Talk:Scholars of Hindu Languages, Arts & Law:The Sixty-Four Hindu Arts (Kalāḥ)
By Vishal Agarwal
In the ancient Hindu society, there were 64 arts and skills that were considered important. These included sculpting, painting, music, cooking, and sports like wrestling. Ancient Ṛṣis and other scholars wrote books on these arts. Dozens of books are available today to understand these ancient Hindu arts, even though most of these books were lost with time. It is amazing how the ancient Hindu scholars studied so many subjects in a very detailed and scientific manner.
Cooking Some of the most ancient books on the art of cooking also came from the Hindus. For example, there is a book called the Pākadarpaṇa that was written by King Nala. In this book, food items and spices that were not known in ancient India are not mentioned at all. For example, the book does not mention tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and green pepper because these plants came from other parts of the world like the Americas.
There is a very interesting story from the life of Nala and his wife Queen Damayantī. Due to some misfortune, they were separated. By chance, she found a job in a royal palace, and Nala was appointed as the cook of the same royal kitchen. One day, Damayantī tasted some food from the royal kitchen and instantly recognized that these flavors could only be from her husband’s cooking. The story had a good ending, and the separated couple was re-united. Does this not show that Dads can cook too?
Music, Dance and Drama Hindus have dozens of beautiful dances that they perform on all occasions. Even in a country like Indonesia that has mostly become Muslim, most of the traditional dances are still performed using Hindu stories.
Perhaps the oldest book in the entire world that deals with dance and drama is the Nāṭyaśāstra of Bharatamuni. It is written in 6000 verses. It is believed that Bharatamuni carefully observed Bhagavān Śiva while He did the tāṇḍava dance and noted down the details before he wrote his book.
Ṛṣi Nārada too wrote a book on music that is used even today. Many musical instruments were invented by the Hindus. The Vīṇā, which is mentioned even in the Vedas, is regarded as the first stringed instrument in the world. Can you name some other stringed instruments that you have seen?
In Islam, music is considered a sin. Whereas in Hindu Dharma, we believe that spiritual music can bring us closer to Bhagavān. This is the reason why the Sāmaveda, which is one of the four Vedas, is sung using many different musical melodies. Today, there are almost 8000 melodies used for singing the Sāmaveda, but there were many times more in ancient times.