Indian Aesthetics

The paper aims at critical reconsideration of a motif popular in Indian literary, ritual, and pictorial traditions – a tree goddess (yakṣī, vṛkṣakā) or a woman embracing a tree (śālabhañjīkā, dohada), which points to a close and intimate bond between women and trees. At the outset, I present the most important phases of the evolution of this popular motif from the ancient times to present days. Then two essential characteristics of nature recognized in Indian visual arts, literature, religions and philosophy will be distinguished: (1) a dynamic, creative, self-sufficient and inexhaustible power, and (2) a passive, merely reproductive or vegetative, and dependent field of potentiality. The paper is to demonstrate the interdependence of the popular concepts of nature identified with femininity, and their iconic representations circulating for centuries in Indian culture, with a specific line of argument repeatedly used in social practices and public debates. While doing so, I consider the semiotic function of a cultural topos which proves to be an effective instrument for construing and supporting the gender roles and gender identities. As a modern example illustrating vitality and persuasive power of the motif of yakṣī and śālabhañjīkā, I refer to the Chipko Movement, a group of rural women based in the Garhwal Himalayas (state Uttarakhand), who fought against the mass cut of trees in the 1970s. They were involved in the wide-spread environmental campaign which significantly affected the ecological policy of the local and state authorities. Thus, a traditional motif of the visual arts has been revived and re-elaborated by the activists of this ecofeminist movement through converting the symbolic potential of yakṣī/śālabhañjīkā into social and political power.

• Debunk validity, coherence, universal promise of rasa-aesthetics by pitting Hindu theorists against each other (Nāyaka & Ānanda against Abhinava) • Section of 70-page article on " Abhinava's Rasa-aesthetics & Bharata's sacrificial theater: humor & its semblance in the Mṛcchakaṭikā " (IGNCA) • Sādhāraṇīkaraṇa: basic yet misunderstood concept; implications beyond (secularized) aesthetics to embrace theater as sacrifice (yajña)

Beauty is the manifestation of God. It develops an impulse of love, and to love beauty is to love God, the Creator of
the universe. Beauty is comprehended through senses, and sensuous values develop spiritual consciousness. The
awareness of Beauty is acquisition of Truth that is Beneficial or the cause for Welfare. Keats was a worshiper of
beauty. “He loved the principle of beauty in all things.” Primarily he was considered a poet of sensuous beauty but a
thorough study of his poetry and letters reveals that his conception of beauty was holistic and transcendental, being
closer to the Indian concept summed up in the expression- Satyam Shivam Sundaram. The present paper is a critical
study of Keats’ mysticism of beauty in the lines of Indian views. The attempt has been made to go through some of
the relevant Indian religious texts to prop up Keats’ belief and present the veracity of Keats which has remained
dormant in the oblivion of time.

This chapter explores the ways Abhinavagupta, an eleventh-century Kashmirian polymath, establishes the experience of serenity (śānta) as one of the appraised emotions called rasa. Beyond the issue of whether serenity can be the savoring of rasa, this chapter explores various models from classical Hindu and Buddhist philosophies that establish serenity in order to contextualize the phenomenology of experiencing serenity. For Abhinava, this experience is not a mere negation of emotions but a positive experience. And to establish his argument, Abhinava explores the ways absence is analyzed in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. One of the central problems of aesthetics that overlaps metaphysics is whether the
experience of serenity is identical to the experience of liberation. Abhinava
paves his path through the middle, without collapsing this experience to the
mystical experience of the Brahman or to common everyday experiences. By rejecting the argument that serenity is a product of cessation or that dispassion evolves into serenity, Abhinava argues that serenity emerges from self-awareness.

