Rasa (art)
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Senses delight all and have delighted always, but Indian theorists were perhaps the earliest to perceive the delight of senses as the essence of being - a phenomenon of mind sublimating spiritually.
[edit] Questions Confronting Early Theorists
It was quite early - centuries before the Common Era began, that the Indian mind addressed issues: What a poem, drama, sculpture, or a painting sought to reveal into its medium, man's intellect or his emotions? Why does a poet compose a lore which does not narrate his love? Does it, or why does it delight him? Does a person enacting a character in a dramatic performance enter into the 'bhava-jagat', emotional world, of that character whom he is enacting? Why does a spectator enjoy seeing it? And, How does this all affect the spectator - the end-person involved in the entire business?
[edit] Bhava-jagat, the Theme of Arts
According to Indian aesthetics, man's 'bhava-jagat' emerged through poetry, drama, sculpture, and painting. The spectator - 'rasika', as he is called -witnesses a dramatic performance for the enjoyment of 'rasa', the word used to describe the extract or substance of an emotion created by art. This word is derived from the Sanskrit word meaning living liquids like juice or sap. It is the core of Indian aesthetic thought.
[edit] Evolution of the Term Rasa
The term 'Rasa', literally meaning living liquids like juice or sap, appears in the Rig-veda. In various Upanishads - Taittiriya, Kaushitaki, and Isha, 'rasa' also refers to essence, flavor, or something with great emotional affect. The Taittiriya Upanishada perceives 'rasa' as essence, something which is beyond senses. The Kaushitaki sees it as the 'flavor' of hymn or 'mantra', called brahman in this text; the term 'Brahman', which subsequently denoted commentaries on the Vedic verses, and later, one of the four divisions of Indian society and a religious culture, was used in the Vedas to mean a 'mantra' in verse form. Vedic religion|Vedic 'Mantras' or hymns are believed to be the finest kind of poetry capable of delighting aesthetically. Isha adds that rasa is something that appeals to and moves the mind. Thus, 'Rasa', as a living 'juice', has material status, but relating to song or hymn (brahman), it is an abstract or aesthetic realization of the mind that we find pleasing.
[edit] Emergence of Bharat: Before and After Him
It was, however, Sage Bharat, who in his Nātyaśāstra dealt with the subject - 'Rasa', at fuller length. Possessed of a deep psychological insight, Bharat actually investigated man's entire psyche and discovered various emotions and sentiments, which it comprised. He also elaborated how an emotion, when represented into a medium, transpired 'Rasa', and delighted thereby spectator's mind and effected sublimation. He considered 'Rasa', its sole instrument, though strangely did not attempt at defining it. Questions such as: 'What is Rasa?' or 'Why does it delight?' are answered simply as: 'because it can be savoured'. Obviously, he only defined its role but not its being; perhaps because, its abstractness could not be contained in words - form.
Bharat's period varies from the second century B. C. to second century A. D., but he alludes to some earlier scholars, which suggests that during the period after the Upanishads to Bharat, the subject was in active discourse, though nothing of it now exist. The theory appears to have remained in focus in post-Bharat period also but it is only from ninth century onward that any material becomes available. Most of the 'Acharyas' - Bhatta Lollat, Dandin, Shankuk, Bhattanayak, Anandavardhan, Abhinavagupta, Bhojaraj, Mammat, Ramachandra Gunachandra, Shardatanay, Vishvanath, Rupagoswami, and others, who further elaborated Bharat's theory emerged during the period from the ninth to the fourteenth century. Later, in contemporary aesthetics, the theory was revived with greater thrust and its relevance was universally acknowledged.
[edit] Rasa-Theory in Contemporary Contexts
Contemporary studies, exploring human mind, have more minutely analyzed it, but they have presented broadly only a greater magnification of the Bharat's concept of 'bhava-jagat'. Love, sex, eroticism, or whatever, modern sciences find so significant for life, this ancient theory of 'Rasa' found as the sweetest and perceived it as the foremost of all emotions. Gods, ascetics and even beasts are its slaves. Bharat consecrated 'Shringara'- love, as the apex of all 'Rasas', as if he was pre-determining the course of Indian arts - painting and sculpture, which later discovered their relevance and prime thrust mainly in love. If anything, Bharat said, was 'sacred, pure, placid and worthy for eye', it would be some aspect of 'Shringara'.
