The Sangeet Natak Akademi (Devanāgarī: संगीत नाटक अकादेमी or, The National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the first national level academy of art set up by the Government of India. It was set up by the Indian education ministryin May 31, 1952 and became functional the following year, with the appointment of its first Chairman, Dr P.V. Rajamannar. The first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, inaugurated it on January 28, 1953 in a special function held in the Parliament House. DevanāgarÄ« (देवनागरी —, pronounced , in English pronounced (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1]) is an abugida writing system used to write, either along with other scripts, or exclusively, several North Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Nepali from Nepal and sometimes Kashmiri and Romani. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Government of India, officially referred to as the Union Government, and commonly as Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a federal union of 28 states and 7 union territories, collectively called Republic of India. ... May 31 is the 151st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (152nd in leap years), with 214 days remaining. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... Parliament House is the building in which a National (or State) Parliament sits. ...

The work

The academy functions as the apex body of the performing arts in the country in an effort to preserve and promote the vast cultural heritage of India expressed in the forms of music, dance and drama. It also works with, both, the governments and various art academies in different states and territories of the country.

• It establishes and maintains institutions and projects of national importance. Some of its prominent child institutions include
  • The National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 1959.
  • Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy, Imphal.
  • Kathak Kendra (National Institute of Kathak Dance), New Delhi in 1964
  • National Projects in the support of Kuttiyattam (the age-old Sanskrit theatre of Kerala)
• Subsidizing the work of institutions engaged in teaching, performing or promoting music, dance, or theatre
• Gives grants to aid research, documentation and publishing in the performing arts
• Organizes and subsidizes seminars and conferences of subject specialists
• Documents and records the performing arts for its audio-visual archive.
• Renders advice and assistance to the Government of India in the task of formulating and implementing policies and programmes in the field.
• The academy also carries a part of the responsibilities of the state for fostering cultural contacts between various regions within the country, as well as between India and the world.

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The facilities

The academy is also an important source of information and offers the following facilities

The audio-visual archive

The academy's audio-visual archive has several audio/video tapes, photographs and films. It is the largest archive of its kind in the country and is extensively drawn upon by the India for research on the performing arts.

The library

The academy maintains a reference library consisting of about 22,000 books in English, Hindi and some regional languages.

Books on several subjects including [Dance], Drama, Music, Theatre, Sociology, Folklore, Tribal Studies, Indian History and Culture, Indian Art, Religion and Epics, Mythology, Anthropology and Reference works such as Encylopedias, Dictionaries, Year Books, Bibliographies, Indexes and Newspaper clippings pertaining Academy Awards and eminent artistes in the field of performing arts, can be found here. There are many articles named Drama: Drama, the art form. ... Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves structured and audible sound, though definitions vary. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... Prehistory The prehistory of India goes back to the old Stone age (Palaeolithic). ... The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... A miniature, Kishengarh, Rajasthan The vast scope of the art of India intertwines with the cultural history, religions and philosophies which place art production and patronage in social and cultural contexts. ... The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a software environment used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large experiments. ... The word mythology (Greek: μυθολογία, from μυθος mythos, a story or legend, and λογος logos, an account or speech) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use supernatural events or characters to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. ... Human anatomical proportions. ... In general, a reference is something that refers or points to something else, or acts as a connection or a link between two things. ... For other uses of dictionary, see dictionary (disambiguation). ... A bibliography is an overview of (almost) all publications in some category: works of some author publications about some specific subject publications published in some specific country publications published in some specific period publications mentioned in, or relevant to, a particular work (a bibliography of this type, sometimes called a...

The library also maintains data files on awardees and fellows of the academy since its inception (1953) and along with those on other eminent personalities of the field.

Gallery of musical instruments

The academy also has a museum-cum-gallery of musical instruments in Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi. There are more than 200 musical instruments on display here.

Documentation Unit

It also has a documentation unit that collects and records works of masters in the field of music, dance and theatre on audio and video to help researchers. The academy also produces several in-house publications.

The Sangeet Natak Academy Awards

The academy awards are the highest national recognition given to practicing artistes. It carries a purse money is Rs. 50,000/-, a shawl and Tamrapatra (a brass plaque).

See also

• The official website of the Sangeet Natak Akademi
• Current events page on the website (slightly outdated)
• The Academy's Official List of Award winners.
• Sangeet Natak Akademi Award winners