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Rasa (aesthetics)

Aesthetic concept in Indian arts related to emotions and feelings

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Rasas are created by one's bhava (one's state of mind).

The rasa theory has a dedicated section (Chapter 6) in the Sanskrit text Natya Shastra, an ancient text on the arts from the 1st millennium BCE, attributed to Bharata Muni. However, its most complete exposition in drama, songs and other performance arts is found in the works of the Kashmiri Shaivite philosopher Abhinavagupta (c. 1000 CE), demonstrating the persistence of a long-standing aesthetic tradition of ancient India. According to the Rasa theory of the Natya Shastra, entertainment is a desired effect of performance arts but not the primary goal. Instead, the primary goal is to transport the audience into another, parallel reality full of wonder and bliss, where they experience the essence of their consciousness and reflect on spiritual and moral questions.

Although the concept of rasa is fundamental to many forms of Indian arts, including dance, music, theatre, painting, sculpture, and literature, the interpretation and implementation of a particular rasa differ between different styles and schools. The Indian rasa theory is also found in the Hindu arts and Ramayana musical productions of Bali and Java (Indonesia), but with regional creative evolution.

Role in art

According to the Natya Shastra, a rasa is a synthetic phenomenon and the goal of any creative performance art, oratory, painting or literature. Wallace Dace translates the ancient text's explanation of rasa as "a relish that of an elemental human emotion like love, pity, fear, heroism or mystery, which forms the dominant note of a dramatic piece; this dominant emotion, as tasted by the audience, has a different quality from that which is aroused in real life; rasa may be said to be the original emotion transfigured by aesthetic delight."

Rasas are created through various means, and the ancient Indian texts discuss many such means. For example, one way is through the actors' gestures and facial expressions. Expressing Rasa in classical Indian dance form is referred to as Rasa-abhinaya. Some modern commentators have emphasized the psychophysical dimension of rasa. For example, the French philosopher Martine Chifflot argues that classical Indian conceptions of theatrical and musical art presuppose that rasa and raga can "have a very real influence on psychophysical and even spiritual states", an efficacy that she considers largely diminished in contemporary Western theatre. This interpretation has been compared to the ideas of Antonin Artaud, who, drawing in part on Balinese theatre, called for a form of performance capable of exerting a similarly transformative effect on the spectator's organism.

The theory of rasas forms the aesthetic underpinning of all Indian classical dance and theatre, such as Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri, Kudiyattam, and others.

In Indian classical music, each raga is an inspired creation for a specific mood, where the musician or ensemble creates the rasa in the listener. However, predominantly all ragas and musical performances in Hindu traditions aim at one of six rasas, wherein music is a form of creating "love, compassion, peace, heroism, comic or the feeling of wonder" within the listener. Anger, disgust, fear and such emotions are not the subject of rasa, but they are part of Indian theories on dramatic arts. Of the six rasa that are aimed at in Indian music, each has sub-categories. For example, love rasa in Hindu literature has many musical flavors, such as erotic love (sringar) and spiritual devotional love (bhakti).

In the theories of Indian poetics, ancient scholars state that a literary composition's effectiveness depends on what is stated and how it is stated (words, grammar, rhythm), which creates its rasa. Among the most celebrated of these theories of poetics and literary works are the 5th-century Bhartrhari and the 9th-century Anandavardhana. However, the theoretical tradition of integrating rasa into literary works likely returns to a more ancient period. This is generally discussed under the Indian concepts of Dhvani, Sabdatattva and Sphota.

For example, the literary work Bhagavata Purana deploys rasa, presenting the bhakti of Krishna in aesthetic terms. The rasa it presents is an emotional relish, a mood called Sthayi Bhava. This development towards a relishable state is created through emotional conditions which are called Vibhavas, Anubhavas and Sanchari Bhavas. Vibhavas means Karana or cause: it is of two kinds - Alambana, the personal or human object and substratum, and Uddipana, the excitants. Anubhava, as the name signifies, means the ensuants or effects of emotion. Sanchari Bhavas are those passing feelings which are ancillary to a mood. Later scholars added more emotional states, such as the Sattvika Bhavas.

In the Indian theories on sculpture and architecture (Shilpa Shastras), the rasa theories, in part, drive the forms, shapes, arrangements and expressions of images and structures. Some Indian texts on sculpture suggest nine rasas.

Poetry

According to rasa theory, the immediate value of poetry for the reader is an enjoyable experience. The earliest evidence of rasa is in Sanskrit poetry, specifically in the Ramayana of Valmiki where Valmiki experiences shoka (grief). While Valmiki was responding to a real experience of sorrow, later thinkers "came to understand that rasa cannot be a response to the real world, the world outside the theater."

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