Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v2.c86.66

v2.c86.66

Coming to the essential basis of rasa, viz. the bhāva, we have seen that Bharata defines it in general terms as that which manifests the sense of poetry through the three kinds of representation, *vācika*, *āngika* and *sāttvika*³⁹; it is the emotion which ultimately becomes a sentiment, if it is dominant, and therefore, serves as the basis of *rasa*. But later authorities arrive at a greater precision and apply the term technically to those cases where there is no proper or complete development of *rasa*. Both Dhanañjaya and Bhānudatta expand the definition of Bharata, the latter defining it as a deviation from the natural mental state (*vikāra*) which is favourable to the development of *rasa* (*rasānukūla*) and which may be either physical (*śārīra*) or mental (*āntara*); but Mammaṭa fixes the conception as *ratir devādi-viṣayā vyabhicārī tathāñjitaḥ* (‘love having for its object a deity or the like, and also the suggested Accessory’), on which he adds the gloss *ādi-śabdān muni-guru-nṛpa-putrādi-viṣayaḥ, kāntā-viṣayā tu vyaktā śṛṅgāraḥ* (‘by the term the like are meant sages, preceptor, the king, son etc., the one having a beloved woman for its object becomes the erotic’). Govinda explains that the word *rati* here implies the *sthāyi-bhāva* which has not attained to the state of *rasa*⁴⁰. What is meant is that when the *sthāyi-bhāvas*, like *rati*, have for their objects God, king, son and the like, or when the *vyabhicāri-bhāvas* are manifested as the principal sentiment in a composition, there is no *rasa* but *bhāva*; and this definition is accepted by all writers after him.