Name :- Nirali J rathod
Roll no. :- 24
Paper no :- 7 , Literary theory and criticism
Topic :- Rasa theory
Enrolment no. 20691084201900039
E-mail ID- niralijrathod@gmail.com
SUBMITTED TO - S B GARDI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Theory of Rasa described in Chapters VI and VII of Natya Shastra
The theory of Rasa-Bhava establishes a relationship between the performer and the spectator. The model spectator is a Sahrdaya, someone ‘who empathizes with the author.’ Since the success of a performance is measured by whether or not the audience has a specific experience (rasa), the spectator becomes a vital participant in the play.
Bharata calls human soul as Bhava-Jagat (the world of emotions). Bharata and later authors explain how the Art universalizes emotions making them an instrument of appeal to the spectators. They say that the actor acts as bearer, media and connector of emotions of the character. By conveying emotions the actor step by step opens inner Bhava-Jagat of the character, creates special emotional atmosphere, which can be felt and relished. The actor introduces and involves the spectators into this emotional atmosphere. Thus, emotions of the character are spread through the actor to spectators, who share them collectively, as a group, by relishing the Rasa. Thus emotions are embodied and translated from one person to many.
Bhava and Rasa
Bharata says that which can be relished – like the taste of food – is rasa: “Rasyate anena iti rasaha (asvadayatva).”
According to Bharata, the playwright experiences a certain emotion (bhava). The director of the play should properly understand the idea and bhava-s of the character and convey his knowledge and understanding to the actors. The actors perform their parts using their own vision and experience, but they should follow the main idea and key bhavas emphasized by the director, Sutradhara.
The term bhava means both existence and a mental state, and in aesthetic contexts it has been variously translated as feelings, psychological states, and emotions. In the context of the drama, bhavas are the emotions represented in the performance.
Bhava is that which becomes (Sanskrit root “bhoo”, “bhav” means “to become”); and bhava becomes rasa. In Natya Shastra it is said, that bhavas by themselves carry no meaning in the absence of Rasa: “Nahi rasadyate kashid_apyarthah pravattate.” Forms and manifestations of bhavas are defined by the rasa. It is therefore said, Rasa is the essence of art conveyed.
Rasa is the emotional response the bhavas inspire in the spectator (the Rasika or Sahrudaya). Rasa is thus an aesthetically transformed emotional state experienced by the spectator. Rasa is accompanied by feelings of pleasure and enjoyment. Such emotions tunes perception of the spectators, they create atmosphere of empathy, make people more sensitive, help to open mind and heart to understand the idea and message of the play.
Rasa is associated with palate, it is delight afforded by all forms of art; and the pleasure that people derive from their art experience. It is literally the activity of savoring an emotion in its full flavor. The term might also be taken to mean the essence of human feelings.
Rasa is sensuous, proximate, experiential. Rasa is aromatic. Rasa fills space, joining the outside to the inside. What was outside is transformed into what is inside.
Abhinaya
The actors convey bhavas using Abhinaya. The Sanskrit root “abhi” means “to lead”, “to go together”. Abhinaya is the process by which the meaning of the play is “led toward” the audience.
Human activity is divided into the physical, the verbal and the mental. Thus Abhinaya is four-fold – Sattvika (temperamental), Angika (physical), Vachika (verbal) and Aharya (dress, make-up, etc.).
Mrinalini Sarabhai uses famous shloka from “Abhinaya Darpanam” to explain these four aspects: “Where the hands go the eyes follow [anubhava], where the eyes go the mind follows [sattvika abhinaya], where the mind goes the mood [bhava] follows, where the mood goes there is rasa born.”
Sattvika abhinaya is very important kind of Abhinaya, showing the highest level of actor’s identification with the character . All of the components of abhinaya must be applied by the actor in order for him to bring the audience to the correct rasa, and thus to the enjoyment of the play, but sattva, which literally means ‘purity,’ however in dramaturgy is the psychological ability of the actor to identify with the character and his emotions, is the hardest to master and to understand.
As Bharata asserts, “Sattva . . . is [something] originating in mind. It is caused by the concentrated mind. The Sattva is accomplished by concentration of the mind. It’s nature cannot be mimicked by an absent-minded man.”
The Natya Shastra calls Sattvika abhinaya the “Spirited” modes of abhinaya, but the best explanations link it to Stanislavsky’s “Magic ‘If’” and “Sense of Truth.” This allows the actor to convince himself the circumstances are real to the character, even though, as the actor, he knows they are not.
