The Concept of "Rasa" in Sanskrit Dramatic Theory

Author(s): Wallace Dace

Source: Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Oct., 1963), pp. 249-254
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3204783
Accessed: 27-08-2018 07:28 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Educational Theatre Journal

This content downloaded from 223.225.113.201 on Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:28:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE CONCEPT OF RASA IN SANSKRIT
DRAMATIC THEORY
WALLACE DACE

The term Rasa appears for the first

difference between tasting the emotion
time in a particular text inand theexperiencing
Natya- it in real life is sum-
castra of Bharata, a very old marizedSanskiit
by the word Rasa.
document difficult to date (estimates
According to the Indian aesthetician
range from 500 B.C. to 500 A.D.)
Pravas JivanandChaudhury,' Rasa was
originally quite
thought to be, until very recently, a physiological term which
appeared in One
impossible to render into English. ancient medical literature
of the chief reasons for thisand is meant
the pres-
the physical quality of taste,
ence in the treatise (on dramaturgy)
and also any of one of six tastes: sweet,
such words as Rasa; it is a key term
acid, with-astringent and insipid.
salt, bitter,
out an understanding of which These Sanskrit
six kinds of tastes characterize the
dramatic theory is totally six incompre-
bodily humours which are known by
hensible, and yet for which absolutely
their tastes. As it happens, all this is
found in Hippocrates too, who enu-
no English equivalent is available.
But we need a word for Rasa and merates these same six physical qualities
rather than invent one, the presentof taste
tend-as characterizing six bodily
humours. Bharata says at first that there
ency seems to be to use the original
term, transliterated from Sanskrit.are sixWe
Rasas in drama, but later that
need the word because we know that there are eight. He describes Rasa as the
relish of an elemental human emotion
emotion experienced in the theatre is
somehow subtly different from thatlike love, pity, fear, heroism or mystery,
emo-
tion which goes by the same namewhichin
forms the dominant note of a
dramatic
real life. We experience pity and fear piece. This dominant emotion,
as tasted by the audience, has a different
in the theatre, and enjoy the experience;
but pity in real life is annoying quality
and from that which is aroused in
real life; Rasa may be said to be the
irritating ultimately; and we avoid with
determination and ingenuity any original
situa- emotion transfigured by aesthet-
ic delight.
tion which is at all likely to arouse fear
Chaudhury continues:
in us. Hindu aesthetics solved this prob-
Emotions,
lem long ago: as the actor imitates the as felt in life, are like uninterrupted
emotion, so the audience tastes the emo- images and sensations. They are uninformed

tion as it watches his performance. The 1 In an article entitled "Catharsis in the

Light of Indian Aesthetics" in the Journal of
Mr. Dace is Associate Professor of Speech at Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Volume XV No. 2,
Kansas State University. December 1956, pp. 218-226.

