Rasa

1. What makes the concept of ‘rasa’ critical to understanding Sanskrit drama?  Compare and contrast this notion of stimulation of select emotional states by performance to the Western notion of catharsis.

“Rasa, being an aesthetic experience of both the creator and audience, comes alive only when truth join hands with the emotions of the heart and passes through the alchemy of imagination” (Sunil, 2005, p. 8)

I love this summation of Rasa.  Not only is it concise as to its purpose in Sanskrit drama, but the rhetoric is beautiful.  The imagery equated to the flowing “emotions of the heart” which then “passes through the alchemy of imagination” gives clear context to the flowing nature of Rasa.  It is the power of emotion that flows first through the writer into the text.  Then, if artfully compiled, passes onto to the actor and into the character.  However, in order to reach full fruition, the emotive properties then move into the audience.

However, when broken down and into pieces with distinct purposes, it is apparent that Rasa is far more technical in nature.  Similar to the compulsive cataloguing done by Aristotle when defining drama and the poetics, Rasa has key components necessary to its construction.  Without these functioning and building elements (including forty-nine emotions) Rasa, “the essence of art”, falls flat.  When technically defined, Rasa is “the permanent emotion that was raised to its climax by the combination of determinants, consequents and transitory emotions”(Sunil, 2005, p.5).  It seems ironically prescriptive to be describing the flowing and experiencing of emotion.  Sunil is careful to explain that although the audience experiences the emotions and feeling of the characters, the experience is not the same.

Parallels can be drawn to the Western notion of Catharsis.  Deemed roughly as “the purging of emotion”, Aristotle describes it as almost necessary for the emotional health and re-centering of an audience.  Brecht purposefully excluded catharsis from his works in hopes that the play would work upon his audience and compel them to action.  If pushed, the Western description can also be conveyed in a prescriptive manner.  Peripeteia (reversal) and Anagnorisis (recognition) play an important role in the culmination of catharsis.  Operating through the ongoing example of Othello, the peripety occurs when the Moor is convinced of his wife’s infidelity.  This reversal of truth causes the recognition (anagnorisis) of his duping to become even more painful.  The result of this climax is hopefully catharsis.  If well illustrated, the audience should also be overcome by “the tragic loading of the bed.”

I believe the Western concept of catharsis to be far more nebulous than the clearly defined elements of Rasa.  However, both are necessary to the success of the art forms they inhabit.  What good is art with no soul?


- Hailey Drescher