On note, dans le Gītārthasaṃgraha, commentaire d’Abhinavagupta à la Bhagavadgītā śivaïte, des observations qui relèvent de la pensée esthétique indienne. Or l’une des gloses aux Spandakārikā, « Les strophes du spanda », à savoir, la Vivr̥ti ou Spandavivr̥ti, œuvre de Rāmakaṇṭha, propose une exégèse tout à fait originale de la strophe 22.
Dans la lignée des raisonnements d’Abhinavagupta, elle montre combien la pensée esthétique pénètre les spéculations du śivaïsme non dualiste cachemirien et constitue ce que j’appellerai « une approche esthétique d’une phénoménologie de la transcendance ». C’est cette glose que nous examinons, d’autant qu’elle a le mérite d’illustrer l’intertextualité continûment à l’œuvre dans ce système de pensée.

This essay is an attempt to build a critique of the controversial paintings of M. F. Husain from the perspective of the aesthetic concept of aucitya. Since aucitya is considered necessary for derivation of rasa, the critique also involves a rasa based analysis of these paintings of Husain. Finally this essay also explores the aptness of classical Indian aesthetic concepts like rasa, dhvani and aucitya in evaluating artworks deeply-rooted in modernity.

Transcending psychological inhibitions caused by colonial encounter in the comprehension of the past is a daunting task in aesthetic discourses, given the fact that colonial paradigms are difficult to erase and contemporary public spaces of art like Museums, as argued by Edward Said are colonial projects. India's perceptions related to the creation, nature, and evaluation of arts has gone a sea change in the colonial period which created a sort of alienation towards the manifestation of indigenous culture among the colonial subjects. Apart from this, the nature of performance, display, patronage venue, audience and space all underwent far reaching transformations in the process. Leela Gandhi demonstrates that in its reflexive modality, post colonialism holds out the possibility of thinking our way through and out of the historical imbalances and cultural imbalances produced by the colonial encounter.1However, in the retrieval of traditional discourses, distortions are bound to happen when using modern terminology , especially as Aesthetics itself happens to be a non indigenous discipline. Despite these severe methodological constraints, the present paper proposes to explore the relationship between the aesthetic theory formulated by thinkers like Abhinavagupta and praxis related to the creation, experience and evaluation of art forms like the performance arts , painting and sculpture in Precolonial India. The paper will focus on the extant and limitations of the inter relatedness with a view to bring to the fore the tensions involved and the insights they could yield in contemporary attempt to make sense of theory and praxis.Apart from the theoretical works, the sources which are being consulted would comprise self reflexive statements of multi faceted artists like Kalidasa who have occasion to deal with art in its various manifestation in the representation of life. It is hoped that such an exercise will be of some use in the comprehension of tradition and for some sort of self reflexivity in contemporary times especially in addressing issues of identity of Indian art. Needless to say, the paper distances itself from any type of exhortations to 'return to the past' as the present writer feels that tradition in its most creative phase is always dynamic and experimental. Tradition is only one of the resources for the creative spirit.. It is indeed a daunting task to locate the conventional precolonial discourse which could be the exact counterpart of modern aesthetics which would discuss problems related to theory and praxis. Natyasastra , the seminal and iconic text of performing arts of India is virtually an encyclopedia of Indian arts in which the center piece is dramatic performance, but which incidentally discusses allied arts like music and dance. In one way, it is the edifice on which the entire aesthetic thought of India is built. Texts like 1 1 Leela Gandhi, Post Colonial Theory, p.176.

The paper aspires to examine the role played by the aesthetic theory of Rasa on one hand, and the meditative theory of Yoga on the other, in the artistic expression of the adi-rasa, Sringara.
From Vatsayana’s Kamasutra to the theory of Mahasukhavada in Mahayana and subsequently Vajrayana Buddhism; the ideals of Love in the Bhakti movement or in the understanding of Shakti; the first half probes into the historical traditions of theological doctrines, at the very base of aesthetic theories.
Further, it focuses on Vaishnavism with its erotic dogma, in perceiving the cosmic yet earthly love of Radha and Krishna.  The post-Chaitanya age in Sahajiya Vaishnava philosophy becomes a critical area of enquiry here. The profound realization of Sringara, we see manifested in miniature paintings from Rajasthan, Basholi, Kangra, so on and so forth.
At the wake of cultural re-awakening in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, painters from the Bengal School looked back to this Vaishnavite theme for artistic inspiration. The emerging identity of the individual Indian artist as well as its contemporary historiography is thus closely associated to the theory of Rasa- the imager and the rasika.
Into the bargain, a marked difference in Freudian and Jungian analyses makes an interesting reading of Sringara, the Maharasa in Indian aesthetics.

