On The Power of Music Over Space

A reflection on the power of music over space this Sunday:

We all know that a single note on a violin, played with complete presence, moves any heart and infuses any space with beauty. Could it be that music also possesses the power to protect the spaces it inhabits? The Nāṭya Śāstra, attributed to Bharata, states emphatically:

In places where instrumental music and dramatic performance occur, or where song and instrumental music are present, there will surely never be any kind of inauspicious happening. (1)

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(1) Nāṭya Śāstra, Chapter 36, Verse 28. Translation by Manomohan Ghosh M.A., Ph.D. in Muni, Bharat. Natya Shastra (with English Translations). Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1951. Emphasis added.