Rasa (aesthetics)
[1][2] It is a concept in Indian arts denoting the aesthetic flavour of any visual, literary or musical work that evokes an indescribable feeling in the reader or audience.
[4] However, its most complete exposition in drama, songs and other performance arts is found in the works of the Kashmiri Shaivite philosopher Abhinavagupta (c. 1000 CE), demonstrating the persistence of a long-standing aesthetic tradition of ancient India.
Instead, the primary goal is to transport the audience into another, parallel reality full of wonder and bliss, where they experience the essence of their own consciousness, and reflect on spiritual and moral questions.
[8][9][10] The Indian theory of rasa is also found in the Hindu arts and Ramayana musical productions of Bali and Java (Indonesia), but with regional creative evolution.
[11] According to the Natya Shastra, a rasa is a synthetic phenomenon and the goal of any creative performance art, oratory, painting or literature.
The theory of rasas forms the aesthetic underpinning of all Indian classical dance and theatre, such as Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri, Kudiyattam, and others.
[8] In Indian classical music, each raga is an inspired creation for a specific mood, where the musician or ensemble creates the rasa in the listener.
[citation needed] Anger, disgust, fear and such emotions are not the subject of rasa, but they are part of Indian theories on dramatic arts.
Saṛdaya-s are those spectators who: In his philosophical work, Abhinavagupta believed that sahṛdayatā (aesthetic sensitivity), is crucial within the context of music and bhakti.
He emphasizes that the capacity for enjoyment is closely linked to receptivity to the ultimate experience and labels those unable to appreciate good music as "ahrdaya" (heartless, insensitive).
In many cases, it aims to produce repose and relief for those exhausted with labor, or distraught with grief, or laden with misery, or struck by austere times.
The primary goal is to create rasa so as to lift and transport the spectators towards the expression of ultimate reality and transcendent values.
[32] Bharata Muni enunciated the eight rasas in the Nātyasāstra, an ancient Sanskrit text of dramatic theory and other performance arts, written between 200 BC and 200 AD.
This addition had to undergo a good deal of struggle between the sixth and the tenth centuries before it could be accepted and the expression "Navarasa", (the nine rasas), could become established.
Shānta-rasa functions as an equal member of the set of rasas, but it is simultaneously distinct as being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss.
[37] In Hindi cinema, it is the theme of the film Naya Din Nayi Raat, where Sanjeev Kumar plays nine characters corresponding to nine Rasa.