This article is an attempt at understanding the use that Abhinavagupta (950-1020?), the Kashmiri Śaiva philosopher and scholar of poetics, makes of a few concepts and theories stemming from the tradition of Vedic ritual exegesis (Pūrva-Mīmāṁ sā). Its starting point is the detailed analysis of a key passage in Abhinavagupta's commentary on the "aphorism on rasa(s)" of the Nāṭyaśāstra, where the learned commentator draws an analogy between the operation of the non-prescriptive portions of the Veda in the ritual and the "generalisation" (sādhāraṇīkaraṇa) taking place, according to him, in the appreciation of a work of art. Arguing against the tendency of modern historiography to explain this analogy exclusively in terms of Kumārila's theory of effectuation (bhāvanā) in its two modalities, the article endeavours to show how Abhinavagupta relies on a variety of other textual sources he knew extensively and presumably first-hand. Some of them belong to the great Mīmāṁ saka tradition (Śabara, possibly Maṅḋana Miśra); others, to different trends of medieval Brahmanism claiming exegetical heritage, as in the case of Jayanta Bhaṫt˙a's Nyāyamañjarī. The nature of Abhinavagupta's debt to Bhaṫṫa Nāyaka and his concept of bhāvanā is also reconsidered in light of these new findings. This investigation finally leads to identify, in the Abhinavabhāratī, an original theory of scriptural narratives and their efficacy, irreducible to any of its exegetical (or pseudoexegetical) sources. According to this theory, mythological passages of the Veda directly This article is the partial outcome of the project "Speech and action in early Brahmanical philosophy," carried out at the University of Cambridge with the generous support of the Royal Society of Great Britain (Newton International Fellowship). Special thanks are due to Daniele Cuneo and Elisa Ganser for their remarks and criticism, and for sharing with me important unpublished materials including digital images of three manuscripts of the Abhinavabhāratī. I also thank Vincenzo Vergiani for very useful comments on an earlier version of this text, and D. Cuneo for allowing me to use his hitherto unpublished PhD thesis.

Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online. Rivista Telematica del Dipartimento di Linguistica dell’Università di Pisa. Proceedings of the XII National Meeting of  National Association for Sanskrit Studies, Milan. www.humnet.unipi.it/slifo/vol5.2/Pacciolla5.2.pdf

Though Abhinavagupta’s contributions to the Śaiva systems of Indian philosophy, Sanskrit poetics and dramaturgy are well known, the same cannot be said about his contributions to music and musicology, which remain a relatively unexplored subject yet. The reason for this seems to be that Abhinava’s stature in philosophy and aesthetics is so imposing that we tend to underrate his achievements in other fields. However the fact remains that Abhinava has made significant contributions to the aesthetic, philosophical and technical aspects of music. Madhurāja Yogin portrays him in his meditative verse(dhyānaśloka) as playing on the nādavīnā and giving instructions in music to his disciples.  He is one of the few musicologists mentioned as an authority by Śārngadeva in his Saṅgītaratnākara. Abhinava’s treatment of music can be broadly distinguished as falling into two categories, viz. his treatment of technical aspects of music, especially music related to dramaturgy as gleaned through works like Abhinavabhāratī and his philosophical explication of music as a part of his aesthetic philosophy found in works like Tantrāloka.

The student who embarks on a journey of discovery and revelation is faced with a dichotomy.  Our university  - level academics are inherited from a colonial past based in orientalism. Modern day professional challenges faced by scholars and academicians to publish in internationally refereed journals has cast a western logical paradigm to research and thesis. So areas of study such as history, philosophy and languages has been split into a western logical and scientific school and the indian mystic and mythical philosophy school.

