Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c86.18

v2.c86.18

Viśvanātha also insists that the *vibhāvas* etc., as well as the dominant feeling (*sthāyi-bhāva*) must be felt as generic or impersonalised. The reader must not take the feeling as his own individual emotion; for it would then remain as his feeling (and never become *rasa*) and would sometimes (e. g., in the case of the pathetic sentiment) cause pain, and not joy. Nor should the feeling be taken as pertaining solely to the hero; for then it can not, as the feeling of another person, affect the reader and become *rasa*. It is necessary, therefore, that the excitants etc., as well as the dominant feeling, should be generalised by a generic action (*sādhāraṇī kṛti*) inherent in themselves, which corresponds to the generic power (*bhāvakatva*) postulated for poetry by Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka. This universalisation of the factors and the feelings enables the reader to identify himself with the personages depicted, and this conceit of community removes all difficulty about accepting extraordinary episodes of exalted personages who may be superior in virtue or prowess to the average reader. The excitants etc. are indeed normally called causes, but in reality the *rasa* is not an effect in the ordinary sense; for in the case of *rasa* there is the simultaneous presence of itself and its excitants, which is not true of an ordinary cause and effect. It is also pointed out that all the factors (*vibhāvas* etc.,) need not be present at once, for the presence of one would revive the others by the law of association of ideas. In other words, what might seem wanting in the utterance of poetry is supplied, from the suggestive character of poetry itself, by force of association of ideas. It also follows from the character of *rasa* described above that it is not necessarily found in the actor, who in assuming the rôle of the hero performs his part only mechanically by rule and rote⁹; he ranks as a spectator (and therefore as a recipient of *rasa*) in so far as he is himself a man of taste and actually experiences the feelings he enacts.