Art aesthetics emerged in the Western world around the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. It was more as an aspect of concurrent philosophical investigations, which the known metaphysicians of those days explored. Interestingly, all major theories - Empiricism, Emotionalism, and Expressionism, contended that experience is always sense-based. They all emphasized on sense-perception, exploring and expressing emotions, their universalisation, appealing to viewer's senses, and delighting thereby. They did not specifically classify human emotions, but identified each of love, compassion, quiescence, and the like as distinct emotions. In these dimensions of the Western art aesthetics, there loudly resonates the theory of 'Rasa', which Bharat propounded two millenniums ago.
[edit] Bharat's Kridaniyakam
Formally, Bharat's treatise restricted to dramatics, but in effect, it encompassed all arts which were the subject of the eye and the ear. He used the term 'Kridaniyakam' for the drama but it as adequately defined other arts. As the eleventh verse of the first chapter of his Natyashashtra has it, Maha Indra, the king of 'devas' - gods, along with a group of 'devas', went to Brahma, the Creator, and prayed to him to create for their recreation a 'Kridaniyakam'. Then Brahma created for their recreation the art of stage - drama. Under the definition of Bharat, Kridaniyakam was an act of body - a performance on stage, sculpting a stone, making a painting, or writing a verse, which excited the senses of viewer, reader or listener and recreated him thereby.
[edit] Rasa: Arts' Obligation
Bharat was very precise in his perception. To him, what moved emotions, was different from what provided useful information. 'Mere narration' or 'bare utility' weren't art. In his perception, that which afforded useful information, or created utility, could be arts of secondary type - something like crafts of contemporary times. Bharat averred that arts were arts only when they excited the senses and aroused emotions, and created 'Rasa', in which the mind perpetually rejoiced. He prescribed ten conditions of good writing - 'gunas' as he called them; ten faults - 'doshas', a good writing should avoid; and, thirty-six characters of a literary writing. Bharat's perception was thus broad as well as minute and analytical.
As Bharat had it, a subject's instinctive nature comprising all sentiments and emotions - inherent and inborn, as well as concurrent and passing, alone could be the theme of arts. The former - inherent and inborn, he named, 'sthayi-bhavas'; and latter - concurrent and passing, 'sanchari-bhavas'. The two sets of emotions conjointly comprised man's emotional world.
[edit] Sadharanikarana - Universalising an Emotion
Bharat and succeeding Acharyas - scholars, explained how arts universalized an emotion and made it an instrument of universal appeal. They asserted that an actor, while seeking to reveal the emotion of his subject, would himself become such emotion's courier; and, a powerfully revealed emotion would drag the spectator also into its periphery. Thus, the subject's emotion, reaching the spectator through the actor, becomes the emotion of all; it thus gets universalized. This universality of an emotion is the essence of arts, as individuality might interest a few, but an emotion, when universalized, becomes everyone's delight. Indian aestheticians perceive this transfusion of emotion as its 'sadharanikarana'.
[edit] World of Emotions - Sthayi and Sanchari-bhavas
Bharat's theory explores and scientifically classifies human mind, or psyche, at least, its basic inherent instinctive nature, comprising emotions and sentiments. Bharat identified this psyche as man's 'bhava-jagat', his world of emotions. Bharat perceived it as consisting of eight 'sthayi-bhavas' - inherent emotions or sentiments, thirty-three 'sanchari-bhavas' - temporary emotional bearings, and a number of 'vibhavas' and 'anubhavas' - emotions subordinate to 'sthayi-bhavas'.
Bharat enumerated these 'sthayi-bhavas' as 'Rati', 'Hasa', 'Shoka', 'Krodha', 'Utsaha', 'Bhaya', 'Jugupsa', and 'Vismaya'. These eight 'sthayi-bhavas' inspired eight corresponding 'Rasas'. Accordingly, 'Rati' is the root of 'Shringara'- love or amour; 'Hasa', of 'Hasya'- humour or comic sentiment; 'Shoka', of 'Karuna' - pathos and compassion; 'Krodha', of 'Raudra' - fury, wrath or anger; 'Utsaha', of 'Vira'- valor or heroic sentiment; 'Bhaya', of 'Bhayanaka'- fear, fearful, or that which strikes terror; 'Jugupsa', of 'Vibhatsa'- loathsome, loathing, horrible, or odious; and, 'Vismaya', of Abdhuta - dismay, amazement or marvellousness.
