Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c82.s1.6

v2.c82.s1.6

³ Such a distinction appears to be implied also in Daṇḍin ii 292; and one can differentiate two meanings of rasa (see below): (1) kāvya-rasa, the flavour of poetry or the aesthetic delight produced by it, and (1) rasa in the technical sense of nāṭya-rasa. It is worthy of note that in the latter sense it is very rarely used in earlier classical poetry (except perhaps in Māgha). This kāvya-rasa in its essence is not very different from Bhāmaha’s vakrokti; for it is possibly a kind of heightened expression inconsistent with commonplace utterance. The word rasa must be taken in this untechnical sense when one meets with it in early classics and in such expressions as rasavat or rasāvaha in Daṇḍin.