Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c82.s1.64

v2.c82.s1.64

The Dhvanikāra, however, in his exposition of *rasa-dhvani* and *rasa*, seems to have been greatly influenced by the Dramaturgic Rasa school. Bharata, the acknowledged law-giver of this school, declared that the business of the drama was to evolve one or more of the eight *rasas*; and therefore a more or less elaborate psychology of human sentiments had been analysed in the service of the dramatic art even before poetic theories began to be seriously discussed. Bharata's ideas on these psychological processes and on *rasa*, which is the final internal experience consisting in the consciousness of a certain condition of the ego, were elaborated by his commentators and followers, until the Dhvanikāra, followed by Ānandavardhana and Abhinavagupta, came into the field. From the earlier drama and dramatic theory, the idea of *rasa* was naturally taken over to poetry and poetic theory; and as the transition from the naive to the sentimental poetry was accomplished, the theorists went a step further and erected the *rasa* into one of its essential foundations. Ānandavardhana is quite explicit on this point when he says (p. 181): *etac ca rasādi-tātparyeṇa kāvya-nibandhanam bharatādāvapi suprasiddham eva*. In other words, what was already well established in the drama by Bharata and others thus found its way into poetry, profoundly modifying, as it did, the entire conception of the *kāvya*³³. From his extensive literary and philosophical studies as well as from his interest in the work of Bharata and his followers, Abhinavagupta goes further and lays down: *nāṭyāt samudayarūpād rasaḥ, kāvye'pi nāṭyāyamāna eva rasaḥ kāvyārthaḥ*. These theorists realised that no system of Poetics, as no system of Dramaturgy, can ever ignore the feelings, moods and sentiments, and must find an important place for *rasa*, the manifestation of which is as much the business of poetry as of the drama. Gradually stress came to be laid on the emotional mood, as well as on the imaginative thought, which the poet succeeds in communicating to us : the outward expression, on which the older writers pinned their faith so much, being regarded only as a means of suggesting or pointing to the implicit significance of such a mood in poetry.