Later scholars added another rasa to create the 'Nava Rasa' ('Nine Emotions'), as they are commonly known today. This ninth rasa is 'Shanta' - peace or calm.
In more recent times, various figures have added a tenth rasa. In South India, sometimes "lajja", or shyness is added. One particularly developed argument for the tenth rasa starts with Rabindranath Tagore, who added 'Baalras', or a rasa related to the innocence and simplicity of children. A few years later, Sukumar Ray, in his preface to Abol Tabol (1923), refined this idea, arguing for the existence of "kheyaal rawsh" or the rasa of whimsy. "Kheyaal", a Bengali word, refers in particular to a certain humorous lightness and absurdity, in addition to a state of deep thought. This combination Ray found paricularly descriptive of his own literary nonsense writing, and it gave authenticity and solid grounding in Indian aesthetic theory to this genre that had not received much attention or respect in Indian literary history.
[edit] Emotional World of Arts
The emotional world of arts is wider, as besides the emotions that the classical tradition has identified, arts introduce a number of sentimental dispositions, emotional situations and feelings, which the changing times, during these two thousand years, have infused into human mind, and are now man's permanent nature. Visual arts have added further thrust and fresh significance to the earlier emotions also, and have so much diversified some of them that they have now an absolutely different face.
In Bharat's days, and till quite late, theology had two faces - rhetoric and ritual. It was inconceivable that a devotee would dance around the deity, or that, like a love-lorn maiden, the individual self pined to unite with the Supreme Self. With the emergence of the Vaishnava Bhakti cult and the Sufism, there emerged these new faces of 'Shringara' or love. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, overwhelmed by his love for Krishna, begins dancing and oozes from the eyes of the enrapt saint an ocean of tears.
This level of sublimation of a 'bhava-jagat', though a love-like emotion, may not be defined as love. It could be at the most ecstasy - the optimum sublimation of a 'bhava'. Devotion and service, a 'bhava' beyond 'bhava', the former initiated with the Bhagavata cult and the latter, with the Pushtimarga of Vallabhacharya, are two other faces of 'Rati' or 'Shringara'.
[edit] Sringāra or Love
Love is the most celebrated theme of visual arts. They have widely portrayed various aspects of 'Sringāra (Shringara)'- 'sanyoga' or 'sambhoga', love in union; and 'vipralambha'or 'viyoga', love in separation.
Besides love's classical forms, arts discovered its many other aspects - tender and tough : a gentle touch; mere proximity of the loved one; the blissful contentment; a violent kiss, or wild embrace; or, union of toughened parts. It is only rarely that someone is satisfied with any one stage of love, as is Rupamati, when after days of riding and parching heat, she reposes upon her loving lord Baz Bahadur's thigh and is absolutely contented. Both Baz Bahadur and Rupamati would spend many lives with this blissful moment.
Otherwise, flesh is always greedy. After a touch it is tempted to get more - at least a hand being allowed to descend down the breasts. Proximity would lead to persuasion, and howsoever hesitant the other one is, the bower or the grove of deep dense trees would witness the divine drama of two frames uniting into one in inseparable knot. Bathing, dressing up, bejeweling and adorning are popular aspects of 'Sanyoga Shringara'.
Separation from the loved one bites not only human beings but also the divines. After Ravana has abducted Sita from Panchavati, Rama turns almost insane. He asks deer, birds and even hills, if they saw Sita anywhere. The mundane level of separated love is as painful. Massaging, cold sponging, fanning, applying sandal paste and paste of herbs, nothing relieves a lovesick. Some Ragini paintings are only depictions of love in separation. Separation, when forced upon by death or otherwise irreparably, breeds desperation. After Punnu's brother takes him away forcibly, the lamenting Sassi tends to end her life. Love provides meaning to life and reason to live, but when someone, as Majnun, finds love beyond reach, the very life becomes a meaningless burden.