This content downloaded from 223.225.113.201 on Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:28:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
250 EDUCATIONAL THEATRE JOURNAL
In the Natyacastra,
by thought and are therefore blindly and Bharata
pas-accepts
sively undergone. But as eight
enjoyed
basic in drama,
feelings they nature
of human
are contemplated, thought upon,
which Gnoli and
translates their
as "Permanent
meanings are revealed to the mind which, there-
Mental States." These Permanent Men-
fore, while experiencing them in a way, escapes
tal States
them in a significant sense. The are Delight,under-
audience Laughter, Sor-
row, Anger,
goes the emotions depicted onHeroism,
the stageFear, Digust
in a
way; people cry and laugh as they
and Astonishment. dotransmuted
When in life, by
but they feel these urges not as real urges but
dramatic action on the stage into Rasas
as symbols, charged with meanings. This is the
(or tastes of delight.2
secret, we are told, of aesthetic the emotion of real life),
they are given terms which distinguish
The legendary author, Bharata,
the Rasa from who
the Permanent Mental
is said to have directed plays
State: the Erotic, thein heaven
Comic, the Pathet-
for the delight of ic,
the gods,
the Furious, and
the Heroic, thus
the Terrible,
drew on practical experience when
the Odious and the com-
Marvelous. Later
posing his Natyacastra, did not exhaust
speculation generally admits a ninth
the possibilities in his discussion
Permanent Mental of Rasa.
State, Serenity, for
It was a custom among subsequent Hin-
which the corresponding Rasa is the
du scholars and aestheticians, instead of
Quietistic.
writing fresh treatises on dramaturgy,
In real life, these Permanent Mental
to embody their own thought in "com-
States are brought on by three fairly
mentaries" on Bharata's epic work.
distinct phenomena: causes, effects and
Hence, the entire Natyacastra consists concomitant elements. The causes are
of Bharata's original manuscript plus
the facts and mental images which pro-
certain interesting additions by sub-
duce the State; the effects are the visible
sequent philosophers, two of whom,
reactions caused by the State; and the
Bhatta Nayaka, (circa 900 A.D.) and
concomitant elements are the accessory
Abhinavagupta (born between 950 and
mental disturbances accompanying the
960 A.D.) considerably expanded and
State. When represented on the stage,
clarified the concept of Rasa. Hindu aestheticians use a new set of
The best commentary in English on
terms: causes are Determinants; effects
Abhinavagupta's analysis of Rasa is to
are Consequents; and concomitant ele-
be found in a thin volume by Raniero
ments are Transitory Mental States.
Gnoli entitled The Aesthetic Experience
According to Abhinavagupta.3 In the Rasa is produced in the audience by
introduction to his translation, Gnoli actions on the stage describable as Deter-
minants, Consequents and Transitory
notes that in India, the study of aesthet-
Mental States, but these are not in the
ics was at first limited to the drama.
Drama is regarded as a synthesis usual
be-sense causes; an effect can exist
tween the visual and aural arts; in when its causes have disappeared. The
relation of Rasa to the factors which
drama, dance and poetry collaborate at
compose
arousing in the spectator a state of con- it may be compared, according
to an
sciousness which is conceived intuitively old Hindu adage, with that of a
beverage
and concretely as a juice or flavor (Rasa) to the black pepper, candied
sugar,
which, when tasted by the spectator, camphor, and so on which com-
pervades and enchants him. pose it, but of which as such, no trace
remains in the liquor as drunk.
2 Ibid., p. 220.
Gnoli
3 Serie Orientale Roma XI, 1956, published concludes his summary of the
by the Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed
traditional view of Rasa by saying, "The
Estremo Oriente, Roma.

This content downloaded from 223.225.113.201 on Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:28:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CONCEPT OF RASA IN SANSKRIT DRAMATIC THEORY 251

ing of a direct experience

relation between the Determinants (in which completely
eliminates the temporal distinctions assumed by
the theatre) the Permanent Mental
the lines of the play. In fact, the young deer
States (in real life) and Rasa
whichis the
appears in cen-
this perception is devoid of
tral problem of Indian aesthetics."4
its particularity, and at the same time, the
Commenting on the problem of the
actor who plays Rasa
deer and frightens the audi-
in the tenth century A.D.,ence by showing
Bhatta himself to be afraid, is unreal.
Nayaka
holds that the essence of this aesthetic As a result, what appears is simply and solely
Fear-Fear in itself, uncircumscribed by time or
pleasure has no relationship with any
space.7
particular ego. The aesthetic state of
The audience is thus not in the real
consciousness does not appear in every-
day life but is experienced in complete
time or space of the deer, since the deer
independence of individual interest.
is merely imitated, nor is it in the time
Gnoli quotes Bhatta Nayaka as follows:
and space of the actor, because the actor
is not being himself during the per-
During aesthetic experience, the consciousness
formance
of the spectator is free from all practical de- of a play. When an otherwise
sires. The spectacle witnessed is no longer felt
Permanent Mental State is unaffected
in connection with any other particular indi-
by space and time, when it is gen-
vidual; it has the power of abolishing the lim-
eralized, it has become a Rasa.
ited personality of the spectator, who regains,
momentarily, his immaculate being, not To yetquote Abhinavagupta further:
overshadowed by Maya.5
To conclude, we may say equally that Rasa a)
In the west, Kant appears to have consists of a state of intensification,-using this
term to indicate that it is not limited by spa-
been the first to clarify this relationship
tial and temporal data; b) that it is an imita-
when he said in his Critique of tion,-using
Judg- this expression to mean that its
ment (1790) that aesthetic pleasure is temporarily follows that of real life;
operation
disinterested satisfaction (interesseloses
and c) that it is a combination of different
Wohlgefallen), "disinterested" meaning elements,-the Determinants, Consequents and
lack of interference from desire, or Transitory Mental States.s

