Assignment
Name : Latta J. Baraiya
Roll no : 11
Paper : Literary Theory & Criticism and Indian Aesthetics
Semester : M.A sem 2
Topic : Rasa Theory
Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English MKBU
Introduction
Aesthetics is concerned with the concept of beauty. Hence it is known as Saundarya Shastra (સોંદર્યશાસ્ત્ર) or Lavanya Shastra (લાવણ્યશાસ્ત્ર). Rasanubhava or disinterested contemplation of beauty is the basic characteristic of all aesthetic experiences. The real perception of beauty is what distinguishes an aesthetic experience from all other experiences. Poetics is one of the three main branches of knowledge including grammar and philosophy in which Indian scholarship has presented valuable and relevant findings during ancient and medieval periods. Indian Poetics, especially classical Sanskrit poetics, holds an old and rich tradition starting from Bharta"s Natyashatra and extending up to Panditraja Jagan Natha"s Rasgangadhara. It continued for thousands of years, presenting various logical, philosophical, linguistic and semantic approaches to study the literary texts.
Bharata says,
“Nahi rasardṛte kascidārta pravartate”
(Without rasa no meaning gets
established).
In this world, human life is rare. In human life, education is rare. Among the educated, poeticity is rare. Among poets, power (talent/genius) is rare. Even if one is talented, scholarship (vyutpatti) will be rare. Wisdom is even rarer. Wisdom is nothing but Tyajagrahya Vivechana in poetry. In other words, poeticity is unavailable for those who haven’t mastered all the sastras.
Indian poetics likens the poet to a creator and god. As the saying goes,
“Apare kavyasamsare
kavireva prajapati/ Yathasamay rocate viswam tatedam parivartate”
(“In the infinite world of poetry the poet is the only creator. He transforms the world as it pleases him”). A girl may flaunt many ornaments but if she is immodest she won’t be attractive. Likewise, even if a poem has numerous figures of speech, if it lacks the sweetness of suggestion, it won’t ravish the heart.
The three basic principles that underlie all aesthetic formulations are:
1. Rasa theory is temporal. It lasts only so long as we are in the world of art.
2. Aesthetic experiences are unselfish, they are not tied to the ego. A man becomes totally unconscious of his private self when he is in the world of art.
3. No emotion can be called rasa unless it is artistically excited. Thus when a young man falls in love and his entire frame is shaken, we cannot speak of him as being the subject of shringara rasa. Rasa is strictly an emotion excited by artistic circumstances.
•Bharata’s Rasasutra :-
The theory of Rasa is the cornerstone of Indian aesthetics. The Sanskrit word rasa has several meanings including sap, juice, essence, water, flavour, taste, relish and sentiments. The Upanishads have used it to mean Brahman. The term rasa refers to the creative experiences of the poet, the aesthetic relish of the reader and the complex of emotional states present in the poem. In poetics, the term covers the subjective experiences of the poet and the reader and the objective structural focus of the poem.
Rajshekhar said that the founder of Rasa Sampraday was Nandikeshwar. But there is no Grantha found of him. The first scientific philosophy of interest is found in Bharata's Natyashastra.
The principle of rasa is the most ancient and eternal principle in Indian poetry. Natyaras were founded by Adya Kavyacharya and Natyacharya Bharatmuni. Since then no principal has been able to disregard Rasa Shastra and Rasa Vichar. Rasa resides in one form or another. Other theories are often formed with interest at the center. Bharat's successors Acharya Bhatt, Lolat, Shankuk, Bhattanayak and Abhinav Gupta wrote commentaries and commentaries on Bharat's Rasa Sutra. As a result, various opinions arose. Phonological principles like Anandvardhan also called the rasa sound excellent and discussed it in the context of Rasa's poetry. Alankar shastris like Bhamah, Dandi, Rudrat etc. also accepted rasa through rasa Attire. The qualities of a formalist dwarf are also rasasadhaka. The ironic Kuntak also shows the way to the doctrine. Abhinav Gupta's Rasavichar is the pinnacle of Indian poetry.
Rasa is also considered to be the "soul of the poet" in the metaphor of "poet" in Indian poetry.
Defining drama, Bharatamuni says,
“Natya is trailokyanukaraṇa” (Drama is an imitation of
the three worlds).
