"Is the Rasa experience blissful?":A critique on the theory of Rasa

Western Indology on Rasa: A Purvapaksha, 2018

Rasa, meaning gist, is the essence that one feels when experience an art piece, be it performance or static art. Rasa, in Indian context, applied to both the performer and the audience is considered an alaukika (other worldly) experience. An integral part of aesthetics both Indian and Greek (although European performing arts moved away from the original concept of Greek aesthetics) is improvisation on the rules that are suggested for a clear structure, which by definition is fluid and allows room for ‘newness. Using Bharat Gupt’s study of the poetics and Natyashastra, this paper will focus on similarities in both Indian and Greek aesthetics, also highlighting when and why contemporary notion of aesthetics in European theatre moved away from the Greek, which was more similar to the Indian sensibility. There will also be a focus on the concept of hieropraxis (art as worship, pleasing both people and Gods), which was common, both to Indian and Greek art forms. Finally, the paper will illustrate through examples of Bollywood and interviews with BharatNatyam teachers (in Sweden) how improvisation, and newness is brought into various aspects of performance arts, thereby challenging Sheldon Pollock’s reading of the Natyashastra, as being rigid and frozen in time and devoid of bringing novelty, making them irrelevant to our times.

Versified History of Sanskrit Poetics: The Soul is Rasa, 2017

It is figuratively called “versified” because, unlike other books on the history of Sanskrit poetics, it abounds in verses: The best illustrative examples of each poetical theorist are shown, and many diagrams of picture poetry are included. Most importantly, there are two kinds of literary experiences of Rasa: esthetic delight, as defined by Bharata Muni, and trance, as explained by Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka and Abhinavagupta and brilliantly defined by Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha: cid eva rasaḥ, “This esthetic experience is the bliss of the soul.” It is the ultimate goal of the connoisseurs of art. The gist is the soul has the nature of Rasa (mojo). This truth stated by Paṇḍita-rāja Jagannātha is the pinnacle of all philosophical research in the history of humankind. No other book on the history of poetics expounds Jagannātha’s treatise so thoroughly.

This contains the first three chapters of my dissertation for the degree of PhD at the University of Chicago (1990). That dissertation was written with WordPerfect and I have been gradually converting that to the system I now use for Indic works (XeTeX). I will eventually publish the rest of the chapters and some side papers that the dissertation generated.

2014

2016

For the purposes of this essay and in the effort to articulate a particular expression of bhakti, the focus will be on emotional bhakti through the lens of a form of Kṛṣṇa Bhakti that draws upon conventions found in aesthetic theory in order to communicate the loving devotion towards God. While there are many expressions of bhakti traditions depending on the deity of worship, the ontology subscribed or the way and goal taken asunder, I will explore the role of rasa in the discourses of Kṛṣṇa bhakti expressed in influential form in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, and the Gītagovinda of Jayadeva and theoretically elaborated in the dualist Gauḍīya Sampradāya tradition in a selection from Rūpa Gosvāmin’s Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu as well as in the Bhakti Rasa for the Advaitin Renunciate in Madhusūdana Sarasvatī’s theory of devotional sentiment from the Bhaktirasāyana. This is because the focus of this study will be to understand the cultivation of devotional sentiment drawn from the wellspring of affe...

Rhetorica Scandinavica, 2016