directness of our access to a work of art,

After noting that the elements elim-
uninterfered-with by immediate utilitar- inate obstacles to aesthetic perception in
ian ends.
the theatre, Abhinavagupta achieves the
Abhinavagupta6 begins with these unlikely
con- feat of compressing his defini-
cepts, and develops the idea of Rasa
tion of Rasa into one sentence:
into a subtle and self-contained system
From whichever point of view it is examined,
of aesthetic analysis of audience partic-
Rasa is, in any case, simply and solely a mental
ipation in a theatrical event. Speakingstate which is a matter of cognition as the re-
of a "qualified person" (a person of sult of a perception devoid of obstacles, and
taste, and with experience of the the- consisting in Tasting.9
atre) he says:
The only matter requiring further
In such a person, hearing [certain lines from discussion is how the various obstacles
Shakuntula which describe a frightened deer]
to Rasa are overcome in the theatre.
there appears, immediately after the perception
of the literal sense of the lines, a perception of These are lack of verisimilitude, immer-
a different order, an inner perception, consist- sion in one's own thoughts, immersion
in one's own sensations of pleasure, de-
4 Ibid., p. 30.
5 Ibid., p. 54. fective state of the means of perception,
6 For biographical and critical material on
this important Hindu philosopher see Kanti 7 Gnoli, op. cit., p. 66.
Chandra Pandey: Abhinavagupta, an Historical 8 Ibid., p. 77.
and Philosophical Study. (Benares City, 1935-) 9 Ibid., p. 78.

This content downloaded from 223.225.113.201 on Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:28:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 252 EDUCATIONAL THEATRE JOURNAL

it possesses
lack of evidence, lack of the virtue of avoiding a
pre-eminence,
and allowing admission
double negative.
to doubts.
The first obstacle, The
lack
second of verisimil-
and third obstacles to
itude, is more familiar to us in the aesthetic perception are those temporal
phrase "lack of conviction,"-the spatial au- or pleasurable sensations which
dience is unable to believe in the action inhere exclusively in oneself or in
on stage. Abhinavagupta holds that the
another person. In addition to the prin-
means by which this obstacle is elim-cipal consciousness of the action on the
inated are "the consent of the heart"'0
stage, one is distracted in the theatre by
and the representation of an event ofananawareness of other forms of con-
ordinary nature, meaning that thesciousness:
au- one is afraid of losing his
thor must make use of events which find sensation of pleasure; one then desires
a ready response in the audience's other, similar sensations; finally, one
heart."1 grapples with the urge either to give
"Consent of the heart" is a key phrase these sensations of pleasure open expres-
in this part of Abhinavagupta's dramat- sion, or to hide them. That is to say,
ic theory and seems to anticipate in one is tempted to give expression to
meaning Coleridge's idea of "that will- one's pleasure in the suffering of the
ing suspension of disbelief for the mo- hero and heroine by loud crying; but if
ment which constitutes poetic faith"'12 no one else is crying, one would appear
foolish.
in the theatre. This idea is not fully
grasped in some quarters even today. This obstacle is eliminated by the
There are still those who would agree conventions of theatrical illusion. These
with Samuel Johnson when he attacked consist for the most part of the prelim-
the unity of place by arguing that it inaries (rites and ceremonies at the be-
doesn't matter if Act I is laid in Athens ginning, before the play starts); the pro-
and Act II in Rome, because we in the logue (a dialogue between the director
theatre know we are not in Athens any- of the play and a jester, or a young
way. But the opposite of this,-the de-actress); and the many stylized dances
lusion of the naive that the stage action which break up the unfolding of the
is real-is likewise not the right explana-story.
tion of the audience's immersion in a
This concept, of the need for a bar-
play. Consent of the heart to partake ofsome kind between performer
rier of
aesthetic experience appears to be and
a use-
spectator to assure aesthetic enjoy-
ful way of expressing the relationship
mentof clearly anticipates Edward Bul-
audience to play in the theatre; at lough's
least valuable idea about "psychical
Distance," first published in the British
10 Not everybody, Abhinavagupta observes,
has the intrinsic capacity to taste a poem. In- Journal of Psychology in 1912, and since
dividuals possessed of aesthetic sensibility are widely reprinted. Bullough's famous
called possessed of heart, that is, they possess
the faculty of self-identification with events rep- argument is that "Distance . . . has a
resented on the stage. Or, to put it another way, negative, inhibitory aspect,-the cutting
poetic sensibility is the faculty of entering into
the heart of the poet. See Gnoli, op. cit., p. 65.
out of the practical side of things and
11 This coincides with Aristotle's probability of our practical attitude to them,-and
theory, in which authors are advised to make a positive side: the elaboration of the
their actions above all probable, even the im-
possible being preferable to the improbable. See experience on the new basis created by
Bakker's edition of Aristotle's works, 146oa26. the inhibitory action of Distance." And
12 Biographia Literaria, ed. J. Shawcross (Ox-
ford, 1907), Vol. II, p. 6. Distance is obtained by "separating the

