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The first formal expression of Sanskrit aesthetics known to us is the Natyasastra (Natya-Shastra), a wide-ranging work which deals with drama, dance, and music as well as literary criticism. Though it is likely that the text contains much that is derived from more ancient tradition, the present redaction is dated at about the sixth century C.E.13 The Natyasastra gives credit for its authorship to the sage Bharata, who in the verses of the text expounds the art which he himself is said to have received from the god Brahma. The rich and often highly technical literature of Sanskrit aesthetics, developed by such writers as Dandin, Abhinavagupta, and Visvanatha, was based upon Bharata's authoritative exposition. The doctrine of rasa, which became the central focus of poetic theory, was first enunciated in its sixth chapter. A rasa is an emotion, identified as the primary mood of a piece of poetry or a drama, that has been developed to a heightened, idealized state in a process of interaction between a well-executed literary work and a sympathetic connoisseur (rasika). As such, it may be enjoyed for its own intrinsic aesthetic pleasure. Difficult to translate, the term is usually rendered as "sentiment. "14 Etymologically, rasa refers to the act of tasting, and hence has the root-meaning "taste" or "flavor. "15 It is used, for

206 example, to refer to the pleasurable savor of food or drink. In its technical aesthetic usage, however, it suggests, not the enjoyment of pleasures of the mundane world, but rather the blissful contemplation of the impersonal aesthetic emotions suggested by a work of art. The essence of rasa, 16 it is said, is wonder or astonishment (camatkara), and the writing of the Sanskrit rhetoricians represents, in large part, an inquiry into the mechanics and preconditions of this highly valued experience, which is held to be the true aim of all artistic expression. 鈥� In the classical tradition of poetics, eight rasas are recognized: srigara ("erotic love"), hasya ("comedy"), karuna ("compassion"), raudra ("fury"), vira ("heroism"), bhayanaka ("terror"), bibhatsa ("revulsion"), and adbhuta ("astonishment") 17 The basis or, one might say, the "raw material" of these rasas is bhava, "emotion. " 18 Eight "permanent emotions" (sthayibhavas), each associated with its respective rasa, are recognized: rati ("love"), hasa ("mirth"), soka ("grief"), krodha ("anger"), utsaha ("energy"), bhaya ("fear"), jugupsa ("disgust"), and vismaya ("wonder").19 Since other emotions are not acknowledged as possible sources of sentiment, and each sentiment must have a distinct emotional basis, the number of sthayibhavas and the number of rasas are both limited to eight. The goal of the artist's craft is to facilitate the transformation of

207 the permanent emotion into its corresponding aesthetic sentiment. Two explanations are given of the significance of the adjective "permanent" (sthayin), sometimes translated as "dominant," in the term "permanent emotion." The first and possibly original interpretation is that the particular bhava so qualified is the principal or prevailing emotion of the literary piece. As such, according to the theorists, it should not be overshadowed by any other moods that might be introduced into the composition. Whether complementary or seemingly opposed, the secondary emotions must be used only in an interplay carefully orchestrated so as to strengthen the primary mood. The other explanation builds on the idea that the sthayibhava is constantly present in the mind of the sensitive spectator in the form of a vasana or samskara, "latent impression." In this respect it is, once acquired, quite literally a permanent component of the psyche, though its conscious experience may be occasional and transitory. 20 The notion of sthayibhava as samskara suggests another important aspect of the rasa theory, namely, the idea that whether or not an individual experiences rasa when encountering a given literary work does not depend solely on the skill and insight of the artist. Those desirous of appreciating the work must have the latent impressions of the appropriate emotion present in their minds in subtle

208 form; otherwise, they will never be able to savor the sentiment portrayed. If one has not experienced love, for example, and acquired thereby the appropriate sthayibhava, one will not be able to fully enjoy even an inspired presentation of that emotion. For this reason, the theoreticians of rasa universally declare: "Only the connoisseurs of the rasa are capable of relishing the "21 rasa. The latent impressions which constitute the sthayibhava are derived from empirical experience, either in this life or in a previous birth. 22 Such experience is the mundane (laukika) cause of emotion. When a work of poetry or drama is being enjoyed, the scene, persons, dialogue, actions, and other depicted factors serve as "supramundane" (alaukika) causes which arouse the latent permanent emotion and develop it into a rasa. Though the elements of the art form that thus serve to arouse the latent impression of the sthayibhava may resemble the emotion's original, empirical causes, there is an important difference. The literary causes are generalized, that is to say, divorced from all personal association and historical particularity. Therefore they are capable of producing--not merely heightened emotion of the ordinary (i.e., personal) kind-but rasa, a universal, idealized sentiment. Though the rasa is enjoyed by particular individuals, they neither identify

209 it as their own private emotion nor think that they are the only ones capable of enjoying it. The sentiment has become impersonal and, like its literary causes, supramundane (alaukika). The process of aesthetic generalization (sadharanikarana) lifts the connoisseur out of his or her individual moods, limited as they are by ego and its attendant anxieties, to a state of self-transcendence in which the rasa may be contemplated calmly and happily. This explains why commonplace emotions such as fear and grief, usually painful when encountered in a personal way, are not so when contemplated in idealized form as aesthetic sentiments. Ordinary emotions are either pleasurable or painful, but the experience of rasa, of no matter what variety, is one of pure joy, beyond the dualities of feeling that trouble the heart in everyday life.23 The aesthetic experience thus involves a selfforgetfulness and a bliss that is closely parallel to--and, in a sense, an anticipation of--the blissful transcendence found in spiritual liberation or knowledge of Brahman. Indeed, rasa theorists are fond of comparing rasasvada ("the relishing of sentiment") with brahmasvada ("the experience of Brahman"). 24 In Visvanatha's Sahityadarpana, for example, we find the following description of rasa: "It is pure, indivisible, self-manifested, compounded equally of

210 joy and consciousness, free of admixture with any other perception, the very twin brother of mystic experience (Brahmasvadana sahodarah), and the very life of it is "25 supersensuous (lokottara) wonder. The aesthetic and the spiritual experience, however, differ in several important respects. These have been well stated by S. K. De: It [the experience of rasa] is like the state of the soul serenely contemplating the absolute (brahmasvada), with the difference that the state of detachment is not so complete or permanent. The artistic attitude is thus recognized as entirely spiritual. But the idealized artistic creation affords only a temporary release from the ills of life by enabling one to transcend, for the moment, personal relations or practical interest; it restores equanimity of mind (visranti) by leading one away, for the time being, from the natural world and offering another in its place. It is an attitude of pure bliss, detached spiritual contemplation (cidsvabhava samvid), similar to but not the same as the state of true enlightenment which comes only to the knower who, no longer on the empirical plane transcends permanently the sphere of pleasure and pain. 26