In the study of art and aesthetics, western aesthetics covers the classical greek schools, moves to the enlightenment periods and culminates with the present day post modernist schools. Each interprets aesthetics  anchored in their respective world views. Even though the Indian philosophy and their schools pre-date and are more matured in their insight to the subject, it would be unthinkable to give credence to this essay without examining western aesthetics theories.

Therefore the challenge before the author is to look at western aesthetics for a unifying human thought that resonates with the concept of aesthetics that is endogenous to the culture it is being examined in. It is also seen that there is no real continuous western aesthetic theory as the last hundred years sees a shift in the cultural canvas of the western world towards the euro-centric, ‘left-of-the-centre’ theories that challenge the classical traditions and demonstrate iconoclastic artistic expression as the colours of our time

This workshop will principally include a close textual reading of selections from the Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana—the celebrated work on Indian literary theory—together with the Locana commentary of Abhinavagupta. The Dhvanyāloka deals with the entire gamut of signification in poetic language, arguing that great literature always communicates through suggestion (dhvani). Another salient feature of the work is that it offers a broad-based aesthetic theory relevant in other art forms like music, drama and painting. The workshop will focus on select passages of the text and explain its sense in English putting Ānandavardhana’s work in proper perspective. The aim of the workshop is to familiarize the participants with core themes in the text of the Dhvanyāloka so that the necessary theoretical background could be created to explore its aesthetic dimensions, which could broaden their horizons of thought and enhance their artistic sensibilities as creative artists and connoisseurs of art.

Este ensayo explora los términos del/los modernismo(s) en el subcontinente indio. Me concentro en los momentos modernistas críticos, atravesando las formas estéticas del sur de Asia durante el siglo xx. Están en juego reclamos para superar el pasado que aparece variadamente influido por el imperio y la nación, el comunitarismo y el nacionalismo, la memoria y la historia, lo mítico y lo primitivo, una independencia fracturada y una Partición violenta, el género y la sexualidad, el cuerpo y el dolor, así como lo épico y lo contempo-ráneo. En conjunto, se ofrecen temporalidades de modernismos que son heterogéneas, pero superpuestas. Estas consideraciones son acla-radas por medio de imágenes formidables de Savi Sawarkar, un artista expresionista y dalit. Aquí, las demandas, contenciones y contradic-ciones de un sujeto moderno particular sacan a relucir ansiedades, ambivalencias e identidades engendradas por la modernidad y sus sujetos.

When Uday Shankar and his company launched their inaugural world tour in Paris in 1931, European and American audiences received the ensemble enthusiastically. How could this group of foreigners have been so successful on Western stages? Bringing together numerous reviews on Shankar and early ethnographic writings, Diana Brenscheidt gen. Jost examines the distinct, often spiritually-biased, image dance and music from India held at the beginning of the 20th century in the West, an image which would also crucially affect the perception of native dance and music traditions in India itself.

Eleventh chapter of Indian epic poem the Bhagavad-Gītā mediates an important dimensions about the nature of god through revelation of his different aspects. The emphasis is on the picturesque dreadful image of god, which is a constitutional part of the totality of his identity and is a complementary aspect of Absolute's existence, which is on the other hand also gentle and benevolent. He is not only a creator, but also a destroyer, as warrior Arjuna realized through the majestic spectacle of divine's revelation. This vision is the origin of a special aesthetic experience, which supports human's faith in god, and at the same time is the basis for comprehension of the eternal laws of god and for ethical conduct, based on right attitude toward active participation in the society.

The purpose of this article is to argue, prove and demonstrate that Indian Music and Dance have a crucial role to play in the overall development of the Republic of Mauritius.

Following intensive and extensive literature search, and field study, the author shows that cultural and economic values inherent in these art-forms, if soundly and systematically explored, identified and leveraged, have the potential to create and enhance human, cultural, artistic and social capitals through arts education, besides contributing to economic development by generating jobs and earnings through the establishment of Indian Music and Dance Industries in the country. The author further argues that it is incumbent upon the government to formulate and deliver informed, evidence-based cultural policies to guide thoughts and actions in the arts, culture and economic sectors. Largely, the arguments are based on the experiences of different countries, especially those of India, and the findings of researchers in the field.

