History of Sanskrit Poetics c6.71

c6.71

We may apply the theory of *rasa* to the ādikāvya viz. Rāmāyaṇa. It is narrated in the Bālakāṇḍa that the sage Vālmīki saw a hunter killing one out of a pair of amorous krauñca birds. The parting of the loving pair by violent means, the fall and death of the female bird are the vibhāvas of karuṇa-rasa and the lamentation and piercing cry of anguish uttered by the surviving male partner are the anubhāvas of *karuṇa*; these powerfully moved the dormant mood of sympathy and pathos in Vālmīki’s heart, for a moment it beat in unison with the sorrow of the bird (तन्मयीभाव) and there was an overflow of that powerful feeling in the form of the measured verse ‘मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगमः शाश्वतीः समाः’. It should not be thought that the sage was plunged into grief (शोक) in the popular sense. The word शोक in रघुवंश XIV. 70 and ध्व० quoted above (on p. 332 n. 2) is used in the dramatic sense (viz. as the स्थायिभाव)¹. The sage was not occupied with his own sorrow felt for the poor bird, but with the whole objective episode that stirred his heart and that led to the outburst (viz. मा निषाद प्र०). The situation as idealized by the sage's vision due to his sensitive nature and imagination gave rise to the poetic outburst, when the poet is completely full of the transcendental (*alaukika*) mental experience of an emotional idealized situation, then poetry gushes out from him, as the Locana p. 32 puts it (यावत्पूर्णो न चैतेन तावन्नैवैवमिति). Not every reader of a poem can appreciate or experience the emotional appeal of that poem. The reader also must possess sufficient mental equipment and visualize in his own mind the situation as expressed by the poet. This is what is meant by Tota quoted from the Locana at p. 220 above (नायकस्य कवेः श्रोतुः समानोनुभवस्ततः). The poet cannot communicate to every reader the emotional situation depicted in the poem. He can only awaken in the