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SAHRDAYĀLOKA of course keeping the 'Sa-hrdaya' or the sensitive reader/sprctator in its focus. It is to be understood as a theory of art or beauty in general that attempts to explain art-experience with reference to any art worth its name. So, for us, rasanubhūti is kalánubhūti, is saundaryanubhūti, or anandanubhūti, or experience of the highest bliss : the Divine. We can take Bharata's contribution to explain dramatic art as part of efforts by Indian art-critics in the field of aesthetics in general. Be it Bharata, Bhāmaha or Anandavardhana or Abhinavagupta, they were all concerned with the problem of beauty in general and then beauty as seen in drama or literature.
With reference to the rasa-experience or art-experience in general, Bharata has coined his famous rasa-sútra viz. “Vibhāvánubhāva-vyabhicāri-samyogādrasa-nispattih.", i.e. out of the combination (samyoga) of Determinants (vibhāva), the Consequents (anubhāva) and the Transitory Mental States
(vyabhicārin), the birth of Rasa takes place,” (Trans, Gnoli);pp. 25, ibid). That - commentators such as Bhatta Lollata, Sri Sankuka, Bhatta Nayaka and
Abhinavagupta have attempted different explanations of this sūtra need not detain us here, nor the different explanations advanced by Dhananjaya and Dhanika, Bhoja, Ramacandrs and Guņa-candra, Siddhicandra and Jagannātha, who, following Abhinavagupta's lead, also presents eleven different attempts to explain the theory of rasa, which for us is a general theory of art. For, our sole object here is to underline its catholicity; its applicability to newer and newer forms of art in general, and literature in particular with a special reference to newer forms of absurd play and intellectual gymnasium attempted by modern western poets and also writers in India in various modern literatures such as Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Assamia, and what not.
The challange came from Dr. Paulose, at a seminar in Śrī šankarācārya Sanskrit university in Kaladi, Kerala, in March '99, when he raised a point as to the universal applicability of rasa-theory, particularly with reference to such modern plays, as for example, "Mother Courage.' The prompt answer to this from the chair vas that even a traditional explanation of rasa-theory will suit this dramatic piece called, “Mother Courage' when we suggest that here the principal 'angi sentiment is "dharma-vīra", with a subordinate (gauna) under-current of Karuna or the tragic. But this explanation apart, there is a larger scope for the rasa-theory. We begin with Anandavardhana.
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