This content downloaded from 223.225.113.201 on Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:28:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
CONCEPT OF RASA IN SANSKRIT DRAMATIC THEORY 253

object and its appeal from one'sinown

particularities connection with either
self, by putting it out of of
gearthese with
objects.15
prac-
tical needs and ends."13 In our own experience, we have all
Bullough then notes that noted a work
that of
in the theatre, it is an ob-
art appeals to us in directstacle
proportion as
to aesthetic enjoyment if we are
its intellectual and emotional peculiar-
personally acquainted with the actor.
ities correspond to the idiosyncrasies
Past memories and of
associations occupy
our own experiences; absence of
our attention andthis
he ceases to be "can-
concordance is the mostcelled
general ex-
out" by the role he is playing.
planation for differences Similarly,
in "taste."if anThis
actor portrays a person
principle of concordance requires
we have a
been acquainted with, for in-
qualification, however, which leads to
stance, a famous political figure, or an
the antimony of Distance. Asof
artist an exam- the reverse is usually
reputation,
ple, Bullough cites the true:
casewe of a man
recall the person himself, and
watching a performance of Othello.
are thus unable toThe
allow the actor to
man has reason to believe that his wife
cancel out the existence of our acquaint-
is being unfaithful to him. Sinceance.16
the
play is on the subject of infidelity,Abhinavagupta's
it complete explana-
should appeal greatly to him; hetion
canof the fourth obstacle reads as fol-
see himself as Othello, and his wife as
lows: "Moreover, if the means of per-
Desdemona. But in fact, the play merely ception are absent, perception itself will
renders him acutely conscious of his also naturally be absent.""?
own jealousy, and he receives anything One is driven to conclude from this
but enjoyment from the performance.
cryptic observation that the Master had
By observing how close the play is to his in mind such inconveniences, well
own experience perspective is reversed; known in the modern theatre, of in-
he no longer sees Othello betrayed by
audible actors mumbling their lines
Desdemona but himself, betrayed by his
into the footlights, and that equally
own wife. This reversal of perspective
is due to the loss of Distance.14
endearing aspect of some of our more
venerable houses, such as the Schubert
In regard to pleasures and pains in Chicago,-the seat in the second bal-
which the spectator perceives to be in- cony situated behind a post which to-
herent in the actor, or in the persontally blocks the ticket-holder's view of
the actor is portraying, Abhinavagupta the stage.
thinks the actor's headdress, his costume
The fifth obstacle to Rasa occurs if
and makeup enable the audience to
the spectator reads the play instead of
negate the specific temporal and spatial
seeing it. "The presence of the words
characteristics of both the actor (him-
alone, by means of which the reader
self) and the character (as created by
infers the acts narrated, is not enough
the playwright.) In fact, the one dis-
to make the reader identify himself with
tracting idea (actor) cancels out the
the subject and the characters of the
other distracting idea (the character he
play."'8 Drama must be experienced in
is portraying) and the spectator is left
in possession of Rasa, unencumbered by 15 Gnoli, op. cit., p. 82.
16 Abhinavagupta offers us nothing to reflect
on ifpp.
13s British Journal of Psychology V (1912) we know both the actor and the person
87o-9o. This concept explains the aesthetically
he is portraying.
unsatisfactory nature of arena theatre. 17 Ibid., p. 82.
14 Ibid., p. 91. 1s Ibid., p. 84.