It is an imitation (anukarana) and narration (anukirtana) of the states and actions of the world. The basic texts that deal with rasa theory are Bharata’s Natyasastra and Abhinavagupta’s commentary on it titled Abhinavabharati. Bharata’s formula for the evocation of rasa can be stated thus:
Vibhavanubhava vyabhicari saṃyogad rasaniapattih
(Vibhava + Anubhava + Vyabhicaribhava + Sthayibhava = Rasa)
Rasa is realised by the fusion of vibhava, anubhava and vyabhicaribhava with sthayibhava, the permanent emotion (which does not find a place in the cryptic definition).
•Bhava:-
Drama represents all the bhavas of the world. Bhava means things existing including mental states. In poetics, bhavas refer to those elements of poetry which make rasa pervade the heart of the reader. Bhāvas bring into being (bhavayanti) rasa which is the end/meaning of a poem (Kavyartha). Bhava also refers to the creative experience of the poet (kaverantargatam
bhavam).
Bharata names 49 bhavas as capable of manifesting rasa: 8 sthayi bhavas, 33 vyabhicaribhavas and 8 sattvika bhavas. This list includes sleep, dream and death which cannot be considered as emotional states. However, we cannot deny the intimate relationship these states have with emotions.
•Vibhava:-
Vibhavas are the characters and situations in a play that cause the emergence of rasa, that is, they are the objective conditions producing an emotion. Vibhavas are of two types:
1. Alambana Vibhavas
2. Uddipana Vibhavas
Alambana vibhavas refer to a person or persons with reference to whom rasa gets manifested. Uddipana vibhavas are the excitants, the circumstances that excite the emotion. A young man may feel attracted towards a girl if the circumstances are cooperating with it. It is highly likely that a young man may fall in love with a woman of young age if they are thrown alone, there is beautiful scenery before them, the moon peeping through the clouds, the fragrant breeze blowing, there is a slight drizzle, the birds twittering and the like. Any one of such circumstances may be regarded as an uddipana vibhava and the man and the woman are Alambana vibhavas to each other.
Vibhavas may be likened to what TS Eliot calls
“the objective correlative”.
Eliot defines objective correlative as a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula for the evocation of a particular emotion.
•Anubhava:-
Anubhavas are those effects which are felt by the characters when they are under the influence of an emotion. These are the bodily expressions by means of which an emotion is expressed. Thus the arch glances of a lady and her inviting smile may be regarded as anubhavas. At times anubhavas are voluntary deliberate actions. Sometimes these could be purely involuntary like blushing, trembling, sweating etc. Such involuntary actions are known as Sattvika Bhavas.
•Vyabhicaribhava:-
These are the transitory moods depending on and reinforcing the sthayibhava. If the sthayibhava is considered to be the king, the vyabhicaribhavas are its servants. Or, if the sthayibhava can be considered as a chaste wife (pativrata), then the vyabhicaribhava is a prostitute. Vividhamabhimukhyena rasesu caranti: iti vyabhicarinah (That which moves towards rasa in diverse ways is vyabhichari). They do not attain the intensity of emotions, nor do they last long. They do not even have an independent status. They rise and subside with the corresponding sthayibhava. They are fragile, dependent and temporary.
However, the sthayibhavas cannot be expressed in poetry without the help of these vyabhicaribhavas. A woman in love anxiously waiting for her lover at the rendezvous may feel disappointed (vishada) that he is not coming, may be anxious (chinta) that something might have happened to him, may be jealous (asuya) that he may have been courted by another woman, may feel delight (harsa) in remembering the sweet words he whispered into her ears and so on. Each one of these transitory moods may be considered as the vyabhicaribhava reinforcing rati (love).
•Sthayibhava:-
Sthayibhavas are permanent emotions that lie embedded in the human organism. They are sthayi because (i) they remain embedded in the human system forever and (ii) they unify and dominate an entire work of art (Shanta is the angirasa of Mahabharata; Karuna that of Ramayana). Bharata speaks of eight sthayibhavas. A ninth one (Nirveda) was added by later commentators on Natyasastra. The nine rasas and their corresponding sthayibhavas are listed below:
The sthayibhavas are of the nature of vasanas or samskaras. Every single action that we perform not just produces the intended result, but also establishes in us a habit favourable to the repetition of the same deed in the future (M Hiriyanna). These habits are termed samskaras. Vasanas on the other hand, are innate samskāras not acquired in this life. In other words, vasanas refer to the samskaras of the past lives which mostly lie dormant in the mind.
