Some Aspects of Rasa Theory

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

Page 39

Ś AŃKUKA-A DEFENCE
Objection 12. Rasa is not in the actor. The actor is merely a vehicle.10
Reply :- This objection is based on a distortion of Sankuka's position, for Sankuka refers to rasa being in the actor only in the context of play-acting, and not outside it.
We have gone through the moves and counter-moves made by Sankukaites and their opponents. As we saw at the outset it is likely that Sankukaites did not maintain one position throughout; perhaps they were required to make changes under the pressure of the opponents' attacks. There are places where they appear to be almost on the point of accepting two sthāyīs, one that of the character and the other that of the actor. But these lapses are very few and they do not detract from the value of the original insight Sankukaites have obtained into the nature of drama. Again, some of the views attributed to them were perhaps never actually held by them. Sankukaites thus emerge as the first aestheticians to bring out the ontological and epistemological peculiarities of the concepts of 'play-acting' and 'seeing a play'. Their theory offers a viable alternative to the theories of Lollata on the one hand and those of Nāyaka and Abhinava on the other.
10. Ibid. p. 198.