The most important theory in ancient aesthetics is the Rasa-dhavani theory developed by Anandavardhana and Abinavagupta on the basis of Bharata's formula. "Vibhava anubhava vyabhichari samyogad rasa nishpatthi" (Aesthetic pleasure results from a combination of Vibhvas or determinants towards which an emotion is manifested, anubhavas or physical effects resulting from an emotion, and vyabhicharibhavas or tranistory mental states that help to intensify the dominant emotion) Rasa is also that mysterious power lying hidden within us, may be the immanent supreme spirit, which can lift us up to higher levels of experience and enjoyment and transmute our natural emotions into poetic emotions or rasas. These rasas are nine in number: 1. Sringara (eroticlove), 2. Hasya (humour), 3. Karuna (Pathos), 4. Raudra (anger), 5. Veera (valour spirited action), 6. Bhayanaka (fear), 7. Bhibhatsa (revulsion or horror), 8. Adbhuta (wonder) and 9. Santa (equilibrium and tranquility)
According to Annadavardhana, suggestion is the soul of literature (Kavyasyatma dhvanih)and that rasa is realized through Dhvani or suggestion.
In Keats's Ode to a Nightingale, the song of the bird is the vibhava while the joy, the sad thoughts, the aching pleasure, and the telling images suggested by the song constitute the anubhavas. Assisted by the transitory mental states like pain ("my heart aches" etc.), yearning and nostalgia ("O for a drought of vintage" etc.), they produce Karuna rasa ably supported by Adbhuta rasa that a bird could transcend the world of woes and that its song should have the power to lift the hearer up and fill his heart with a joy of an Alaukika or super mundane nature.
It is intersting to observe Karuna building up through a series of transitory mental states an through dhavni, the third of the three-tier appreciation in Sanskrit aesthetics viz. Vachyartha (the denoted meaning at the primary level), Lakshyartha (the connoted meaning at athe secondary level), Vyangyartha (the suggested meaning at the tertiary level).
At the tertiary level, even if we are not acquainted with the allusions to western lore and literature, we can still relate the situation to our own culture and literature e.g. the reference to emperor and clown can be interpreted in terms of Dushyanta and Vidushaka or any king and his court-jester in a garden or a forest; the allusion to Ruth amid alien corn puts us in mind of Chandramati, wife of Harichandra, working as a slaveon alien soil or Draupadi in King Viraata's palace; and the allusion to the casements could be related to Sita held captive in Lanka, situated in the middle of perilous seas in a fairy land.
The Ode is a plaintive anthem, with the words 'forlorn' and 'farewell' ringing in our ears --- a requiem on the human condition at the level of suggestion.
Karuna marks La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Ode on a Grecian Urn shows how Karuna may be sublimated into Beauty, Joy,and Truth leading to Santa; so does Ode to Psyche.
In Ode to Autumn, through the beautiful images in the first three stanzas and the suggestion of music in the lesser creatures of nature, not generally associated with music, like the small gnats, lambs, hedge-crickets, red-breasts, and swallows, Keats evokes Santa rasa.
There is Sringara supported by Veera in Eve of St. Agnes. Sringara followed by Karuna and Bibhatsa in Isabella, and Adbhuta in On First Looking at Chapman's Homer.
This is a brief sampling of how the Rasa-Dhvani theory can be applied to any work of literature by taking Keats, one of the best poets of the West.
___mastanappa puletipalli
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