Daśarūpa

Dasharupakam (Daśarūpakam) is a treatise on the structure and rules (Lakshana or Prakarana grantha) for popular theatre and drama presentations of the time, written by Dhananjaya in the 10th century. He was the court poet of Paramara king Munja. Several techniques and methods presented in the Natya Shastra and Dasharupakam are very much in use in today's theatre. The author starts with salutations, among others, to Bharata the author of Natya Shastra, whose detailed exposition he bases his work on. He however in his own words says that he has attempted to present the same in an ordered and concise fashion in his book, so it can be consumed by common folk. Rupakam means one that has a form and can be seen - essentially referring to theatre and drama performances. He uses the same word used by Bharata to refer to his work, and defines ten types of theatre performances - DashaRupakam - Ten Forms of Plays.

In the course of describing the forms of the plays, the author discusses, the subjects of Vastu(Plot), Netaa(the protagonist), and the Rasa (the emotive aspect) - which are essential to a play.