The Rasa theory (and its determinants)

Rasa is said to arise when the sthāyībhāva in the individual is awakened by his perception of the
vibhāvas, anubhāvas, vyabhicāribhāvas, and sāttvic bhāvas..
Vibhāvas are the stimuli such as the story, the stage and the actors responsible for the awakening of the sthāyi, i.e.
the latent sentiment in the spectator. The vibhāvas are of two kinds:
ālambana vibhāva is the basic stimulus capable of arousing the sentiment, whereas uddipana vibhāva is the
enhancing stimuli, the environment in which the basic stimulus is located.
Eg. In case of arousing the sentiment of pity or karuna rasa, the perception of an old weak woman on the stage is
the ālambana vibhāva; and the that of thatched hut in which the old woman is lying and the surrounding
atmosphere of neglect and poverty is the uddipana vibhāva.
However, it must be noted that vibhāva is not the ‘cause’ of producing any emotion but only the ‘medium’
through which it passes to spectator by means of ‘sympathetic induction’. Thus, in aesthetic induction, every thing
is a medium rather than a cause and this is because ‘what is transferred is always a generalized feeling’ (neither a
result nor a knowledge). This transference however, implies not the production of any new emotion in the spectator,
but only the awakening of latent sentiment.
Anubhāvas are the deliberate manifestations of feelings on the part of the actor (in accordance with the mood at
aim). They consist of the various gestures and glances etc. of the actor which are intended to develop the basic
stimulus or the vibhāva.
Eg. In the case of śrngāra rasa the presence of a beautiful young girl on the stage is a vibhāva and her movements
and glances are the anubhāvas.
Vyabhicāribhāvas are the transient emotions which arise in the course of maintaining and developing the basic
mood; they are the ancillary emotions determined by the basic emotion (in the scene or the story) and
Vyabhicāribhāvas in turn reinforce the basic mood.
Eg. If the basic mood is love, riti: joy in union and anguish in separation will be the accompanying ancillary
emotions.
Sāttvic bhāvas are the involuntary expressions such as blushing, perspiration etc. which arise as a result of
(successfully) experiencing and portrayal of the emotion.
As a result of the (successful) joint operation of all these factors, the sthāyībhāva (the latent sentiment) is
aroused in the spectator and becomes Rasa; it develops into rasa when awakened and brought to a relishable
condition as a result of the complex stimuli. Rasa which arises as a result of all these factors is distinct from all of
them just as a dish is distinct in taste from each of its ingredients.

Also of signifgicance is the qualification of a worthy spectator (rasajña) for rasānubhava (subjective
qualification for objective appreciation).
An edited excerpt from:
Seturaman, V.S., (ed.), Indian Aesthetics – An Introduction, MIL, Madras, 1992

Process (psycho-physical) of rasānubhava by Abhinavagupta

Abhinavagupta holds that in the case of a truly poetic composition, after having grasped the full significance of the
words and their meanings, there is a mental intuition as a result of which the actual temporal and spatial character of
the situation is withdrawn from the mental field and the emotion suggested therein loses its individual character and
also becomes dissociated from such conditions as might have led us to any motivation. The emotion is apprehended
and intuited in a purely universal character and in consequences thereof the ordinary pathological symptoms of
emotion lose their significance and through all the different emotions bereft of their pathological characters we have
one enjoyment of ‘joy’. It is for this reason in the experience over tragedy we find as much enjoyment as in
that of a comedy, for the experience of a grief would have been unpalatable if it was associated with its
pathological consequences. These pathological consequences are always due to a sense of self-struggle, self-
motivation, loss and the like. But in the intuition of the Rasa we live through the experience of a pure sentiment
bereft of all its local characters and personal emotive associations.
 In the subconscious and unconscious regions there are always lying dormant various types of emotio-
motive complexes. When through artistic creation a purely universal emotional fear, amour, etc., are projected in the
mind, they become affiliated or apperception or implicit recognition of identity immediately transforms the
presented artistic joy there is a kinship and identity among all art-enjoyers.

Abhinavagupta’s teacher Bhātta Tauta, in his work Kāvya-kautuka, says that a dramatic play is not a
physical occurrence. In witnessing a play we forget the actual perceptual experience of the individuals on the stage
playing their different parts or manifesting their individuality as associated with their local names and habitations.
The man who is playing the part of Rama does not appear to us that his actual individual character and it does not
also appear to us that he cannot be the Rama about whom Valmiki wrote. He stands somewhere midway between
the pure actuality and the pure ideality. This together with all the scenic associations and those of music
(vibhāvādis) produces an experience which vibrates with exhilaration; and as a result thereof the whole presentation
of actuality becomes veiled, as it were, in so far as it is an actual occurrence of presentative character. The past
impressions, memories, associations, and the like, which were lying deeply buried in the mind, became connected
with the present experience and thereby the present experience became affiliated and perceived in a new manner
resulting in a dimension of a new experience, revealing new types of pleasures and pains, unlike those associated
with our egoistic instincts and the success or failures of their strivings. This is technically called Rasāsvādana,
camatkāara, carvana which literally means the ‘experiencing of a transcendent exhilaration’ from the
enjoyment of the roused emotions inherent in our own personality.
REFERENCES:

• Krishna, Daya, (ed.), India’s Intellectual Traditions – Attempt at Conceptual Reconstructions, ICPR in
association with Motilal Banarasidass, 1987

• Krsnamurti, A Study of Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu by Srila Rupa Goswami, Bhakti Vedanta book trust,
Mumbai

• Masson, J.L. and Patwardhan, M.V., Santarasa and Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Aesthetics,
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1969

• Mishra, S.R., Theory of Rasa in Indian Drama, Vindhyachal Prakashan, Chhatarpur, 1964

• Nandi, T.S., The Origin and Development of the theory of Rasa and Dhvani in Sanskrit Poetics, Gujarat
University, Ahamedabad

• Sahityabhusan, Pt. K. , (ed.), Kavyamala No. 42, The Natyasastra by Sri Bharatmuni, Satyabhamabhai
Pandurang for the Nirnaya Sagar Press, Bombay, 1943

• Saxena, S.K., “The Rasa Theory: its Meaning and Relevance”, Sangeet Natak, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, 2002,
Sangeet Natak Academy.
• Seturaman, V.S., (ed.), Indian Aesthetics- An Introduction, MIL, Madras, 1992
• Vatsayayan, Kapila, Bharat- The Natyasastra, Sahitya Academy, N.Delhi, 1996