Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c79.92

v2.c79.92

⁵³ Regarding the *sāttvika bhāva* (which later theorists, e. g. Abhinavagupta, connect with the *sattva guṇa* of the Sāṃkhya philosophers), Bharata says (ed. Grosset p. 129 = ed. Kāvyamālā p. 82) : *iha hi sattvaṃ nāma manaḥ-prabhāvam, tac ca samāhita-manastvād utpadyate, manaḥ-samādhānāc ca sattva-nirvṛtir iti ; tasya yo’sau svabhāvo romāñcāśrūdi-kṛtaḥ sa na śakyate’nya-manasā kartum iti ; loka-svabhāvānukaraṇāc ca nātyasya sattvam īpsitam*. Thus Bharata connotes by it certain tokens of mental feelings, delineated in the dramatic representation by an imitation of human nature through steady concentration of the mind. Bharata adds the illustration : *iha hi nātya-dharma-pravṛttāḥ sukha-duḥkha-kṛto bhāvās tathā sattva-viśuddhāḥ kāryā yathā svarūpā bhavanti*. For, how can sorrow, he says, which must be manifested by weeping, or joy which must be expressed by laughter, be delineated except by these involuntary evidences? This is apparently what Bharata means by *sattvābhinaya* or *sāttvikābhinaya*. In the Daśarūpaka, however, *sattva* is taken to mean ‘a sympathetic heart’ and *sāttvika* is explained as *sattvena nirvṛttaḥ* (Cf Sāhitya-darpaṇa iii 134). Bhānudatta, in his *Rasa-taraṅgiṇī* gives a somewhat different interpretation, and takes *sāttvika* to mean physical gestures as evidences of natural feeling (*sattvaṃ jīva-śarīram, tasya dharmāḥ sāttvikāḥ, itthaṃ ca śārīra-bhāvāḥ stambhūdayaḥ sāttvikā bhāvā ity-abhidhīyante*). Later writers like the author of the *Kāvyaprakāśa-pradīpa* bring in philosophical implications and interpret *sāttvika* as originating in the