When executed properly, sattvika abhinaya allows the actor to exhibit the physical signs of the emotions the character’s feeling, such as tears, trembling, change of color, or horripilation (the hair standing on end, or goosebumps). For the audience to feel the correct rasa, the actor must manifest the outward expressions of the character’s emotion using all kinds of abhinaya, but especially sattva. The Natya Shastra insists, “The Histrionic Representation with an exuberant Sattva is superior, the one with the level Sattva is middling, and that with no [exercise of] Sattva is inferior.”
Vibhava and Anubhava
Actions and feelings are evoked in connection with certain surrounding objects and circumstances, called Vibhava-s. Different mental and emotional states manifest themselves and become visible through universal physiological reactions called Anubhava-s.
Thus Bhava, the emotion felt by the character, results from a “Determinant” (vibhava), or determining circumstance, such as the time of year, the presence of loved ones, the decor or environment, and so on. The vibhava affects the character so that he feels sorrow, terror, anger, or some such emotion (bhava).
The “Consequent” (anubhava) of a particular bhava is a specific behavior exhibited by the actor as he portrays the character such as weeping, fainting, blushing, or the like. The anubhava, if properly executed, will cause the audience to feel a specific rasa corresponding to the bhava felt by the actor:
VIBHAVA---causes--->BHAVA---causes--->ANUBHAVA--->RASA
This is precisely the process Stanislavsky describes for his actors. A character’s feelings arise from the circumstances of the scene, both those in effect at the moment and those that occurred before. The feelings, combined with the “given circumstances,” cause her to behave in a certain way--the “stage action.” Replacing the Sanskrit terms of The Natyasastra with Stanislavskian terminology, the diagram might look like this:
GIVEN CIRCS.---cause--->EMOTION---causes--->BEHAVIOR--->AUD. RESPONSE
Eight Sthayi bhavas
Chapter VII of The Natya Shastra goes into great detail about the bhavas, which are broken down into three categories. Bharata mentions eight “Durable,” “Permanent,” or “Constant” emotional conditions called Sthayi bhavas:
These emotional states are inherent to humans. They are basic as they are inborn, understandable without explanation. They also are characterized by intensity, as they dominate and direct behavior. On the stage Sthayi bhavas are represented by certain Anubhavas, explained in Natya Shastra as follows:
Sthayi bhavas are manifested by corresponding Anubhavas:
Rati (Pleasure) - Smiling face, sweet words, contraction of eye-brows, sidelong glances and the like.
Hasa (Joy) - Smile and the like, i.e., laugher, excessive laugher.
Shoka (Sorrow) - Shedding tears, lamentation, bewailing, change of color, loss of voice, looseness of limbs, falling on the ground, crying, deep breathing, paralysis, insanity, death and the like.
Krodha (Malice) - Extended nostrils, unturned eyes, bitten lips, throbbing cheeks and the like.
against enemies - knitting of the eye-brows, fierce look, bitten lips, hands clasping each other, touching one’s own shoulder and breast.
when controlled by superiors - slightly downcast eyes, wiping off slight perspiration and not expressing any violent movement.
against beloved woman - very slight movement of the body, shedding tears, knitting eyebrows, sidelong glances and throbbing lips.
against one’s servants - threat, rebuke, dilating eyes and casting contemptuous looks of various kinds.
artificial - betraying signs of effort.
Utsaha (Courage) - steadiness, munificence, boldness of undertaking and the like.
Bhaya (Fear) - trembling of the hands and feet, palpitation of the heart, paralysis, dryness of the mouth, licking lips, perspiration, tremor, apprehension of danger, seeking for safety, running away, loud crying and the like.
Jugupsa (Disgust) - contracting all the limbs, spitting, narrowing down of the mouth, heartache and the like.
Vismaya (Surprise) - wide opening the eyes, looking without winking of the eyes and movement of the eye-brows, horripilation, moving the head to and fro, the cry of ‘well done’ and the like.
Eight Rasa-s
The eight Sthai bhava-s evoke eight corresponding Rasa-s:
Rati evokes Sringara (the Erotic - romance, love)
Hasa evokes Hasya (the comic - laugh, humor)
Shoka evokes Karuna (the pathetic - compassion, sadness)
Krodha evokes Roudra (the furious - indignation, anger)
Utsaha evokes Veera (the heroic - valor)
Bhaya evokes Bhayanaka (the terrible - fear, horror)
Jugupsa evokes Bibhasa (the odious - disgust, aversion, repugnance)
Vismaya evokes Adbhuta (the marvelous - wonder, astonishment, amazement)