This content downloaded from 223.225.113.201 on Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:28:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 254 EDUCATIONAL THEATRE JOURNAL

the theatre to overcome the obstacle of The obstacle of doubt is the final
inevident perception, it is argued, in
point in Abhinavagupta's theory of
contradiction to Charles Lamb, for in- Rasa. Doubt is eliminated by the opera-
stance, who preferred Shakespeare in histion of the Determinants, the Con-
library. Modern thinkers tend to agreesequents and the Transitory Mental
with this idea. Susanne Langer points States on a spectator who, in the course
out in Feeling and Form that dramaof his ordinary life, has learned how to
operates beyond the boundaries estab- observe causes, effects and concomitant
lished by literature, citing as an exam-elements of Permanent Mental States,
ple the Sanskrit drama itself, which "sur-
and can deduce from his experience of
vived as a popular art for centuries after
these the corresponding Determinants,
the Sanskrit ... and the various Prakrits
Consequents and Transitory Mental
in which it was composed had become
States as disclosed by dramatic action on
dead languages, understood only by
the stage. As the Master explains it:
scholars. [This] proves that the stage
Tears21 may be aroused indifferently by a great
action was no mere accompaniment, but
was instinctively developed by the Delight,
ac- or a pain in the eye. A tiger22 may
arouse either Anger or Fear. The combination
tors to the point of self-sufficiency, mak-
of these elements, however, has an unmistakable
ing the precise word-meanings of significance.
the For example, when the Determinant
speeches dispensable.""19 consists of the death of a friend, the Consequents
of wailing and tears, and the Transitory Mental
Sixth, if a person's consciousness rests
States are Anxiety and Depression, then the
on something of a secondary order,
Permanent Mental State which results cannot
something transitory, then an obstacle
be other than Sorrow . .. [The act of Tasting
to Rasa is encountered because the per-
this Permanent Mental State in the theatre] . .
is perfect Rasa.23
ception would find no rest in itself and
would run automatically toward some-
That is, Rasa is different from a Per-
thing occupying a pre-eminent position.
manent Mental State and consists solely
Hence, only the Permanent Mental
in the Tasting of it; in fact, it lasts only
States can be the object of Tasting.
as long as the Tasting lasts.
In Hindu thought, "rest without ob-
Finally:
stacles" is a condition in which one's
To conclude: what is aroused by the union of
consciousness finds rest in what it con-
the Determinants, the Consequents and the
templates, is totally absorbed in the Transitory
ob- Mental States is simply the Tasting;
ject of contemplation and desires noth-
and the form of existence, of a non-ordinary
ing different from the thing in whichcharacter, which is the matter of this Tasting,
is called Rasa.24
it is and from what it is. Abhinavagupta
cites an example as follows:
Whatever one may be able to make
Women, even when they are being bitten of and this theory, there seems to be no
scratched by their lovers, and therefore experi- question that Hindu aestheticians have
encing pain, find in the pain itself the fulfil-
ment, the realization of all their sexual desire:
investigated the problem of feeling
and emotion in the theatre audience
they "rest" in their hearts or consciousness, to
the exclusion of everything else. Therefore, this with thoroughness and originality.
pain becomes pleasure, beatitude.2o
21 A Consequent
19 Susanne K. Langer, Feeling and Form (New
22 A Determinant

York, 1953), p. 322. 23 Ibid., p. 96.

20 Gnoli, op. cit., p. 90. 24 Ibid., p. 104.

This content downloaded from 223.225.113.201 on Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:28:39 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms