modern scholarly study of Kohala's citations across the tradition; used for establishing the range and pattern of references to Kohala in primary and secondary sources.
- Manomohan Ghosh (trans.), The Natyashastra of Bharatamuni, Volume II (Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1961): Contains the introduction and notes identifying Kohala's role in the tradition and surveying the works attributed to him.