Studies in Jain Literature

SR No.: 001868
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 114
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Story
File Size: 14 MB

Page 204

186 STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE rasa is sukha-duhkhatmaka and thus provide an exception to the ancient rule "yathopadhyayam sisyah"; we have no means to know whether these disciples had discussed their view with Acarya Hemacandra and what the Acarya's reaction was. But for a spirited defence of their view with cogent arguments they have won praise from some modern writers on poetics. Another Jain scholar, Siddhicandragani, a contemporary of Jagannatha, in his commentary Kavyaprakasakhandana observes : "तदपेक्षया कामिनी-कुच-कलश-स्पर्श-चन्दनानुलेपनादिनेव नाट्यदर्शनकाव्यश्रवणाभ्यां सुखविशेषो जायते / स एव तु रस इति नवीनाः / " - 90 PE According to the view of the Ancients, the rasa is paramanandarupa. The Moderns (Navinah, including Siddhicandra himself, most probably,) however, say: "A Peculiar pleasure which arises on watching a dramatic performance or hearing the recitation of poetry is similar to the pleasure of anointing one's body with sandal-paste or of pressing the breasts of a young beautiful woman. This peculiar pleasure is itself rasa. In other words, the Moderns regard the aesthetic pleasure as on a par with ordinary pleasures of the senses as only (laukika) worldly. As a corollary to this view they hold that there are only four rasas : the erotic, the heroic, the comic and the marvellous; and they reject the claim of the pathetic, the furious, the terrifying and the disgusting to the title rasa!. From this description of the nature of rasa we can easily see how Siddhicandra, a Modern, has gone a step, rather far ahead in bringing rasa to the laukika level. The view expressed by the authors of the Natyadarpana and Kavyaprakasakhandana has not been taken note of by the followers of the Ancients. It is sometimes argued that Lollata, Dandi etc, held the view that rasa is sukhaduhkhatmaka. This much is, however, true that they hold that the sthayin when intensified to its zenith becomes rasa. Thus soka when intensified to its highest point becomes karuna rasa. But this does not mean that the spectators who witness a karunarasanirbhara play experience sorrow. We should make a distinction between the nature of experience the dramatist and the actor are trying to put across and the way the audience receive it through the medium of art-the poetic art of the dramatist and the art of acting of the actor renders any type of experience pleasurable. There is reason to believe that the ancient thinkers held that all rasas are pleasurable to the audience. But it is a separate topic and so we better leave it here. Hemacandra's Kavyanusasana and D. D. Kosambi's Criticism