Some Aspects of The Rasa Theory (An Old and Rare Book)

The Institute has decided to bring out a series of books and monographs on different aspects of Indology. Our primary aim is to cover fields which have not attracted the attention of scholars so far and to publish books on subjects in which a re-examination has become necessary.

Of the Sanskrit theories of art, the most important is the well-known rasa theory. It has been much discussed and quite a lot has been written about It. It was, however, felt necessary to re-examine some of the aspects of the rasa theory, for example, the nature of rasa : laukika, alaukika, rasa theory and the daranas (systems of philosophy), the rasa theory and its application to all other fine arts, the relevance of rasa theory to modern literature, catharsis and rasa, etc. Eminent scholars of Sanskrit, English, Marathi and Gujarati literatures were, therefore, invited to read papers on the above topics at the Rasa Seminar, organised by the Institute in February 1982 at Patan (North Gujarat) . These papers have been included in the present volume. We have added by way of Appendices two more related papers, 'The Relevance of Sanskrit poetics to Contemporary Practical Criticism' by Sri Umashankar Joshi and, 'Does the Rasa theory have any modern relevance ?' by Dr. R. B. Patankar, first published in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay and in Philosophy East and West 30, no. 3, July 1980 : The University Press of Hawaii respectively. We are grateful to the authorities of Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay and Philosophy East and West who readily gave permission to include them in the present volume. We tender our heartiest thanks to Dr. E. A. Solomon, Professor and Head, Department of Sanskrit, School of Languages. Gujarat University, Ahmedabad for inaugurating the Seminar and Dr. K. P. Joag, Professor of Sanskrit, Deccan College, Pune, and Professor Nagindas Parekh, Ahmedabad for actively participating in the Seminar, and all the scholars who contributed their papers on the topics assigned to them, and made the Seminar a success.

We hope scholars interested in the Sanskrit Aesthetics and Comparative Aesthetics will find the papers thought-provoking and that these papers will stimulate further study and research in depth in the field of ancient critical thought in India and modern literary thought in the West.

**Contents and Sample Pages**