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Studies in Indian Philosophy to the following confused interpretations and all sorts of views have been associated with the doctrine. Some of these views are:
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(1) that all bhāvas are mental. (2) that Rasas and Bhāvas are synonymous. (3) that both of them are mental but Rasas are the effects of Bhavas and are synonymous with pleasure or Ananda. (4) that the sthayibhavas are the emotions and the Rasas are the sentiments as these terms are understood in modern psychology. (5) that the sthayibhāvas are the instincts and the Rasas are the emotions, (6) that sthayibhava, sañcāribhava and Anubhava are psychological terms and stand for sentiment, derived emotion and expression of emotion These views have been held by great scholars, ancient and modern, oriental and occidental. At the present time the names of some very eminent scholars like Dr. S. K. De, Dr. Pandey and Dr. K. N. Watve and several others are associated with one or the other of the views mentioned above. The suggested interpretations are so heterogenous that the scope of the present paper does not allow each of them to be examined in detail. All cannot be correct simultaneously, nor in fact need any one of them to be correct. I shall, therefore, confine myself to the presenting of what I believe to be Bharata's own theory of Bhava as it is found in Natyasastra, and shall refer to the writings of Abhinavagupta alone, wherever necessary, for it is upon them that all the differently held theories concerning Bhāva ultimately repose.
Bharata discusses Bhavas in the seventh chapter of Natyaśāstra. It is necessary to bear in mind that by the word 'Bhāva' Bharata does not necessarily mean something mental as Abhinavagupta stipulates. In Sanskrit of Bharata's day and still in modern usage Bhava means anything that exists. Any existent can be called Bhava. Thus both mental and nonmental existents may be included under Bhavas. Moreover it was in this sense, and primarily in a nonmental sense that the word Bhava was used in Ayurveda. Mr. D. K. Bedekar has very ably brought out this point in his articles on Rasa11 and I
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