Keywords. Culture, Economics, Indian Music and Dance, Value, Cultural Industries, Indian Music and Dance Industries, Development, and Cultural Policy

his article concerns techniques whereby poets of classical Sanskrit literature (kāvya) interacted with their story materials (kathās), and conceptions in medieval Indian poetics (alaṃkāraśāstra) concerning their interaction. Taking poetic liberties enabled poets (kavis) of this tradition to assert their independence from canonical versions of their sources. Two court epics (mahākāvyas), the Surathotsava and the Durgāvilāsa, which refashion the tale of a Purāṇic legend the Devīmāhātmya, form case-studies for the argument. The Devīmāhātmya (c. 8th century CE) tells the demon-slaying deeds of a tempestuous warrior goddess Caṇḍikā, and her encounter with Suratha, a king who has lost his kingdom. The work is the most important kathā of the goddess, forming the liturgical text of the Nine Nights (Navarātra), an annual autumnal ceremony worshipping this deity. The Surathotsava (“The Festival of Suratha”), a 13th century mahākāvya by Someśvaradeva, active in the Caulukya court at Aṇahilvāḍ-Pāṭan, and the Durgāvilāsa (“The Delights of Durgā”), from c. the 17th century CE or possibly much earlier, a hitherto unknown and unpublished mahākāvya by Rāmakṛṣṇa, draw their inspiration and materials from the narrative-paradigm of the Devīm hātmya. However, the versions of the story of King Suratha to be found in these two mahākāvyas diverge from the canonical kathā of Suratha in the Devīmāhātmya. The purpose, effect and relation of these narrative transformations with their source become more meaningful when considered in the light of a broader tradition favouring poetic licence articulated in classical aesthetics. The Indian aesthetic tradition acknowledged the exercise of liberty, even with kathās with a sacred character serving a role in ritual, as a fundamental principle in making and experiencing poetry. The discovery of the Durgāvilāsa is announced here, and this mahākāvya receives its first scholarly treatment in the present study.
(Note: The article ends with a passage by my great great grandmother, Saralabala Sarkar,  a freedom fighter, intellectual and writer in the 1920s.)

through the Dhvani theory developed in his Dhvanyāloka demonstrated that in creative literature, (kāvya) there is a suggested meaning revealed by language which shines above the conventionally accepted primary (vācya) and the metaphorical (lākṣaṇika) meanings. In his view, it is the suggested meaning which is the hall mark of great literature and accordingly he designates it as the very soul (atman) of poetry .Keeping in tune with the notion that any type of meaning requires a particular power to generate it, he postulated the power of 'suggestion' (vyañjanā) to account for its being revealed to readers and spectators of taste who are not content with the merely expressed sense. Though he does not dilate on the process of the reading of the text, it appears from Dhvanyāloka that this power, inherent in the word and sense of poetry, generates the shades of meaning which add depth to the conventionally accepted sense. It is well known that Mahimabhaṭṭa developed his theory of inference (anumāna) with the claim that all varieties of Dhvani can be included in the former. 1 The present paper is an attempt to analyze the alternate reading process outlined by him in his explication of the examples of Dhvani given by Ānandavardhana with a view to contrast his view with that of Ānandavardhana and Abhinavagupta, his commentator. Ānandavardhana does not pay much attention to the hermeneutical process through which the reader arrives at the unexpressed content of literature .He points out that the ideal reader is averse to the 1 Vyaktiviveka, I.1.

Abhinavagupta (c. 950-1020) was an Indian philosopher, theologist, aesthetician, mystic and poet. Besides being one of the most influential exponents of the so-called Kashmir Shivaism, he took a vital interest in the theory of Sanskrit poetics. Abhinavagupta's works on aesthetics cover almost every aspect of the discipline. Above all, he created a coherent aesthetic system, which can be viewed as a continuation and an enhancement of the influential Rasa-bhava theory. The aim of this article is to provide a succinct description of Abhinavagupta's theory of aesthetics which encompasses his interpretation of the Rasa theory and his views on the nature of aesthetic and mystic experiences as closely related through śāntarasa – a special kind of emotion described by Abhinava as a form of universal bliss of the Self (ātman).

