An Introduction to Indian Aesthetics: History, Theory, and Theoreticians by Mini Chandran and Sreenath V. S.

This book can be seen as a response to a severe demand in the field of Indian poetics for an introductory book that provides an overview of all the seminal schools of Indian poetical thoughts, keeping in view both the theories and the theoreticians. This book, in the words of authors, is meant to be “An introduction to the world of Sanskrit poetics, explaining its major concepts lucidly for even those who do not know Sanskrit. It offers a comprehensive historical and conceptual overview of all the major schools in Sanskrit poetics…. It is meant to be a beginners’ guide to the awe-inspiring immensity of Sanskrit literature and literary thought, the first step in a journey that should ideally lead to the profundities of ancient thought.” (Chandran et al 2021, p. xii). The discussion in the book progresses with varied theoretical perspectives on Indian aesthetics in a well laid historico-conceptual order. Though the book briefly talks about Tamil poetics putting it parallel to Sanskrit poetics by comparing Tolk?ppiyam with N??ya??stra in the preface, it primarily serves to be an introductory handbook of Sanskrit poetics for the non-Sanskrit University students at various levels. This book succeeds in providing clearer idea of Indian poetical thoughts to its readers.

The Demonstration of Indian Virtues in Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy

Indian literature has provided a platform for the writers to highlight the virtues of human civilization. The diversified attitude of people is emanated with the purpose of reviewing social, political and historical characteristics. Vikram Seth is one of the protuberant novelists of Indian literary consequence. He has exerted on the ideals of human virtues and principles in his colossal expression A Suitable Boy (1993). The novel deals with the post-independent groundswell of cultural India. He has interlaced the epitomes of society, politics and history bearing in mind the rootedness of common folk. The insight of the novel generates a kind of impulse among the bibliophiles with a sequence of queries and assumptions about the animation of social order. It also shed light on the identity, religious and national predicaments which are treated as inherent in India. The novel is an embodiment of satires perceived in the history of Indian humanity. It also embarks on the subjects of Indian National Politics till the period of first post-independent elections. The antagonism between Hindus and Muslims, workers and landlords, liberation of women and academic activities are interwoven in the literary output. Lata, the protagonist has been able to sustain the Indian aesthetics and illustrates the motivation in ascertaining her discrete aspiration. Love is the most important aspiration of human endurance, but it should not be the final optimal. An individual must be prepared to reform his choice and brand life as a meaningful one. Hence, the research paper makes an effort to demonstrate the Indian virtues in Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy within the modern context.

Understanding Dalit Literature: A Critical Perspective Towards Dalit Aesthetics

Indian literature has always been governed by classical norms. Literature has been divided into ‘high culture’ and ‘low culture’. The non-Dalit writing revolves around ‘rasa’ and the motive is ‘art for art’s sake’. Dalit aestheticism is ‘art for life’s sake’. When certain forms and styles are applied imitating Sanskrit poetics, Shakespearean language or Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’, literature is considered to be following beauty parameters that are considered to be necessary for artistic pleasure. This kind of claim of holding traditional Indian aesthetics as a law book for all kinds of literature cannot be validated. The assertion of mainstream aesthetics as aesthetics for pan India is bound to exclude the truth of disregarded subjects. There is a need for Dalit literature to follow alternative aesthetics as the writings are the real story of pain and survival. How can pain be read for the purpose of pleasure? In the case of Dalit literature, the artistic yardsticks are not destroyed rather they are rejected. The traditional aesthetics will not be able to do justice with Dalit literature. Sharankumar Limbale writes “To assert that someone’s writing will be called literature only when ‘our’ literary standards can be imposed on is a sign of cultural dictatorship” (Limbale, 2004, p. 107). This paper will be an attempt to discuss the need for alternative aesthetics to understand Dalit literature.

