[13] The word Shāstra (शास्त्र) means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise", and is generally used as a suffix in the Indian literature context, for knowledge in a defined area of practice.

[3][7] The Nāṭyaśāstra is traditionally alleged to be linked to a 36,000 verse Vedic composition called Adibharata, however there is no corroborating evidence that such a text ever existed.

[19] Scholars such as PV Kane state that some text was likely changed as well as added to the original between the 3rd to 8th century CE, thus creating some variant editions, and the mixture of poetic verses and prose in a few extant manuscripts of Natyashastra may be because of this.

[20][22] Bharat Gupt states that the text stylistically shows characteristics of a single compiler in the existing version, a view shared by Kapila Vatsyayan.

[29] The Natyashastra refers to drama performers as Śhailālinas, likely because they were so known at the time the text was written, a name derived from the legacy of the vedic sage Śilālin credited with Natasutras.

[33] The art schools of Shilalin and Krishashva, mentioned in both the Brahmanas and the Kalpasutras and Srautasutras,[30] may have been associated with the performance of vedic rituals, which involved storytelling with embedded ethical values.

The roots of the Natyashastra thus likely trace to the more ancient vedic traditions of integrating ritual recitation, dialogue and song in a dramatic representation of spiritual themes.

[36] The Vedic sacrifice (yajna) is presented as a kind of drama, with its actors, its dialogues, its portion to be set to music, its interludes, and its climaxes.

[9][55] The "rasa theory" of Natyashastra, states Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, presumes that bliss is intrinsic and innate in man, it exists in oneself, that manifests non-materially through spiritual and personally subjective means.

[55][57] In the process of emotionally engaging the individual in the audience, the text outlines the use of eight sentiments – erotic, comic, pathetic, terrible, furious, odious, heroic and marvellous.

[55][58][59] The Natyashastra defines drama in verse 6.10 as that which aesthetically arouses joy in the spectator, through the medium of actor's art of communication, that helps connect and transport the individual into a super sensual inner state of being.

[60] The Natya connects through abhinaya, that is applying body-speech-mind and scene, wherein asserts Natyashastra, the actors use two practices of dharmi (performance), in four styles and four regional variations, accompanied by song and music in a playhouse carefully designed to achieve siddhi (success in production).

[60] The verse details the eleven essential components of drama and dramatic production: The text discusses a variety of performance arts as well as the design of the stage.

[64] Drama, in this ancient Sanskrit text, is an art to engage every aspect of life, in order to glorify and gift a state of joyful consciousness.

[65] The text discusses the universal and inner principles of drama, that it asserts successfully affects and journeys the audience to a supersensual state of discovery and understanding.

[65] The text also states that the god Brahma combined the elements of acting from the four Vedas: "recitation from the Rigveda, music from the Samaveda, mimetic art from the Yajurveda, and sentiments from the Atharvaveda.

[67][68] According to Natyashastra, state Sally Banes and Andre Lepeck, drama is that art which accepts human beings are in different inner states when they arrive as audience, then through the art performed, it provides enjoyment to those wanting pleasure, solace to those in grief, calmness to those who are worried, energy to those who are brave, courage to those who are cowards, eroticism to those who want company, enjoyment to those who are rich, knowledge to those who are uneducated, wisdom to those who are educated.

[67][69] Drama represents the truths about life and worlds, through emotions and circumstances, to deliver entertainment, but more importantly ethos, questions, peace and happiness.

[84] According to Susan Schwartz, these sentiments and ideas of Natyashastra likely influenced the devotional songs and musical trends of the Bhakti movement that emerged in Hinduism during the second half of the 1st millennium CE.

[86][89] The Natyashastra is, states Emmie te Nijenhuis, the oldest surviving text that systematically treats "the theory and instruments of Indian music".

[8] Prior to the Natyashastra, the ancient Indian tradition classified musical instruments into four groups based on their acoustic principle (how they work, rather than the material they are made of).

[92] Chapter 33 asserts team performance, calling it kutapa (orchestra) which it states to have one male and one female singer with nine to eleven musical instruments accompanied by players.

[111][113] Acting is more than physical techniques or rote recitation, it is communication through emotions and expression of embedded meaning and levels of consciousness in the underlying text.

Thus, states Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, the guidelines in Natyashastra employ the ideas in Yoga school of Hindu philosophy, with concepts mirroring asanas, pranayama and dhyana, both for actor training and the expression of higher levels of consciousness.

[118][3][48] The Natyashastra and other ancient Hindu texts such as the Yajnavalkya Smriti assert that arts and music are spiritual, with the power to guide one to moksha, through empowering the concentration of mind for the liberation of the Self (soul, Atman).

[9][54] The playwright, the actors and the director (conductor) all aim to transport the spectator to an aesthetic experience within him to eternal universals, to emancipate him from the mundane to creative freedom within.

[55][119] The function of drama and the art of theatre, as envisioned in Natyashastra states Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, is to restore the human potential, man's journey of "delight at a higher level of consciousness", and a life that is enlightened.

[122] Abhinavagupta asserts that Natyashastra and performance arts appeal to man because of "the experience of wonder", wherein the observer is pulled in, immersed, engaged, absorbed, and satisfied.

[125] His discussion of pre-10th century scholarly views and list of references suggest that there once existed secondary literature on the Natyashastra by at least Kirtidhara, Bhaskara, Lollata, Sankuka, Nayaka, Harsa and Tauta.

The 108 dance forms described in the Natyashastra, for example, have inspired Shiva sculptures of the 1st-millennium BCE, particularly the Tandava style which fuses many of these into a composite image found at the Nataraja temple of Chidambaram.