This article is designed as a concise presentation of the way, in which the linguistic theory of sphoṭa, proposed by Bhartṛhari (5th cent. CE), has influenced the idea of emotive suggestion (rasa dhvani) – one of the most prominent Indian aesthetic concepts, created by Ānandavardhana (9th cent. CE). Firstly, the most important facets of Bhartṛhari’s theory are presented, beginning with the essence of relation between sphoṭa – a singular and unchanging entity capable of conveying meaning – and its audible, differentiated, and temporal manifestation – dhvani. Next step lies in describing the theory of Ānandavardhana, in which dhvani becomes a factor carrying the suggested meaning (vyañjanā) of a single word and of a whole utterance; and eventually – a factor that can also convey the emotive suggestion of a literary work as a whole. It is proven that there exists a close relation between grasping the meaning of a statement through sphoṭa, and understanding the emotive overtone of a literary work through the power of suggestion (rasa dhvani).

While it is common to hear that we are living in an era of global education, academic philosophy and aesthetics continue to reflect a heavy bias toward Western philosophies, thinkers, and arts. This curriculum project has two central aims. The first aim is to support the diversification of aesthetics curricula through the inclusion of Asian philosophical perspectives. The second aim is to present reading modules in a way that highlights the rich possibilities for cross-cultural and comparative work in aesthetics. Aesthetics often succeeds in philosophizing across borders where other methods fail for a number of reasons. Aesthetics brings together a wide range of philosophical methods and considerations, including but not limited to epistemological, hermeneutical, metaphysical, political, and ethical. The fundamental role of perception in aesthetics should encourage appropriate cultural reflexivity and reflection. Additionally, the philosophical interpretation of a work of art can place demands and yield results in a manner similar to ideal cross-cultural philosophizing. Asian philosophy of art and aesthetics contributes to these aims in at least two important ways. First, the arts were often treated as philosophical practices in a number of Asian traditions. Second, aesthetics occupied a principal place in the philosophies included here, arguably on par with the preeminent role that metaphysics has played in the history of European philosophy. Complementing the first two aims of diversifying contemporary aesthetics and highlighting opportunities for comparative and cross-cultural work, this reading list is designed to also strengthen the role of aesthetics in philosophy more broadly by showcasing traditions for which aesthetics was at the center of philosophical practices and methods. This project therefore supports the importance of non-Western traditions in the discipline of aesthetics and confirms aesthetics at the center of philosophy.

This is a brief review of the Rasa theory of Indian aesthetics and the works I have done on the same. A major source of the Indian system of classification of emotional states comes from the ‘Natyasastra’, the ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, which dates back to the 2nd Century AD (or much earlier, pg. LXXXVI:  Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). The ‘Natyasastra’ speaks about ‘sentiments’ or ‘Rasas’ (pg.102:  Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951) which are produced when certain ‘dominant states’ (sthayi Bhava), ‘transitory states’ (vyabhicari Bhava) and ‘temperamental states’ (sattvika Bhava) of emotions come together (pgs.102, 105:  Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951).  This Rasa theory, which is still widely followed in classical Indian performing arts, classifies eight Rasas or sentiments which are: Sringara (erotic), Hasya (comic), Karuna (pathetic), Raudra (furious), Vira (heroic), Bhayanaka (terrible), Bibhatsa (odious) and Adbhuta (marvellous). There was a later addition of the ninth sentiment or Rasa called Santa (peace) in later Sanskrit poetics (pg.102:  Natyasastra, Ghosh, 1951). According to ancient Indian aesthetics (especially in the context of Bharatas’ ‘Natyasastra’, Anandavardhana’s ‘Dhvanyaloka’ and Abhinavagupta’s ‘Abhinavabharati’), ‘Rasa’ is the relishable state of elemental human emotions called ‘Bhavas’. Bharata’s ‘Natyasastra’ originally spoke of eight Rasas. The concept of the 9th Rasa was a later interpolation by the Kashmiri Shaivist Abhinavagupta (10th Century AD) and also his predecessor Anandavardhana (9th Century AD). Abhinavagupta extends the eight Rasas by adding the concept of the Santa Rasa which he regards as the essence of all Rasas. It is this 9th Rasa which according to Abhinavagupta lets the Rasika attain the aesthetic detachment and savour the essences of all other Rasas and therefore the true aesthetic delight. The introduction of 9th Rasa integrates the concepts of Bharata’s Rasasutra and Patanjali’s Yoga theory – the detachment necessary to introspect inwards into the inherent state of freedom and bliss (aesthetic consciousness).