Liquid Meaning in Sanskrit Poetics

Chapter three surveys classical Indian literary theory and looks at how rasa (liquid meaning) became considered to be the goal of the literary work of art. The chapter considers a vision of the poetic work of art that is radically different from the models of private, silent reading that most Westerners have been brought up with. The text discusses how rasa is achieved through resonant suggestion, and how the meaning of a poem is understood in terms of its taste. The production of rasa is viewed through classical Indian aesthetics as well as though works of Western literary critics who have put forth resonant ideas. The Meghadūta is seen as an exemplary work in this regard.

Hasya: Towards a Poetics of the Comic

Amidst a whole range of criticism and derision that laughter has received down the ages, the question still lingers: why “One daren’t even laugh any more”? The comic, according to Aristotle, is associated with the ridiculous or the ugly. It constitutes a deformity or an error and leans towards something which is mean. The comedy, on the other hand, is a form of low art consisting of what is base or inferior. This view of the comic and comedy has largely been accepted and forwarded by the West. They have looked down upon the comic with a one-dimensional view of derision and condemnation. As Lisa Trahair correctly states, “to comprehend the comic is to risk overlooking the structure of incomprehensibility that is crucial to its operation”. Although often considered as a synonym for humour or laughter, hâsya, on the other hand, is much more than that. Hâsya always enabled us to understand comic’s implications in the object world and vice versa. It is not only enigmatic but also esoteric in nature. Through a select study of VidûSaka (the deformed clown in Sanskrit theatre) and two poems— one a Sanskrit Muktaka and the other a Nind?-stuti, this paper intends to read the potentialities of hâsya as an-other laughter, not just as a mode of gay affirmation or subversion but as a mode of “free play” (ju), within the space that exists between the self and the other(s). This, however, by no means is an attempt to conceive hâsya only as a disruptive event with the intentions of the ‘Empire writing back’, rather a wish to hermeneutically comprehend the harmony of the comic within the dimensions of Indian aesthetics, so that the poetics of laughter can be retrieved and reclaimed.

Bird and Line

"Bird and Line" is an artistic inquiry into the relationship between a deep state of artistic consciousness and the act of drawing a line to arrive at the form of a bird. This inquiry further proposes that by using line as a mode of research, the artist begins to perceive the consciousness of a bird and the relationship it shares with its form. For me, the embodied and porous experiences of watching and knowing birds through the practice of working with "line" as an artistic element allow for an intimacy of experiencing and an unfolding of intersubjectivity. Artistic inquiry also acts as an investigation into self-awareness and self-realization in this space of making eco-art. These acts of being lead me into reflections on how perception and creativity are melded together during creative moments to allow for a porous consciousness to emerge and perform the act of drawing a bird. As an artist working with text, movement, and image, I embed questions on the ethics of creativity into how we evolve our lines of art, as well as encounter other beings. By unraveling the relationship between the inner and the outer through Indian aesthetic philosophy, I evolve methods for eco-art practice using line as an element. I emphasize the importance of artistic research with a framework of Indian aesthetics as a way of deepening our perception and relationships with the natural world. This article is written to make artistic processes visible through a reflective auto-ethnographic approach. I write in a non-linear reflective narrative to comprehend cultural ontologies that drive my practice, unfolding internal thought processes, directions of research, and moments of mystical experience.

SRINGARA AND KARUNA RASAS IN THE SECRET OF THE NAGAS

Rasa is the emotional element in the theme or plot which falls into an organised pattern. Rasa emotionally connects the observer to a work of art. The more emotional connection of the reader to a work of art, the better the production of rasa. Rasa is an experience first felt by the creator of the art, and secondly the experience of the reader who receives the art. The creator seeks a medium to express his feelings. The reader or observer then obtains the same emotion through the medium that the creator selected and hence experiences the emotion felt by the creator. Thus, the feeling of ‘rasa’ which is created by the creator is then re-created by the reader. The extent the reader experiences the emotion which was earlier felt by the creator depends on the aesthetic sense the reader possesses and the intelligence of the creator in producing it. Rasa has been a prolific theory contributed by Bharata Muni in the field of Indian Aesthetics. The paper analyses the dominance of Sringara and Karuna rasas in The Secret of the Nagas.