Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c86.6

v2.c86.6

The mental activity involved in this enjoyment has got four aspects taken in connexion with the four primary sentiments of the erotic (*śṛṅgāra*), the heroic (*vīra*), the horrible (*bībhatsa*) and the furious (*raudra*) admitted by Bharata ³, and consists respectively of the conditions of unfolding (*vikāsa*) expansion (*vistāra*), agitation (*kṣobha*) and distraction (*vikṣepa*). We have seen that Bhaṭṭa Nāyaka (along with Abhinavagupta) ⁴ speaks of the *bhoga* (or *āsvāda*) of *rasa* as involving only three mental conditions, named *vikāsa* (pervasion), *vistāra* (expansion) and *druti* (melting), which later theorists have taken⁵ as the basis and justification of the three *guṇas* of *prasāda*, *ojas* and *mādhurya* respectively. With regard to the ninth *rasa*, the quietistic, which is not mentioned by Bharata but which is acknowledged by some theorists, Dhanañjaya forbids its delineation in the drama (iv 35); for the sentiment of absolute peace is in its own nature undefinable, and consists of four states mentioned by philosophers⁶, viz., *maitrī*, *karuṇā*, *muditā* and *upekṣā*, which are not realisable by the *sahṛdaya*. If it exists at all as *rasa*, it must comprehend the fourfold mental activity enunciated above, as corresponding to the fourfold states recognised by philosophers in *śama*⁷.