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FLET7-89. 2
$1.2 The question just elucidated can be asked in terms of the theory of śrngāra rasa or śānta rasa. Is the development of either rasa precluded or hampered by the intrusion of the signs of the other ? What exactly is the aesthetic process
- assuming there is one - in compostions that refer to physical beauty or points of attraction but use them to urge renunciation ?? What would be the ultimate effect of a poem that, when read one way, depicted śrngām and, when read another way, spoke of vairāgya?? However, I am not going to ask my question at such a theoretical and generalized level, because the insightful discussions of rasa-vighnas in the Sanskrit tradition address it to a significant extent, because in the examples I have seen (note 2) the ultimate impact is cleary one (that of vairāga or a feeling conducive to vairāgya), and not mixed or intertwined, and because in the examples I can thing of (note 3) I cannot see how the development of syngāra and vairāgya can be anything but parallel, that is, again not intertwined. I will rather ask my question at a more concrete and paricular level — that of considering srngāra('physical love', 'feeling or sentiment of love', 'aesthetic, especially literary, experience of love') and sanagāra('ornaments, decoration, make-up'; see note*) together.
$ 2.1 Given the realities of the present philological research, any talk about BH as an author must start with an acknowledgement of three personae: two almost exclusively from written literature and one largely from oral literature. The latter is not confined to Sanskrit, but is best preserved in Sanskrit sources deriving their material from legends and folktales that seem to have been current in many languages and dialects of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharastra, if not of other parts of India. This is predominantly the leaving B' persona. He is either disillusioned by the unfaithfullness of his wife or is cured of his illusion by
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