Some Aspects of Rasa Theory

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

Page 40

Abhinavagupta on the Alaukika' Nature of Rasa
V. M. Kulkarni
Some of the Sanskrit Alamkārikas, notably Rāmacandra and Gunacandra, the authors of Nätyadarpaņa and Siddhicandra gaại, the author of Kävyaprakāśa-Khandana, unequivocally take the position that the rasa-pratiti or rasanubhava, the aesthetic or imaginative experience, is entirely laukika, that is, worldly or continuous with and like other experiences in everyday life. Abhinavagupta, who is the greatest authority in Sanskrit Aesthetics and his very able followers like Mammaţa, the author of Kavyaprakāśa, a standard work on Sanskrit poetics and aesthetics, Viśvanātha, the author of the well-known Sahitya-Darpaņa and Pandit Jagannātha, the author of the celebrated Rasagangadhara, take the very opposite position that the aesthetic experience is something that is alaukika, non-worldly, extra-worldly, transcendental and beyond our framework of time and space and that it only takes place in the realm of literature and never in real life.
The present paper confines itself to giving a clear exposition of this concept of alaukikatva according to Abhinavagupta in the light of his observations in his two well-known commentaries-Abhinavabhārati on Bharata's Natyaśāstra and Locana on Anandavardhana's Dhvanyaloka, and examining if it corresponds with the Western or, to be more specific, the Kantian concept of the autonomy of the art (aesthetic) experience.
Abhinavagupta never tires of stating over and over again that rasa is alaukika. Some of the relevant passages from the two commentaries are almost identical, word for word; some others closely correspond with each other and only a few make a new point. The major passages in which Abhinavagupta dwells on alaukikatva are presented here :
(i) Locana, p. 79: When a man hears the words : "A son is born to you" joy is produced (through the power of denotation-abhidhā). But the suggested sense (rasa and the like) is not produced the way joy is produced in the above case. Nor does it come about through the secondary usage (laksanā, gunavrtti, bhakti). But it arises in a sensitive man (sahrdaya- a man who is sensitive to literature) through his knowledge of vibhāvas and anubhāvas, because of his hrdaya-samvāda (sympathetic response) and his tanmayibhāva (identification). It is vilaksana (different) from ordinary awareness of happiness etc. and it is not an objective thing (like a jar etc.).2
1. The total range of meanings conveyed by the word 'alaukika' cannot be expressed
through any one English expression. Different expressions such as sui generis, autonomous, extra-worldly, non-worldly, other-worldly, supra-normal, transcendental, etc,
have neen used by critics in different contexts for the term alaukika. 2. न चायं रसादिरर्थः 'पुत्रस्ते जातः' इत्यतो यथा हर्षो जायते तथा । नापि लक्षणया। अपि तु सहृदयस्य हृदय