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The concept of “Rasa”
1275 It should be noted as already seen by us above, that in the light of the remarks of Namisādhu, Rudrata is inclined to take rasa as "sahaja guna" i.e. 'natural quality of kävya i.e. poetry, as against alamkāra which is an artificial (krtrima) device and therefore an external ornament. Vāmana was the first to say that gunas are "nitya dharma" i.e. 'permanent quality of kavya, as against 'alamkāra' or ornaments i.e. figures of speech that are 'anitya-dharma' or 'impermanent characteristic of kavya. Vāmana incorporated rasa in what he termed "kānti guna" which formed one of the essentials of poetry, as compared to alamkāra, which is for him, 'external to poetry. Thus we see that the tendency to make rasa as something essential to poetry rather than an alamkāra which is external, first originated in Vamana and seems to have been carried on in Rudrata. Of course, we may say in favour of Bhämaha and Dandin that, in their own way they never took 'alamkāra' i.e. 'atiśaya', i.e. 'vakratā' as external to poetry. "The individual forms or shapes this 'vakratā' takes can be different. What Vamana and later alamkārikas including the dhvanivādins did was that they mistook the variety for the substance; and therefore the impermanancy of a particular expression of vakratā as 'alamkāra' and therefore, taking it in a limited sense of the form it takes, took it to be 'a-nitya'. In fact as re-insisted by Kuntaka, it is the 'vakratā', or 'atiśaya' or 'alamkāratva' of an alamkāra which was favoured by Bhāmaha and Dandin. But then Vāmana, Rudraţa and the Dhvanivādins later had their own way of presentation of poetic beauty and virtually there was nothing different in their views.
Rudrata, as noted above, in the last chapter of his work treats of the various types of prabandhas or literary compositions. He observes that the four aims of life (= puruşárthas) should be treated in prabandhas with rasas intermixed in them : Rudrata XVI. i. observes :
"jagati caturvarga iti khyātir dharmā’rtha-kāma-mokṣāņām, samyak tān abhidadhāt
rasa-sammiśrān prabandheșu.” "In the world, the four viz. dharma, artha, kāma and moksa are said to be the ends of life. They should be narrated carefully in literary compositions in a way intermixed with rasas."
Thus, for Rudrata 'rasa' is the central characteristic of poetry in general which serves the purpose of attainment of the four aims of life. With this, he further notices the varieties of prabandhas in poetry viz. (mahā) kāvya, and kathā, ākhyāyikā etc. Thus major compositions accordings to Rudrata are either in verse
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