In arts, love reveals in many other ways : love for one's land; for one's child; love beyond human domain, and the like. Nand, Krishna's foster father, after he is convinced that Gokul is not safe for Krishna, decides to shift to Vrindavana. Inhabitants of Gokul leave with him but not without pain of leaving their land. Yashoda's love, and sometimes fake anger, for Krishna, her foster child, is the theme of many paintings and sculptures. They are unique in their depiction of motherly love. Caressing one's pets, or even unrelated animals, is the love across barriers and is a popular theme of arts.
[edit] Other Bhavas
'Hasya' or humour, created using either a situation or a behavior-mode, easily reveals in dialogues and gestures during a play but a difficult theme for a sculpture or painting. There are, however, some excellent examples of 'Hasya' in these arts also. Besides caricatures and 'bhangeris'-type characters, myths are also used for depicting humour. Shiva is camping with Parvati under a tree. A serpent, like a loincloth, is covering his private parts. Hearing of him, Vishnu, along with Garuna, his vehicle, comes to pay him homage. The snake, as soon as it sees the bird Garuda, abandons Shiva leaving him nude and flees into an anthill. It is humour by situation. Deliberate tricks and sarcasm, usually in Krishna-related themes, are also used in paintings for creating humour.
Karuna - pathos, compassion, and its related 'bhavas', 'shoka' and 'santapa'- grief and remorse, usually figure in visual arts. Most of the popular romances - Laila-Majnun, Sohani-Mahiwal, and Sassi-Punno, and legends like Rustam and Sohrab, widely painted on canvas, are their examples.
In arts, 'vira' - heroic sentiment, 'raudra' - furious sentiment, and 'bhayanaka' - terrible sentiment, often assimilate in one form, as in Devi annihilating demons - 'vira' and 'raudra' enshrining in the Devi-form, and 'bhayanaka', in Kali. Triumph is another 'bhava' related to 'vira'. It is best revealed in the form of Kali when she presents to Devi the decollated heads of demons she killed.
Helplessness, fear, despair, defeat, disgrace, and humiliation are incidental to 'vira', 'raudra', 'bhayanaka', and triumph. A chained elephant under trainer encounters a lion. It arrests the lion in its trunk, but, being chained, its helplessness, and even fear and despair, surface in its eyes. Draupadi, Pandavas' wife, lost in stake in the game of dice, is dragged by hair to Kauravas' full court, and is being stripped. Whatever the consequences, the occasion is that of utter humiliation and disgrace. Temples, especially in the South, conceived their Dwarapalas with ferocious bearings, though otherwise they were dancing figures with quiescence enshrining their faces.
Anger also has different shades. When its subject is Shiva, or Devi, it is divine, but when it transpires in human mind, it is simple anger. Shiva's wrath reveals in Tandava, Devi's, in killing demons, and common man's, in quarrels over petty things. Both these aspects of anger - the divine and human, figure as themes in arts.
'Adbhuta' is the 'bhava', which anything marvelous evokes. At Panchavati, Rama, Sita and Lakshmana behold a golden deer and are amazed by its unique luster. Their 'bhava' is that of 'adbhuta'. Krishna on his return finds all 'Gopas' and their cows engulfed into a forest fire. He swallows entire fire, and dismayed 'Gopas' and their cows witness this 'adbhuta' event spellbound.
Vishnu's Vishvarupa, cosmic vision, so often depicted in arts, is another excellent example of 'adbhuta'.
'Shanta', the quiescence, is usually the 'bhava' of divine iconography, enshrining Shiva's face, even when he is in Tandava; Devi's, even when she is battling against demons; and, Buddha's, even when engaged in rigorous penance.
It also reveals on the faces of celestial beings - Yakshis, temple Dwarapalas, Deep-Devis, river goddesses, Gandharvas, and the like. Leonardo da Vinci's great masterpiece, Mona Lisa, is unique in revealing the celestial 'bhava' of 'Shanta'- quiescence.
[edit] See also
[edit] Source
- Delight of Senses: The Indian Way of Seeing It - A Discourse on Indian Theory of Rasa in Relation to Visual Arts, by Prof. P. C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet.
- "Uncovering the Tenth Rasa: An Indian Nonsense Naissance", by Michael Heyman, in The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense, edited by Michael Heyman, with Sumanyu Satpathy and Anushka Ravishankar. New Delhi: Penguin, 2007.