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The study aims to address the existing research gap through a thematic comparison between the aesthetics of Kant and Abhinavagupta. This paper explores Kant's notion of aesthetic judgment based on disinterestedness with Abhinavagupta's analysis of sādhāraṇīkaraṇa. We argue that the notions of "disinterested judgment" in Kant and sādhāraṇīkaraṇa in Abhinavagupta points towards the impersonal nature of aesthetic delight which makes the universality of aesthetic experience possible. Hence, aesthetics in both Kant and Abhinavgupta are not the personal and subjective experience but a kind of universality based on the ability to experience the impersonal joy. However, the notion of aesthetic delight in Kant is confined to the agreeable mental states only while in Abhinavgupta the notion of rasa includes both positive as well as the negative mental states like fear, disgust, etc. In this regard, the paper will also analyze the affinity between notion of sensus communius in Kant and sahṛdaya in Abhinavagupta which highlights the importance of aesthetic community and the impersonal nature of aesthetic delight.

The synchronic and diachronic study of literature explicate that literature is essentially about life and emotions thus it has timeless appeal meaning thereby that there is something in a literary work that transcends time and space. Readers of different countries, culture, religions, ideologies, passions and prejudices do appreciate and relish literature of altogether a different place as it provides aesthetic enjoyment to them. A close conspicuous analysis of the available literature may expound the fact that the most fascinating area of intersection between Indian and Western literature is to be found in the realm of poetics and aesthetics. James joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man vis an example of German philosophy of Bildungsroman which deals with the formation of an artist, it traces the journey of Being, Becoming and Unbecoming of an individual, wherein an individual passes through the socio-pragmatic as well as aesthetico-spiritual realm of realities. In the conduit of aforementioned realities, an individual passes through a number of emotions, sentiments and feelings which in turn shape the epistemic texture of the character. The problem that confronts a critic is to find out how in a work of art, an emotion is depicted, suggested and how it is finally communicated to the reader. In the realm of Indian aesthetics, the key to any analysis of aesthetic transformation is the theory of Rasa. The Rasa Theory essentially deals with various kinds of emotions and how they are depicted, inferred and transmitted through a work of art. Thus, the present paper shall take into account philosophical underpinnings of Rasa Theory in order to analyze the given novel.

Keywords: Indian aesthetics, Rasa theory, Bildungsroman.

This paper aims to examine the dimensions of aesthetic affect of anger in the rasa framework in Indian aesthetics. In the postmodern times, as aesthetic emotions are formulated (packaged and predetermined) and with the digital accessibility of new media, the reader/viewer's engagement as proposed in rasa framework becomes relevant and helps to contextualize the debate on what is the nature of art and the aesthetic process itself. To expound on these concerns, this paper reads Omair Ahmad's novel Jimmy the Terrorist (2010) and a particular incident in the narrative to understand the emotion of krodha (anger) and the affective process leading to the protagonist's behavioural and active response. The aesthetic framework referred to is Bharata's treatise on dramaturgy The Nāṭyaśāstra and the interpretations offered by Abhinavagupta with some references to Śankuka's views. In contemporary postmodern aesthetics, these concerns are important as they point to the need for contextualizing the psychological makeup of readers/ spectators which is an integral part of the aesthetic process itself.