1. Introduction (the Sanskrit word Rasa)

Rasa is one of those words in Sanskrit whose precise significance is as indefinite as its usage is widespread. The word rasa, from the Vedic time through Upaniṣads to the rhetorical period of Sanskrit literature, has been bearing different meanings, such as sap, juice from the plant, fluid, water, liquor, poison, semen, taste, essence, emotion and many more.

The fundamental base of Indian culture is deep rooted in its spirituality whose emphasis is more on the soul than the body. Therefore, the pleasure seeking consciousness of Indian mind from the age of the Upaniṣads has been searching for transcendental happiness.

Taittirīya Upaniṣad says,

ānando brahmeti vyajānāt ānandadyeva khalvimāni bhūtāni jāyante/
ānandena jātāni jīvanti ānandaṃ pratyabhisaṃviśantīti // …raso vai saḥ /^[1]

“He understands that Bliss is Brahman; for certainly all beings here are, indeed, born from bliss; having been born, they remain alive by Bliss; and on departing, they enter into Bliss….and that is rasa.”

The seers of ancient India thus recognized the blissful eternal entity in the realization of rasa. The pleasure is derived from the realization of rasa which springs from ultimate feelings of the Supreme Being. Thus, rasa has been compared with this divine or the ultimate Bliss and terms like brahmāśvādasahodara entered in the field of rhetoric for the signification of rasa.^[2]

In the history of Sanskrit poetics the concept of rasa has given rise to a lot of controversy. Bharata is said to be the pioneer rhetorician and person who talked about rasa for the first time in the field of rhetoric, as no other work prior to Bharata is existed. In the Kāvyamīmāṃsā of Rājaśekhara, Nandīkeśvara is ascribed as the compiler of rasa.^[3] But any composition or fragments of this work is not available at present. Though, Bharata is said to be the pioneer, Nāṭyaśāstra itself mentioned some names of aesthetics which refers that the tradition is far more ancient then Bharata.

Bharata served to compile the meaning of the multifaceted word in a single sentence,

rasyate anena iti rasaḥ

“That which is relished is rasa.”^[4]

Thus, we practice this word in association with the palate, or the transcendental experience of the saint the delight afforded by art and so on, and in all these, the word indicates the pleasure that each class of people receive from their respective experience.

The importance of rasa was very much felt by the ancient aestheticians as most of them regarded rasa as the soul of poetry. Rudraṭa felt rasa as the indispensable object of kāvya. He further said that bereft of rasa, a composition may become soulless and unappealing.^[5] This is also supported by the Dhvanikāra Ānandavardhana in his Dhvanyāloka.^[6]

Viśvanātha Kavirāja, the composer of Sāhityadarpaṇa goes even to the extent that in the definition of kāvya he considered that any sentence having the essence of rasa is called a kāvya—

vākyaṃ rasātmakaṃ kāvyam.^[7]

He again clearly said in his vṛtti that the rasa is the principal thing in a kāvya as it is the soul of a composition—Cf.

rasa evātmā sārarūpatayā jīvanādhāyako yasya, tena vinā tasya kāvyatvā’bhāvasya pratipāditatvāt/^[8]

Now, there may be a query as to how this rasa is worthy of being relished.

At this point, we may answer this query with the words of Nāṭyaśāstra that—

Just as noble minds consuming cooked food seasoned with various kinds of spices relish the tastes thereof and become excessively delighted, so as sophisticated onlookers relish permanent moods (such as love, sorrow etc.) indicated through gesticulation of bhāvas, through verbal, physical and temperamental activities and become delighted. Hence, these dominant states that which is relished in a drama are called the sentiments.^[9]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Taittirīyopaniṣad,III.6

[2]:

Abhinavagupta, as quoted by Mammaṭa in his Kāvyaprakāśa, IV, under kārikā 28

[3]:

rasādhikārikaṃ nandikeśvaraḥ, Kāvyamīmāṃsā, p.4

[4]:

Nāṭyaśāstra, p.28

[5]:

ete rsā rasavato ramayanti puṅsaḥ samyagvibhajya racitāścatureṇa cāru| yasmādimānanadhigamya na sarvaramyaṃ kāvyaṃ vidhātumalamatra tadādriyeta//Kāvyālaṃkāra, XV.21

[6]:

Dhvanyāloka, IV.5

[7]:

Sāhityadarpaṇa, I.3

[8]:

Ibid., p.24

[9]:

yathā bahudravyayutairvyañjanairbahubhiryutam/ āsvādayanti bhuñjānā bhaktaṃ bhaktavido janāḥ// Nāṭyaśāstra,VI.33 bhāvābhinayasaṃvaddhāsthāyibhāvāṅstathā budhāḥ/ āsvādayanti manasā tasmānnāṭyarasāḥ smṛtāḥ// Nāṭyaśāstra,VI.34