The Sanskrit drama : $b in its origin, development, theory and practiceKeith, Arthur Berriedale
History
The Sanskrit drama : $b in its origin, development, theory and practice
Keith, Arthur Berriedale
Sanskrit drama -- History and criticism
It is the dominant emotions which in some fashion determine or become
sentiments even in the view of the Nāṭyaçāstra, though in it there is
clearly difficulty in conceiving the precise signification of the
process, a fact revealed in a tendency to confuse the terms emotion and
sentiment, Bhāva and Rasa. In Bhaṭṭa Lollaṭa [664] we have a determined
effort to make clear the implication of the doctrine. The dominant
emotion of love, for instance, generated by a fundamental determinant
such as a maiden, inflamed by an excitant determinant such as a
pleasant garden, made cognizable by consequents such as sidelong
glances and embraces, and strengthened by transitory feelings such as
desire, becomes the erotic sentiment first of all in the hero of the
drama, e.g. Rāma. The sentiment is subsequently attributed to the actor
who imitates the hero in form, dress, and action, and so it becomes the
source of charm to the audience. The fatal objection to this theory is
clear; it fails to recognize that the sentiment must be that of the
spectator himself; he cannot have enjoyment of a sentiment which exists
merely in the actor as a secondary outcome of its existence in Rāma.
Moreover, the actor whose chief aim is to please the audience and earn
money need not feel at all the emotions of Rāma, while, if he does so,
he is then in the same position as a spectator.
The view of Lollaṭa, which is classed as one of the production
(utpatti) of sentiment and regarded as that of the Mīmāṅsā school, is
opposed by the doctrine of Çrīçan̄kuka, regarded as the Naiyāyika view,
which interprets the manifestation of sentiment as a process of
inference. The emotions, love, &c., are inferred to exist in the actor,
though not really present in him, by means of the determinants, &c.,
cleverly exhibited in his acting; the emotion thus inferred, being
sensed by the audience, through its exquisite beauty, adds to itself a
peculiar charm and thus finally develops into the state of a sentiment
in the spectator. This view, however, is open to the fatal objection
that it is commonly admitted that it is not inference, or any other
derivative mode of knowledge, which produces charm, but perception
alone, and no adequate ground exists for disregarding this general
truth in this case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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