Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c10.s6.9

c10.s6.9

We thus find that the rhetoricians like Daṇḍin and Vāmana on one hand and the followers of Bharata like Lollaṭa and Śaṅkuka on the other hand upheld the formalistic and objective view of *rasa*. But then a subjective view of *rasa* was proposed with all its psychic ramifications. A great turning point in the development of *rasa* theory comes with Bhaṭṭanāyaka. Bhaṭṭanāyaka revolutionized the whole thinking, shifting the emphasis to the experience of *sahṛdaya* (connoisseur). To explain the psycho-somatic process of *rasa* realization, he adopted terms from four philosophical systems — Sāṁkhya, Mīmāṁsā, Vedānta and Śaivism. In earlier views of Lollaṭa and Śaṅkuka, the perceiver and the object of perception both are situated on different planes of time and space, and are interrelated only due to *anusandhāna* (search for identification) or *anumiti* (inference). In contrast to this, Bhaṭṭanāyaka found both the subject and the object uprooted from their time and space to stand on a single plane in the state of *bhoga* (bliss). Abhinavagupta, providing a subtle interpretation to his theory, calls this process of uprooting as *ubhayadeśakāla-tyāga*. Śāradātanaya in his *Bhāvaprakāśa* exhaustively explains Bhaṭṭanāyaka's theory and he also shows how the whole process can be explained through the tenets of Śaivism. Accordingly, the three elements — *rāga*, *vidyā* and *kalā* — cause an inclination in a person to the pursuits of art. Because of *rāga* the objects of poetry, even when they are contaminated with sorrow and illusion, produce *sukhābhimāna* (sense of pleasure). He suggests that the process of *bhāvakatva* or *sādhāraṇīkaraṇa* tends to eradicate the intense crisis of human personality — remaining shackled with particularities. Once the mind is liberated from its limits, it attains the state of *bhoga* (bliss). The exuberance of the tranquil state of mind (*sattvodreka*) is characterized by *prakāśa* (light) and *vimarśa* (reflection). This *bhoga* involves a complex psychic process where *bhoktā* (connoisseur), *bhojya* (emotions to be relished) and *bhukti* (process) are integrated.