Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c85.94

v2.c85.94

The beautiful (*ramaṇīyatā*) in poetry, therefore, is that which gives us disinterested or impersonal pleasure. This pleasure is specifically different from that which one finds in the actually pleasing, and depends upon taste formed by continued contemplation of beautiful objects. It will be noticed that this definition not only gives us a remarkable analysis of the beautiful but includes in its generality and comprehensiveness all the elements of poetry recognised by previous theorists, without specifically naming them. We have already noted that the poetic sentiment or *rasa*, excited in the reader’s mind is peculiar in its nature; it is, no doubt, a fact of one's own consciousness but it is essentially universal and impersonal in character, being common to all trained readers and possessing no significance to their personal relations or interests. A distinction is made between a natural emotion and a poetic sentiment; the former is individual and immediately personal and therefore may be pleasurable or painful, but the latter is generic and disinterested and marked by an impersonal joy. The poetic sentiment in this sense is supernormal (*alaukika*) and those things which cause disgust, fear or sorrow in ordinary life and those normal emotions which are far from pleasant in actual experience, being conveyed in poetry, become ideal and universal, and bring about this supernormal pleasure which is not to be compared to the very mixed pleasure experienced in ordinary life. This pleasure, dissociated from all personal interests, is the essence of the mental condition involved in the enjoyment of *rasa*; it is also the essence of all poetry, as conceived by Jagannātha.